Dealing with anti-Muppet people

[BobThePizzaBoy]

I know there's another thread like this, but I figured I'd bring in a revival but does anyone else get just plain annoyed when other people make fun of you just because you like the Muppets? This doesn't most of the time directly go alongside liking the Muppets, but that one thing often makes people think of me as some freak. This one guy that I'm in a play with at school seems to think I'm just someone who goes home and does nothing but watch Muppets and used that as a build-up to continually bother me (he's obsessed with telling me that I have a "nice ***"). I also got in a big fight with my friend a few months ago because he insisted that TMS and SS were the same exact thing ("a puppet is a puppet") and he blabbed about it to some other guy whom I'm in the play with and he constantly walks up to me and says "So, the Muppets and Sesame Street are the same exact thing?" to push my buttons and everytime I wear a shirt with a Muppet on it, he always has to pipe in, "he's from Sesame Street, right?" People can be so judgemental...

 

[frogboy4]

There is a lot of cynicism in popular culture these days. We see it in the Simpsons, South Park and Family Guy, to name a few examples, and there is a place for it. I enjoy all of these programs. There’s also a lot of general family entertainment out there with (what I see as) some wholesome cheesy goodness thrown in like High School Musical. There’s a place for all of it, but you know what fills the gap – what hits the mark just right in a way none of this does? The Muppets! They’ve had a bumpy time of it with projects trying to shove them to one end of the spectrum or the other, but now with Muppets.com they’ve hit closer to their true chord than they have in a long time.

I stated in something in another thread. It’s a sentiment I feel Jim Henson retained throughout his career. There’s a difference between being childish and childlike. One should never abandon a sense of humor and wonder about the world. The Muppets accomplish this with a wink and a nod to keep it in perspective. We don’t have to live in stark terms of either being a Pollyanna or a nihilist. The Muppets take a much more colorful approach to life. If you are given a hard time by someone (who should mind their own business anyway) then chock it up to their unfortunate colorblindness or nonsensical distaste for that bit of joy in the world. It’s usually about their weakness for peer pressure and collective thinking than the actual original thought the Muppets inspire and support.

Just my thoughts on the subject. It’s always good to be tolerant to all. Even the intolerant. Well, until they get in your way…then throw a penguin at them!