Anyone watching A Very Merry Muppet Christmas? As I’m typing this it’s still on. It’s funny, so far, IMHO – lots of references to previous Muppet stuff, but seems to be accessible to the new fan. I was worried about the cameos shown on the commercial, but thus far they all seem to have been handled very well.
For the more interested fan, it’s kinda cool to hear the new voices. Frank Oz had no involvement in this project, that I’ve heard about, so his characters are all performed by different folks. For most, this is the first major outing.
It also marks the return of Scooter and Janice, sort of.
E-Sabbath, I’m glad you watched it. I’m very pleased with it – the Muppets have had some difficult circumstances recently, and it actually seemed to me that this script may have been partially a reaction to some of their real-life financial difficulties.
Beaker as bouncer is one of the funniest Muppet-things I’ve ever seen.
I don’t know… it’s so hard to not be cynical about the Muppets if neither of the two major forces behind why they were so great are involved anymore. But, I will watch it. It’s kind of hard to not love the muppets.
I understand the sentiment, Eonwe. But as much as I like Frank Oz, replacing him as a performer should actually allow the Muppets to return to their former greatness. His heart hasn’t been in it since Jim died (and understandably so). He’s into directing in a major way these days, and hasn’t been able to give much time to the Muppets for several years now.
With the recasting of his characters, it allows new chemistry to develop. If you have a chance, check out Sesame Street some morning … and hope that you get to see a Bert and Ernie sketch. Eric Jacobson’s Bert and Steve Whitmire’s Ernie have a rapport that Whitmire and Oz didn’t have … but Oz and Henson did.
I don’t know … it takes some getting used to. But it opens up the possibilities. So let your cynicism drift away.
We’re about half an hour into it, and I can’t see much resemblance to classic muppets. I haven’t laughed at a single joke (okay, Sam the Eagle’s Propecia comment was amusing, but was it an ad for Propecia? I mean, shouldn’t he have said Rogaine?). Maybe it’s because I don’t watch much popular entertainment anymore, but I find it’s just a bunch of name-dropping and sad one-liners.
And Pepe got a license for a topless bar? Would anything that racy have been mentioned 5 or 10 years ago?
At this point, we’re only watching for the Jon Stewart Cameo.
(And Whoopi Goldberg as God??? And a clueless God at that?)
I thought it was awesome! I noticed no Frank Oz in the opening credits myself, but i didn’t really notice his absence. I loved the homages to other christmas movies, especially the Burl Ives Santa and the Grinch. I think the best line was Miss Piggy yelling for everyone to stop singing different songs during the Moulin Scrooge number. Nice continuality with Scooter’s uncle being mentioned and Doc Hopper.
So Whoopi and the coffee bush. I mean “shrub”. Was that supposed to be a Dubya joke? If it was, it was pretty lame. Now if they had a character named “Buck” (surname “Fush”), that would have been funny!
I didn’t find the show very funny. The jokes were predictable, and the whole It’s a Wonderful Life bit has been used too often.
One part that I thought was too much was the “Fear Factor - eat the rat”. When I saw it I immediately thought of Orwell’s 1984, where O’Brien threatens to enclose Winston’s head in a cage with a hungry rat. What were they thinking???
