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The Worst of the Muppets - Lady Gaga and the Muppets Holiday Spectacular · Muppet Fan Podcasts with ToughPigs.com

0:13
Hello and welcome to The Worst of The Muppets Holiday Edition
0:17
presented by toughbigs.com. I'm your host, Joe Hennis.
0:21
We all know The Muppets have made some of the greatest films,
0:23
specials and TV episodes in history, but everyone makes
0:26
mistakes. Even Kermit the Frog.
0:28
In this podcast miniseries, we'll be taking a closer look at
0:31
some of the worst holiday specials The Muppets have ever
0:34
been a part of. These specials are the
0:37
metaphorical fruitcakes of gifts.
0:40
This week we'll be talking about Lady Gaga and The Muppets
0:42
Holiday Spectacular, in which The Muppets are shoehorned into
0:46
a commercial for someone else's new album.
0:48
But before we get into this mess, let's meet our special
0:51
guest. He is one of the Co owners of
0:53
toughpigs.com and he's Mr. Curly Twirly's biggest and probably
0:57
only fan. Please welcome Jared Faircloth
1:00
to the podcast Hello, Jared. Thank you very much.
1:03
I will never hear something evil against Mr. Curly Twirly.
1:07
Never. Nothing bad, nothing evil.
1:08
Nothing. You.
1:09
You take that back. I mean, was it evil what I said?
1:14
I don't know. I said good.
1:15
And I didn't mean to, but yeah, look, you and I are both
1:18
fumbling at words today. You won't know this, ladies and
1:21
gentlemen, because he's definitely edited it.
1:23
But how many takes of that opening did it take you, Joe?
1:26
Well, that was #3, but I think there was a record for this
1:30
podcast that I got it in only. Three.
1:35
Well, look, I'm just saying for you, for you Muppet fans who
1:38
like Mr. Curly too early, go on to our T Fury page and there's a
1:44
T-shirt there that I'm sure no one has bought for the Mr. Curly
1:48
appreciation. Club.
1:49
It's called T public is what that what it is?
1:52
T public there is a website called T Fury.
1:55
I don't know. Is there?
1:56
I don't know. Yes, it's it's a yeah it.
1:59
So, Yes, we have. We have AT public design, Mr.
2:02
Curly Twirly Appreciation Society.
2:05
It's great. You should get one.
2:07
Jared. You have one right.
2:10
No, I don't yet. You're the only member of the.
2:15
Mr. Curly Member and I haven't got one yet.
2:17
I made the shirt and I haven't got one yet.
2:20
Yeah, I I I haven't had a lot of money.
2:22
Leave me alone. I bought a house and it's very
2:24
expensive. That's that's fair.
2:26
I don't even know what that's like.
2:27
I can't even afford a house. All right, let's go talk about
2:30
houses. Let's talk about Lady Gaga and
2:33
The Muppets Holiday Spectacular. First of all, before we get into
2:37
it, I apologize for making you watch it.
2:41
I hope you'll forgive me. Yeah, look, I I sort of said to
2:46
you, you know, you had pitched the idea of the podcast and I
2:49
jumped in and went, look, I'd love to do the Lady Gaga
2:51
special. And then I realized that I had
2:53
to watch it and I was like, OK, and I've got a lot of feeling
2:57
why. Why did you choose?
2:58
Yeah. Why did you choose Lady Gaga?
3:00
Because and look, we'll we'll get through this through the
3:03
episode. I actually didn't hate it as
3:08
much as I thought I would and OK, I think it's actually got
3:12
some moments that are OK. So I think I I'm almost here not
3:15
to defend it, but to maybe, you know, go to bat for it just a
3:20
little bit. Because don't get me wrong,
3:22
there's some rubbish in it, but there's also some OK moments in
3:27
it. Don't get me wrong, it's not
3:28
good. I'm not gonna sit here and tell
3:30
you that it's, you know, good, but it's not terrible.
3:33
I think it's become a bit of a meme in the Muppet world to hate
3:36
it. And so, look, I'm here, I'm here
3:40
to to go to bat for it a little bit.
3:44
All right. Well, I'll join you for a couple
3:45
of those things 'cause I I agree there's a couple of moments that
3:47
are genuinely good, genuinely good, yeah.
3:49
But a couple of moments in what is a very long special, what is
3:53
it like 3 or 4 hours? I felt like I was watching it
3:54
forever. Yeah, I think, I think it comes
3:58
in at about the 18 hour mark. Jeez, Luis.
4:01
All right. Well, so first of all, tell me,
4:04
was this your first time watching it, or have you did?
4:06
Have you seen it before? No, I'd seen it when it first
4:10
came out. I think someone had uploaded it
4:12
to YouTube or something because it's what, 10 years old now?
4:16
So I didn't have a website at that point.
4:17
Like, I wasn't running Muppet Mindset at that point.
4:21
And so I just watched it as a fan.
4:24
And I remember at the time thinking, you know, this is
4:31
pretty rubbish. Like it's got some.
4:34
Like I I don't need all any of the Lady Gaga stuff but the fits
4:38
with The Muppets I remember enjoying enough to to sort of
4:43
warrant OK like this this will this will keep some little
4:47
moment in the back of my head like something will be there.
4:49
But but again, I haven't felt the need to go and watch it for
4:53
10 years and I don't know that I'll ever watch it again.
4:57
It's same exact story for me. I watched it in 2013 when it
5:00
came out. I have not seen it in 10 years.
5:03
I feel like I play it over and over again in my nightmares, so
5:06
I feel like I've seen it over and over.
5:08
But but this was my first revisiting and insane.
5:13
Like I have now seen it twice. That's enough.
5:16
I don't need another one. Yeah, So let's let's talk about
5:21
what is Lady Gaga and The Muppets Holiday Spectacular?
5:25
Aside from the fact that it's an incredibly long title that I
5:27
have to keep reading because like for some reason can't
5:28
remember it. Lady Gaga and The Muppets
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Holiday Spectacular. OK, it premiered on ABC on
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Thursday, November 28th, 2013. So it's just over 10 years old.
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We just missed the anniversary and it was a special to promote
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Lady Gaga's new album Art Pop. And we'll be talking about some
5:49
of those songs very shortly. It is just a star-studded thing.
5:53
The rumors that I had heard, and there's obviously no proof of
5:58
this, is that The Muppets were only supposed to be one of the
6:02
many guest stars in this. But people kept dropping out.
6:05
And so The Muppets were asked to do more and more and more to the
6:10
point where eventually they're like, you.
6:11
You gotta put our names in the title.
6:13
Now it's it's a special for both of us.
6:15
Yeah, that tells you a lot about I.
6:17
Hadn't heard that at all. That would make sense because it
6:21
does feel a little rushed, The Muppet stuff, yeah, it feels
6:26
very much like even then it feels a lot like as we'll get
6:29
into it, but it feels like a lot of it wasn't even written.
6:32
It feels improvised, a lot of it.
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So that would make a lot of sense.
6:37
Yeah, I I, I have a lot to say and I know you do too.
6:41
Let's let's just jump into this scene by scene and we'll we'll
6:43
kind of rip this apart a little bit.
6:45
Our opening scene, we start with Pepe.
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Pepe. You know him.
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You love Pepe. I know, Pepe.
6:50
Yeah, he's wearing his Dwayne the Rock Johnson outfit, the
6:53
black sweater with the golden necklace, but he's also wearing
6:57
a scarf. That's how you know it's
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Christmas. That's the Muppet code.
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If they gotta have a scarf, it's Christmas time.
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He says he's always wanted to be in a holiday special, but he
7:06
has. He's been in several.
7:07
He's been. In several by this point, yeah.
7:10
Yeah, exactly. So he's introducing us to Pepe's
7:12
Holiday on Shaved Ice Television Spectacular, and then the
7:16
announcer reminds us. And him that's it is not his
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special It's Lady Gaga's. Even though The Muppets names
7:21
are in the title. Whatever.
7:24
And then, you know, that's that's the at least we get to
7:26
start off with a Muppet moment, even though it's not very good.
7:30
Yeah, it's, it's. And I think that's the best.
7:35
That's almost like the best metaphor for the entire, for the
7:39
entire special, like like we start with the Muppet.
7:43
It's not very good. Well, in the.
7:45
Podcast over. Right.
7:48
Yeah. I mean, like and also like the
7:50
idea of just throw a Muppet on screen.
7:52
That's good enough, right? We don't need to write jokes.
7:55
We don't need this to be thematically, you know, you
7:59
know, connected to the rest of the special.
8:01
Just a Pepe, that's Yeah, you like Pepe dance for us, Pepe.
8:04
You love this special. But The thing is as well, like
8:08
we're starting with Pepe. I think it's a weird choice to
8:11
start with because I don't think he's got a line in the 2011 film
8:15
this. So this, remember, got people
8:16
listening to this who may not know this came out a couple of
8:20
years after the 2011 film and about six months before Muppet's
8:24
most wanted Pepe. What, did he get a line in the
8:28
2011? Oh yeah, he did.
