If Family Guy referenced Muppet Babies...

[GSmiley2007]

I know we've been talking about references to other Muppet shows on Family Guy, and even making up some, but what if Family Guy decided to make references to the Muppet Babies (one of my favorite shows growing up)?

Here's three examples I came up with:

1.) When Lois asks Peter how he's going to handle baby-sitting some little kids, Peter says "Baby-sitting has never been a problem for me, Lois... except for that time I baby-sat the Muppet Babies." It then cuts to the intro for Muppet Babies, except, instead of Nanny asking "Is everything alright in here?", Peter asks it. then says "Hey! You're not Nanny!", then says, "You're so big!", and says "And you're one fat S.O.B! (keepin' it family-friendly here!)" Kermit's a little shocked by what Piggy says (she then says she's sorry). Then we see Nanny walk into the room, and the babies all say "Hi, Nanny!", along with Peter. We then zoom-out from a close-up on Peter's face to reveal that Nanny's face looks like Oscar the Grouch! Peter runs out of the nursery in a panic, and Gonzo asks, "What's his problem?"

2.) Stewie watches Muppet Babies on TV (accompanied by an announcer saying "We now return to Muppet Babies."), to reveal that Piggy is more angry than usual, due to the other babies wanting to play with Skeeter instead of her, and she goes into a very long tirade (no dirty words), until Nanny throws her out of the nursery for good due to Piggy's REALLY bad temper, and the babies all scream "FREEDOM!" just like Mel Gibson's character in Braveheart.

3.) In a parody of Animal 's "Go Bye-Bye!" segment, Peter and the family sit down to eat cheesecake for dessert. Just when Lois is about to cut the first piece, the cake starts moving, and Peter yells, "Aaaaaaahhh! Oh god, the cake's alive!" and everyone runs out of the dining room screaming. It reveals that Animal is inside the cake and pops out head first, saying "Go bye-bye! Ah-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba!" accompanied by the same abridged version of the Muppet Babies theme tune used on the real show, and then we fade out.

What do you guys think? ;-) Maybe you can come up with other ideas, too! :-D

 

[GonzoLeaper]

If The Family Guy referenced Muppet Babies, they'd probably do what they do with most every other show or movie or fad or event or historical figure or whatever that they reference- make a travesty of what was definitely intended as a clean, family-friendly show or whatever.

Sorry, but I'm not a fan of this show. Sometimes the references can be funny and cute- goodness knows the creator has got tons of talent and creativity- but too many times the references are nothing more than for making crude jokes with foul language and sexual innuendos and some are outright sacreligious. I have to admit I occasionally check out some clips on Youtube to see what they've done with some of my favorite shows and stuff- and sometimes they can be pretty innocuous, like the one reference to MacGyver I've heard about on there.
But too many times- I've seen other references like the one made to ThunderCats (involving Lion-O using the Sword of Omens to check out Cheetara while she's using the bathroom) or the Back to the Future reference (where Doc is rushing to get Marty and Jennifer to the future to stop their daughter from marrying a black man- and they make Doc out to be a racist, which he has definitely never been portrayed as in the movies or cartoon series and I definitely don't appreciate that.)

And sometimes the show just reenacts a scene from something from the past for no apparent point other than to make a reference to the show. In fact, most of the episodes don't seem to consist of much more than TV show and movie references (which I don't necessarily mind- as long as there's some sort of plot to go with it)- but many times they seem unnecessary.

Like I said- some jokes are pretty cute and funny and not necessarily bad- (like a G.I. Joe parody when one of them pops up to tell kids "And knowing is half the battle")- and I don't mind those. But I don't care for others that besmirch the character of beloved characters from my childhood and I especially don't like the downright sacreligious references the show has made to Jesus Christ.

Of course, I find it hard to enjoy most any "cartoon" that employs sexual innuendos and vulgar language as well as an outright mockery of Christianity (and religion in general- but it seems Christianity gets picked on the most)
and that's why I don't get into this show or others like it, like The Simpsons or Futurama, etc.

These really should be more accurately labelled as "animated sitcoms"- because I can't really call them cartoons. Cartoons are for kids! And they should be all clean.


