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ToughPigs HQ - The Muppet Show Special · Muppet Fan Podcasts with ToughPigs.com

• 0:03
  Hello and welcome to Tough Pigs HQ.
• 0:06
  This is the podcast where Muppet fans have a chat.
• 0:09
  And that's the whole premise. My name is Johannes and I'm the
• 0:12
  editor in Chief of toughpigs.com.
• 0:14
  And on this edition of Tough Pigs HQ, we are getting hyped
• 0:17
  for the return of The Muppet Show.
• 0:19
  It's premiering on ABC and Disney Plus on Wednesday,
• 0:21
  February 4th. And to paraphrase a wise frog,
• 0:24
  these things are better when we got friends to share with.
• 0:27
  So it is time to play the music. It's time to light the lights.
• 0:30
  It's time to meet Becca Petunia. Yay, yay.
• 0:37
  It's time to put on makeup. It's time to dress up right.
• 0:40
  It's time to get things started with Drake Lucas.
• 0:43
  Hello. Hi, Drake.
• 0:46
  And why do we always come here? I guess we'll never know.
• 0:49
  It's like a kind of torture to have to watch Cameron Garrity.
• 0:52
  Oh. I say that to myself every
• 0:54
  morning in the bathroom mirror. It's the saddest thing I've ever
• 0:58
  heard. Hi everyone, thank you all so
• 1:00
  much for being here, for getting hyped about this muppet thing
• 1:03
  with with me. Thanks for having.
• 1:06
  Us, of course. I'm very excited about this
• 1:09
  Muppet thing. Maybe tell me why?
• 1:12
  Why are you excited about this Muppet thing back?
• 1:13
  OK, well, so I don't know if you know, but The Muppets are fun.
• 1:18
  No, it's so it's really what, what excites me is that this
• 1:23
  really feels like a concerted effort to try to get back to the
• 1:28
  core of what makes The Muppets work.
• 1:31
  And as much as I do appreciate them trying new things, and I
• 1:35
  always want them to try new things, I feel like if you're
• 1:38
  using the Muppet Show characters, they belong in a
• 1:43
  Muppet Show setting. You know, it's it's very much
• 1:47
  like they belong doing songs and sketches and being with guest
• 1:52
  stars and all of these different things because that's what they
• 1:55
  were designed to do. So I'm really excited to see
• 2:00
  that. And I also really like Sabrina
• 2:02
  Carpenter an awful lot, so I'm very excited for that as well.
• 2:06
  Yeah. And Becca, you made a really
• 2:08
  good point about the idea that they were designed for that
• 2:12
  space. And I think because there have
• 2:15
  been so many Muppet projects where they haven't been in the
• 2:18
  the Muppet Theater, like we don't think about that.
• 2:21
  Like, really seeing The Muppets do something where they're not
• 2:25
  there would be like watching Sesame Street where they're not
• 2:28
  in New York City on a brownstone.
• 2:32
  Like, and it it really is just so exhilarating, whether it's a
• 2:38
  crummy Christmas special or a Weezer music video or a Jason
• 2:42
  Segel vanity project, to see those characters on that stage
• 2:48
  and into those arches. Yeah, I have to admit, when you
• 2:52
  see the lights, when you see the arches and that whole feeling
• 2:55
  that comes back, I really, I'm, it doesn't, I can't help but be
• 2:59
  excited just seeing that. So I, I do, I really want to be
• 3:04
  excited about what's going to, what's going to happen.
• 3:07
  So I want to follow up on something that Cam said.
• 3:09
  So we've seen this before. We've seen The Muppets go back
• 3:13
  to the Muppet Theater at least those three times that you just
• 3:17
  alluded to. And the question really is like,
• 3:20
  like, like did it work then and why would we expect it to work
• 3:25
  now? Well, I don't know about you,
• 3:28
  but Keep Fishing is a really catchy Weezer song.
• 3:33
  I know a lot of people don't think Maladroit is the best
• 3:36
  Weezer album, and I'd be hard pressed to call it the best
• 3:39
  Weezer album, but I do think it's in the top half of of
• 3:43
  Weezer albums so. That is exactly what I was
• 3:46
  asking you. I wanted your opinion about
• 3:48
  Weezer songs. Thanks for following for.
• 3:51
  Yeah, like you caught on on that.