8:29
He's in the bit with Piggy at the where he's does ballet.
8:33
He's whatever it is. Yeah.
8:34
Right, right. Yep.
8:35
Yep, he gets that bit. And then I think he gets maybe
8:39
half a line in Muppet's Most Wanted.
8:42
Like, he's barely in that as well.
8:44
So people who were watching this, who had maybe been
8:46
reintroduced to The Muppets after 2011, don't necessarily
8:50
know who Pepe is. Or they sort of vaguely know
8:53
him, but they're like, OK, who's this guy?
8:55
For us, it's like, Oh my God, it's Pepe.
8:56
We love Pepe. For other people, it's like, Oh
9:00
yeah, I think I remember him. So it's a weird choice to.
9:03
Begin the guy from the guy from those Long John Silver's
9:06
commercials. There we go.
9:11
Lady Gaga has this voice over where she talks about how The
9:13
Muppets were a big part of her early love of Christmas, and
9:16
they show these images from previous Muppet Christmas
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specials, including the John Denver special Muppet Christmas
9:23
Carol, Muppet Family Christmas. And all I can think of is I'd
9:25
rather be watching literally any one of these.
9:28
Like, that was a weird choice to talk about.
9:30
Like, you know what's better than this thing you're about to
9:32
watch? All these old things that are
9:34
barely even available on DVD? Yeah.
9:37
I was gonna say, like, yeah, two of them aren't available.
9:40
Like, you know, Disney. Here's Disney going, hey, look,
9:42
these things that we, you know, we own, The Muppets, we're still
9:45
not gonna give you these things. We're just gonna, we're just
9:47
gonna tease you with them. Hey, there are these things you
9:49
can see, but find it yourself. Losers.
9:53
Yeah, right. We jump into our first number.
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It's a song off of Lady Gaga's art pop up album called Venus.
10:02
It is not a Christmas song. She's wearing this like, it's
10:07
like a sparkly nightie with this huge wig that makes her look
10:11
like she's cosplaying as Sweetums and so.
10:17
And like she has the Electric Mayhem band as her backup bands,
10:19
but one human guitar player, which is a weird choice.
10:23
And you've got Kermit, Fozzie, Scooter, Rolf, Gonzo and Walter
10:27
all dancing around her while she's singing.
10:29
And you could tell this is one of those things where, like,
10:31
they were probably like, just throw The Muppets on screen.
10:35
That you don't need anything more than that, 'cause there's
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not much choreography. There's kind of like dancing
10:39
around her in a circle and at some point they kind of like
10:41
come in close to her and move out.
10:44
And come in and go out. And then come in and go out,
10:47
yeah. Yeah, they're like pretending
10:48
like she. Has the tractor beam almost well
10:50
I? Think it was supposed to be like
10:51
a gravitational pole 'cause the song's called Venus.
10:53
Gravitational pole? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
10:55
Yeah. But yeah, but it's really just
10:57
like, it's exactly what people think Puppetry is people who
11:00
don't know, which is just wiggling dolls.
11:02
Like, they're just, yeah, wiggling.
11:04
There's no joke. There's no art to it.
11:07
It's just noise, visual noise. If you, if you, if you look at
11:13
it really the two puppets doing the most work in that are Kermit
11:18
and Walter. And the reason they're doing the
11:20
most is because their faces are flexible.
11:22
So you've got Steven, you've got Peter, both, you know, moving
11:26
their fingers in and out and making all these different
11:28
expressions. So at least they're having a
11:30
little bit of fun. But with the others, you know,
11:33
they can't really move their faces or do anything, so they're
11:38
almost just a little bit static. Yeah.
11:41
And because they haven't been given a lot to do, that's really
11:44
the most you're gonna get out of them.
11:45
So Kermit and Walter are really sort of pulling the pulling the
11:51
weight here. Yeah, yeah, Pun intended the the
11:55
gravity of the situation there they.
11:58
But also I would argue that of all the puppeteers that are
12:00
there, as far as I know, Steve Whitmire and Peter Linds are are
12:04
probably the best technical puppeteers.
12:07
So like to give them that plus the pliable faces plus the fact
12:11
that they're smaller characters that can really move a lot as
12:13
opposed to like Fozzie Bear who's a little bit more
12:16
cumbersome. I think that they they can just
12:19
do a lot more with a lot less, yeah, but it's just it's just
12:25
sad to see The Muppets reduced to just being like a splotch of
12:30
color to Lady Gaga in this. Yeah, yeah.
12:34
They're very much almost background characters.
12:36
Even though a lot of the time they're in the foreground, they
12:39
don't need to be there. And as you know, halfway to the
12:41
song, they disappear and don't come back.
12:44
Right. Like you've got the elected
12:46
mayhem, but that's it. Yeah, yeah, it's true.
12:51
We cut to backstage. Miss Piggy is on the phone with
12:54
her agent, Bernie. Of course it's Bernie.
12:57
Bernie. Bernie must be old by now.
12:58
He's been working with The Muppets for a long time.
13:01
And Kristen Bell shows up and she geeks out over her favorite
13:05
pop star. Of course, it's the classic gag.
13:08
Miss Piggy thinks she's talking about her.
13:09
But no, she's talking about Lady Gaga and her monster hair.
13:13
She's still wearing the giant wig.
13:16
I love Kristen Bell. That she's she's one of the few
13:19
bright, bright moments in this. So this whole special, she is
13:23
the saving grace of this special.
13:25
Yeah. Fully, fully believe that she is
13:28
the best part of this special. If this thing became Kristen
13:31
Bell and The Muppets Holiday Spectacular wonderful, this
13:35
thing would be dearly beloved. But yeah, I think as well.
13:41
So, and I remember thinking this when the when the special first
13:47
came out, I nearly called it a movie.
13:50
Imagine if this was a film I just awful.
13:55
I remember thinking this when the special came out that Lady
13:59
Gaga, at this point in a career at least, can't act.
14:05
No. Now this is someone who went on
14:07
to become an Academy Award nominated actress.
14:10
I don't know what happened in the like 8 years between this
14:13
and A Star Is Born, but she is dreadful in this in a way that
14:20
very much feels like she is improvising a lot of it.
14:24
I think that she's been given a bit more of a script.
14:27
Maybe she had done OK, but it does feel very much like, OK,
14:31
we've scripted the Muppet part, You know, Lady Gaga, just come
14:34
in, do what you need to do and get out.
14:37
I completely agree it. It almost seems like she watched
14:40
this and was like, oh, if I'm gonna continue this career to be
14:44
more than just a pop star, I kind of need to take an acting
14:47
class or two, 'cause she's definitely sleeping.
14:50
She's sleepwalking her way through the special.
14:52
She doesn't have much energy when she's talking to The
14:55
Muppets, she's barely making eye contact with them.
14:57
There's some moments in here that we'll get to that are just
15:00
like, embarrassingly bad. I don't know how she how anyone
15:03
saw the take and was like, that's good cut and print.
15:06
Yeah, yeah. So throughout throughout the
15:10
special, there's all these cutaways to talking heads with
15:13
The Muppets. And this is we got our first one
15:15
right here where we hear The Muppets are basically repeating
15:20
the question like what is, what is their favorite holiday
15:22
moment, excuse me, favorite holiday memory?
15:25
The first one is the mayhem and they're just going.
15:32
Now here's the thing, we're gonna see them do this again at
15:36
least one or two more times. Which tells me there's no
15:40
scripts, they are just the puppeteers are just being told
15:43
make something up and when you've got 5 characters you
15:46
don't know who's gonna talk. And they all all just going,
15:52
boy, is that nothing. It is nothing on top of nothing.
15:57
It's this was particularly bad. This was a moment where I'm
16:00
like, oh, OK, this is what's wrong with this.
16:03
Special moments like this where it's like we, if you haven't got
16:08
anything, that's fine. I get that the, you know, the
16:09
mayhem is meant to be a little Spacey sometimes.
16:12
And maybe it's because we've been spoiled, you know, this
16:16
year, at least with Muppet's mayhem.
16:18
But these characters have, you know, personalities.
16:24
Let's say something, but we're getting absolutely nothing out
16:27
of them. Besides, I don't know if he says
16:29
it here or if it's a bit later on, but we get like a bit about
16:34
zoot's a saxophone read and even that's.
16:38
The segment, he said it just out of nowhere.
16:40
He goes. I've been using the same read
16:43
since 62. That's his favorite holiday
16:45
memory. That's not a it has nothing to
16:47
do with anything. That's a non sequitur, which is
16:49
very zoot, but it's so disconnected that it just seems
16:54
like Dave Goal's like it's been too quiet for too long.
