The "What was the point of that?" Thread

[AquaGGR]

What was the point of the Talking Houses sketches in the first season of TMS? It was just like one building joke per episode. The houses never even appeared anywhere outside those sketches!

 

[Beauregard]

I quote liked them. I'm a huge fan of pun-based jokes.

Most sketch shows, comedy shows, and even Friends, start off with a lot more "Joke Joke Joke" type formats and then gradually change more into character-based, character-build jokes later on. They just phased out because they didn't get renovated.

 

[Harleena]

Okay, it's a great sketch, and one of my favorites, but seriously, what was the point of Mahna Mahna?

 

[Bliffenstimmers]

Okay, it's a great sketch, and one of my favorites, but seriously, what was the point of Mahna Mahna?

"The question is, what is a Mahna Mahna?"
"The question is, who cares?"

My best guess is that it was a song Jim Henson just liked and felt inspired to do a puppetry skit around. No real reason, just for the fun of it. These artsy, humorous song based skits are what The Muppets' acts were mainly composed of (besides comically violent TV ads) before Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, as evidenced by Sam and Friends and his various variety show appearances. It was a hit when he did it on those variety shows, so it only made sense that it would eventually wind up on The Muppet Show, along with other popular classic skits like Glow Worm and Java.

 

[cjd874]

"The question is, what is a Mahna Mahna?"
"The question is, who cares?"

My best guess is that it was a song Jim Henson just liked and felt inspired to do a puppetry skit around. No real reason, just for the fun of it. These artsy, humorous song based skits are what The Muppets' acts were mainly composed of (besides comically violent TV ads) before Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, as evidenced by Sam and Friends and his various variety show appearances. It was a hit when he did it on those variety shows, so it only made sense that it would eventually wind up on The Muppet Show, along with other popular classic skits like Glow Worm and Java.

That's basically the essence of it. The song was from a Swedish movie and Jim used it to create a classic "upstaging" sketch similar to Java and Hugga-Wugga. It's a rather simple premise, but it works so well. I also feel that "Mahna Mahna" also provides great contrast to the skits with explosives, hungry monsters, and squiggly lines on the screen.

http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Mahna_Mahna_(song)