JD Hansel: What I'll say is whatever Matt is doing is definitely working at in-person events as I've experienced myself and I've seen other people have this experience. If you can get people in a room with him, then the puppetry matters a lot more. Like when you're watching a good puppeteer do Kermit as opposed to a fan do Kermit, then you can just tell, "oh, that's really Kermit the Frog". You can see it. And when that happens to people in person, they notice it a lot more than on video. And people lock in and do not notice the vocal differences as much, but do notice the character, the personality, all the stuff that you and I live for. Like Jarrod, I think both of us really appreciate a good embodied puppetry performance. Like the stuff that gets me excited watching the Muppets these days is when Ryan Dillon makes an interesting acting choice with Elmo. Like a video I saw of him a few weeks or months ago where Elmo and Abby are having a laughing fit and as they calm down, Elmo wipes a tear from his eye. Of course, there's no real tear there, but the gesture was so perfectly done, I lost it. And that has nothing to do with the voice. That all has to do with puppetry skill, acting, being able to totally embody a character and think about the way that someone would actually experience laughter and the nuances of that. That's where Ryan is just endlessly creative and never lets you get bored with his performance. And a lot of these puppeteers are like that. And I've seen Matt do that kind of stuff to a lesser extent, but I've still seen it. Like, that guy really embodies a character and it's always really exciting to watch someone like this work.
Mathew Soberman: So, what you're basically saying is Matt Vogel needs to go door-to-door with Kermit.
JD: Well, but it already feels like the only way we're getting to see Kermit these days is not through big video projects, but it's like apparitions. We know that Kermit still exists because of eyewitness testimonies because people saw him show up at the University of Maryland. Okay, let me tell you this story real quick. Last night as we're recording this, last night was Halloween and in my neighborhood, we don't have a lot of kids coming through and so us adults end up just sort of gathering outside and chatting with each other. It becomes a social thing. And I was talking with my neighbors a little bit and these are not Muppet nerds like us, ordinary people, have heard of Muppets, have seen a little bit many years ago, almost sort of remember who Gonzo is, that kind of thing. Um, and they have a kid who just graduated from the University of Maryland. So they were at the Kermit commencement speech. They were telling me a little bit about it. I was naturally very curious. what would an ordinary person think of going to their kids' commencement and the speaker is Kermit the Frog? And initially they had reservations like "okay, this feels a little weird, like this is a mark of adulthood for our kid and we're getting a sort of children's character. There's something kind of cartoony about this". But then as it went on and the more he talked the more they were like "this is actually moving. This is profound". She, the mother, said "we should be taking notes" and that's when the father said "I did take notes. I did start taking notes about what Kermit was saying because it was really cool." And he opens up his notes app and starts going through it and is like "all right, he made three points and the first point was find your people, and he talks about, you know, find bears and pigs and Gonzos. You remember Gonzo? Oh yeah, you would know Gonzo. Yeah. And he talks about taking the leap and finding people to take the leap with you so you don't do it alone. And his third point was about keeping connections. And then he's got something about dreams. Life is how we get there." I swear to Frog! I swear to Frog! My neighbor quoted to me verbatim. "Life is how we get there"! That one dang line that Matt Vogel's Kermit has been saying since the beginning! At least twice. Matt Vogel's Kermit says it in the Before You Leap audio book that "dreams are how we figure out where we want to go. Life is how we get there". And I have my ordinary neighbor quoting it at me now because he thought it was profound. Whatever Matt Vogel is doing for ordinary people, so long as they get to see it, is working! He's out there delivering three-point sermons about connections and dreams that are having people take notes and have these spiritual experiences with it like he's a dang Billy Graham! I don't get it, but it's working! It's just working!
Gav: I think this was kind of like the end all be all point to the Matt Vogel voice conversation and I don't think I have any more to say. Like you finished the conversation, this eternal conversation. I think you finished it. Thanks.
JD: Oh. Oh. Like all the comments are going to be done then? They're going to be like "We can't complain about this."
Gav: Listen. All you got to do is just put this out.
JD: Okay. We're going to clip it. Put it all over Muppet Instagram.
Gav: Make a video essay and implant this audio. I really think it'll work.
JD: Where I disagree with Jarrod is I don't think that this very Muppet Movie inspired Kermit who's very happy is going to work as well in the Muppet Show. A show on which Kermit was almost always stressed. But we have seen Matt be able to vary his Kermit and do a more stressed out Kermit before, he can do that.
Jarrod Fairclough: I just mean Kermit's been down in the dumps a lot and I think Matt's Kermit works when he's not being down in the dumps.
Welcome to the Muppet Central Forum!
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