As Long As I'm Spammin'

[bloodyrosemccoy]

Critics' Corner: Why Do Still We Love the Muppets After All These Years?

Silly question, really. But Grae and Dave, who are extremely entertaining reviewers, answer it well. (“Animal teaches you how to be awesome on every level, and Sweetums teaches you to be comfortable in the background doing nothing and not freaking out about it, just being chill.” “And the Swedish Chef teaches you how to put the gobbley in da pot.” “These are all important lessons.”)

But they hit on the best thing about the Muppets—they are warmhearted without being one-dimensional; they’re friendly but intelligent and even wicked. Hell, that even crossed over to Sesame Street. It takes some genius to do that.

Also, they made one of the best versions of A Christmas Carol in history. I’m always amazed at how much of Dickens’s excellent prose they got to wedge in thanks to the Great Gonzo. Not a lot of versions are that good.

Comments

[jennyanydots21.livejournal.com]

I think Sesame Street predates the Muppets? But they are indeed both awesome, and still very watchable!

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Sesame Street was Jim Henson's big break, and really got things going for the Muppets, but Henson was doing TV spots and commercials with Rowlf and Kermit quite a bit earlier. So they're sort of intertwined, but yeah, Sesame Street definitely showed up before the Muppets really found their spot.

Definitely watchable! I wish more kids' shows could do comedy half as well.

[jennyanydots21.livejournal.com]

Ah, cool - I was going by the release dates, but now you mention it I do vaguely recall hearing about the prehistory of the Muppets, oops!

Skimming the Wikipedia article I noticed they mentioned integrating an actress's pregnancy in the storyline, and I actually remember that happening (and being disappointed when they didn't actually show the baby being born, just Grover hanging out interminably in the waiting room)! Such a good show... despite its disappointing lack of gritty birthing realism :-D

(Also, I'm not sure I've introduced myself, sorry about that! Found your LJ via Metaquotes and thought I'd friend you as your posts are very amusing!)

[daiq.livejournal.com]

I have the most amazing doco i show my puppetry kids (high schol drama class) about Jin Hensen and it has clips of a lot of his really really early work, spins the kids out how awesome and adult it all is!

[biomekanic.livejournal.com]

A while back I read an article where the writer talked about what it was that bothered them so much about the new muppets, such as Elmo: the old muppets come from the 60s, and they all have their own issues. They all have a bit of the freak about them, while the new muppets don't.

Elmo is sweetness and light, Kermit, while a nice guy, is stressed and neurotic. That even comes through in Sesame Street - Big Bird and his 'imaginary' friend that he insists is real. Burt and Ernie.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

I have a love/hate relationship with Elmo. He was okay as a side character but doesn't really work well on his own. Unfortunately, over the last few years Kevin Clash went mad with power, and now it's all-Elmo all the time--a bit much, in my opinion.

And yeah, they're nice, but they're definitely still flawed people. That makes them way easier to identify with. (My sister and I like to point out that Kermit is perpetually surrounded by idiots ... that takes its toll.)