The Brand New Ask Jim Lewis Thread

[theprawncracker]

ANSWERS- Jim Lewis – November 1, 2009

From theprawncracker…
Hey Jim! Did you write the FANTASTIC new Halloween sketches on Muppets.com? I can't decide which is my favorite... Probably The Swedish Chef "Pumpkin Carving," but the two Muppet Labs videos are top contenders as well. Are there any plans for these to go on YouTube? They would absolutely kill (pun definitely intended).

Also, when did Bunsen get a penguin intern?

Write them, no. Suggest ideas, sure. Expertly executed, dare I say.
Will they go on YouTube? I have no idea what that entails. Does one have to get letters of transit and visas, or can a video simply migrate to YouTube at will?
And at Muppet Labs, the penguins often fill in for the lab rats when there’s a scheduling conflict.

From Beauregard…
Jim! Will you fix it? (Random British 70's reference there...) Also! Was just chatting with Prawnie about the new Muppet Haunted Videos and I have to say, I am LOVING them beyond belief! Something that probably gets overlooked (but not by us superfans...) is the set designs, and I wondered who needed the praise for coming up with the brand new Muppet Labs clock, the awesome Muppet Laps screensaver, the black and orange balloons around the Muppet Lab, and the wonderful microwave in Chef's modern kitchen! Whoever it was, congrats! We love you! – Beau

I will pass along your congratulations just as soon as I find out who’s responsible. We all work under assumed names so it’s sometimes difficult to tell. I agree, however, that the verisimilitude of these locales is part of what makes the pieces so wonderful.

From dwayne1115…
I have a question! I just saw Monty Python on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and was laughing the whole way through it. Do you like Monty Python, and do you sometimes use it as a reference. Also I know you mentioned that your love for the Three Stooges and The Marx brothers and such. Who is your favorite Stooge, Marx Brother, and so on?

Also don't feel bad for being a Packers fan. I'm a Tennessee Titans fan and we have not won a game this season.

Love Monty Python…and The Goon Show and Beyond the Fringe and all that exquisite British foolishness. It is definitely a point of reference for me, but being the youngest child of parents who both grew up during the Depression and came of age during the Second World War, my earliest influences were U.S. and from the 30’s, 40’s, 50’s (For instance, the Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis performances on the early TV variety show,u201CColgate Comedy Hour” are magnificent. Loose, free-form and yet always spot on funny. A Muppet Show-like sense of comic foreboding.) Long live Python…and anyone else who’s funny and doesn’t take it too seriously….My condolences on the Titans, who will always be the Oilers to me. Hey, a fan rides out the worst of times.

From Beauregard…
I have (another) question! I'm doing an assignment on hedonism, post-modernism and consumer over-consumption behaviour...and I couldn't help thinking of a certain pig from time to time. Do you think Miss Piggy represents over-consumption (in terms of clothes and shoes...not food specifically)? And do the Muppets represent post-modernism (the 'be yourself' age of reasoning)? Just some thoughts there...

Whoa! Dude! Heavy!
Okay, so I don’t really talk like that. But those are the kinds of questions you’d find nowhere else, but here, which is reason enough to pack and go someplace else until this line of inquiry blows over. That said, I’d have to concur that Miss Piggy, who lives by the credo “Too Much Is Never Enough” defines over-consumption. She is, by the nature of her desires and her DNA, a consuming being – a fact that no doubt leaves Kermit quivering in trepidation (or somewhere equally secluded). Does she get everything she wants? No. But it is her hunger that makes us love her. That, and she speaks aloud the words we often keep to ourselves: “I WANT THAT NOW!u201D
As for Post-modernism and the Muppets? I always think of post-modernism as a stance where one dissembles everything that has come before, and thus takes an ironic, distanced stance towards the creation of others. From that perspective, the Muppets are not post-modern. They are very much invested in whatever they try. They aren’t distanced. They are themselves, but only because they have a safe place to be themselves – among friends.

Beau

From dwayne1115…
I have one more question for Jim:

I have been watching SNL Seasons one and two and I was wondering if the Muppet Newsman was based on Chevy Chase doing the Weekend update?