16:57
I'm just gonna say the first thing that comes to my mind.
16:59
Yeah, yeah. Gonzo says in In his moments he
17:04
goes the same as everyone else, putting tapioca down my shorts
17:07
and sliding down the chimney, which is a very gonzo response.
17:11
It feels like a canned response of like Gonzo's making a
17:14
reference to tapioca in his pants.
17:16
I feel like he's done that many times.
17:19
We have a moment with a bunch of chickens and they're just kind
17:22
of clucking, which is cute, 'cause I like Muppet chickens,
17:25
But again, not a joke, not a reference.
17:28
It's just them existing and then Kermit shows.
17:32
Almost seems to be sorry, what was that joke?
17:34
Almost seems to be with the chickens that you can't
17:37
understand what they're saying, but they're giving a really
17:40
detailed answer. Cool.
17:42
Next. Great.
17:43
Yeah. Yeah, exactly moving.
17:45
On not a joke. Yeah, right.
17:47
And then Kermit says he always loved the old Yule Log.
17:51
It was a great place to sit until they lit it.
17:55
OK, that's something. That's Kermit referencing the
17:58
fact that he's a frog and he sits on a log sometimes.
18:00
OK, cool. Thanks guys.
18:02
We'll have more of those Muppet Cutaways in a moment.
18:06
Unfortunately, there's a lot of those here.
18:08
The Muppets are holding auditions.
18:10
This is one of those weird things that I I don't know if I
18:12
like it or if I hate it. Where when Muppets or really any
18:15
characters in anything are holding auditions or doing prep
18:18
work for the special that they are currently in.
18:23
So they're holding auditions. First we see the amazing Carl.
18:26
It is big mean Carl with Albert the Bunny, and Carl says he's
18:31
going to make Albert disappear. And in one of the funniest lines
18:34
in my opinion, in the special, Albert just goes.
18:36
I didn't agree to this. And then he gets eaten.
18:41
Is it Dave Golls playing Albert? I feel like I listened out for
18:45
it and I think it sounds like Dave Golls.
18:48
Yeah. If I had to guess, I would say
18:50
Dave. And they're probably people who
18:51
know that for sure, one way or another, but it sure sounds like
18:53
Dave to me. Yeah, it does.
18:55
And that. Like Dave's played a Bunny a few
18:57
times with Carl over the years and it always seems to be he
19:01
might just be the same Bunny. It always seems to be the same.
19:03
Like, what are you doing? Like I I didn't agree to this.
19:06
I I have to. No, thank you, please.
19:07
Don't I have a family? No, thank you.
19:09
I have a family. Like the same joke over and
19:12
over. This bit here with the
19:14
auditions, this feels like if what you said early was true and
19:19
that The Muppets were only supposed to be guests and maybe,
19:22
you know, not not such a big part.
19:24
It feels to me like, you know, maybe they were gonna do the
19:27
finale and maybe this was like this sketch was gonna be in it.
19:33
Because this feels written. This feels like it has some sort
19:36
of production value. It is.
19:38
So I wonder for the most part. Yeah, there.
19:40
There's a couple of these lines that feel like nothing.
19:42
Yeah, like so. The next one is Gonzo and his
19:45
amazing hypno stare. Gonzo is staring directly down
19:48
the barrel of the camera and he puts a scooter to sleep.
19:52
And I could, you could tell. Like, it feels written because
19:54
it's funny and it's Gonzo being weird and not an obnoxiously
19:58
weird kind of way. It's good Gonzo work.
20:00
But also, it's so low fi, it's just gonzo staring into the
20:04
camera, which makes you think they could have come up with
20:06
that 10 minutes earlier. What can we do with no props and
20:09
no costumes, you know? And then the one that I really
20:12
hate is the next one, Sam the Eagle is auditioning.
20:15
And all he says is I do not audition.
20:18
I am an American. That is all.
20:20
Which is not a reference to anything.
20:23
No, which has, and this is very much something that you said
20:28
multiple times in your first, first one in your first episode
20:32
of this podcast, which was about the garbage Christmas special
20:37
with Sesame Street. I can't remember what it's
20:38
called. Yeah, it's a special Sesame
20:40
Street Christmas, right? Yeah, which is, And you said it
20:44
many times in that, and I thought it many times watching
20:46
this, it has the cadence of a joke like this should be a joke
20:52
where I thought what I thought he was going to say and what I
20:55
thought would be a much better line was I do not audition.
20:59
I'm offer only or something like that, in which case you go,
21:02
well, that's funny, that's Sam. That's a good line.
21:04
That's Sam going, you know, well, I'm an actor and off he
21:06
goes, no, I didn't audition. I'm an American.
21:10
Yeah. Huh.
21:12
Or or even like like for him to pull, like the thing that he's
21:14
done before. Just like why am I here?
21:17
Like, how did I get here? I'm not because he's not
21:19
supposed to be a performer. He just, he's just like, I'm
21:21
not. I'm not auditioning.
21:23
I'm the censor. But like, just to say I'm an
21:26
American, those things are not you.
21:29
You can audition and be an American.
21:32
That's Those aren't mutually exclusive.
21:34
He does say and which I wonder if it's more Eric going like
21:41
this is all I'm giving you. He literally walks off and goes.
21:43
That's all. That's all, like, that's all
21:47
you're getting out of me. And I wonder if that's Eric,
21:49
like improvising this and going like, yeah, I'm just gonna say
21:52
that, yeah, that'll do next. That actually makes me wonder.
21:56
I wonder if they did like a dozen of them with different
21:58
characters. They're just like grabbing
21:59
puppets off the table and it's like, just come up with a thing.
22:02
This is what he came up with. I don't know if that's all I
22:04
got. And then for some reason, the
22:06
people editing it were like, that's funny, 'cause Sam the
22:09
eagle's a funny character, even if he's not saying jokes, we'll
22:12
put it in there. Yeah, yeah.
22:16
Very that. Would make a lot more sense.
22:18
Right, yeah. Next we've got a a ram, a Muppet
22:21
ram. And it's he's Ramlet.
22:24
He says to BA or not to BA. Is that a question?
22:28
OK, that's very. It's Muppety at least.
22:30
I don't know if it's funny, but it's Muppety.
22:33
Pepe is like skating, I guess. Like, did he say, is he ice
22:38
skating or is he just like kind of skating on the slime on his
22:41
feet? I can't really tell.
22:41
Yeah. I think he was.
22:42
So, OK, there's no, there's no reference to the fact that he
22:45
poured ice. There's no reference to the fact
22:47
that he's wearing skates. Like, I think it's just, again,
22:50
it feels like Bill just picked up the puppet and he's like,
22:52
look what I can do and he skates and he barrels into the camera
22:56
in fact, and. It's and it's a fun little bit
22:58
of puppetry. Yes, it would.
23:01
I think it would be funnier if he did say, like, look, I can
23:04
skate without without ice. Or like, look, I can skate using
23:07
just the slime on the bottom of my feet.
23:09
And like, that's a that's a talent that you can audition as
23:11
opposed to, you know, OK, picture this.
23:13
Pretend like there's ice below the frame, even though we've
23:17
already seen three people come through that that have not
23:19
slipped on the ice. Yeah, can I tell you one bit
23:23
that really annoyed me? Sorry, Just one bit that really
23:26
annoyed me. About, about Pepe's bit is when
23:30
he says to Scooter and Kermit, he looks at them both, but he's
23:34
looking at the wrong sides. He's looking at how they looked
23:37
on the screen. So he looks to Kermit where we
23:40
know Scooter is and he looks to terms of Scooter.
23:43
He knows Kermit is. And that's just a stupid little
23:45
bit I picked up but really bugged me.
23:48
Oh yeah, that. That's that's frustrating.
23:50
I didn't notice that. But that would drive me crazy
23:52
too, if I had noticed for sure. Yeah, well, next time you
23:54
rewatch it next year for your traditional watch, you'll notice
23:57
it. Yeah, in 2033, I'll rewatch
24:00
this. Yeah, amazing.
24:03
Carl comes back, He says he forgot to do the rest of his
24:05
act. He also makes frogs disappear,
24:07
and he chases Kermit around. And then the tag at the end is
24:11
that Fozzie Bear shows up late. He's got a paper bag puppet and
24:17
he says everyone loves puppets. He's not wrong.
24:21
And again, because it's a paper bag and not like say like Chucky
24:25
from the Muppet Show or something like that, it makes me
24:27
think like they just planned this 5 minutes ago.
24:30
What do we have on hand? Hey look, a paper bag and some
24:33
crayons. That's funny.
24:36
But, and I mean, we'll get to it a little later, but they make
24:39
another joke about puppets, Yes, later on in the special.
24:43
And it's like, is that joke really good enough to dive to
24:46
twice in an hour? Nope.
24:47
Nope. You get one.