• 3:53
  Yeah, it's perfect. So there you go.
• 3:56
  I, I think what I, I, I might, this may be too early to get my
• 4:03
  aluminum foil hat on, but I, I think that the reason we know it
• 4:11
  works is because the 2015 show did so poorly.
• 4:17
  And this might be a hot take, but I think, you know, obviously
• 4:22
  the 2011 movie was, was a, a commercial success.
• 4:26
  They did the 2014 movie, not as well received, but did well
• 4:33
  enough and was also focused around, you know, largely The
• 4:36
  Muppet Show. And then I had so many people
• 4:41
  come up to me after the first episode of the ABC series,
• 4:48
  people who were parents of, of young children in particular,
• 4:51
  who would be angry at me saying, why did I invest all this time
• 4:57
  falling in love with The Muppets and getting my kids into The
• 5:01
  Muppet Show? And then this series comes on
• 5:05
  and it's filth. Now, you know, maybe that person
• 5:11
  was a little conservative, maybe was a, you know, moms.com, you
• 5:15
  know, Blogger or whatever. But like, clearly they had total
• 5:19
  issues with what they had been sort of built up to, to want.
• 5:25
  And I think they're like, there's a great case to be made
• 5:30
  for seeing those characters in that, in that format where all
• 5:35
  they have to do is, is is do silly sketches and, and sing
• 5:40
  contemporary songs, whatever they may be, and, and just allow
• 5:44
  for as many intersections as as possible, because that's what
• 5:50
  those characters are, are reactions to all the insanity
• 5:53
  that surround them. I think to that point too, you
• 5:57
  know, we, we've seen The Muppets try to recapture that, that
• 6:01
  feeling of the Muppet Show with whatever the modern thing is.
• 6:04
  It's like Muppets Tonight and the Muppet television stuff on
• 6:06
  Jim Henson Hour before that, and even like Muppets now much more
• 6:10
  recently. And there there's something
• 6:14
  missing. And I don't think I maybe one of
• 6:17
  you has a better way to say it, but like, I, I don't know what
• 6:19
  it is specifically about the Muppet Theatre doing a stage
• 6:24
  show. And you know, obviously we've
• 6:26
  seen backstage of this other the other projects I just mentioned,
• 6:29
  maybe not so much Muppets now, but if they didn't hit in the
• 6:32
  same way. So what is it about The Muppet
• 6:35
  Show in The Muppet Theater that works, whereas those other
• 6:38
  projects didn't catch on quite as much?
• 6:42
  Well, nostalgia is a trap. And it's funny that I started by
• 6:46
  saying like, I'm so happy that they're doing the same thing
• 6:49
  again, because I do understand that nostalgia can be a kind of
• 6:53
  stifling net that keeps us from exploring the world around us
• 6:57
  and all of those things. But it's it's powerful, right?
• 7:01
  And, and I really think, you know, ultimately we have the
• 7:04
  fondest memories of The Muppet Show because it is the higher
• 7:09
  quality thing The Muppets did that like people, more people
• 7:13
  are going to be nostalgic for the Muppet Theater then would be
• 7:16
  nostalgic for Muppet Central, you know, But again, not to, not
• 7:25
  to repeat myself, but like The Muppets, many, not all, but many
• 7:31
  of The Muppets were designed as players on a sort of variety
• 7:37
  vaudeville stage and setup. You know, Fozzie Bear, Piggy,
• 7:44
  they are characters who were made to sort of fill this kind
• 7:48
  of vaudeville variety archetype. And that means that this is this
• 7:54
  is a great place for them to be. It answers the questions of why
• 8:00
  why they're here automatically, and means you can really just
• 8:05
  focus on on them. And the vaudeville Theatre was
• 8:10
  nostalgic in 1976, right? Like that was that was the
• 8:17
  throwback to put contemporary artists in at that time.
• 8:23
  So it was already kind of a relic where I think a late night
• 8:28
  talk show in 2015 is 2/2 of the now you you'd need that that
• 8:36
  throwback of of, you know, and the magic of of an old theater
• 8:42
  house that is just something so quintessentially Muppet in a way
• 8:50
  that a blue screen television, you know, center just didn't
• 8:55
  quite pass the smell test. Yeah.
