Your Thoughts: Muppets on WWE Raw SuperShow October 31

[beaker]

Thanks for compiling all the clips...well that was certainly, surreal. It had been so long since I watched WWE, had no idea how completely changed the whole format and demographic was. For what it's worth, that was pretty darn Muppety. The whole Beaker thing was pretty cool. Piggy looked as great as ever. Seeing the Muppets in a live hd format is a visual treat, but it's just hard to get used to how fantastical/kiddy like WWE became. But this wasn't just a cameo, that is quite a lot of Muppet screen time, banners, ads, etc so that was definitely quite the Muppet takeover. LOVED the scene with Fozzie and Gonzo. Still, the ultimate gag woulda been if Doglion and Sweetums came from behind those two wrestlers and got them in a bear hug

 

[Muppetfan2011]

The look on Miss Piggy's face after Kelly Kelly kissed Kermit was priceless!

 

[spcglider]

That's exactly what they couldn't do, beaker. The muppets couldn't do anything even remotely like what they'd usually do because it would give lie to the wrestlers getting beat up by puppets. Which is why the muppets had to take the fall, to use a wrestling phrase. I watched the show and was immediately turned off by the horrible example being set. Evidently it's not only okay for evenly matched steroid users to beat each other up, but it's okay to pick on weaker people as long as everybody laughs.

I don't have anything against pro wrestling. I used to watch WWF. Yeah, I'm a dinosaur. But this was an extremely poor pairing. The point of wrestling is to convince the audience that the matches are real. The Muppets don't try to fool anyone. It's a different reality that we all know isn't real. That's the conceit of puppets to begin with. Maybe I'm being high-minded about it, but the two are in direct opposition to each other. And in the end, one MUST prevail over the other. Unfortunately, it was the Muppets that lost.

In response to the statement that kids don't know the Muppets very well, I can only answer "why does that make any difference at all?" Seriously. If you can't tune in to a Muppet performance and enjoy it without knowing every piece of Muppet backstory in existence, the writers are either failing miserably or you're brain-dead. I've maintained that the Muppets have never needed to be "re-introduced" because they hide nothing. All you should need to know about any of them is evident as soon as you see them interact with each other and their cameo guest star. It's not like the Muppets are so complex that you need a refresher course in how to laugh when they launch into their comedy. If you do, you need more than a re-introduction. You probably need a remedial course in being human.

Again, I'm probably breaking it down to the point of moot. And again, as before, this is purely my opinion.

On a lighter note, I also smell a new tv series on the heels of the new film. They seem to be prepping for a return to the classic Muppet Show format... Or at least they have a perfect launching pad to do so. The whole film is about getting the Muppets back together and saving the Muppet theatre. If they don't see opportunity in that, they need to hand somebody else the reins.

In other fun news... I just got done shooting a puppet commercial with Tim Lagasse. I built a scad of puppets, props, sets, and miniatures for a commercial and was extremely pleased when the agency told me they were hiring Tim to direct. It was a total blast.

-Gordon

 

[Drtooth]

Thanks for compiling all the clips...well that was certainly, surreal. It had been so long since I watched WWE, had no idea how completely changed the whole format and demographic was. For what it's worth, that was pretty darn Muppety. The whole Beaker thing was pretty cool. Piggy looked as great as ever. Seeing the Muppets in a live hd format is a visual treat, but it's just hard to get used to how fantastical/kiddy like WWE became. But this wasn't just a cameo, that is quite a lot of Muppet screen time, banners, ads, etc so that was definitely quite the Muppet takeover. LOVED the scene with Fozzie and Gonzo. Still, the ultimate gag woulda been if Doglion and Sweetums came from behind those two wrestlers and got them in a bear hug

I will say this... this is exactly why my favorite wrestling is from an obscure to us 1980's Japanese cartoon that spotted a weird toy line over here and the sequel to the series we actually got.

The Muppet Labs and Gonzo getting stretched (and loving it) was great. Statler and Waldorf should have been used a lot more... for spoilers sake, I completely skipped the movie preview... and other than that, it felt... weird, but exactly what I thought it would be.