(Anyway- all that was not to say that you don't have some funny ideas, but I just had to vent a bit about these kinds of shows. So that wasn't a personal statement about your choice of television viewing, just my personal feelings on such shows.)

 

[Drtooth]

Don't want to start a thread war but for the love of mike, I do not like when people are hyper sensative about stuff like that.

These really should be more accurately labelled as "animated sitcoms"- because I can't really call them cartoons. Cartoons are for kids! And they should be all clean.

As a cartoonist myself, I find that more offenesive than whatever the heck
Family Guy does to Christ. We are not freaking baby sitters, for Pete's sake. We WANT to be creative and we want to make things people over the age of 2 actually have to use their minds to watch. If we offend someone, do we care? Of course not. We're not thinking of who we offend, because we'd have bland garbage like Care Bears and Dragontales.


it's comments like that that made John K lose Ren and Stimpy to the network, and caused them to make random Unfunny fart jokes that even the former writers find humiliating.

This ethic cleansing of cartoons is outright bullying. I think cartoons should dress in drag, drop large deadly things on each other's heads, die if it enhances to drama of the plot, fight and do all the wonderful things that make them NOT Barney the everloving dinosaur.

Remember, unless someone is forcing you, you DON'T HAVE TO WATCH!

As for me, Jay Ward, John K, Matt Groening, Seth MacFarline, and the South park guys are heroes, and anyone out to blandify cartoons to brainwash kids into buying cute and cuddley junk thinly veiled as "family Entertainment" are the true evil in this world.

 

[GonzoLeaper]

We WANT to be creative and we want to make things people over the age of 2 actually have to use their minds to watch. If we offend someone, do we care? Of course not. We're not thinking of who we offend, because we'd have bland garbage like Care Bears and Dragontales.

Good. I want cartoonists to be creative too- 'cause otherwise it'd be really boring watching cartoons. But I don't see any reason why you can't be creative and clean. Some things are aimed at children 2 and under and so should be under much stricter guidelines than others. And to their credit, most stations air The Family Guy and like shows in prime time and not on Saturday mornings because it doesn't fit in that ilk and is not aimed for that audience.
Um- and I don't think Care Bears and DragonTales is bland garbage. It's aimed at a much younger audience of course, but there's nothing wrong with having some clean fun, cuddly shows!
(I mean, really- what do you call Muppet Babies?)

This ethic cleansing of cartoons is outright bullying. I think cartoons should dress in drag, drop large deadly things on each other's heads, die if it enhances to drama of the plot, fight and do all the wonderful things that make them NOT Barney the everloving dinosaur.

Remember, unless someone is forcing you, you DON'T HAVE TO WATCH!

As for me, Jay Ward, John K, Matt Groening, Seth MacFarline, and the South park guys are heroes, and anyone out to blandify cartoons to brainwash kids into buying cute and cuddley junk thinly veiled as "family Entertainment" are the true evil in this world.

Well, I have seen most all that happen in Looney Tunes cartoons and I don't have a problem with that. And I enjoy Jay Ward's cartoons- particularly Rocky and Bullwinkle, Dudley Do-Right and George of the Jungle (as well as the live action movies based on them!)

However, and granted I haven't watched every single episode of these shows, but I don't remember hearing any foul language or seeing sexual innuendos or sacreligious slurs or crude jokes in any of these shows.

And yes, thank goodness I do know how to use the remote control and just turn off the TV set when I find shows that I don't like.
But I'd also like to point out that that's an incredibly lame excuse for putting foul-mouthed and crude shows with sexual innuendos and sacreligious references- and especially wrapping it up in animation, which is something that most all children are drawn to, and justifying it because they don't have to watch it if they don't want to.
I know that most of the animated sitcoms that do this are not aimed at children and I don't expect animators to be a baby-sitter for the kids. I would expect them to hold to some higher standards no matter who their audience is (because adults don't really need to be watching this stuff either)- but that's a personal choice for every person and I can't make that call for everyone- nor am I trying to.
I was just stating how I personally feel about it.

