What, no Dr. Teeth?

Though it is hard to imagine almost losing your home in a snowdrift, there’s nothing terribly strange about the combination of Newfoundland and snow.

But Muppets in the operating room, now that’s a different story.

As University of Alberta professor of surgery Dr. Jonathan White revealed this week, the combination of Muppets and surgery is just crazy enough to work — at least when it comes to creating educational videos on basics that every first-year medical student need to know.

White, who started in 2008 to create online tutorials and Surgery 101 podcasts, brought Muppets into the picture last year to help with the video. His cast includes Dr. Scalpel, an attending surgeon, and Thumbs, who is a third-year medical resident.

White’s patients will be happy to know Dr. Scalpel, Thumbs and White’s other Muppet sidekicks do not actually get to perform surgery. (As anyone who remembers The Muppet Show’s regular sketches of Veterinarian’s Hospital knows, Muppet operations rarely go well.)

As a teaching tool though, the combination is a good match. “The goal is to get people to come for the Muppets and stay for the surgery,” he said.

Though White’s medical Muppets will almost certainly be outgunned by the weekend’s release of the major motion picture, Muppets Most Wanted, 1,500 downloads a day of his teaching videos is nothing to sneeze at.