24:48
Unless it's a running gag, you get 1-2 does not make a running
24:51
gag. Yeah, no.
24:54
Next Lady Gaga sings another song from her new album.
24:56
It's called Applause. I did not applaud because
24:59
there's no Muppets in it. So we don't need to talk about
25:02
it, do we? Well, no, we're going to talk
25:05
about it later, because for some reason she sings it twice.
25:08
Great. Can't wait.
25:11
We go. We have another cutaway with The
25:13
Muppets. What do the holidays mean to us
25:15
all? These are the same question by
25:16
the way. What we just had what is your
25:19
favorite holiday memory? And now it's what do the
25:20
holidays mean mean to you. And and like they're they're all
25:23
just variants of the same thing. Speaking of variants of the same
25:26
thing, you get the same joke from the mayhem where they go
25:32
and Zoot says something nonsensical, which is time to
25:36
clean my spit valve. Yeah, what?
25:40
What's happening? This is the the most I've hated
25:44
zoot in the history of zoot. Yeah, it it feels like Dave
25:52
Gold's going. I have to save this somehow,
25:54
like no one else is. No one else is going to bat for
25:57
us. I got to jump in here.
25:59
I I just can't believe that the directors and the editors were
26:03
like, they saw both of these jokes, that they're exactly the
26:06
same and for some reason they were like, we need both.
26:10
So I was really curious to see who wrote this, right?
26:14
And so I looked it up and one of the writers was, you know, our
26:18
buddy Jim Lewis. It feels like Jim wrote like,
26:23
you know, maybe the audition stuff or at least some of that
26:26
kind of thing. Or the sketch that later on with
26:28
The Muppets and Lady Gaga, but it doesn't feel like he was on
26:31
set for the rest of it. This.
26:33
One if he was, yeah. If he.
26:36
If he was, I wouldn't be surprised if someone like Jim
26:38
Lewis was there to just like The Muppets are improvising and he's
26:41
there to be like, I don't know, say something about the Yule Log
26:44
and then they're like, great, you know, I mean, like, like
26:46
that kind of thing. Like they're all kind of writing
26:47
at the same time. Just that Jim gets the credit,
26:50
gets the credit as the writer, 'cause there's so much Muppet
26:53
content in there. Yeah, I just don't know.
26:57
Like, watching it, it doesn't feel like there's a Muppet rider
27:02
there. It feels like the puppeteers
27:04
have sort of been left to their own.
27:06
And granted, they are very good, you know, a lot of the time
27:09
they're very good improvisers. For whatever reason, they just
27:11
weren't feeling it this day and it's just not working.
27:16
This is why people went, This is why the writers went on strike
27:19
people, so that we don't get stuff like this.
27:22
Right. Yes.
27:23
They specifically were on strike because of Lady Gaga and The
27:26
Muppets, the Holiday Spectacular.
27:28
Yeah, they also sort of struck because of this next scene with
27:32
Lady Gaga and Sir Elton John. They are doing a duet and it's
27:36
first of all, I know it's not Muppets, but like, they start
27:39
with the most awkward exchange where Elton's like, hey, you're
27:42
my favorite girl, love ya, love ya, love ya.
27:45
And like, she's wearing these soda can glasses and her sweet
27:50
OS wig, she looks like a crazy person.
27:53
They sing Benny and The Jets and like, they're like screaming,
27:57
like angrily, like she got electric Blues.
28:01
It's it's horrible. And of course.
28:04
Also. Yeah, good.
28:07
So I was going to say this is to promote her new album and
28:12
they're singing Benny and The Jets.
28:16
I mean, to be fair, they will segue into the song art pop.
28:20
Yeah. And like, you had Elton John
28:22
there singing Elton John. Now a song.
28:24
I get it. But what's weird to me is Elton
28:27
John famously performed Benny and The Jets with The Muppets.
28:32
There's no mention of it. And at the end of the song, at
28:35
the end of Art Pop, after Segues, The Muppets pop up in
28:39
the screen and start wiggling around again with no
28:42
choreography. So we know that they were in the
28:44
room together, but there's no like, hey guys, you remember
28:49
when we did this one? We're gonna do it again, but
28:51
worse. And there's no, it's not even
28:57
like Elton John maybe looks over and acknowledges or anything.
29:01
It just looks like he had no idea they were there.
29:04
They set up just a single camera and went, all right, guys, pop
29:07
it up. These guys had gone up.
29:09
And then it probably wasn't until afterwards.
29:11
And Elton John's gone. Hang on, I know that frog.
29:19
We have another Muppet cutaway. What is the best gift they
29:23
received during the holidays? Gonzo says.
29:25
Decorative custard Shields, the Mayhem are all answering at
29:29
once. I guess that's better than just
29:30
going, but it's still another electric Mayhem non answer.
29:35
And then we see the chickens and one of them starts to like,
29:38
pretend to Peck at bird seed. It it seems like they just kind
29:42
of filmed a bunch of chicken stuff and like them improvising
29:45
with without any context, and they just kind of slapped, you
29:49
know, 10 seconds of it here. It's nothing.
29:52
It's nothing. Absolutely nothing.
29:56
I I shouldn't say. I I thought, hoping there was
29:59
going to be some jokes in there. I went and I watched that bit
30:01
with the Bay ham again, where they all answer and none of them
30:05
actually say anything, or if they do, it's completely
30:08
unintelligible. I was like, oh, maybe they're
30:10
all saying their own little funny answers.
30:13
I could not figure out for the life of me what any of them were
30:15
saying. I'm I'm glad you checked because
30:19
I thought about it and didn't wanna, so I didn't.
30:24
So thanks for doing that for me. Wow.
30:26
Yeah, lots of garbage. Next we have like a classic
30:30
Muppet show backstage with Lady with with the guest star thing
30:33
and Lady Gaga's meeting with The Muppets.
30:35
She's like, this show's gonna be so great and it's like, aren't
30:39
we like a third of the way through it already?
30:42
More than we are nearly halfway. I I wasn't sure.
30:45
It seemed like a yeah. And also Pepe is like massaging
30:49
her bare leg. It looks such a creeper.
30:52
Like, it's creepy. It is really creepy.
30:55
Pepe really crosses the line a lot and this is one of those
30:58
times. Oh and she's like, oh, we still
31:01
have to plan the finale, which is is a real Muppet Show
31:03
strategy that like to like you're planning the finale
31:06
during the show. And then like we kind of this
31:11
is, this feels like a real scripted moment where we're,
31:14
we're getting Muppets kind of chiming in New Zealand is, you
31:17
know, suggests, you know that, you know, having boomerang fish.
31:21
Does he actually suggest it or is he just.
31:23
Oh, no, she she says you're some of the most creative minds that
31:26
I know. And he says to his fish, you
31:28
hear that, Lester, Which I thought was funny.
31:31
Yeah, yeah. Gonzo suggests chickens.
31:34
Fozzie suggests rubber chickens. Kristen Bell shows up.
31:37
This is where this is our second puppet moment, where she says
31:40
something with puppets. OK, it just kind of passes by a
31:44
little too quickly. Walter says You a VAT of organic
31:49
cold pressed honey, 50,000 fire ants, and a trumpet.
31:53
And Gonzo says I didn't know we were going for the obvious.
31:57
And it's a fun gag. It's a fun gag.
32:00
I agree. It didn't really occur to me
32:03
until I had actually transcribed that line of Walter suggesting
32:08
that they cover Lady Gaga in honey and then cover her in fire
32:12
ants. That feels dangerous and not
32:17
really waltery. You know what I mean?
32:20
Walter would be like, what if we had ants biting your skin and
32:23
there's nothing you could do about it and you're covered in
32:25
honey? I don't know.
32:27
And a trumpet. And then she'd then she'd scream
32:29
like she did in the Elton John song.
32:31
Yeah. You do.
32:34
You do get a fun little look though, when when he says that
32:38
of Kermit doing like his scrunchy face but at an angle.
32:40
We never really see scrunchy face.
32:43
Oh, and he's just very angular. It's a very angular face.
32:47
Oh, that's nice. That's nice for Kermit.
32:48
Always finding new faces. Yeah, yeah.
32:52
Lady Gaga asks for something indescribable, and then the
32:55
Swedish Chef says something incomprehensible.
32:57
That's a cute character moment for him.
33:01
New Zealand suggests boomerang fish.
33:03
He does do that In this moment. He throws his fish and it
33:06
crashes into something so it doesn't return, which I feel
33:09
like is a nice thing that we don't really see very often from
33:10
him. Nice change of pace, buns and
33:14
honey do, suggests the Muppet Labs bubble wrap dress, which
33:17
is, you know, it's funny to like, think about.
33:19
Lady Gaga was once known for wearing crazy dresses and we
33:24
forget about this 'cause now yeah, the even like the dress of
33:27
Kermit dolls and but now she's like, like you said, she's an
33:32
Oscar nominated actress Oscar winning songwriter.