• 9:00
  And, you know, it's funny the the amount of time from the
• 9:02
  vaudeville days to the Muppet Show era, I, without doing the
• 9:07
  math in this moment, is kind of similar to the Muppet Show era
• 9:13
  to today in that maybe, you know, because because no one
• 9:17
  watching the Muppet Show today grew up like grew up watching
• 9:19
  vaudeville or very few of those people at least.
• 9:23
  And so like that nostalgia doesn't exist for a new
• 9:26
  variation of the Muppet Show. And, you know, also not for
• 9:30
  nothing, only so many people who are watching the new Muppet Show
• 9:33
  grew up watching the old Muppet Show.
• 9:36
  So maybe the solution is that they should be doing a throwback
• 9:39
  to variety shows of the Muppet Show era once again, of which
• 9:45
  the Muppet Show was maybe the the the best remembered 1.
• 9:49
  So like almost doing a a parody of themselves or reference to
• 9:52
  themselves in that way. There it is.
• 9:56
  I was kind of struck by by Becca's note that it was the
• 10:02
  most high quality. I actually, what I love is how
• 10:06
  how slap, you know, like just thrown together, like just try
• 10:12
  this out. Doesn't work.
• 10:13
  It's OK if it's not funny. There was the space to play and
• 10:18
  enough episodes in which to do it where there are plenty of
• 10:21
  things that are not The Muppet Show where like eyes are falling
• 10:26
  off or whatever. They got one take before the,
• 10:29
  you know, union guys went home, you know, and they were able to
• 10:32
  embrace it and then adds this like really nice charm to it
• 10:37
  where you kind of like you give it a chance, you stick with it.
• 10:41
  They had the time to play and the people willing to do that.
• 10:44
  And I think a little bit of my fear with Disney is that they
• 10:48
  aren't going to let them play so much and they're not going to
• 10:52
  let them be pinning stuff off to the side.
• 10:54
  And they're the atmosphere that from people I've talked with who
• 10:58
  worked on the show, it's like running backstage and being
• 11:01
  like, hand me that shark and running out again.
• 11:04
  I think all of that chaos helped to create the chaos on stage.
• 11:10
  That works really well. And and so when I say I'm
• 11:15
  excited, I am excited, but I'm also like, I hope they let them
• 11:19
  have, you know, give things a try and some are going to win
• 11:24
  and some aren't the same as SNL. Sometimes it's funny, sometimes
• 11:27
  it's not. But when you look back on it,
• 11:29
  you like embrace all the good stuff.
• 11:32
  And that's kind of like what I hope for it.
• 11:35
  And I think it that works in a way with the stage and the whole
• 11:38
  Muppet theater because that's what theater is.
• 11:41
  I mean, that is like you go out there, someone misses their cue,
• 11:44
  you have to make do. Like bringing that and bringing
• 11:47
  that feel onto what we see I think is going to be really
• 11:53
  important and it can't be kind of too forced.
• 11:55
  It has to come from a place of, I was going to say a place of
• 11:59
  reality. It's ATV show with puppets, but
• 12:00
  you know, like that. It has to come from that real
• 12:03
  feeling. I think there's a certain level
• 12:06
  and, and I've said this a lot, I feel like whenever anyone asks
• 12:10
  me, what do The Muppets mean to you and why do you like The
• 12:14
  Muppets? And like that came up like when
• 12:17
  Tori was in, our friend Tori was interviewing us all at the
• 12:22
  Muppet Henson birthday event last year, last last year, she
• 12:27
  was like, what, what are The Muppets mean to you, Becca?
• 12:30
  And the thing that I always say is like, what The Muppets mean
• 12:33
  to me is a certain, like unbridled and unrestricted
• 12:38
  creativity, the idea that you can and should do anything.
• 12:43
  And I don't mean like The Muppets as in like Kermit the
• 12:46
  Frog is about creativity. I mean like Jim Henson and Frank
• 12:50
  Oz and Jerry Nelson and Jerry Jewell and you know, and and.
• 12:55
  The Henson Associates. And Carolee Wilcox and Jane
• 12:58
  Henson and all of these people are about like, just let's build
• 13:02
  something and do something with it.
• 13:05
  And, and I do think you can see that energy in, in the early
• 13:10
  days of the Muppet Show. I, I think there is that energy
• 13:15
  of just like, let's try this. You know, what?
