Muppet Love
Jun. 17th, 2004 12:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kukla_tko(Sigh.)
I love the Muppets. Don't you?
I mean, I was a kid who watched Sesame Street, and The Muppet Show. My mother has this story about my toddler years that she likes to try to embarrass me with. She says that I was so reluctant to leave the room while Sesame Street was on that I would drag my potty chair into the living room so that I could "go" while I was watching the show.
Mind you, only Sesame Street had this effect on me. Otherwise I was content to do my business in the bathroom.
Loved the Muppet Show, and so did my parents. In fact, my father not only let us turn on the TV during dinner time when the Muppet Show was on, he let us move the TV to the dining room and watch the show WHILE WE ATE!
My father hates television, and it seems that he always has. But he loved Rocky and Bulwinkle and the Muppets.
But I was talking about Sesame Street.
Favorite character? Hard to say. Bert and Ernie were lovely. Big Bird was special to me because I had a Big Bird stuffed toy that I dragged everywhere with me (by the neck). Oscar the grouch was hilarious. Cookie Monster was a favorite before I even turned 2 years old. (One of my earliest memories is from my 2 year birthday party. I remember the cake with a Cookie Monster finger puppet on top of it, and gigantic M&Ms surrounding him. Turns out that they were peanut M&Ms, and my mom was using them as the monster's "Cookies." Cute.)
And then... there was Grover. Sweet, lovable Grover who only wanted to be praised and loved. Grover had some self-esteem issues, and yet was the first one into the spotlight if the chance arrived. Big Bird was a wide-eyed innocent, who was occasionally worried about misunderstandings but mostly lived in blissful ignorance of hurt and pain.
One gets the impression that Grover knows about pain, and hurt, and rejection. Grover knows that love and acceptance are precious, because he's gone without them before.
And he's creative and manic and silly. He loves to take on make-believe roles, such as SuperGrover.
And he is the central character in my favorite children's book of all time; "The Monster at the End Of The Book."
(Gee. Is it any wonder that I worshiped and adored Grover. We are similar creatures, are we not?)
I never cared much for Elmo. Elmo seemed like a one dimensional dumbed down child monster, and that jarred because I think I always thought that all the monsters were children. Does Elmo being a child make Grover a grown-up? Oh, and just to mess with your heads, the voice of Elmo is Kevin Clash. He's also the voice of "Clifford", the "cool" dreadlocked quasi-islander muppet from the New Muppet Show. Now THAT's range!
OF course, by the time Elmo appeared, I wasn't really watching Sesame Street regularly anymore. I still watched it, from time to time, as I grew up. I think I was sort of checking up on old friends to find out what new adventures they were having. I didn't really like what I started to see. People can SEE Big Bird's friend Snuffy? Oscar is turning nice? Then, recently, I caught a random episode... and they CHANGED the theme song!!! Everything was done with blue screens and Elmo was the star of the show. Bleah!
Found this website a while ago, just dug it up again.
www.zeroboutique.com/grover/
Not sure whether it qualifies as "Funny." It's dark humor. It's very well done. And if Sesame Street had been a show with regular actors in it, it might very well have been like this behind the scenes.
I love the Muppets. Don't you?
I mean, I was a kid who watched Sesame Street, and The Muppet Show. My mother has this story about my toddler years that she likes to try to embarrass me with. She says that I was so reluctant to leave the room while Sesame Street was on that I would drag my potty chair into the living room so that I could "go" while I was watching the show.
Mind you, only Sesame Street had this effect on me. Otherwise I was content to do my business in the bathroom.
Loved the Muppet Show, and so did my parents. In fact, my father not only let us turn on the TV during dinner time when the Muppet Show was on, he let us move the TV to the dining room and watch the show WHILE WE ATE!
My father hates television, and it seems that he always has. But he loved Rocky and Bulwinkle and the Muppets.
But I was talking about Sesame Street.