33:36
So like she's like grown beyond that, that sort of kitsch.
33:39
But Beaker comes in, he's showing off this fashion forward
33:43
dress of made a bubble wrap. He falls animal pounces on him
33:46
to pop the bubbles. It's a it's a cute moment I
33:48
think. And Scooter runs in to tell Lady
33:52
Gaga that she's on in 15 seconds, because that's what
33:54
Scooter do, And she goes off to change her costume, and Pepe
33:59
follows her like a real creeper because he wants to see her
34:01
naked like a. Real Creeper.
34:03
Real Creeper. It's really, he's really, really
34:07
uncomfortable in this moment. Yeah, I I expected it to be a
34:11
joke where he know he was like, oh, you know, I guess I'll
34:13
follow you. And I thought, yeah, the joke
34:15
was going to be that she know, punches him out the way or
34:17
whatever it was. No, no, no.
34:19
Hey, off he goes. Yeah, she's into it as far as
34:21
we're concerned. He went and hung out with her.
34:23
Yep, exactly. That creep.
34:25
What a creep. She sings another song, No
34:28
Muppets, in this one. It's the song Manicure.
34:30
She's wearing that Sweden's wig again.
34:31
She loves that thing. She's also wearing like a
34:33
flannel dress, giant glasses and no pants.
34:36
And the song is awful. I'm sorry, this is not a good
34:38
song. Wearing the world's longest
34:40
socks. Oh yeah, yeah.
34:41
Big socks. And yeah, the giant like old
34:45
lady, like old fashioned designer lady glasses and she's
34:49
just on her knees screaming and it's like OK that at the Oscars.
34:57
Yeah, right. It is weird that, like, this is
34:58
that weird part of Lady Gaga's career where, like, she's had
35:01
her her biggest hit songs like like poker face and paparazzi
35:04
and and now she's got this like weird, like I'm trying to stay
35:09
relevant with new pop music, but nobody's really into this 'cause
35:12
it's not very good. And like, she's now about to
35:15
reinvent herself and which makes me feel good about, like talking
35:18
about the fact that this isn't very good, 'cause I know she's
35:20
fine. Like, Lady Gaga's a big star.
35:22
I like her very much now, but at this point in her career, it's
35:27
like, oh, you almost went to, you know, being, you know,
35:32
irrelevant and, you know, losing your audience.
35:35
At least from what I can tell, the next Muppet cutaway, they're
35:40
asked what their worst holiday gifts are.
35:42
Kermit had a Do it yourself dissect dissection kit, which is
35:47
not a thing. Feels like that could have used
35:50
the second draft. I do like Gonzo's response,
35:53
which is a safety harness, because why would he ever want
35:56
that? That's that's a good, that's a
35:58
good response. And then the chickens are back
36:00
and they're clucking, because that's what chickens do, even
36:03
though we had just seen them do that twice.
36:05
Yeah, did we skip over Animal and Baker and Sweaty Chef
36:11
singing? Oh, did I skip that?
36:13
You're right. I skipped it.
36:15
I did. Yes, yes, we, I skipped.
36:16
They sing deck the halls. They got the Leprechaun brothers
36:19
back. Thank you for that.
36:20
I would have skipped right over it.
36:21
They brought the Leprechaun brothers back, which should be a
36:22
slam dunk, by the way. Just the fact that you've got
36:24
these fan favorite characters. They all speak gibberish, but
36:29
they're not really. It's not like when we see them
36:31
doing it with, you know, when they're singing Danny Boy or
36:35
like Beaker singing Feelings, where the joke is that they're
36:39
speaking gibberish. Instead, they just kind of do
36:43
like a deck the Halls thing and then animal shouts a little bit
36:46
and then we move on with our lives.
36:48
It's almost like also we have to, we have to remind everyone
36:51
that it's Christmas because we've barely talked about it.
36:54
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's I I kept expecting more of a joke.
37:00
And then they did this again, not, you know, too long later.
37:03
And it's the same joke again. Yeah, Yeah, yeah, I.
37:09
Just that's that's the pattern here is is we have to fill time
37:13
and if it's good enough for for screen, let's just do it twice.
37:18
We filled twice the time. Yeah.
37:21
It also it makes me wonder why this is a 90 minute special and
37:24
not a 60 minute special. At that point they should have
37:26
just trimmed it down. Yeah, yeah.
37:29
So we're lucky, 'cause we're watching this with no ads.
37:32
So this is 58 minutes 40 seconds 'cause I have it open in front
37:37
of me. I can't imagine, having watched
37:40
this live, this would drag. Yeah, it dragged even without
37:44
ads. Yeah.
37:46
Wow. We're about to get to the bit to
37:48
drag the most. Oh, I'm so glad you agree.
37:50
This entire special. The worst moment in the whole
37:54
special It's so bad. It's so cringy.
37:57
OK, so Lady Gaga and Kermit are about to do a duet.
38:00
They're sitting at the big piano Kermit's wearing.
38:03
She's wearing the big wig because she maybe she's stuck to
38:06
it, I don't know. Maybe they used glue and Kermit
38:10
is wearing a little black tuxedo and they're talking about how
38:14
big the stage is. And Lady Gaga, like Kermit's
38:17
talking about like, oh, look at the stage And there's no people
38:19
here yet because, again, we're doing the whole bit where even
38:23
though we're watching the special, the special hasn't been
38:25
filmed yet. I don't know, don't think about
38:27
it too hard. And out of nowhere, she leans in
38:29
really close to his face. And what is it she's like?
38:34
You ever get lonely, Kermit? What are you talking about?
38:39
What are you talking about? Pepe was the creepy one.
38:44
Yeah. No wonder they get along.
38:46
Good God. Out of nowhere, you ever get
38:48
lonely. It's such a weirdly personal
38:52
question too, yeah. And it's just like this.
38:57
Hope is improvised and you can tell Steve is trying his dantest
39:02
to get this to be a sweet moment and it's there is no chemistry
39:08
between these two at. All.
39:10
None whatsoever. Kermit's like, oh, I guess we're
39:13
talking about that. OK, forget talking about the
39:14
empty stage, OK, By being on the road.
39:17
And he talks a little bit about like like being on the road and
39:20
and like being away from his family.
39:21
But he's got his friends and they're also kind of his family.
39:23
And he's, you could tell, like, you see the gears moving.
39:27
And, you know, also, like, not thinking about the fact that
39:30
he's been a performer for over 60 years.
39:32
Like, like, he's used to this, you know?
39:37
And then she's like, oh, I I wrote a song about being on the
39:40
road. And he, you can tell C's like,
39:42
thank God, A Segway. He's like, he's like, oh, well,
39:47
maybe you'll play that song for me since we're all alone, Even
39:50
though there's a whole band behind them, they're not really
39:52
alone. And she says, well, I've never
39:54
played that song before. What?
40:00
But he has a line where he's like, well, I've never sung it
40:02
before, so hey, let's just go ahead.
40:04
She says, I wrote a song about it.
40:06
He says, Then let's sing it. And she says, well, I've never
40:08
played it before. What are you talking about?
40:12
What is this? Yeah, you're right.
40:16
So then he goes, OK, well, I've never heard it before, so we'll
40:18
we'll sing it anyway. Who cares?
40:21
So they sing the song. Called.
40:22
That's very much sorry. You're going to say that's very
40:25
much what this feels like, which is then I'll see it.
40:27
Who cares? Let's just come on.
40:29
We we've spoken for like 3 minutes.
40:30
It's awkward. Just start your song so we can
40:33
get this over with. Good God, how is there not a
40:35
second take of this? Or what if this was the 2nd take
40:38
or the 5th take or the 12th take?
40:40
And they're like, it's not going to get any better.
40:44
Yeah, it does, It feels. Never saying that song before
40:49
Gaga. Good God.
40:53
So. Rubbish.
40:54
The song is called Gypsy. And like in 2013, I'm pretty
41:00
sure we all were pretty much in agreement that that was an
41:03
insensitive term. You know, like it's it's, it's,
41:06
it's a term used to talk about the Romani people who were
41:09
mostly wiped out through in World War 2.
41:11
Like we just shouldn't. And I get, like, there's, you
41:13
know, Cher had a song with that word in it and and Stevie Nicks
41:17
and like, it's OK, I'm going to give a pass to the old stuff
41:20
before it was part of this public conversation.
41:23
But, like, Lady Gaga should have known.
41:25
I know Kermit's singing about Gypsies and like, that feels
41:27
weird. I'm not sure I like that.
41:30
Yeah. And it is also painfully obvious
41:33
that Kermit had never heard the song before, because he is way
41:36
off key. Yeah.
41:38
Yeah. What funny, and it made me laugh
41:45
multiple times, is that, like kids, they're very close.
