Kermit and Miss Piggy Officially Split!

[CensoredAlso]

Btw, just to clarify, the name of the short we're talking about is Horton Hatches an Egg (1942). Horton Hears a Who was later.

the suicide joke was the favorite punchline of late 50's Paramount cartoons.

Yeah I've always been kinda fascinated with how casually suicide was treated in 30s and 40s movies. There was this one actor who took his own life in 1937, and in at least two of his films he makes some now painfully ironic comment about suicide, once in a very funny monologue! Perhaps it was a Depression era thing. People laughed to keep from crying.

But considering the source material, the suicidal Lorre Fish is a might jarring....this is a kid's book

That is a very modern judgment. These cartoons shorts were meant to be viewed by everyone, not just kids. Plus little boys had toy guns that looked real (no neon Nerf colors) and they watched gangster and Western pictures. Plus that was Peter Lorre's joke, he said and did creepy things with a sick grin on his face. That's why audiences liked him. And bottom line, if you're going for a morbid joke like that, you really do have to go for it and not pull punches. This is what Jerry Seinfeld has been talking about lately, how political correctness can sabotage a joke.

(There are times when I probably prefer Chuck Jones' treatment of Seuss more than Seuss' actual books. Blasphemy I know, lol.)

And it wasn't always done perfectly well.

Well back to the topic, that's why I said Jim got it right the majority of the time. Nothing is ever perfect, but some artists do have that special intuition. That is a rare thing.

 

[Muppet fan 123]

This is excellent marketing for the new TV show. This story took the internet by storm, so it's clearly doing it's job.

 

[dwayne1115]

This is excellent marketing for the new TV show. This story took the internet by storm, so it's clearly doing it's job.

Sure, but at what cost? I mean there are a lot of fans who know these are fictional characters but yet they still invested a lot of time and emotion into believing in there relationship. Besides all that the last two movies really made it seem like Kermit and Piggy where finally a couple and a happy one. To me it's just a waste of my emotions to think that there relationship was going great only to have all that taken away by a break up.

 

[Drtooth]

Yeah I've always been kinda fascinated with how casually suicide was treated in 30s and 40s movies. There was this one actor who took his own life in 1937, and in at least two of his films he makes some now painfully ironic comment about suicide, once in a very funny monologue! Perhaps it was a Depression era thing. People laughed to keep from crying.



That is a very modern judgment. These cartoons shorts were meant to be viewed by everyone, not just kids. Plus little boys had toy guns that looked real (no neon Nerf colors) and they watched gangster and Western pictures. Plus that was Peter Lorre's joke, he said and did creepy things with a sick grin on his face. That's why audiences liked him. And bottom line, if you're going for a morbid joke like that, you really do have to go for it and not pull punches. This is what Jerry Seinfeld has been talking about lately, how political correctness can sabotage a joke.

By all means I like dark humor, but only if it's done right. The "Seen it all" suicide joke doesn't work for me, not out of political correctness, but for the same reason internet memes have a short shelf life. You hear it enough times, and it goes from being unfunny to "Really?!? This again? Let it die already." It's the rough equivalent of someone still telling a Chuck Norris joke. It stopped being funny very quickly after it was introduced. The Horton Hatches the Egg cartoon, I admit, I do like, but watching it seems like some if it comes from a bizarro parallel 50's version of an early 00's humor. Repeating popular gags of the time that were done everywhere else with rapid fire pop culture jokes thrown in.

Plus, I don't find it even an iota as funny as Droopy having to shoot a gun with another gun saying, "it's the laaaaaaw of the West." Then again, I like Bob Clampett and all, but I'm much more into Tex Avery's stuff.

 

[CensoredAlso]

but for the same reason internet memes have a short shelf life.

Oooo, that's interesting. So the meme phenomenon is older than we thought!

 

[Muppetgirl09]

On Twitter, someone told me that it was just for the show. I don't know anymore. If this is a stunt for the show, then they can do better. That's just my two cents.

 

[MuppetsRule]

Sure, but at what cost? I mean there are a lot of fans who know these are fictional characters but yet they still invested a lot of time and emotion into believing in there relationship. Besides all that the last two movies really made it seem like Kermit and Piggy where finally a couple and a happy one. To me it's just a waste of my emotions to think that there relationship was going great only to have all that taken away by a break up.

Really? People were actually wrapped up emotionally in Kermit and Piggy's relationship? I guess there are a lot of people out there that need to spend more time in the real world then.

 

[dwayne1115]

Really? People were actually wrapped up emotionally in Kermit and Piggy's relationship? I guess there are a lot of people out there that need to spend more time in the real world then.

Yes really! Sure there is a real world out there, with death, evil, and bad things in it. Maybe some people look at a frog and a pig relationship to get away from the real world. Honestly with all the evil and shootings and mass killings and just bad things going on in this "Real World" I want to live in a world of fictional Muppets. Because in that world a frog a bear a pig a dog, and a whatever can still make millions of people happy, and they can do it together.

 

[Muppetgirl09]

Yes really! Sure there is a real world out there, with death, evil, and bad things in it. Maybe some people look at a frog and a pig relationship to get away from the real world. Honestly with all the evil and shootings and mass killings and just bad things going on in this "Real World" I want to live in a world of fictional Muppets. Because in that world a frog a bear a pig a dog, and a whatever can still make millions of people happy, and they can do it together.

Even now in TN. It's going nuts here!

 

[Beth C]

Yes really! Sure there is a real world out there, with death, evil, and bad things in it. Maybe some people look at a frog and a pig relationship to get away from the real world. Honestly with all the evil and shootings and mass killings and just bad things going on in this "Real World" I want to live in a world of fictional Muppets. Because in that world a frog a bear a pig a dog, and a whatever can still make millions of people happy, and they can do it together.

That's how I feel. Just because something isn't "real" doesn't mean you can't be emotionally invested in it.

How many people believe Star Trek is real? Star Wars? Are you sure there is no "force" and it can't be with us?

When you grow up with something, it becomes part of you. I grew up with Muppets from the time I was able to sit in front of the TV and watch Sesame Street.

It's also the same with fanfiction. We all know we aren't writing cannon stories but does that make it any less real? If I write a story and I get emotionally involved in it and the responses to it does that make me living not in reality?

Perception is an individual thing. I would not go around telling anyone what they can and can not believe in. If the studios didn't expect people to have a reaction they wouldn't have tried this. They knew that people would take the "split" as real. That's why they did it.

Kermit & Piggy 4-ever!