I do not know. I suspect it was based on every newsman from the days of John Cameron Swayze, Eric Severaid, Huntley & Brinkley, Douglas Edwards, Walter Cronkite, et al – with a healthy dose of local anchor faux gravitas thrown in. Whenever you hit gravitas with a falling cow, it’s funny. Jerry Juhl taught me that.

From theprawncracker…
Another question for you, Jimmy Jim...
Are you pumped for Sesame Street's 40th Anniversary? I know you're not involved at all, but as a fan are you excited?

I am always excited about Sesame Street, especially knowing so many of the stellar talents who make it happen. It is a joy that at 40 it remains so astonishingly creative.
As I’ve said in the past, I am of an age that was too old for it when it started, but when my own children were in the Sesame age-range; I came to appreciate it as never before. Besides, Ernie and Bert are one of the great comedy teams of all time, right up there with Abbott & Costello, Laurel & Hardy, Wheeler & Woolsey….

 

[unclematt]

James,

Do you ever find yourself having what you think is a brilliant idea and then when you pitch it nobody agrees? If so do you drop the idea or do you try to retool it so that others will also think it is brilliant?

 

[TogetherAgain]

Hiya Jim!

First of all, thank you for saying in the last batch of questions that you don't consider the Muppets to be post-modern. I personally associate post-modernism with a class I took on how to think straight while reading the most non-sensical words ever written, which of course claim to be full of bountiful meaning and were written by people who, I swear, got paid by the word... and I'd rather not associate the Muppets with that. If the Muppets are going to give me a headache, there'd better be some good old slapstick involved.

Second, as we're getting into the ever-ominous "that time of semester" at my school... any tips on stress-busting?

Third, what is your favorite shoe color?

Fourth, where do you stand on Shakespeare?

And fifth, how many questions can I ask before it becomes blatantly obvious that I'm procrastinating?

 

[minor muppetz]

I haven't posted any questions to Jim in awhile, but now I have one again.

I know that the UK broadcasts of Muppets Tonight had extra sketches featuring Polly Lobster and Clueless Morgan from Muppet Treasure island. Was there any reason why Mad Monty wasn't brought back for these sketches?

 

[dwayne1115]

Glad your back Minor!

 

[minor muppetz]

Glad your back Minor!

I never actually left. I just couldn't think of any good questions that I thought Jim could answer in such a long time.

 

[dwayne1115]

Cool glad you had a question then. Now my turn!


We are so much a like Jim It seems we have a lot of the same likes. I am wondering what you think about what I call shock humor. The kind of humor that will go anywhere and say anything. kind of like the humor on shows like Family Guy and South Park. A lot of people love that kind of humor, me I like it to a point, but i feel there is always a fine line of what is funny and what is not. How do you feel about that kind of humor?

 

[frogboy4]

Hey Jim. What Dwayne said, kinda. Do you laugh or cringe with some of the Muppet references on the Family Guy (voice recasting jokes, Cookie Monster's habit etc.), the Simpsons (the Muppets Go Medieval), or the numerous other references on edgier shows?

 

[dwayne1115]

Hey Jim. What Dwayne said, kinda. Do you laugh or cringe with some of the Muppet references on the Family Guy (voice recasting jokes, Cookie Monster's habit etc.), the Simpsons (the Muppets Go Medieval), or the numerous other references on edgier shows?

I'm glad you brought that point up Jamie and I had not thought about that until you had said it.
We sure have had a whole lot of hits on this thread today! I'm going to be home all day tomorrow, so I'll send these questions to Jim! if anyone has any other questions or comments be sure to post them so they can get sent tomorrow!

On a side note I also want to ask do you all miss me sending out the private messages whenever we get a batch of new questions answered? If you do I'll work on trying to do that again, I liked doing it and it made the whole thing feel a little more personal.
I'm also thinking of putting ALL the questions and answers from both this thread and the old one and put them together for everyone to read. I think it would be easier to read and a might get more people into asking questions. Any thoughts on any of this let me know.

 

[dwayne1115]

Here yall go enjoy!