• 13:18
  If there were houses who told jokes and and then when only
• 13:23
  Becca found that funny, they they they said there's no longer
• 13:28
  going to be houses who tell jokes.
• 13:30
  That's rude to you. I know, I know someone should do
• 13:35
  a podcast about that. What if there were, what if
• 13:40
  there was, you know, a mad scientist who had inventions
• 13:43
  that don't work and then that kind of worked.
• 13:45
  So they were like, what can we do to punch this up?
• 13:48
  And they added Beaker and, and you know that that sort of just
• 13:54
  like, what do we think? What do we think works like?
• 13:58
  It's never the most direct answer.
• 14:00
  If you were going to say like, what should Bunsen's part, you
• 14:04
  know, assistant be no one, I can't say no one.
• 14:07
  But not many people would come up with Beaker, right?
• 14:11
  Would come up with Beaker, would figure out in a world where
• 14:14
  Beaker doesn't exist, would come with come up with Beaker.
• 14:17
  And yet they did and they had the creativity to try those new
• 14:20
  things. And and this is what to build
• 14:23
  off of what Drake said. This is what does give me some
• 14:25
  anxiety about it. Because as much as I'm like,
• 14:28
  look, The Muppets do belong in a theater.
• 14:33
  The Muppets do belong doing sketches and skits and, and
• 14:37
  talking to celebrities and, and singing songs and, and telling
• 14:42
  dumb jokes and being talking houses.
• 14:45
  But as much as I'm like this is what The Muppets need, The
• 14:49
  Muppets also need a level of freedom and creativity.
• 14:53
  And that is so much harder to find just in today's media
• 14:57
  environment in general. Because there is when there's
• 15:01
  10,000 shows that you could be watching, the idea that a show
• 15:05
  can just grow and experiment is, is much harder.
• 15:09
  So much of this is already established because you are
• 15:12
  doing a, you know, the existing Muppet, Muppet Theater, the
• 15:15
  existing Muppet Show. And I hope they are given the
• 15:19
  chance to try out new things, try new characters, try new
• 15:23
  pairings of characters and duos and contacts.
• 15:27
  You know, certainly bringing back, even bringing back Bean
• 15:30
  Bunny has me excited because it's like we can do Bean Bunny
• 15:33
  paired with characters that he never got to be paired with.
• 15:36
  And that might lead to new cool ideas.
• 15:39
  Yeah. So the thing that really for me
• 15:42
  that it comes down to with, you know, if we're going to be
• 15:45
  seeing this this like news, fresh creativity, if we're going
• 15:48
  to be seeing them trying to hit the same notes that The Muppets
• 15:52
  have always hit, especially the last couple of decades, is that,
• 15:57
  you know, we're missing a Jim Henson.
• 15:59
  And of course, we are all missing Jim Henson.
• 16:00
  But like, we're missing someone who can creatively be at the
• 16:02
  top, who can say yes to whatever the best because they've always
• 16:06
  said like best idea wins, but someone's going to be there to
• 16:09
  say what the best idea is, you know?
• 16:11
  And so having someone who's at the top of the pyramid, who can
• 16:16
  creatively control this whole thing and be on the floor so
• 16:20
  that if someone does something funny, they can say, yes, that's
• 16:23
  it. We're going to go with that.
• 16:24
  Let's keep moving. And I mean, for better or for
• 16:27
  worse, I don't know. I don't time will tell.
• 16:30
  Once we see this thing, we do have Seth Rogen and I, I, I want
• 16:35
  to believe that Seth Rogen having a career in comedy and a
• 16:39
  career in producing TV that, you know, he would be a good person
• 16:44
  that can be, you know, at the top of that pyramid and be able
• 16:47
  to approve some really fun creative ideas.
• 16:52
  So that leads me to my next question for you all.
• 16:54
  Is Seth Rogen good choice? We excited about that.
• 16:59
  It's hard not to have a little bit of, like I said before,
• 17:06
  vanity PTSD of the Jason Segel or the Josh Gad of it all.
