The fucking Muppets aren’t entertaining. At all. Not even a tiny little bit. First of all, who is their intended audience, even? Not kids, really, because they contain a bunch of references to stuff that kids really won’t get. Kids don’t really know how a rock drummer is supposed to behave. They won’t find Kermit and Miss Piggy’s couple dynamics relatable. They don’t understand that Fozzie Bear is supposed to be an old-fashioned standup comedian. It’s all a bunch of weird cultural callouts, from a very specific 1950s-through-1970s American time period. Even kids in the mid-1970s didn’t actually understand what they were seeing.
But, on the other hand, none of that shit is appealing to adults. At least, it shouldn’t be. The pig woman is low-key horny all the time, but isn’t being satisfied by the naked frog guy? That’s funny to you? Those old guys are trolling everyone from the fake balcony seats, but they can’t ever actually put together an actual joke? You can’t understand what either the chef or the scientist guy is saying?
STOP ME IF I GET TO SOMETHING THAT’S ACTUALLY FUNNY, RIGHT?
It just isn’t fucking funny. Any of it. And it’s really not cute. It’s allllll just fucking stupid, from start to finish.
I don’t get what the appeal was ever supposed to be, and I’m pretty sure it only got popular because a large number of people were simultaneously afraid that they were missing the joke, missing references, missing SOMETHING, and they didn’t want to be seen as stupid, soooooo they agreed with the small number of shitheads, who were like “BRILLIANT! THIS IS GOING TO CHANGE PUPPETRY FOREVER!”
Puppetry is a shit-tier medium, anyway. Yeah, I said it. Real controversy I’m kicking up, huh? Yeah, you all KNOW puppetry sucks. It originated during the Classical and Medieval periods, when people desperately needed entertainment, but couldn’t stand to look at the faces of the other villagers for one more second, even if they’d written a play, and it was the only thing you could go and see, other than your walls.
The only SENSIBLE reason that the fucking Muppets are actually beloved is that people in the English-speaking world all watched Sesame Street, and that show is tangentially associated with the Muppets. And that’s fine. But it’s actually a kids’ show. And it’s not really the same exact thing as the Muppets. The two franchises are related, but Sesame Street actually teaches kids the alphabet and shit.
And fuck Jim Henson, himself. He was just some guy with a beard and a MASSIVE EGO. You’d have to have a giant fucking ego to shit out that kind of nonsense, with such utter confidence. If only he’d been able to actually write comedy or drama, he probably WOULD have been a great man. But he couldn’t, so he wasn’t. He was just a weirdo with a puppet fixation, who had a knack for jamming his foot into Hollywood’s door, before anyone could close it on him. More’s the pity.
Stop lionizing a deeply and pathetically unfunny, uninteresting man, just because he died tragically. Lots of people die tragically. It doesn’t retroactively give them talent.
EDIT: hmmmmmm, it seems as if my UNPOPULAR OPINION, which I posted in the place for UNPOPULAR OPINIONS is immediately proving to be pretty UNPOPULAR. Please keep this in mind, when you’re getting ready to type your personal attacks.
I’m not going to vote on this, but I will say this feels more like an attack (based solely on language used) than an unpopular opinion to drum up discussion and conversation. While you are valid in having your option heard I’m not sure you’ll get a lot of people on your side based on this.
That aside, I can understand having characters that are based on a caricature of a profession or personality, not being something you like, but that is part of how comedy and story telling works, you need to get people invested by trying to tell a story. Are the characters deep wells of emotional storytelling and emotion, some are, but not all. I won’t change your mind, but I feel like taking a moment to understand what the Henson company is trying to vs the perceived hate over its basic nature might help a bit in giving you a bit more of a nuanced opinion.
Edits: for gammer and clairity
Your point would be valid, IF THE MUPPETS MOVIES AND SHOWS EVER DID ACTUALLY TELL A STORY, EITHER.
Buuuuuut, no. They totally don’t.
The stories in all the Muppet franchise media are all just, like “we’re going to New York or something.” And that’s it. No deep and attention-grabbing storylines to make up for the lackluster, archetypal characters.
I’d also like to reiterate that this could ALL be wiped away, if only there were any FUNNY JOKES in the entire franchise. But that cupboard is utterly and entirely bare. That might be the real root of my annoyance. It’s on the same level as “The Big Bang Theory.” It has the rhythm and the trappings of comedy, with literally and absolutely no actual humor, of any kind.
Actual humor is replaced with “HURRR DUUURRRR, PUPPETS ARE SILLY.” That’s not a valid substitution.