Muppets Now Episode 3 - Getting Testy

[Phillip]

Episode 3 - Getting Testy
Disney+ Premiere: Friday August 14, 2020

Joe, the new legal counsel for the Muppets, interrupts the scheduled delivery of Muppets Now to announce that all streaming content must be vetted by a focus group. Things go from bad to worse when Scooter meets up with the assigned test audience, curmudgeonly critics Statler and Waldorf.

The Swedish Chef collaborates with Chef Roy Choi as the two try to make a one-of-kind kalbi bowl. Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and his assistant, Beaker, enlist a Pizza Delivery Person (Al Madrigal) to explore velocity. Miss Piggy and her guests, Linda Cardellini and Taye Diggs, dig deep into the workings of a healthy relationship. Pepe the King Prawn’s unbelievable game show features new contestants, new challenges, new rules, and no planning at all.

If you saw "Getting Testy" on Disney+ please like this post and share your thoughts below.

 

[Oscarfan]

The framing scenes are so quick and visually busy that it's hard to focus on what's happening. And Peter was definitely operating both Statler and Waldorf, right?

Beverly Plume is growing on me, but the Chef was barely involved in his own segment. And I don't really dig the nasty attitude he's been having in these pieces.

Lifesty was better than the last two for me, but the video chat is so chaotic, and not in a good way, that I can barely tell what's happening.

I don't really have any issues with Muppet Labs at this point.

Pepe's game show is fun and Carl made me laugh more than Pepe.

 

[Muppet Master]

It was just fine, basically about as good as the last episode. The same problems I have had with the past two apply with this one in regards to the flimsy storyline. I imagine a plot where Statler and Waldorf are part of a test audience would have been hilarious in the 2015 ABC show but there's not much room for anything interesting to happen when everyone's talking through Facetime in 15-second intervals.

On the plus side, I did enjoy seeing Big Mean Carl appear in the game show sketch. And the Muppet Labs & Swedish Chef skits are always fun to watch. Despite that, I do feel like there's not enough variation. Wouldn't mind seeing a Fozzie comedy skit, Veterinarian's Hospital, or Pigs in Space sketch. Instead, we keep getting the same 4 skits over and over again. Maybe if this show gets a second season, they can change up the format a bit and have a more interesting overarching story. This show is harmless fun overall but it's really not engaging enough for me to be craving for me. This one gets a 6.5/10 from me.

 

[antsamthompson9]

I loved the look on Beaker's face after he got slammed into the wall. Linda's cheese friend made me laugh with her voice.

 

[Luke]

I thought it was a solid episode, but I agree that it's not engaging or varied enough
At least the framing had a clear and funny purpose to build the episode around with the test audience and Statler & Waldorf.
I thought starting off with the slowest sketch, the Chef one was probably not the best idea, I just don't think the writing is sharp enough to have the Chef in that kind of setup and for it to always run quite long, especially as people have said, he isn't even really the star of his own segment.
I really liked the Lifesty sketch, and enjoying the Muppet Labs. With Pepe's game show it was funny him calling Scooter "Scooper" and having Big Mean Carl on was brilliant.
I think a lot of the issues could be solved by shaving 30 seconds to a minute off every sketch, and putting an additional sketch and with the writing being dialled up a notch laugh out loud funnier. That would also give more opportunity to add to the cast.
It does feel like its missing some kind of Muppets performing music segment, its part of what the Muppets are known for, would have thought there would be loads of ideas to work something like that in.

 

[Old Thunder]

From Discord:

Muppets Now, Episode 3

To sum up this episode in one word: fine.

The Swedish Chef piece? Fine. He didn’t go crazy, the salsa joke was kinda good, but it was really more just a cooking show with him in it. Didn’t offend me, but also wasn’t great... it was fine.

The Muppet Labs sketch? Fine. Pizza guy was kinda interesting, nice to see hurtling pizzas, but nothing was really that interesting. And I felt sad for Beaker losing his beloved cake in the end, tbh. Didn’t offend me, but also wasn’t great... it was fine.