• 17:13
  And it it does feel like of late, The Muppets can only come
• 17:19
  back if they have some celebrity to kind of provide the CPR to
• 17:25
  them. And so just that notion always
• 17:30
  has me a little on edge. What I'm hoping is that Drake
• 17:39
  made the analogy to Saturday Night Live, which I think is
• 17:43
  really apartment and I'd love to actually explore that a little
• 17:46
  bit later on. But I think we do have to temper
• 17:50
  our expectations that this special is a special in the same
• 17:57
  way that the the the SNL 50th anniversary special that we saw
• 18:02
  last year or two years ago now was a special of the show that
• 18:08
  they produce every week. And So what would be great is if
• 18:13
  Seth Rogen kind of did his life support on it, you know, gave us
• 18:19
  the paddles. And now we could then hand the
• 18:22
  reins off to, you know, whether it's the team that did Muppets
• 18:26
  Mayhem or it's Bill Beretta or whoever to then kind of politely
• 18:32
  step back and let us get on with a a next round of 120 episodes,
• 18:39
  which I know will never happen. But a guy can dream, right?
• 18:43
  But yeah, I think how how do you how do you do that without
• 18:47
  overstaying your welcome? I am heartened by the fact that
• 18:51
  I think his scene with Fozzie and Muppets Now was on like the
• 18:58
  one hand of bits that I really, really enjoyed of Muppets Now.
• 19:02
  And I have not watched the studio, but I have heard enough
• 19:06
  about the studio where it seems like he's got a good
• 19:09
  understanding of what works in Hollywood versus what works with
• 19:14
  an audience and a self reverence.
• 19:16
  And he kind of is able to give the middle finger to the
• 19:21
  industry in a similar way that I think The Muppets used to really
• 19:25
  be giving their own version of a middle finger to to the
• 19:28
  industry. Just to before you guys tell me
• 19:32
  your thoughts on this too, I want to follow up with about the
• 19:34
  studio specifically, which I I have watched and production
• 19:38
  wise, it's phenomenal. Like I think it's a great show,
• 19:40
  but like specifically the production of that show is like
• 19:43
  truly fantastic. And to have the producer,
• 19:47
  celebrity or not of that show coming over to The Muppets is is
• 19:51
  aces in my book. But also Seth Rogen is kind of
• 19:55
  playing like a version of himself in that, you know, this
• 19:58
  person who's like in Hollywood and trying to, you know, make a
• 20:01
  name for himself, you know, producing work, creating new
• 20:04
  things or new things based on old things.
• 20:07
  And I. But there from at least my
• 20:12
  perspective, there's no ego in it.
• 20:14
  Like yes, he's the star of the of the show, the studio, but
• 20:17
  he's not being like and all my ideas are great and and I'm get
• 20:21
  to work with all these properties that I love.
• 20:23
  So I think having that taken out of it hopefully will help us
• 20:28
  avoid that Jason Segel, miss of Hey, man, I just want to be in a
• 20:32
  Muppet movie. I just want to be a Muppet, and
• 20:34
  then I get to be a Muppet and I'll have that in in my home for
• 20:39
  the rest of my life. And you know, and then you get
• 20:43
  these like that, that symbol of the vanity projects.
• 20:47
  That doesn't really help the franchise in the long run
• 20:51
  anyway. Sorry.
• 20:52
  You know what I do want? You know what I do want to say?
• 20:55
  You know, what I do want to say is I haven't seen the studio.
• 20:57
  And obviously we can all think of Seth Rogen things that didn't
• 21:00
  work and yada yada, yada. Like, again, anyone who's been a
• 21:04
  comedian in Hollywood for as long as Seth Rogen, I could name
• 21:09
  10 projects I bounced off of. You know, again, I can name a
• 21:13
  bunch of Mel Brooks projects I bounced off of.
• 21:17
  Lord knows that New History of the World TV show was BAD.
• 21:23
  Once again, Josh Gad vanity project.
• 21:27
  No kidding. Yes, no kidding.
• 21:30
  I didn't remember that. I maybe knew that at one point.
• 21:32
  But what I wanted to say is, you know what project I loved, and I
• 21:36
  think Joe knows what I'm going to say, was Teenage Mutant Ninja
• 21:40
  Turtles, Mutant Mayhem. I didn't know you were going to
• 21:43
  say that, but that is a phenomenal example.