Favorite character? Hard to say. Bert and Ernie were lovely. Big Bird was special to me because I had a Big Bird stuffed toy that I dragged everywhere with me (by the neck). Oscar the grouch was hilarious. Cookie Monster was a favorite before I even turned 2 years old. (One of my earliest memories is from my 2 year birthday party. I remember the cake with a Cookie Monster finger puppet on top of it, and gigantic M&Ms surrounding him. Turns out that they were peanut M&Ms, and my mom was using them as the monster's "Cookies." Cute.)
And then... there was Grover. Sweet, lovable Grover who only wanted to be praised and loved. Grover had some self-esteem issues, and yet was the first one into the spotlight if the chance arrived. Big Bird was a wide-eyed innocent, who was occasionally worried about misunderstandings but mostly lived in blissful ignorance of hurt and pain.
One gets the impression that Grover knows about pain, and hurt, and rejection. Grover knows that love and acceptance are precious, because he's gone without them before.
And he's creative and manic and silly. He loves to take on make-believe roles, such as SuperGrover.
And he is the central character in my favorite children's book of all time; "The Monster at the End Of The Book."
(Gee. Is it any wonder that I worshiped and adored Grover. We are similar creatures, are we not?)
I never cared much for Elmo. Elmo seemed like a one dimensional dumbed down child monster, and that jarred because I think I always thought that all the monsters were children. Does Elmo being a child make Grover a grown-up? Oh, and just to mess with your heads, the voice of Elmo is Kevin Clash. He's also the voice of "Clifford", the "cool" dreadlocked quasi-islander muppet from the New Muppet Show. Now THAT's range!
OF course, by the time Elmo appeared, I wasn't really watching Sesame Street regularly anymore. I still watched it, from time to time, as I grew up. I think I was sort of checking up on old friends to find out what new adventures they were having. I didn't really like what I started to see. People can SEE Big Bird's friend Snuffy? Oscar is turning nice? Then, recently, I caught a random episode... and they CHANGED the theme song!!! Everything was done with blue screens and Elmo was the star of the show. Bleah!
Found this website a while ago, just dug it up again.
www.zeroboutique.com/grover/
Not sure whether it qualifies as "Funny." It's dark humor. It's very well done. And if Sesame Street had been a show with regular actors in it, it might very well have been like this behind the scenes.
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no subject
Date: 2004-06-17 11:44 am (UTC)As long as I'm here, allow me to rant about the muppets. I love Sesame Street. Favorite character is probably Sunffalupagus or maybe Cookie Monster or the Count. What a great show.
Here's the thing, though. I really hate The Muppet Show. And it makes no sense, really. I love sketch comedy, and I love some of the muppets. I get the humour, I can see why people like it, but I hate it! I hate the muppets movies, too. I can't put my finger on it, although much of it has to do with Janice. I can't stand Janice. And Animal pisses me off for no apparent reason. Who knows.
I can not believe they changed the theme song for Sesame Street! That is blasphemous. I'm going to make it a point to catch an episode soon, if only to wallow in nostalgia. Stupid heads.
Off to visit the link now.
Welcome!
Date: 2004-06-17 12:29 pm (UTC)Except for Kermit, of course. He got to be in both shows.
I don't think I loved the Muppet Show as much as I loved Sesame Street while I was little, but I grew to appreciate TMS more as I got older. Miss Piggy was always confusing to me. She was the "token" girl character, but was very unladylike, but at the same time, very concerned about acting and dressing all girly. I had a "Miss Piggy" paperdoll, but I never really got into dressing her up. (Odd, that, since I was a huge dress-up and doll fan. Heh. Still am.)
I didn't really understand her until I got a little older and realized that she's more complex than the obsessive, chaotic, manic creature she appears to be. (Ok, she's still all of the above, but there is more to her.)
Gonzo the Great. Gotta LOVE Gonzo, man! He was TMS's Grover in many ways.
Fozzie Bear. (Sigh.) I think I always identified with the bear who wasn't funny. And I got his jokes.
I grew up to be Kermit after all, though. I run my own theater troupe and it is a little like having monsters and chickens and fish and bears and pigs and random guest stars exploding in the wings while I try to maintain order and give a good face to a heckling crowd.
