What's Up With Muppetmania? Do The Muppets Still Matter?
When I first heard that Disney was rebooting The Muppets, I didn't really give it a second thought. They were funny when I was kid, but the decades-old movies are a bit painful to watch these days and their goody-two-shoe optimism has had its day.
But then the trailers and the spoofs came out and it felt like the Muppets were in on the joke. Could this be a reboot of characters from my childhood without all the cynicism and sexed-up characters that plague all the other comebacks from my youth?
I cannot think of one other show from my childhood that could produce the hysterical laughter like The Muppets. My sister and I, sitting in our wood-panelled den, would dissolve into tears at the Swedish Chef's antics. The irony being that my mother was teaching cooking to a group of strangers in our kitchen at the same time. Perhaps the contradiction of the Swedish Chef making such a mess, while our mother was discussing the finer points of nouvelle cuisine touched us on a level that I can only appreciate in hindsight.
In fact, watching The Muppets with my sister, breaking out into Mnah, Mnah or imitating Statler and Waldorf are some of the shared sibling moments that I can remember clearly. My sister and I had a fractious relationship as kids (but it is all good now!) and for some reason The Muppets is one of the things that stands out as moments of shared intimacy.
So that is my reason for loving the Muppets, but what is yours? (Loved the movie by the way, and even cried. Kids liked it too, it was refreshing to see something without snark.)
I admit it, I kind of think it is hilarious that every interview with Kermit is done straight, it's like no one wants to break the fantasy wall and admit that the Muppets are just felt puppets.
So to answer my question: Do the Muppets still matter? I guess they do, to me at least.
Tell me, who is your favourite Muppet? Or do you think Muppetmania is ridiculous?
Want more chaos? Last year, I wrote one of my favourite food posts: How To Create a Picky Eater.
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