 

[Drtooth]

Firstly, I have to Say Muppet Babies is NOT bland garbage, because it was written with an iota of brain power. Dragon Tales, My little Pony, Care Bears IS bland garbage. It's only good for making nostaligia based T-Shirts. Muppet Babies was just brilliant and could have been rerun on PBS. I feel little kids should ONLY watch PBS. If a show says Y7, then you have to monitor what little 3 year old Billy watches. You can be creative and clean, but the simple fact of the matter is, we don't want to be. We want to push the envelope as far as the boundaries of censorship is concerned. We live in a dirty disgusting violent terrible world. So naturally, instead of taking guns off the streets, hey... let's edit guns in Japanese shows like One Piece to look like super soakers. That's definately not going to have little Mikey join a gang.

But then, ask the same people to fix the school systems so kids don't drop out, or creating new jobs so Mikey really doesn't need to join a gang, they roll their eyes and mumble about their taxes going up.

Little kids shows for little kids are fine, provided bigger kid shows can be violent and dramatic, or zany off the wall crazy.

But if you do look at older cartoons, they actually are much worse than the current ones . The moral compass of cartoon characters, everyone's Hero Mickey Mouse. Ever see Steamboat Wille? He actually abused animals to get sound out of them to make music (I.e. he pulled a cats tale). Donald Duck (not kidding on theis one) Opened fire with a machine gun on an audience that didn't laugh at him. There are also Woody Woodpecker cartoons with refferences to suicide and such.

I say, we should go back to the day where cartoons drank profusely, dressed in drag, did violent contemptuous stuff to each other, and over all were the most memorable hillarious things that ever were animated.

Though I do agree it is a personal choice. If something offends you, shut it off, and let people who aren't offended have some fun.


Us cartoonists are a special breed. We fit compeletely out of the context of normality. When we are little, we are constantly haraased for not spending all our time obsessing about playing sports. We constantly are told we aren't going to make it, and few of us do. And when we do, we usually have to work on crappy shows that are beneath our dignity. We constantly get passed by when selling a project for some toy commercial or educational Tv requirement. So of course we're a little off. That's why we want to do crazy things, and often time animate things for the rest of the animators to watch that should never be seen to the general public (Porky Pig saying son of a *&^^$ for example). In short, we're not what you'd call clean people.

 

[GonzoLeaper]

Firstly, I have to Say Muppet Babies is NOT bland garbage, because it was written with an iota of brain power. Dragon Tales, My little Pony, Care Bears IS bland garbage. It's only good for making nostaligia based T-Shirts.

Well, I totally agree that Muppet Babies is definitely a brilliant show and is not bland garbage. But I don't think Dragon Tales, My Little Pony or Care Bears or any other cutesy show is either. They have their place as well. Obviously most of these shows are aimed at a very young audience (and mostly female at that) and there's nothing wrong with having some clean cutesy shows for kids.

And obviously the raunchier stuff would be aimed at older audiences. And yeah, I know there's some things that slipped by in Looney Tunes and Disney cartoons- and most of these are "banned" now.
I suppose some animators might like to push the envelope in terms of what they can get away- but I would hope some would prefer to push the envelope creatively without seeking to slip in subtle crude jokes or gags or whatever.
I'm just saying you can be clean and still be funny and creative. Just look at Sinbad.
And yes- everyone has different tastes so there are various forms of entertainment for all tastes and everyone has the power to choose what they wish to partake of.

And I suppose the main thing we can agree on partaking plenty of is the Muppets!

 

[Drtooth]

I'm just saying you can be clean and still be funny and creative. Just look at Sinbad.

I looked at him and rest my case. GAHHHH!

You are welcome to your opinion, but leave tooning to the toonists, kay?

As far as Care Bears and the others go... I just don't like them. However, the japanese show ANpanman http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anpanman shows you can do stuff that is cute and for younger audiences, but has volumes of sly humor and some characters with depth.

 

[GonzoLeaper]

You are welcome to your opinion, but leave tooning to the toonists, kay?

No problem. I don't draw 'em, just watch 'em.

