Luis blows a gasket

[fuzzygobo]

Back around 1973, the saga of Big Bird and Snuffy is real/imaginary was starting to gain momentum.
Once Luis was outside the Fix-it Shop repairing an antique scale. Bird comes by, and Luis asks him to watch the scale while he gets something, "And don't let anything happen to it, Big Bird!"
Well, Snuffy shuffles in, and wants to see how much he weighs. He puts one toe on the scale, and the dials spin and POW! CRASHBOOMBANG! the scale gets busted into a million pieces, with springs and gears flying everywhere. Snuffy decides he'd better exit stage left, leaving Bird to hold the bag.
Luis comes back, sees what's left of the scale, and goes ballistic.
"YOU BROKE MY SCALE, BIG BIRD!!!!"
"But, it wasn't me,Luis! It was Mr. Snuffleupagus, who was.... just here!"
Just what Luis wants to hear.
"BIG BIRD, THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS A SNUFFLE%&(*@*#*$+}UPAGUS!!!!!" Meanwhile smoke is streaming out of Luis's ears, and he has a vein on the side of his head ready to explode.
Big Bird beats a hasty retreat, and not a moment too soon. If Luis had his way, he would've served Bird up with cranberries and stuffing. He was THAT mad.


Xerus, if you're out there, you'd probably be one of the few people as old as me to remember this one.

 

[Katzi428]

fuzzyg...I'm about the same age as Xerus (a couple of years older I think). I don't quite remember this sketch .But the way you describe this sketch,I can believe it happening!

 

[Xerus]

I remember seeing that skit as a kid. And it scared me a lot seeing Luis so angry. There were other times Luis got angry too. Like when David accidentally spilled grape juice on Luis's new shirt and he got angry and when Herry accidentally bumped into Luis a minute later, Luis yelled at him too. Then Herry went off feeling sad. Later, David gave Herry an ice cream to make him feel better. Herry was now mad at Luis. Luis then came back an apologized to Herry for losing his temper like that. And they became friends again and shook hands. But Herry accidentally used his hand that had his ice cream cone and Luis ended up with ice cream on his hand. But at least he didn't get mad about that.

 

[andyf]

I dont remember this episode with Luis getting mad since I was born in 1981. But I do however remember an episode from the 1984-1985 season where Luis accidently throws an old toy ship of Big Bird's away. And Big Bird gets really mad and yells at Luis. Later he tells Snuffy how bad he feels about yelling at Luis and Snuffy tells him that adults make mistakes too and he should apologize to Luis. At the end of the episode Big Bird goes in the fix it shop and apologizes as the sponsors are being annouced offscreen, so you couldn't really hear what he was saying. The only Muppet Iv'e seen the humans get really mad at is Oscar. But that's a given

 

[JLG]

If that 1973 scene between Luis and Big Bird really happened, whoa. That's exactly the kind of thing they would never do in a million years now. They tend to shy away from stronger emotions and conflict. Characters will get annoyed at one another, but rarely do they seem to get outright angry. (The closest thing to an exception I know of in recent years are the Rocko episodes, where Elmo gets to show a side of his personality that doesn't come out very often.)
I don't think they would even have done it when I was a little kid in the late 80s either, but it still wasn't anywhere near as sanitized then as it is now.

Even Maria, whose trademark trait (to my eye, anyway) was the the way she never tried to hide how exasperated or annoyed she was, is much more consistently upbeat these days.