Sayings on Muppet Shirts

[Cantus Rock]

Originally posted by SuperGrover
Although there have been a few instances where the Muppets play off that very thing, joking about their Muppet reality. Frank Oz characters especially it seems. I remember Miss Piggy on a Tonight Show appearance with Jay Leno where Jay blindfolded her. As he was covering her eyes, she was making sarcastic comments something to the effect of, "You realize what I am, right? Ahh well. If you believe, I believe." Cookie Monster's done stuff like that too.

That is a good point. Here is my thinking on that:

When the Muppets are on late-night, the majority of viewers are adults. These are people like (most of) us here on MC; those who love the Muppets, but are able-minded enough to see the reality of it all (if not, I'd hate to see the confusion in the Puppetry section! [LOL!]). So in the talk show instance, and most other guest spots where adults make up the majority of the viewers (such as Pepe on "The Other Half, which was a daytime thing), I think admitting reality is okay, mainly because it is done in a way that is clever and doesn't go too over-the-edge.

With the pins, I think a certain line was crossed in the sense that the admission just wasn't clever enough. Like I said, it was a flat out statement of the obvious. If the Piggy quote you had stated in your post (speaking to Travis now [lol]) was on a pin with proper connotation and such, I would be thrilled. Furthermore, I would already own it. But, the cleverness just isn't there, and so I feel like it just isn't right. Also, but less important, the pin is fair game to kids who might still "believe" in the Muppets ("believe" can be interpreted in a variety of ways, so I put the quotes on ). I mean, I know that this fact isn't really a big deal, but I know that when I was 5 years of age watching The Muppet Show, if I had seen a pin with "I have no eyeballs" on it and a picture of my favorite scientist, I would have been distraught to say the least.

I'm sure I was too strongly worded in my post. That is often the case with me.

-Matt