Are the Kermit and Patrick Mahomes voice comparisons fair? We find out
Many people draw comparisons between Patrick Mahomes and Kermit the frog, but how similar are they really? We put their voices to the test.
Patrick Mahomes, chasing his third consecutive Super Bowl title and fourth overall, continues to draw comparisons to a legend.
No, not Tom Brady.
Kermit the Frog.
“It’s not easy bein’ green,’’ the Muppets frog has sung. And it won’t be easy for the Philadelphia Eagles either when they face the Kansas Chiefs in Super Bowl 59 on Sunday in New Orleans.
Nor has it always been easy for Mahomes, 29, the Chiefs’ star quarterback who’s still subject to jokes because his raspy voice reminds some people of Kermit the Frog, who turns 70 on May 9.
“It was something everybody kind of made fun of him about a little bit,’’ said Reno Moore, who coached Mahomes when the quarterback was in the seventh, eighth and ninth grades. “That last year when I was around him, you could tell it was almost like he started trying to disguise it. He was trying to talk a little deeper.
“It was kind of funny.’’
What’s no joke, according to one expert, is that Mahomes could change the sound of his voice.
“The tongue is a major player,’’ said Randal Paniello, a voice and airway specialist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. “If its positions change even a little bit, it’ll affect the sound.”
Relaxing the tongue and allowing it to stay in a lower position could create more resonance, according to Paniello.
“That could definitely change the sound,’’ he said.
Paniello also said the pitch of the voice can be made higher or lower with surgical interventions. There also are non-surgical interventions, said Paniello, who added, “But to do it, to make that your new habitual pitch, takes a lot of practice.’’
Brendan Houdek, a voice coach in New York, said he has worked with clients who have changed their voices – including a few who sounded like Kermit the Frog. It starts with learning how to stretch the tongue and get a more relaxed sound, according to Houdek.
“Some people, they have huge breakthroughs even in that first session and they’re able to pick up on it quickly,’’ he said. “Other people, it takes a little bit longer, but usually around six to 10 sessions, people are going to be feeling pretty good about it.’’
Why Patrick Mahomes sounds like Kermit the Frog
For those who sing for a living and for those who sound wretched even in the shower, the voice starts with the same fundamentals, said Steven Zeitels, Director of Massachusetts General Hospital Voice Center and Professor of Laryngeal Surgery at Harvard Medical School.
What creates the sound of a human voice is the vibrating vocal cords along with the space within the throat, mouth and nose that together function like a horn, Zeitels said.
“It’s a resonating chamber,” he added.
A surgeon who specializes in voice, throat and larynx problems, Zeitels has treated the likes of Adele, Julie Andrews and Lionel Richie. (His current patients also include Dick Vitale, the legendary college basketball announcer who was diagnosed with vocal cord cancer in 2022 and recently said the cancer “is gone.” Vitale is scheduled to broadcast his first game since 2023 on Saturday.)
Though he has not examined Mahomes, Zeitels said he detected two aspects of the quarterback’s voice while listening to audio of Mahomes talking during a postgame interview. One aspect for the quarterback who has been barking out plays for more than 15 years is long-term vocal trauma, according to Zeitels.
“It gets rumbling at times,’’ he said of Mahomes’ voice. “That’s just from having screamed during the game.’’
Zeitels speculated that the Kermit sound stems from the shape of Mahomes’ vocal tract.
“That is just the way his nose and mouth are shaped,’’ he said. “The vocal cords are not creating that sound.’’
“When people listen to him, they think Sesame Street. But that’s his anatomy, what you would call the pharynx, nose and mouth.’’
The best Patrick Mahomes impressions
Mahomes said Chiefs head coach Andy Reid does the best impression of him.
“He doesn’t do it in front of a lot of people, thankfully,’’ Mahomes said.
Matt Danner, who did Kermit’s voice in 2018 for “Muppet Babies,’’ agreed to videotape a Mahomes impression for USA TODAY Sports.
The similarities between doing Kermit’s voice and an impression of Mahomes? “The neck stretch and squeeze,’’ said Danner, who added, “The difference is that Patrick has more of a growl in his voice.”
How Patrick Mahomes responds to Kermit the Frog jokes
Tease Mahomes at your own risk.
In July, during training camp, the Las Vegas Raiders had a Kermit puppet dressed like Mahomes, with a No. 15 Chiefs jersey and a mop of curly hair. It was Muppet mockery directed at the three-time Super Bowl MVP.
“It’s still early in the year,’’ Mahomes said. “Stuff like that happens. It’ll get handled when it gets handled.’’
During the regular season, the Chiefs beat the Raiders in each of their games. He is 12-2 against the Raiders.
After the Chiefs beat the Buffalo Bills in the AFC Championship Game 32-29, Mahomes posted on his X account a meme of Kermit sipping tea along with this caption: “I’ll see yall in New Orleans!”
Of course, the jokes about Mahomes’ voice will continue. But as Steve Whitmire, who handled Kermit and did the puppet’s voice between 1990 and 2016, pointed out, “At least he doesn’t sound like Miss Piggy.’’
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