(This is an abbreviated version of what I posted this to my blog this morning…I thought I would post it here, too, to see what you guys thought…the full version is here)
The Muppets have always walked a fine line between children’s and adults’ entertainment. The Muppets are constantly thrown into the same homogenized lump as countless Nickelodeon cartoons of dubious nutritional value and plastic Disney Princess toys. But the original Muppet Show episodes are often not only too sophisticated for children but are often downright subversive.
This is no more obvious than in Rudolph Nureyev’s appearance in the middle of season 2. It’s well-established that Nureyev was one of ballet’s finest performers, and he is absolutely gorgeous to watch. But during his first number, he dances in a pair of tights that appear to have been painted on. Dance belt or no, it’s rather racy for a “kids’ show.” His second number involves him nearly naked in a spa singing “Baby It’s Cold Outside” as he avoids the advances of an obviously smitten Miss Piggy. It’s likely that the staff of the show had to know about Nureyev’s romantic preferences, which added another level to the humor that most of 1970s America was oblivious to.
Season 3 has its own moments, as well. The Alice Cooper episode’s main plot involves Alice trying to get Kermit to sign a contract with the Devil. Raquel Welch dances in a tiny glittering leotard and later calls Fozzie “sexsational” while singing “Confide in Me” to him. Marisa Berenson, dressed as a 1950s Mary Sue, sings a bright, cheery song about inviting people to her house in order to serve them poison lemonade and stuff them in a freezer. That’s not to mention the fact that Miss Piggy’s penchant for solving problems with violence is ramped up to a level approaching a disturbing psychosis.
Slapstick violence and bad puns are, of course, part of the Muppet’s brand of humor, but there is just as much social commentary mixed in. Sam the Eagle is a constant satire of right-wing blowhards. For example, he is constantly bemoaning the lack of “culture” on the show, yet he believes Rudolph Nureyev to be an opera singer and not a ballet dancer. Then, when Nureyev arrives backstage in casual clothes, Sam throws him out of the theatre, believing him to be a bum off the street. Gonzo the Great is presented as a misunderstood performance artist. Especially in the first season, he constantly calls the audience “rubes” and “yokels” for not understand the deeper meaning behind his increasingly bizarre stunts.
The Spike Milligan episode, despite the unappealing crudity of Milligan’s schtick that’s presented throughout, is a satire on Disney’s “It’s a Small World” ride and Disney’s penchant for simplifying everything into childish, automated packages. Once the international cast of Muppets begins singing “Small World”, Kermit finds he can’t get them to stop, and even hecklers Statler and Waldorf are bouncing up and down, mockingly singing the song as if they were robots. The song becomes nothing more than meaningless noise and a running gag. That Disney would eventually come to own the Muppets brand makes this all the more subversive in retrospect.
Animaniacs and Tiny Toons both handled matters with a similar mix of low- and high-brow humor, although with a much higher degree of hyperactive whimsy (especially in the case of Animaniacs). The Muppets were much more rooted in broad, vaudevillian farce and variety shows, a much more of-the-moment type of performance. It seems more immediate and real and spontaneous, which is not to diminish the residents of Acme Acres or the Warner siblings at all.
I may be reading too much into all of this. Millions of people enjoy the Muppets without thinking beyond their basic messages of imagination, hope, and acceptance. After all, what is the Muppets if not the result of one man’s boundless creativity and desire to present a form of enterainment that knows no specific audience? Jim Henson didn’t want to just create something for kids or for adults, he wanted something that the whole world could enjoy. Perhaps more likely is that, like any great work of art, the Muppet Show contains multiple meanings the only grow with the passage of time.