Maybe that's the fundemental difference; Sesame Street was safe, warm, and even though people had their differences, everyone looked out for one another. If someone skins their knee, there's a host of people ready to clean it, kiss it, and put a bandage on it. On TMS, if someone skinned their knee you never heard about it. Presumably they would deal with it in their dressing room and try to stay out of Kermit's way. SS was designed for children, TMS was designed to be a puppet show for adults. Tough genre there.
Your reaction is perfectly valid.
Mine was to hero-worship Jim Henson for his brilliance. I loved The Muppet Movie. The Great Muppet Caper, not so much. It was all right. Muppets take Manhattan? Eh. By now people have decided that the Muppets were for kids, and so the writing had slid downhill in a hurry.
The less said about the Muppet Christmas Carol, the better. I threw things at the screen watching that one. Jim Henson's passing was deeply felt in that monstrosity.
Muppet Treasure Island.
Um.
Mostly awful. What saved it was the thing that frequently saved episodes of The Muppet Show that were headed in the wrong direction; A guest star. Tim Curry. Ghod, I will watch that man in anything. And, as I said in an earlier post, it's TIM CURRY and he's got a silver streaked goatee, a long curly weave; he's singing again and he's dressed up as a PIRATE for God's Sake!
Three precious moments from that movie:
"When you're a professional PIIIraaaate!" Tim curry sings with the muppets. And it's a pirate song.
"Booogie. BOOOGIE!" Sam The Eagle. As a 'ghost.' Bwa ha ha.
"Oh, hello, LOOOONG John." (Miss Piggy. Tim Curry leers at her.)
"Piggy? Not *him* too?" (Kermit)
"He was a *pirate*, I was a *Lady*... you know the old story." (Piggy.)
Snerk. Sputter. BWA ha ha! Long John Silver has a taste for pork, eh?
And then, there was Muppets from Space. As much as I hated the ending (Gonzo's an ALIEN? NO FREAKING WAY. Nope. We know what he is, he's a "Whatever." Always has been. That's his thing.)
I still liked this one for the little moments. Miss Piggy flirt-fighting and Frank Oz finally gets to tell us what she means when she's hopping off somewhere squealing to herself. "Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Igottagopee!"
And I think I love Pepe the King Prawn. "You tell him, and I will spank you. I will spank you like a bad, bad, donkey, ok?" Uttered in a hot tub. Damn.
Re: Welcome!
Date: 2004-06-18 08:37 am (UTC)Never actually got the chance to appreciate the best of it.
Though I do remember bits and pieces. I used to love Beaker. No idea why, I just did. Maybe had something to do with his squeaky voice or something. Kermit was my favorite though... Y'know, I had completely forgotten that he'd been on sesame street.
Muppet Treasure Island was the only one of the movies I ever saw. I don't remember much of it. It's possible I wasn't paying much attention or kept leaving the room. Mari had rented it, and I hadn't been interested. My memories of the show had been sketchy and not really entertaining. I guess my memory of the movie is the same...
But there is one part I remember, that never fails to amuse me. EVER. (Or at least it hasn't yet...) "Sailing for adventure on the big, blue wet-thing!"
Gehehehe!
bert is evil
Date: 2004-06-17 01:53 pm (UTC)This was started as a gag site that has since been taken down but the mirrors still exist. The funniest thing about this is that one of the bert is evil pictures showed up on a posterboard in a pro bin laden demonstration
http://www.bertisevil.tv/img/osamabinladen/bertandbin.htm
memes are comeing to eat us all.
Sean
Re: bert is evil
Date: 2004-06-17 01:59 pm (UTC)Yes, I knew all about the Bert Is Evil site, and how it started etc. I also know why it was taken down, and that the person who started it all wants the mirror sites to go away, too. It was vaguely amusing. Sort of.
Grover Is Bitter, on the other hand, was much more interesting to me, as it took Sesame Street and turned it into the E True Hollywood Story, or a "Where are they now" type of format. And it was really amusing to see Kermit D. Frog painted as an utter bastard. *That* was more surprising-and-yet-not-so-shocking than "Bert is Evil."