December 28, 2011
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Muppets.
This is why the Muppets are still important. It’s not because when I saw they were making a new movie I quite literally shrieked and my brother asked me who stepped on my hand (I guess that’s how I react to phalange harm). Or when I asked a girl out my next question was if she wanted to be apart of my third experience of watching the film. Or when I ask people if they saw it and they laugh at my immaturity I laugh at their maturity. Or even when I hear the “Rainbow Connection”, including their most recent TV trailer, I break down and cry (it’s beside the point that I cry at everything including that Hallmark ad where the soldier in Iraq gets “The Night Before Christmas” audio/picture book where his daughter is reading the story to him, or on a less sentimental level when “Rudy” gets chanted by the entire stadium in South Bend). No, none of these reasons are why the Muppets are still important. Partly because they have always been important, and partly because its not about me, it’s about sanity.
What are the popular comedy shows of today? Stop. I can’t hear your answer. But shows like “The Daily Show” and “Colbert Report,” or “Family Guy,” or “It’s Always Sunny…” or even “How I Met Your Mother” are popular and they are cynical shows. They are all funny I watch all of them. But they are dark, they are snide, they are grown-up. “The Hangover” was a huge box office hit, it was one of the funniest movies I’ve sat in the theatre for, it was super dark and edgy and vice-filled, it was glorious. I think all of these things are great and really truly hilarious for two major reasons: Looney Tunes and The Muppets.
Now I know kids who are younger than me find all of these shows funny, and I get they still are funny even if you’ve never drank or smoked or had sex or hit puberty or know what’s Kelly’s last name from “Saved By The Bell” (Kapowski). I still get it and apparently the kids get it too, it’s funny because it’s forbidden. I talk to some of my students and they start quoting moments from “The Hangover” (they’ve never had one) and it isn’t funny to me the same way they find it funny. They found different things funny, like racism and simple drug references. I found the absurdity of Zach Galifinakis’ character to be brilliance. But I’m not writing to expand my exuberance for that movie. I’m talking Muppets here.
When you talk about Kermit you’re talking about a celebrity. You don’t refer to him as that frog that’s a puppet. You never discuss who’s working Kermit and who’s talking for him. Kermit is Kermit. Gonzo is Gonzo. Piggy is Piggy. They are beings as far as we’re concerned. They are funny because they do and say funny things. They are funny because they say things that also make our parents laugh and we look up to our parents and want to laugh with them, to share something with these heroes of ours. The Muppets shaped my comic view. They were punny, they were smart, they were sideways, they were weird, they were playful. They gave us our view, they gave us something to want to be and do. Are you saying you wouldn’t have loved to be backstage during “The Muppet Show?” That’s what I thought, no need to apologize. Kermit and Piggy were a couple. Gonzo and Camilla, a chicken, were a couple, and that was okay. Fozzie faced defeat every time he opened his mouth and it was still better than Atkins (wocka, wocka). Lew threw fish. That’s it. The Swedish Chef still had friends despite is lack of the command for the English language. Rowlf was the best friend a dog could be. The list goes on.
The Muppets are important because you need the silly before you can appreciate the absurd. Kids shouldn’t laugh at penis jokes yet. They should laugh at failed explosions and Pigs in Space and talking bears. I give credit to children’s cartoon creators. People like Dan Povenmire and Jeff Marsh (“Phineas and Ferb”, “Rocko’s Modern Life”) or Stephen Hillenberg (“Spongebob Squarepants”) help my argument. Things are just funnier when they’re silly first.
The Muppets are the definition of that. Thank you Bret McKenzie. Thank you Jason Segel. Thank you Frank Oz. And of course thank you Jim Henson. I am who I am because of you and I hope more kids in the future learn from all of you.