41:50
Like Lady Gaga and Kermit's faces are within inches of each
41:54
other the whole. Time so close and.
41:56
Uncomfortable. So close.
41:58
Uncomfortably close. And she's looking down at him
42:01
while she's singing. And almost there's no connection
42:05
between them now. Joe, you've, you know,
42:09
interviewed Muppets in person before.
42:11
I've interviewed Muppets in person before.
42:13
They're in order to sort of cheat the camera a little bit.
42:16
The Muppets aren't necessarily looking at you on camera.
42:20
It looks like they're looking at you, but they might be looking
42:22
slightly off, right? And that's fine.
42:24
That's just something you have to deal with and you go on and
42:27
you just buy into it anyway. You can tell a few times here
42:32
that Steve is having the angle Kermit in a way that you can see
42:35
both of his eyes. So he's looking at Gaga in
42:38
actual person. She looks down at him and almost
42:42
has a look of why aren't you looking at me?
42:45
And she can't connect to him and it's just so awkward, I think.
42:48
That might be one of the reasons why she gets so close to his
42:51
face, because she's trying to get in front of him and it makes
42:54
her look even closer to his face like she is.
42:57
She's like hunched over a little bit and she's in front of his
43:00
face and like almost like they're also like sitting next
43:05
to each other at the piano bench.
43:07
So like it it's just so awkward. Everything about it just looks
43:10
weird. And like no one coached her.
43:13
They they had, they had a schedule to keep.
43:14
They had to move on And it's weird that like, it seems like
43:17
they're singing live, which is why Steve sounds off as Kermit,
43:22
which is rare for Muppets. Like usually they they, you
43:25
know, have pre recorded these songs.
43:28
They really needed a second take of this thing.
43:30
They didn't get it. And then, if the song, as the
43:33
song ends, Lady Gaga says maybe we'll do it on the show.
43:37
Shut up, Lady Gaga. Good God, you can't say this
43:41
with a bad joke. No, no, no, no, no, no.
43:46
But yes, that was the most painful for so many reasons.
43:48
The most painful part of this whole special.
43:50
Hated it. Dreadful.
43:52
I mean, yeah. Kermit turns around and says,
43:54
well, now we've got it rehearsed.
43:56
You might want to give it another couple of rehearsals,
43:58
Kermit. Or just or just cut it.
44:02
It's. Rubbish.
44:04
Oh God. Oh, it hurts my side.
44:07
God, it's it's just terrible. OK, so we got another Muppet
44:11
cutaway. Kristen Bell is in this one with
44:13
with The Muppets. She's with Gonzo, and Gonzo asks
44:17
her what the holidays mean to her.
44:18
We're just asking the same question over and over again, he
44:21
says. For me, he answers the question
44:22
before he before she can. For me, it's juicy foods and
44:25
sweet liquids, which is a weird way to say that.
44:29
And she talks about like it's lots of sugary foods and passing
44:33
out. Just get comatose.
44:35
That's a good holiday. And like, I love the chemistry
44:37
between them, but I do wish they had written a joke beforehand.
44:41
You could tell they're just the camera's rolling and say
44:44
something. Say that didn't bother me as
44:47
much because the chemistry between them so good and because
44:50
Kristen Bell's clearly having a great time, it didn't bother me
44:53
too much. Yeah.
44:56
And I mean even like, you know, we get some bloopers at the end
44:59
of this, like, and then the bloopers between them you can
45:02
see that they're having a great chemistry in a great time.
45:04
Yeah, absolutely. Also, I don't know what goes on
45:07
at a Goals Family Christmas, but sounds delicious and I'll be
45:10
there. Would you rather have the juicy
45:13
foods or the sweet liquids? Right little column, a little
45:17
from column B. Yeah, just mix them together.
45:19
That sounds good. That's Christmas to me.
45:22
Yeah. Next we have another Muppet Free
45:25
moments. It's Lady Gaga and Joseph Gordon
45:27
Levitt. They're singing Baby, it's Cold
45:28
outside. They I bet they think that
45:31
they're being really clever by switching the gender roles.
45:34
But. You know who already did that?
45:37
Miss Piggy and Rudolf Nureyev on The Muppet Show.
45:43
I had forgotten that, but. Well, I didn't.
45:46
OK. 'Cause he's that's when they're
45:47
in the steam bath and he's trying to get out and she's and
45:51
she's trying to get him to stay and he's half naked and all
45:54
that. Anyway, I just wanted to point
45:57
that out because The Muppets are more clever than the writers of
46:00
the Lady Gaga special. And this is also, I believe, the
46:03
first number in which Lady Gaga does literally anything
46:06
Christmas related. Yeah.
46:09
Yeah, yeah. It's also surprising just
46:13
because, you know, we only see it very quickly at the start.
46:17
But Joseph Gordon Levitt doesn't interact with any Muppets.
46:20
Again. Like he has a very quick bit at
46:22
the start where he's like, does he win?
46:24
Yeah, it's coming up. It's coming up.
46:26
Give me a second. We'll get there.
46:28
I haven't got more special to talk about.
46:29
Get ready. OK, So Kristen Bell and Bobo.
46:33
Kristen Bell and Bobo, another great pairing are watching from
46:37
off stage and I'm not even getting the whole thing.
46:40
Like she's trying to teach him how to dance and like, comments
46:44
on what kind of soap she uses. And she's like, she's like it's
46:48
just soap for cleanliness. Then he slips on her feet a few
46:53
times and that's it. What is any of this?
46:56
It's so obvious. This.
46:57
Feels like it was what this feels like.
47:01
It was partially, this feels a little bit like it was partially
47:05
written in that, you know, Jim Lewis or whoever or Bill has
47:09
gone, all right, we're going to do a bit.
47:10
We're going to dance. I'm going to step on your feet,
47:13
you know, So maybe just act like I've done that a couple of times
47:15
and, you know, we'll dance and, you know, maybe fall down at the
47:18
end. OK, great.
47:20
We'll do this a couple of different takes.
47:21
And so Bill's obviously just improvising as Bobo going like,
47:26
oh, is that soap? What kind of soap is it?
47:29
Whatever it might be. That was my terrible Bobo.
47:33
But Kristen Bell, thank you. Kristen Bell sells it.
47:37
Yeah. She sells the whole thing.
47:38
So again, if this special was Kristen Bell and The Muppets
47:42
Holiday Spectacular, which I'm pitching for 2024, this special
47:46
would be great. Just give me Kristen Bell and
47:49
The Muppets and I'm. Thrilled.
47:52
Yeah, I I also just like the idea of someone saying, like, so
47:56
what's your favorite part of the Lady Gaga special?
47:58
I like when Kristen Bell taught a bear to dance and they talked
48:01
about soap. What a fever dream, I said.
48:06
But you know what? This is the sketch I remember
48:09
the most from the entire show. Sure.
48:11
This is the bit I remember when I think about this special.
48:14
It's Kristen Bell and Bobo dancing together.
48:17
Yeah. Yeah.
48:18
So it obviously kept something in my brain.
48:21
Maybe it's just because I'm in love with Kristen Bell.
48:22
I don't know. Maybe it's because every time I
48:25
use soap, I go. It's the cleanliness.
48:30
So here are is our next Muppet cutaway.
48:32
This is where Joseph Gordon Levitt shows up again.
48:34
He's with Kermit. They're talking about favorite
48:36
holiday traditions and they talk about, like enjoying time with
48:40
their families and maybe doing an international TV special.
48:43
Ha ha ha. And Joseph Gordon Levitt has
48:45
this moment where like, it feels genuine, where he's like, you
48:48
know, he says to Kermit, I used to watch you during the holidays
48:51
with my parents, and Kermit's feel seems touched by this.
48:55
And he gives a little shout out to Joseph Gordon Levitt's
48:57
parents, which is cute. And we get this great screenshot
49:01
of of Joseph Gordon Levitt pointing at Kermit with his
49:03
tongue out. It's a cute moment.
49:05
Do you know I'd completely forgotten this existed?
49:07
I watched this last night and I didn't skip it.
49:09
I completely forgot it existed. It's.
49:11
Very short. It's very short this.
49:14
Is one of the shortest ones, yeah.
49:16
But I also just like the fact that they they got back together
49:19
for the Sesame 50th Anniversary special.
49:21
Those buddies. Yeah, yeah.
49:23
Backstage once again with Lady Gaga and Kermitz, they finally
49:27
have some alone time to talk, they say, as if they didn't just
49:31
do that. That was the whole conceit of
49:33
that number, that terrible number we just talked about a
49:35
minute ago. And he says just the frog and
49:40
the lady, and she goes just like old times.
49:44
Have they met before this? Do they have old times?
49:49
They don't. Well, no, they hadn't met
49:51
before. This, I mean.
49:53
She'd worn a dress of his face and and he had been her date to
49:56
the VM as or something. Oh, oh, you're right.