Somehow, I'd MUCH rather have seen the Muppets on 30 Rock, but that show got a complete Mid season replacement brush off no thanks to Whitless.

 

[beaker]

@SPCGlider: I agree...ultimately, it just makes no sense to have the Muppets(which are puppets...even as a toddler I knew they were puppets performed by people) interacting with pro wrestlers...even tho the entire "illusion" is completely gone. When Vince Russo came out and confronted Kevin Nash on WCW in the late 90's and talked about WWF events he scripted, the jig was up...as it was when WWF changed their name to sports entertainment. But even still...there was still that "was that a shoot? was that kayfabe? Is this a work?" element. The WWF dangerously played it close to their chest sometimes. Though, admittedly after Owen Hart was practically decapitated in a horrific live tv accident in 1999, I began to feel soured on pro wrestling. It's by the 2000's we see a complete move away from realism and a complete caveat that its scripted. Gone were the pseudo real feuds of Hart v Michaels or ECW vs WWF.

But now, this is a whole new level of fantasy. As within the WWF canon, the Muppets are real. I understand tv interviews, celebs, etc all have an unwritten agreement to never mention "puppets" and treat the Muppets as real people...but its just a whole new level of silly when you think about Muppets on WWE Raw. I miss when wrestling felt more real, more urgent, more edgy and unpredictable. Most the WWE audience in the stands looks like kids and their parents. Ugh

 

[spcglider]

It is always nice to see the Muppets out and about. But Disney needs to be extremely thoughtful about how they are used. I just personally didn't find validity to the interactions between the wrestlers and the Muppets. Even in the original Muppet Movie, all of the cameo guests were still "in the Muppet reality"... meaning taht even though the Muppets appeared to be out in the real world, they were still capable of summoning the extra-worldly powers and abilities they'd always had. That's what I meant when I said they'd been neutered on the WWE thing. Its like putting a Star Wars character on CSI;Miami. Which reality wins?

 

[Drtooth]

It is always nice to see the Muppets out and about. But Disney needs to be extremely thoughtful about how they are used. I just personally didn't find validity to the interactions between the wrestlers and the Muppets.

This was a weird experiment. And while a couple bits worked, the Kermit/Piggy bits felt strange and almost disturbing. I'm starting to wonder if this even will get more people interested in the movie.

They really should have done something on HIMYM... a fantasy sequence (they are prone to those... last night Marshall kept getting in inexplicably attacked by a bear over and over). Or they could have filmed a special fake online video for the Office and had Andy watch it or something (same way they got Cloris Leachman and Jack Black in an episode... they were watching a pirated movie with those two characters playing themselves as the stars of the movie)...

Still, the Gonzo bit was almost gold. I've been WAITING for that Gonzo to come back.

 

[AndyWan Kenobi]

They really should have done something on HIMYM... a fantasy sequence (they are prone to those... last night Marshall kept getting in inexplicably attacked by a bear over and over).

And not once was it Fozzie or Bobo...

 

[Nasubionna]

Well, that was.... odd. Thank you to the folks who put together videos of just the Muppets parts so I didn't have to sit through all the wrestling. Not dissing if you're a fan, but it's not for me.
Overall, I thought it was ok except for the part where that guy grabbed Kermit's mouth and held it shut. That really made me uncomfortable, and like others here have mentioned, it just sucked because if we were in the Muppet Universe, Miss Piggy would have chopped that guy flat for daring to touch her frog. It felt wrong for her to just stand there so ineffectually, and with each second after second ticking by with Kermit squirming helplessly against that brute, I felt more and more uncomfortable and upset. I know those two wrestlers are supposed to be "bad guys" or whatever, but bleargh... I didn't like that at all. :/ Didn't really like that guy bagging Kermit, either.
However, Beaker with the red-headed fella and Miss Piggy caressing that guy's six-pack bakers dozen was pretty amusing. And MAJOR bonus points for Gonzo wearing the same yellow and red jumpsuit that he wore for his water stunt scene in "Muppets Take Manhattan". That was a fantastic call back!