 

[SSLFan]

I know we've been talking about references to other Muppet shows on Family Guy, and even making up some, but what if Family Guy decided to make references to the Muppet Babies (one of my favorite shows growing up)?

Here's three examples I came up with:

1.) When Lois asks Peter how he's going to handle baby-sitting some little kids, Peter says "Baby-sitting has never been a problem for me, Lois... except for that time I baby-sat the Muppet Babies." It then cuts to the intro for Muppet Babies, except, instead of Nanny asking "Is everything alright in here?", Peter asks it. then says "Hey! You're not Nanny!", then says, "You're so big!", and says "And you're one fat S.O.B! (keepin' it family-friendly here!)" Kermit's a little shocked by what Piggy says (she then says she's sorry). Then we see Nanny walk into the room, and the babies all say "Hi, Nanny!", along with Peter. We then zoom-out from a close-up on Peter's face to reveal that Nanny's face looks like Oscar the Grouch! Peter runs out of the nursery in a panic, and Gonzo asks, "What's his problem?"

2.) Stewie watches Muppet Babies on TV (accompanied by an announcer saying "We now return to Muppet Babies."), to reveal that Piggy is more angry than usual, due to the other babies wanting to play with Skeeter instead of her, and she goes into a very long tirade (no dirty words), until Nanny throws her out of the nursery for good due to Piggy's REALLY bad temper, and the babies all scream "FREEDOM!" just like Mel Gibson's character in Braveheart.

3.) In a parody of Animal 's "Go Bye-Bye!" segment, Peter and the family sit down to eat cheesecake for dessert. Just when Lois is about to cut the first piece, the cake starts moving, and Peter yells, "Aaaaaaahhh! Oh god, the cake's alive!" and everyone runs out of the dining room screaming. It reveals that Animal is inside the cake and pops out head first, saying "Go bye-bye! Ah-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba!" accompanied by the same abridged version of the Muppet Babies theme tune used on the real show, and then we fade out.

What do you guys think? ;-) Maybe you can come up with other ideas, too! :-D

Funny ideas! Keep it up!

 

[maniacal muppet]

I know we've been talking about references to other Muppet shows on Family Guy, and even making up some, but what if Family Guy decided to make references to the Muppet Babies (one of my favorite shows growing up)?

Here's three examples I came up with:

1.) When Lois asks Peter how he's going to handle baby-sitting some little kids, Peter says "Baby-sitting has never been a problem for me, Lois... except for that time I baby-sat the Muppet Babies." It then cuts to the intro for Muppet Babies, except, instead of Nanny asking "Is everything alright in here?", Peter asks it. then says "Hey! You're not Nanny!", then says, "You're so big!", and says "And you're one fat S.O.B! (keepin' it family-friendly here!)" Kermit's a little shocked by what Piggy says (she then says she's sorry). Then we see Nanny walk into the room, and the babies all say "Hi, Nanny!", along with Peter. We then zoom-out from a close-up on Peter's face to reveal that Nanny's face looks like Oscar the Grouch! Peter runs out of the nursery in a panic, and Gonzo asks, "What's his problem?"

2.) Stewie watches Muppet Babies on TV (accompanied by an announcer saying "We now return to Muppet Babies."), to reveal that Piggy is more angry than usual, due to the other babies wanting to play with Skeeter instead of her, and she goes into a very long tirade (no dirty words), until Nanny throws her out of the nursery for good due to Piggy's REALLY bad temper, and the babies all scream "FREEDOM!" just like Mel Gibson's character in Braveheart.

3.) In a parody of Animal 's "Go Bye-Bye!" segment, Peter and the family sit down to eat cheesecake for dessert. Just when Lois is about to cut the first piece, the cake starts moving, and Peter yells, "Aaaaaaahhh! Oh god, the cake's alive!" and everyone runs out of the dining room screaming. It reveals that Animal is inside the cake and pops out head first, saying "Go bye-bye! Ah-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba!" accompanied by the same abridged version of the Muppet Babies theme tune used on the real show, and then we fade out.

What do you guys think? ;-) Maybe you can come up with other ideas, too! :-D

I'm literally hysterically laughing. Thopse arte great. Those bits would be so funny on the show.