Watching FR with Non-Fans

[charlietheowl]

Since Fraggle Rock is admittedly a strange show, I've got a lot of interesting reactions from friends and family members when watching the show around them. To summarize and share a few:

• my sister (who's in high school) watched Red's Club with me and simply became fixated on Cotterpin Doozer and her nasally voice. She told me that Cotterpin was simply the most annoying character she had ever seen on any television show and that Red should have stomped on her. Needless to say, she didn't watch any more episodes with me after that.
• my roommate watched a whole bunch of episodes with me and found the show amusing, but was confused by a lot of things, namely how old the fraggles were. I watched The River of Life with him and he was shocked at how sad the episode was. I told him that the show wasn't afraid to be really sad just so they could flip things around and then be really heartwarming.
• I had one friend of mine twice mistake the show for Sesame Street, and then insist that the show was too depressing when she actually sat down to watch it, even though we watched Wembley's Egg, which is a little sad but not really depressing.
• I watched The Incredible Shrinking Mokey with another friend of mine, who spent the entire episode comparing Begoony to his on-again/off-again ex-girlfriend. In front of his new on-again/off-again girlfriend. Awkward stuff.
• I had another friend of mine see my fraggle wall clock and become visibly offended to my surprise. She then ranted for two minutes about how "gross" muppets in general were and then told me I was weird for liking the show. Considering this was the same person who had previously questioned the sexuality of various characters from Winnie The Pooh, I dismissed what she said.
• Perhaps the weirdest thing is the amount of jokes from my friends I've heard about the sex lives of the Fraggles. I guess they think the Fraggles are a bunch of free-love hippie-esque characters, or my friends are a lot more pervy than I've realized. Won't go into the details of the jokes because this is a family forum.

I was wondering if anybody had any similar stories of people who weren't really fans of the show reacting to seeing an episode or just the show in general. I figure that despite how weird some of the reactions may be, I'm coming out on top because I've actually got people to watch Fraggle Rock with me!

 

[mostlikemokey]

I watched "You can't do that without a hat" with someone, and I actually felt rather silly to admit my fandom, but they liked it and I don.t feel silly anymore! Why should I anyway? It's the most amazing show!

 

[charlietheowl]

I can totally relate to that, because I was a little skeptical to watch the show with my friends because it's not exactly the sort of thing we would watch together previously. But you're right about not having to feel silly, because it is such a great show.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Well I watched "Marooned" with two different friends, both Fraggle fans. The first friend found the episode "too morbid." The second friend thought it was sad sure but loved the happy ending. Especially the "Stay a little longer with your friends" reprise.

So a lot of this is depends on who you're watching with and their own points of view.

 

[charlietheowl]

Marooned is a pretty heavy episode, so I can see how some people unfamiliar with the show might say "hey I thought this was for kids and now the characters are talking about suffocating to death! what's going on!".

 

[Puckrox]

Marooned is a pretty heavy episode, so I can see how some people unfamiliar with the show might say "hey I thought this was for kids and now the characters are talking about suffocating to death! what's going on!".

I also think it's one of the most beautiful moments of Fraggle Rock. Dave has been quoted saying it's his and Karen's favorite episode of FR, and I don't blame them. It's so powerful.

 

[mostlikemokey]

I've only seen clips of that episode, but I loved what I saw, and it made my heart hurt when I saw it. It was just so beautiful.

 

[DramaQueenMokey]

Been there done that and I regretted it. I made my cousin sit through a whole disc of Fraggle Rock episodes (can't even remember which one right now) and more of the reason I don't remember is because of her asking: 'When are the pig chick and her lizard boyfriend gonna show?' and she asked this almost every five seconds -_-

I kept trying to explain that they were different shows, but she didn't (and still doesn't) get that...Boy is she lame!

 

[bazooka_beak]

I'm very selective with who I watch Muppet stuff with, so I haven't really had any weird reactions as of yet. I do have a friend that was vaguely aware of the Muppets, and I showed her my DVD set. She later called me up to ask if I could bring them out for us to watch if she came over

 

[Puckrox]

I'm very selective with who I watch Muppet stuff with, so I haven't really had any weird reactions as of yet. I do have a friend that was vaguely aware of the Muppets, and I showed her my DVD set. She later called me up to ask if I could bring them out for us to watch if she came over

I am too! I've watched MTI with a group of friends once and then I've seen the new movie with friends as well, but that's really been it. A lot of my friends love the Muppets, but, I dunno, I'm just terrified I'll watch a movie or the show with someone and they just won't like it. How would I go about responding to that?

For example, my best friend could not care about Muppets any less. I love him dearly, but when the new movie came out I told him specifically that I wasn't going to see it with him. I don't want to be there if he decides he doesn't like it, cause I'd probably slap him (our relationship is an odd one).