• 21:45
  I love that movie. I actually over the summer I
• 21:49
  watched it again and I was on my couch sobbing, which again is
• 21:54
  maybe the hormones. It's probably the hormones, but
• 22:00
  the fact of the matter is I love that movie and I think that that
• 22:04
  movie does a great job of taking the characters back to their
• 22:10
  back to their kind of roots and back to specific things that the
• 22:14
  the studio found finds interesting, but finding new
• 22:17
  things to do. Seth Rogen is in it, but Seth
• 22:21
  Rogen is not the star. Seth Rogen is either be he's
• 22:26
  he's he's bebop. Yeah, he easily could have cast
• 22:30
  himself as Michelangelo and we would have been like, well, it's
• 22:32
  his show. I mean, I guess that's what you
• 22:34
  got to do he. Could have cast himself as the
• 22:35
  main villain. He's Bebop, you know, again,
• 22:39
  like he's he's he's not even the main like Rocksteady, I feel
• 22:44
  like is the more popular one even of the two of Bebop and
• 22:47
  Rocksteady. But like that movie is charming
• 22:51
  and that movie manages to be really funny and also have a lot
• 22:54
  of heart. Again, it made me cry.
• 22:56
  I was like, Splinter is just trying to be a good dad.
• 23:01
  I get it. I get it.
• 23:03
  So I'm hoping like that makes me hopeful.
• 23:07
  And and it's funny because this morning, like whenever I do a
• 23:10
  podcast, I always say, Hey, Lee, I'm about to do this podcast.
• 23:14
  Like what are your thoughts on this to to my spouse Lee and Lee
• 23:18
  was like Seth Rogen's going to be fine because mutant mayhem
• 23:22
  was good. That was like literally like Lee
• 23:24
  was just like playing playing video games on the couch and was
• 23:28
  like, it's going to be fine. Seth.
• 23:30
  The the Ninja Turtles were good. Hear me out Teenage Mutant Ninja
• 23:35
  Turtles. Electric Mutant Mayhem, huh?
• 23:39
  Huh. No, no, nobody likes that idea.
• 23:42
  OK, I'll shut up now. That's fine.
• 23:43
  Oh, oh, sorry, I Yep. Oh yeah, it's even better when
• 23:47
  you have to think about it for a while.
• 23:49
  You were putting the peanut butter in the chocolate?
• 23:50
  I love that. Yep, great.
• 23:53
  I I do like that Seth seems to be able Seth like I know you.
• 23:58
  Know your old. Friend.
• 23:59
  Yeah, I do like that Seth Organ does seem to be able to, to
• 24:04
  laugh at himself and I think that goes a long way when you
• 24:08
  are the head of something and involved in something.
• 24:12
  I I think the studio is great. I think it's a wonderful show.
• 24:15
  At does concern me that it's about him, you know.
• 24:18
  So I, I, I think it'll be interesting to see if, if he can
• 24:23
  step back, if he could be a Lord Lou grade or something, just
• 24:29
  like lend your name in that case of money and, and really let
• 24:35
  the, with the characters play. And I think, you know, that the
• 24:41
  Muppet performers know what makes them laugh.
• 24:44
  And it seemed to that in the original, a lot of it was trying
• 24:47
  to make each other laugh and entertain each other.
• 24:51
  And maybe that was the bar for like, what we can get away with.
• 24:56
  And I'm hoping that that holds true with the new production as
• 24:59
  well. Because I think when they are
• 25:01
  given a chance to just kind of like Riff and, you know, do a
• 25:05
  few takes and have fun with it, that they can get to a good
• 25:09
  place with that. And so again, having that space
• 25:12
  to play is really important. And Seth Rogen seems like he
• 25:15
  might be into that, where you can have a little little space
• 25:19
  to play. Maybe we'll find out that that
• 25:23
  Seth Rogen is Scooter's uncle. On the other side.
• 25:28
  Yeah, on the other side you get multiple uncles.
• 25:32
  So I asked each of you to to bring a couple of questions to
• 25:37
  this conversation so that I wouldn't have to write too many
• 25:39
  questions. Do any of you have something
• 25:41
  that you want to ask the rest of the group?
• 25:43
  I am curious and I don't know that it needs to happen
• 25:48
  necessarily in in this special, but I it's hard not to fantasize
• 25:53
  that there might be a a series on its way.
• 25:56
  Do you, how much do you guys want to see a balance between
• 26:01
  established classic characters and the potential for completely
• 26:07
  new characters or sort of reimaginings of, you know, you
• 26:12
  think of an Uncle Deadly character like or a you know, I
• 26:16
  would love a Mr. Curly Twirly revival in 2026.
