Truth commercial: Muppets & smoking

[Drtooth]

Yes, but you cannot remove smoking from media, as it would be another attempt to censor reality. I think it is atrocious to call Muppet projects kiddy stuff. Puppetry like animation is an art form. But every near sighted person lumps it in with kiddy fodder.

Other than a couple characters that smoked for effect, Muppets do not smoke. Rowlf drinks beer, but apprarently he enjoys it resposibly. he said "I have a couple-a beers," not I get smashed.

They shouldn't complain if the only people who smoked were in fact people at a sleezy bar. What do you think low Lifes at a sleezy bar do? Eat taffy?

 

[dpurves]

I have watched The Muppet Movie more times than I can count, and I've never considered it to be a "smoking" movie. Like so many others, apparently, I had to really think about where all this horrible smoking was. I saw this movie for the first time when I was the young, impressionable age of 8, and it didn't turn me into a smoker. It did lead to me eventually lead me to buy a Studebaker, but I have never had a cigarette in my mouth.

30, 40, 50 years ago, everyone in movies smoked. It was a very common sight. But the commercial makes it seem like the tobacco companies made special deals with Henson to make the movie into a cigarette commercial, when it just seems like a room full of smokers just fit into that particular scene.

 

[unclematt]

I agree with both of you immensely

 

[JTheGoblinking]

I saw that Truth commercial a few months ago. I lost my mother to throat cancer just last November but I would never condone what they implied in that commercial. It's not just exageration, it's practically a lie. There are plenty of real negative things about cigarettes and cigarette compandies. Jim Henson wasn't in on the conspiracies.

And it's shameful to say things like that about someone who isn't here to defend himself.

 

[wwfpooh]

And it's shameful to say things like that about someone who isn't here to defend himself.

And yet, here some people are in this world, laughing at people's misery or laughing at childhood memories, given how popular the bull shiznet on [adult swim] (Boondocks, Minoriteam, Robot Chicken, etc.) and the MTV generation programs (MadTV and SNL as primary examples [the former with crude skits & the latter with its FunHouse segments that take beloved characters and themes & bastardize them to heck and back again]) seems to be. It's hypocritical, if you ask me. Thank heaven that I don't watch any of that stuff, though everyone--including me--is exposed to the BS every second, it seems.

 

[JTheGoblinking]

Spoofing something is quite different from outright slandering something. Look at Mel Brooks, he parodies things he likes. Do you think he made Space Balls out of hatred of Star wars? No. He loves it. Things like Robot Chicken take a very, very long time to make. Seth Green only makes fun of the things he loves. He doesn't slanderize it or lie about the people who made it. He just heckles, with teasing affection.

It takes a long time to make a parody of something you love. And it's done out of love. Jim Henson had a warm spot for hecklers. Remember his two old hecklers he used on The Muppet Show? He had no qualms about being mocked.

What I'm talking about here with this 'truth' commercial isn't some light hearted late night skit by someone who (if you bothered to know Seth Green at all) LOVES eighties and seventies nostalgia. I'm talking about out right slander and lies here.

PS, again... Seth Green on Robot Chicken only mocks what he loves. If you knew how hard it is to do anything stop motion you wouldn't be so quick to say it's rubbish or that he's insulting people's childhoods, it's his childhood too. He's not that old.

 

[wwfpooh]

Spoofing something is quite different from outright slandering something. Look at Mel Brooks, he parodies things he likes. Do you think he made Space Balls out of hatred of Star wars? No. He loves it. Things like Robot Chicken take a very, very long time to make. Seth Green only makes fun of the things he loves. He doesn't slanderize it or lie about the people who made it. He just heckles, with teasing affection.

It takes a long time to make a parody of something you love. And it's done out of love. Jim Henson had a warm spot for hecklers. Remember his two old hecklers he used on The Muppet Show? He had no qualms about being mocked.

What I'm talking about here with this 'truth' commercial isn't some light hearted late night skit by someone who (if you bothered to know Seth Green at all) LOVES eighties and seventies nostalgia. I'm talking about out right slander and lies here.

PS, again... Seth Green on Robot Chicken only mocks what he loves. If you knew how hard it is to do anything stop motion you wouldn't be so quick to say it's rubbish or that he's insulting people's childhoods, it's his childhood too. He's not that old.

Excuse me, but I fail to see how Family Guy-like & South Park-esque "humor" (which is bullocks, anyway) that has characters be something they aren't (ex: making Bert & Ernie gay, for instance) or has them get brutally murdered or something (beloved Linus from Peanuts fame being killed by The Great Pumpkin & Sally being buried alive, after realizing she cannot live without her "sweet babboo") is tasteful mockage. Subtle joking, as per shows like Animaniacs!--which doesn't go overboard--is okay, but to outright be balatant and honesty, unfunny, is not okay for me personally.

 

[JTheGoblinking]

Dark humour is still just humour. There's a reason it's only shown late at night. if you don't like it, don't watch. Don't take offense on behalf of people who aren't offended. When Robot Chicken spoofed Buffy The Vampire Slayer it was Sarah Michelle Gellar herself who provided the voice. Most of the people who made these beloved creations don't mind a few dark jokes on an adult TV show.

And it's shameful that you think a dark joke in some comedy show, not meant to be taken seriously, is the same as an anti-smoking comemrcial that claims Jim Henson wanted kids to smoke!

 

[wwfpooh]

And it's shameful that you think a dark joke in some comedy show, not meant to be taken seriously, is the same as an anti-smoking comemrcial that claims Jim Henson wanted kids to smoke!

Well, BOTH are sick, IMO. Yes, the smoking one is a lot worse, because it is directly correlated to real-life and slanders the good name of a great visionary to get its point across, but certainly, you would want your vision of the characters you've grown up with to not be tarnished by bad--or as you say, dark--humor. I certainly would not want Robot Chicken to ever air again that "Behind the Music" skit that has the Electric Mayhem split, due to Zoot being a smoker in it, Animal being dead, and Janice being stuck on Howard Stern, nor would I want SNL to air again that "Disney Vault" BS that openly shows a decapicated Uncle Walt inside the Vault, with the beloved mouse--and a relative of Kermit, seeing as The Muppets belong to Disney now--saying that he killed himself to be resurrected in the future or some stupid arse garbage like that.

 

[JTheGoblinking]

To each their own but I think you're over reacting a bit to some dark humour toward something you grew up with. Sometimes it's good to sit back, relax and make fun of the things you love.