50:00
You know, I got that. Same thing, wrong.
50:01
You're totally right and like they were.
50:03
On So they had, they had met, but yeah.
50:05
Yeah, OK. So they do have old time.
50:06
Sorry. They take that back.
50:07
I'll take that back then. They're like chit chatting about
50:10
like their families and the size of their closets and this whole
50:14
conversation is going on. Way too long it's.
50:16
Long and Rambly. And then Miss Biggie shows up
50:19
and she's all jealous and she karate chops him.
50:20
It's so lazy. It's so lazy.
50:22
I don't even want to talk about it.
50:23
Yeah, who cares? Yeah, did.
50:27
You have anything to say about it?
50:28
I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm bulldozed. No, I don't.
50:30
But but yeah, I don't. No, that's right.
50:32
That's that's bulldoze. I I'm laughing because I'm.
50:35
I'm skipping through as we're watching this so I can remind
50:38
myself and I've just got to the next bit with Lady Gaga and what
50:41
she's wearing. Oh my God.
50:42
OK, so it's Lady Gaga and RuPaul.
50:44
They're singing a song called Fashion.
50:46
Lady Gaga is wearing like it looks like a mix between a a
50:50
hijab and a baby bottle top nipple and she's wearing these
50:56
10 inch. I was going to say, yeah, go
50:57
ahead. I was going to say it looks very
51:02
much like an like an unrolled condom.
51:05
Yes, yes. She absolutely looks like a
51:07
condom. Yeah, yeah.
51:09
And by comparison, RuPaul looks great.
51:13
RuPaul's wearing this, like, furry dress.
51:15
It's very muppety and like, she knows exactly what she's doing.
51:18
She gets it. But Lady Gaga's just like, I
51:21
don't know, I found this stuff in a dumpster.
51:22
Is this fashion? Is this good enough?
51:26
I don't know. It doesn't matter.
51:28
Who cares? There's no.
51:28
Muppets No. Muppets turn up.
51:30
So let's. Skip.
51:31
Yep. So this is where we get our
51:33
second moment with Beaker, Swedish Chef and Animal.
51:35
They're singing like a jazzy version of Jingle Bells, Animals
51:38
and drums, of course views on keys.
51:41
Chef is playing a stand up bass and he's kind of doing those
51:44
Like do do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do thing while he's playing.
51:48
It's cute. It's a cute little number.
51:50
It's short. It's harmless.
51:51
I don't dislike it by any means. I wish there was a joke, but
51:54
there is no joke. It's just Christmas.
51:56
Merry Christmas everybody. You get this.
52:00
Yeah, and it's pretty much like the joke of it again is just
52:04
animal screams. Animal screams.
52:06
Yep. That's the thing he does.
52:07
That's his shtick. His Christmas stick shtick,
52:12
yeah. Yeah, but yeah.
52:15
But it's fine. It's cute.
52:16
It'll do. Yep, the next Muppet Cutaways.
52:20
The Muppets are starting to give holiday messages, Gonzo says.
52:23
May your holiday be filled with the warmth and happiness.
52:25
And of course, chickens. And then we see the chickens and
52:29
they go, Aww, they start clucking.
52:31
We wish you a Merry Christmas. And then one of them attacks
52:34
another one. OK, this is nothing.
52:37
Sure, it's fine. We catch up with Miss Piggy
52:41
backstage. She's really still upset about
52:43
with with Lady Gaga. And she says, this is, I don't
52:47
know if I love or hate this moment, but she goes, What kind
52:50
of name is Gaga anyway? Then she goes Gaga, Gaga, Gaga,
52:54
Gaga. I like that moment.
52:58
I think this is probably one of my favorite moments of the
53:00
special is just Eric's having a great time.
53:03
Yep. Eric hasn't been given a lot to
53:06
do this special. You know, he's had a couple of
53:08
gags here and there, but this is where he gets to just be a bit
53:13
stupid. Yes.
53:14
And Pete gets to just make stupid noises.
53:18
Now, I also heard from from certain people who who were
53:24
involved with the special that this was one of those moments
53:27
where they, the Muppet people, Muppet team, were like, you
53:31
know, we're going to do our own number without any celebrities.
53:34
So like, what do we want to do? And so they they actually wrote
53:37
this themselves, which in my opinion, I I think that this is
53:40
the best moment in the special. I mean, there's great moments in
53:43
the special, but like this, I really love this, this number
53:46
where Miss Piggy's like, OK, time to have my moments.
53:49
We're going to do something grand, something fabulous,
53:50
something unmistakably Moi. And she sings Santa, baby, which
53:55
she's done before, like we did. We just talked about it on this
53:57
podcast she did in very Merry Muppet Christmas.
54:02
And she's doing it with this backup group of these male
54:05
singers who are all having a great time.
54:08
And as she's singing. Yeah.
54:12
And they're like, they're getting more and more into it as
54:14
the as the song goes on and to the point where like they're
54:17
starting to, you know, like outstage her and she has to get
54:21
them to pull back a little bit. But it doesn't matter.
54:23
Like there's it's so much fun and it's so simple.
54:26
It's really to me, classic Muppets of just a Muppet and
54:30
some, in this case, not celebrities but human stars,
54:34
just singing a thing and having fun with it.
54:36
And I just think it's delightful.
54:40
Yeah, yeah, they Why didn't we get more of this stuff?
54:44
I'm just glad Lady Gaga didn't pop up the rest of the snowman,
54:50
which could have happened just as easily.
54:53
Yeah, this was, this was a fun moment.
54:55
I again, there's great chemistry between Piggy and all of these
54:59
guys. Yep, like, they're all just
55:02
having an absolute blast. And again, it's it feels
55:05
Christmassy and this does feel Christmassy.
55:08
This feels like classic Muppet Christmas type stuff.
55:12
Like you can see this happening on like a Miss Piggy Christmas
55:15
special in 1987 or something like that.
55:19
Yeah. And of course, like, I mean, I
55:22
think the song Santa Baby is overplayed as it is, you know,
55:26
just like any other Christmas song.
55:28
I do think it's a funny song. And I think that Miss Piggy, if
55:31
it's Miss Piggy's character so well, and to see Miss Piggy do
55:34
it in a way that is so funny, I think is just great.
55:38
Like, I think this is so much funnier than the way she sings
55:40
it in VMX and Very Merry Muppet Christmas.
55:44
So anyway, it's a great number. It's over.
55:46
We get another cutaway to Kermit.
55:48
He is giving his holiday message, which is hysterical.
55:53
This may be the best joke in the special, he says.
55:55
Happy holidays, peace on earth, and may you have the best New
55:59
Year's ever. Good one, Kermit.
56:05
Oh, the world's on fire. Anyway, you may be wondering why
56:13
The Muppets are here. Well, Pepe and Faze Faze.
56:16
Good God. Pepe and Fuzzy.
56:19
Pepe and Fuzzy. Wow.
56:22
Fuzzy Pepe and Fuzzy show up to promote Muppets Most Wanted.
56:29
What's this movie about again? About an hour and a half.
56:33
There. There's a joke.
56:34
There it is. Found it.
56:35
Waka Waka. But I love the fact that Pepe is
56:40
doing this when Pepe has, like I said earlier, one line in this
56:43
film. Hey, do you love Pepe the King
56:47
Prawn? Did you love him here?
56:49
And Lady Gaga on The Muppets the Holiday Spectacular?
56:51
You're like, well, guess what? You get to see him for all of
56:54
four seconds in this new feature film, Muppets.
56:57
Mostwan Yep, that's it in. Six months?
57:00
Yep. That's it for six months as well
57:06
I so I watched this and I'm like how they promoting that when
57:10
that didn't come out until like you know mid.
57:12
Granted, I thought Muppet. Supposed one.
57:14
It came out later than it did. But six months to be like, hey,
57:19
we got a movie coming out, it's six months away.
57:21
You'll have forgotten about this by then.
57:23
Do you do you blame this Lady Gaga special for the failure at
57:28
the box office of what was most wanted?
57:29
Do you think people watch this? And we're like, I'm not spending
57:32
$15 on that. Yeah, you can just say somewhere
57:37
Nick Solar and James Boban are watching this going oh oh God,
57:43
oh, it's over, right? Let's start rotting Dora.
57:50
Backstage once again, Miss Piggy is still mad at Kermit's Lady
57:53
Gaga still needs a finale. Miss Piggy warns her to stop
57:56
trying to get with Kermit because they're together and
57:59
Lady Gaga goes what a great idea, the word together let's be
58:04
together on stage and then they go on stage and if only it was a
58:09
song about being together, like they sang together again or
58:12
whatever, but they just like you said, they just sing applause
58:15
again, They already saying this. Applause again and the own and
58:20
and you've got, like all of their backup dancers just
58:24
standing completely still. And you've got The Muppets
58:27
behind them and The Muppets in front of them, and they're all
58:30
dancing, having a great time. Then you've got like 5 or 6
58:33
backup dancers who just do not break eye contact with the
58:36
camera and do not move like they've been told.