Ask Jim Questions 11/03/2009



1. From Unclematt: James,

Do you ever find yourself having what you think is a brilliant idea and then when you pitch it nobody agrees? If so do you drop the idea or do you try to retool it so that others will also think it is brilliant?

Yes! Not that all of my ideas or even a majority are brilliant, but sometimes I do have what I think is a perfect solution, an exquisite joke, a scintillating idea – and the reaction is “pfffft!” Usually I try to restate it several times, thinking that the presentation was the problem. But when it again meets with an even more resound ‘pffffffft!” I retreat. But I never throw these ideas out. I keep them in the back of my head; new audience, new moment and maybe they’ll be seen for what they are – Brilliant!
Okay, after saying all this, I must add that I am of the “throw spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks” school. That is, I try not to get so enthralled by one of my own ideas that I can’t/won’t come up with anything else. You didn’t like this? How about this?....or this! Or that! Or the other thing!



2. From togetheragain: Hiya Jim!

First of all, thank you for saying in the last batch of questions that you don't consider the Muppets to be post-modern. I personally associate post-modernism with a class I took on how to think straight while reading the most non-sensical words ever written, which of course claim to be full of bountiful meaning and were written by people who, I swear, got paid by the word... and I'd rather not associate the Muppets with that. If the Muppets are going to give me a headache, there'd better be some good old slapstick involved.

Paid by the word! I can do that! Glad you agree on the whole post-modern dichotomization of inchoate nomenclature whereby entropy prevails yet intuitive regeneration is disdained for its overbearing causative prohibitions. Where’s that dang slapstick! Hit me!

Second, as we're getting into the ever-ominous "that time of semester" at my school... any tips on stress-busting?

Try a shot of seltzer down your pants. Always works for me. Also, realize that whatever seems overwhelming right this minute will be forgotten soon. Live in the moment. And if you can’t do that, sublet the moment and live in the garage.

Third, what is your favorite shoe color?

Two-tone. I am a saddle-shoe guy; weird, I know. Any two colors work.

Fourth, where do you stand on Shakespeare?

Great writer. Fantastic insights into the human condition. But, in my book, he could use more wocka-wocka and a little less talka-talka.



And fifth, how many questions can I ask before it becomes blatantly obvious that I'm procrastinating?

Don’t stop now! I’m procrastinating too!





3. From Minor Muppetz: I know that the UK broadcasts of Muppets Tonight had extra sketches featuring Polly Lobster and Clueless Morgan from Muppet Treasure island. Was there any reason why Mad Monty wasn't brought back for these sketches?

I love those sketches. I can barely remember them, but I love them. They were written with the great Joe Flaherty, a fellow writer on the show, and were inspired by Jackie Gleason’s “Joe The Bartender” sketches, featuring Frank Fontaine (aka Crazy Guggenheim). Everyone thought the pieces were daft, but that’s exactly why I smile just thinking of them. As for Mad Monty: can’t say I recall why he was left out; probably because Jerry Nelson was not available when we shot them.



4. From Dwayne:We are so much a like Jim It seems we have a lot of the same likes. I am wondering what you think about what I call shock humor. The kind of humor that will go anywhere and say anything. kind of like the humor on shows like Family Guy and South Park. A lot of people love that kind of humor, me I like it to a point, but i feel there is always a fine line of what is funny and what is not. How do you feel about that kind of humor?

I’m Statler & Waldorf. I’m all for being over-the-edge, but I have a different idea of where the edge is. And frequently it feels to me like the shock is there in place of the funny, more gasp than guffaw. Finally, if it’s funny, I laugh, but it’s not something I could do or would want to. (Heck, I’m citing Jackie Gleason as a source, so you know how cutting edge I am.)




5. From Frogboy4: Hey Jim. What Dwayne said, kinda. Do you laugh or cringe with some of the Muppet references on the Family Guy (voice recasting jokes, Cookie Monster's habit etc.), the Simpsons (the Muppets Go Medieval), or the numerous other references on edgier shows?

Nah, I don’t cringe. In comedy, brutal savagery is the highest form of flattery…I think.