# Shockingly Violent Coffee Commercials, Featuring Early Muppets **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** coffee\ **Created:** [June 18, 2009, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shockingly-violent-coffee-commercials-featuring-early-muppets/500141 "2009-06-18T04:04:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shockingly-violent-coffee-commercials-featuring-early-muppets/500141/21 "2009-06-19T20:09:19Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Y’all should try watching the Looney Toons. Exactly what I was thinking. Also, watching some of the early Muppet Show episodes on DVD, it’s kinda obvious that they weren’t always that “kiddie”. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shockingly-violent-coffee-commercials-featuring-early-muppets/500141/22 "2009-06-19T20:29:18Z")
Henson obviously knew that his humor focused a lot on physical violence- note this [1966 promotional film for La Choy](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQNg8vEStwQ) in which, after a montage of explosions from Muppet TV commercials, the La Choy Dragon makes a comment about the Muppets’ “warm, gentle humor” that appeals to children, causing a businessman-type Muppet to comment “seem like a bunch of sickos to me,” followed by a comedic “behind-the-scenes” montage in which the Dragon’s fire causes a lot of problems. (The La Choy Dragon was a full-body character who was the inspiration for Big Bird.) ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shockingly-violent-coffee-commercials-featuring-early-muppets/500141/23 "2009-06-19T21:35:41Z")
> [@mobo85](#): > > Brian Henson once said that his father often commented that if he couldn’t think of an ending to a sketch, he’d just use a bunch of penguins or blow something up. And that seems to work pretty well. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again- That man was a genius! ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shockingly-violent-coffee-commercials-featuring-early-muppets/500141/24 "2009-06-20T08:48:12Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Am I hearing 6:50 right? “Why don’t we go down on Mr. Slate and ask for our jobs back?” :eek: “Why don’t we go down to Mr. Slate and ask for our jobs back.” ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shockingly-violent-coffee-commercials-featuring-early-muppets/500141/25 "2009-06-20T08:50:37Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > Exactly what I was thinking. Also, watching some of the early Muppet Show episodes on DVD, it’s kinda obvious that they weren’t always that “kiddie”. Remember “Cigarettes and Whiskey and Wild, Wild, Women?” ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shockingly-violent-coffee-commercials-featuring-early-muppets/500141/26 "2009-06-20T14:21:29Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > “Why don’t we go down to Mr. Slate and ask for our jobs back.” Try as I might, I here “on” and not “to” there. A random sample of people around the house hear the same thing. I was actually wondering whether “going down on somebody” may have been an old idiom (like from “dropping in on” or something) that just has a different shade of meaning today. ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shockingly-violent-coffee-commercials-featuring-early-muppets/500141/27 "2009-06-20T14:32:33Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > On a related note, is Wilkins Coffee still available on the market? I don’t think they ever sold it where I lived (i.e., the Western U.S.). Like I mentioned earlier, I remember seeing a Wilkins delivery truck in the late 90s around Washington, but a bit of Googling shows they seem to have changed their name to Royal Cup. Oh, and **pulykamell** , it is “down to”, it’s just elided: down to -\> down ta -\> downa. Clear as a bell for me. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shockingly-violent-coffee-commercials-featuring-early-muppets/500141/28 "2009-06-20T14:36:00Z")
> [@Olentzero](#): > > Oh, and **pulykamell** , it is “down to”, it’s just elided: down to -\> down ta -\> downa. “Downna” makes sense to me. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shockingly-violent-coffee-commercials-featuring-early-muppets/500141/29 "2009-06-20T15:02:25Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Try as I might, I here “on” and not “to” there. A random sample of people around the house hear the same thing. I was actually wondering whether “going down on somebody” may have been an old idiom (like from “dropping in on” or something) that just has a different shade of meaning today. “Get me a jury to show me how to say ‘in July’ and I’ll go down on you!”- Orson Welles in an infamous frozen-food outtake reel I imagine he wasn’t asking for sex there… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shockingly-violent-coffee-commercials-featuring-early-muppets/500141.md?page=1)