58:39
If you move, you're going to see, you know, Bruce Lanoil or
58:43
whoever might be behind you. So do not move.
58:46
Do not move. And as it is, they do move and
58:49
you do see Bruce Lanoil and that's why I brought him up.
58:55
I was too busy playing. A game on my phone.
58:57
To notice. Yeah, yeah, I was so bored.
59:02
Yes, Yeah. So Brucelyn Doyle is there
59:04
performing MO Frackle. There's all of our all of your
59:06
favorite puppets are there. And MO Frackle who, if you don't
59:10
know MO Frackle, is this monstery green guy who I highly
59:15
recommend Finding the MO Frackle article on Tough Pigs.
59:19
The The Oral History of MO Frackle by Anthony Strand, where
59:23
he interviewed Bruce and he interviewed James Voigtel, who
59:26
built the puppet. He interviewed Louis Anderson,
59:28
who was present for the first appearance of MO Frackle and
59:31
just. It's such a great deep dive into
59:33
such an obscure character. Like, really highly obscure and
59:38
it's a joy to see. There.
59:40
It's great. It's a great article.
59:41
It's great to see MO there. Is it a surprise that we're so
59:45
much more excited to see MO Freckle than Lady Gaga?
59:49
Probably not. Yeah, How?
59:51
How come it's not MO Freckle and The Muppets Holiday Spectacular?
59:54
Oh. What if?
59:55
What if it was just Kristen Bell and MO Freckle Holiday
59:58
Spectacular? Wonderful.
1:00:02
I am on board, Joseph. Oh, I love that idea.
1:00:06
Well, and with that, the special essentially ends.
1:00:08
We do get to see some bloopers, which are always fun.
1:00:12
We get Rizzo and Gonzo are sharing a moment where Rizzo is
1:00:16
complaining about how he doesn't get his name said out loud on
1:00:20
the show. Which is pretty funny, yeah.
1:00:22
New Zealand throws his boomerang fish, but it's still in his hand
1:00:26
and they all kind of go like they caught you.
1:00:28
You didn't. Like, throw it.
1:00:31
You screwed that up, Matt Bogle. That Fozzie and Pepe argue over
1:00:35
their scripts, Gonzo makes Kristen Bell nervous because
1:00:37
he's so handsome. And then there's.
1:00:41
And we talked a lot about Pepe being inappropriate in this
1:00:43
special, but there's a moment where Lady Gaga seems like she
1:00:47
was touched somewhere really inappropriate and Pepe is going
1:00:50
no, no, no, no, no, Yeah, that didn't really happen.
1:00:53
Like that was. If it was, it was an accident.
1:00:55
You can, yeah. You can hear Bill's the panic in
1:00:58
Bill's voice. He's like, whatever it is, they
1:01:01
didn't do it. Like, I'm sorry, I didn't mean
1:01:03
it. That's so much.
1:01:05
Fun, but he stays in character. Yes, right.
1:01:08
Yeah. He stays in character, though,
1:01:10
because at at the very start you hear Bill go and then Pepe goes,
1:01:15
I didn't do it. I didn't do it.
1:01:18
It's, it's funny, it's funny. But yes, it's nice to know that
1:01:21
Pepe doesn't actually do anything.
1:01:23
I don't know. Criminal.
1:01:26
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the whole coal crowd laughs.
1:01:31
And that's the biggest laugh we hear in the entire thing.
1:01:38
Oh, and with that, we are put out of our misery and the the
1:01:42
Lady Gaga special is over. Jared, what do you think?
1:01:46
Was this special so bad it's good?
1:01:49
Or is it just unwatchably bad? It's like a weird mixture of
1:01:56
both. It's look, I'm if any if that's
1:02:00
the case, if there are two options, I'm going to have to go
1:02:02
with unwatchingly bad. There are moments in it that
1:02:05
work. They are primarily Kristen Bell
1:02:08
moments. But like I said, I don't know
1:02:13
that I'll ever watch this again. Right.
1:02:15
Yeah, that's. I feel the same way.
1:02:17
I feel like there's there's moments that you could pull out
1:02:19
and put on YouTube and just enjoy this.
1:02:22
These 4 minutes, the four minutes of good.
1:02:24
Do not put yourself through the torture of over an hour's worth
1:02:27
of content just so that you could, I don't know, add it to
1:02:30
your never ending list of of Muppets Christmas Productions to
1:02:35
watch each year. And I wonder who this was for,
1:02:39
because was it for us Muppet fans?
1:02:42
Was it for Lady Gaga fans? What does the world's biggest
1:02:45
Lady Gaga fan think of this special?
1:02:47
Oh, I would love to know that because it really is a just a
1:02:50
promotion for her album. And yeah, yeah, you're right.
1:02:54
I would I'm, I'm not a Lady Gaga super fan.
1:02:56
I'm not a a little monster. I think they call themselves
1:02:59
something like that. So you know, I'd love to hear if
1:03:02
anyone, if there's any big Lady Gaga fanatics out there.
1:03:06
What is? What is the general consensus in
1:03:09
Gaga fandom? Do you go Gaga for this?
1:03:12
Special Or have they forgotten this exists like we do a lot of
1:03:16
the time? Yeah, yeah, Legit.
1:03:20
Well, Jared, it was such a joy to have you on this podcast.
1:03:24
I again apologize profusely for forcing you to rewatch this.
1:03:29
It'll never happen again. Until next time I make you
1:03:31
rewatch something terrible. Yeah, No, thanks.
1:03:35
I look forward to it. I just have one question for
1:03:37
you. Yeah, Muppet Sesame or Hanson.
1:03:41
Hey, that's a call back to our old podcast.
1:03:44
There it is. There it is.
1:03:45
I was going to shoehorn at the start.
1:03:47
I have one question for you. You ever get lonely?
1:03:51
Why are you getting so close? Do you?
1:03:53
Do you, Jared? Do you ever get lonely?
1:03:58
Is that SOAP? Please tell me, and please tell
1:04:03
our our faithful audience who've stuck through this podcast for
1:04:06
four episodes. Where, if anywhere, can people
1:04:09
find you on the Internet should you want to be found?
1:04:13
You can find me on Tough Pigs. Obviously.
1:04:17
You can find me on the Tough Pigs Discord.
1:04:19
You can find me on social media. I don't know what I will and
1:04:23
won't have by the time this comes out.
1:04:25
Just just type me in. I'm the Jarrett who's not from
1:04:28
North Carolina. There's only two Jareds.
1:04:32
Who, by the way? There are three Jared
1:04:34
Faircloths, one that lives in North Carolina, and I keep on
1:04:38
getting quotes for lumber. Oh, great, you should and I'd
1:04:43
like to say. That's the first time, yeah.
1:04:46
And I'm going to say this, I'd like to say that's the first
1:04:47
time I'll have mentioned that on this podcast channel.
1:04:51
But I do talk about that in an episode of Fraggle Talk that I
1:04:54
don't know has come out yet. So sorry for everyone who has to
1:04:57
hear that story twice. But I do go into more detail and
1:05:00
Fraggle talk. Great.
1:05:02
Check that out on the Fraggle Talk podcast.
1:05:03
Channel. Yeah, that's a little that
1:05:05
little Taser for you all. Great.
1:05:07
Well, I'm so glad that now everyone knows to find you on
1:05:09
social media is very specific. Whatever.
1:05:16
Well, that's a good way to end this.
1:05:18
Whatever. All right, well, for everything
1:05:20
else, tough pigs find us on toughpigs.com.
1:05:23
We're at Tough Pigs on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tiktok Blue,
1:05:28
Sky Threads, Discord, Our new Discord.
1:05:33
Please find us there. And then this is the end of this
1:05:37
podcast miniseries, so thank you for listening to these four
1:05:42
episodes of The Worst of The Muppets Holiday Edition.
1:05:44
We will be doing more of The Worst of The Muppets at some
1:05:47
point on this podcast channel, so please stay tuned for that
1:05:50
sometime in the future. In the meantime, we will be
1:05:53
picking up again very, very soon with a new season, Excuse me, a
1:05:57
new back end of the season of Hubba Wah, your favorite Muppet
1:06:01
trivia game show right here on this channel.
1:06:04
Stay tuned for that and we've got a lot more really fun stuff
1:06:07
in the works on this channel for the near future as well.
1:06:11
Thank you so much for sticking with us once again.
1:06:13
We are are very apologetic for making you revisit these
1:06:18
terrible, terrible specials and we will see you real soon on
1:06:23
toughpigs.com. Merry Christmas everybody.
1:06:26
Goodbye. It's the cleanliness.