The Lifestyle episode? Fine. Honestly it may have been the best ep of it yet. The dark restaurant scene was pretty well executed, and Kermit was in an absolute mood during the FaceTime segment. But I’m just not a big fan of Piggy’s show overall. She still seems commercial. Didn’t offend me, but it also wasn’t great... it’s fine.

Pepe’s game show? Fine. Probably the best segment of the episode. Pepe is just a riot, and Big Mean Carl got a chuckle out of me — the only one this episode, tbh — with his phone call, but I didn’t think this was as good as least week’s incarnation. Didn’t offend me, but also wasn’t great... it was fine.

So yeah... it was fine. Bringing back Statler and Waldorf as the test audience was a cool idea, but it wasn’t all that it could’ve been, unlike Fozzie last time around. I will say that Jo the Legal Weasel is an absolute treasure though, I love him.

All this considered, I’m feeling a solid 5 to a light 6 on this one. It didn’t offend me, but it also wasn’t great... it was fine.

 

[MWoO]

I really want to like this but... I just can't. It's awful. This takes only the most superficial aspect of The Muppets and ignores everything else that makes them funny.

Bunsen and Beaker throwing crap against the wall is not funny just like burning stuff isn't funny. This is not a show, this is a YouTube video, plain and simple. It's like they looked at Muppet Labs and said... "what makes these funny? Is it the clever writing? Is it the character interactions? Is it how sometimes the skits would tie into other aspects of the show? Nah, it must be when stuff goes boom! I like when stuff goes boom!" Pure surface level stuff here.

If you are going to do an educational YouTube series with Bunsen and Beaker then do that, but don't make this junk where there is no educational value and no comedic value.

Pepe's game show is a pointless sketch with bad improv actors. It's just randomness, which maybe can work for a one off idea, but is not sustainable as a series of segments. In fact this entire show thus far has a very "seen one you seen 'em all" vibe. There is nothing that separates one episode from the next. The segments are basically the same thing each time.

The Muppets 2015 was a great new concept for The Muppets. We never saw them do a full blown sitcom and I loved it. Sure it needed tweaking, but the basic concept was there and a solid foundation. This is just a retread of the variety show concept done in TMS and MT only worse.

Maybe my real issues with the series is that it is a reflection of what I hate about YouTube. In that respect, The Muppets are doing a great job at capturing modern day media. It's not good, but it's accurate.

 

[D'Snowth]

It's like they looked at Muppet Labs and said... "what makes these funny? Is it the clever writing? Is it the character interactions? Is it how sometimes the skits would tie into other aspects of the show? Nah, it must be when stuff goes boom! I like when stuff goes boom!" Pure surface level stuff here.

To be fair, Jim himself was kind of the same way: when in doubt, blow stuff up (or have characters eat each other).

 

[MWoO]

To be fair, Jim himself was kind of the same way: when in doubt, blow stuff up (or have characters eat each other).

Was he though? Jim never did random for random sake the way Muppets Now is doing. Even when characters ate each other, there was a build up and story to it. For example, the glow worm sketch. Proto-Kermit is eating up the worms. As he does so, we feel kind of bad for the worms as Proto-Kermit is taking pleasure in eating them. In the end, he gets eaten himself in a nice ironic twist. There is build up, tension, pay off. We aren't seeing that here.

Jim did things that seemed random, but you could tell he wasn't doing them just to be random. This show seems like it is trying too hard to be random. Like you could tell that when weird stuff happened on TMS it was because an idea was thrown around the set and the crew took that idea and honed it into something funny. Here, it seems like they are trying too hard to be spontaneous and it reeks of trying too hard.

 

[D'Snowth]

All I know it was usually Jim's ace-in-the-hole whenever he couldn't think of a way to end a skit - something that was actually lampshaded in his unsold WIZARD OF ID pilot when the Wizard blows up the King.

"Yessir, it's the standard Muppet finale, folks. If ya don't know how to end it, go out with a--" (POOF)