JD Hansel: Jarrod, you had a piece on the Muppet Mindset where you presented another side to Happytime Murders, which is the trailer isn't telling of the whole thing and there, believe it or not, might be some heart in this movie.
Jarrod Fairclough: Right. I spoke to one of the puppeteers of the film, I won't tell you his name for his own sensitive anonymity, and he said that trailer was made to be shocking and dirty to get everyone's attention, whereas since he worked on the whole thing and read the whole script, he doesn't think that trailer is indicative of what the whole film is. The best way he described it was "Imagine Avenue Q, but they made a trailer that only consists of the Internet is for Porn and the sex scene." He said that's what it feels like the marketing team have done.
Steve Swanson: But it's not like this trailer was shown to Brian Henson, and he said "That looks good, that'll go out." Like Henson looked at this and gave approval.
JD: But they could only have so much power if they weren't the people doing the distribution and marketing. It probably wasn't Brian who thought "Let's have right at the beginning of the trailer from the director of Muppet Christmas Carol. That won't confuse anybody." Surely that was the marketing team.
Jarrod: I find it interesting how they don't actually say the words Brian Henson. They just keep mentioning the Muppet connection, then there's "No Sesame, all street" which I have a feeling we'll get to.
Steve: We'll get to that.