• 26:20
  Like I know how much you want. To see at that bail.
• 26:22
  Boss, he's not your boss. You don't just suck up to him.
• 26:25
  You don't just suck up to him. No, I think Mr. Curly Twirly is
• 26:29
  Cam's boss. Oh, OK, right.
• 26:33
  He's actually my uncle. Uncle Mr. Curly and.
• 26:38
  Yes, that's right. That's right.
• 26:41
  I personally would love to see new characters and reimagine
• 26:45
  characters. You know, again, one of the
• 26:47
  things, and I was going to talk about this, but one of the
• 26:49
  things I love is that they rebuilt all of these characters,
• 26:52
  you know, Hilda and and Miss Mousy and and the freckles, you
• 26:59
  know, and and Paul Revere, the horse seems to be in this.
• 27:04
  Not on my bingo card. Paul Revere.
• 27:05
  No, no, not on my bingo card, but but I would love to see some
• 27:11
  of those characters. Like what could a new performer
• 27:14
  do with Miss Mousy? You know, is there is there a
• 27:17
  world where Miss Mousy is, you know, the new breakout character
• 27:21
  in the same way that we never would have thought Uncle Deadly
• 27:24
  would be a character that legit like normal people know now,
• 27:29
  which was not the case when I was, you know, a a child Muppet
• 27:34
  fan. But I would love that.
• 27:38
  And I think that, you know, there's been a lot of talk
• 27:42
  lately about recasts, and I'm not going to get into that on
• 27:47
  this because presumably Joe doesn't want to be here 9 or 10
• 27:52
  hours. But there is something really
• 27:57
  special about a Muppet performer or any performer getting to
• 28:01
  create a new character of their own.
• 28:04
  Because, you know, sometimes it does feel like The Muppets are
• 28:09
  just, you know, the, the Muppet performers are just playing the
• 28:14
  hits and, and not even their hits, but other people's hits.
• 28:18
  I think that that's a reductive way to say it.
• 28:20
  Some people have said that, but I, I would love to see that,
• 28:26
  that new angle and that new creativity.
• 28:29
  The question is will, will they be allowed to do that?
• 28:32
  And that remains to be seen. I think that depends on how many
• 28:35
  episodes they get. You know, a, a, a full series
• 28:39
  you can absolutely be like, you know what we're going to do 1
• 28:43
  episode where where Miss Mousey really has a lot to do and we'll
• 28:47
  see what happens from there. One special You presumably would
• 28:53
  want mostly Kermit and Fozzie and Gonzo and Bunsen and Beaker
• 28:57
  and. All those obscure characters,
• 28:59
  yeah. Yeah, yeah.
• 29:02
  I would love to see more of the female characters get a chance
• 29:06
  to. That was what my question was
• 29:08
  about. Unsurprisingly, Drake.
• 29:10
  Be, you know, become more of the featured players and I would
• 29:14
  love to see women play them. I think there are quite a few
• 29:18
  very talented female puppeteers and you know, there hasn't been
• 29:24
  the space for them to break. I, I love the OG characters and
• 29:30
  I of course want to see them. I think if like Gonzo didn't
• 29:33
  appear as much, that would be weird, you know, So I feel like,
• 29:35
  of course, but I feel like getting some female voices in
• 29:40
  there would be little female voices in there would be great.
• 29:45
  And I also just love, I mean, like I love Joe from Legal.
• 29:50
  I think that is a fantastic character that is kind of fun to
• 29:55
  throw in. And it doesn't mean that you
• 29:57
  have to give that little weasel full storyline, but give it
• 30:01
  having a chance to like have it become like a, you know, lose
• 30:06
  Zealand or have one of those characters that pops up or like
• 30:08
  a crazy Harry or something. Like we don't have crazy Harry's
• 30:11
  back story. I I don't really want to know
• 30:13
  what's in crazy Harry's back story.
• 30:15
  It's it's I'm. Sure, it's disturbing.
• 30:17
  It's disturbing and loud, but but he that's a great character
• 30:22
  to just pop up and having more of those can be, you know, fun
• 30:26
  if you know, done tastefully and not just like 1 after the other.
• 30:29
  But I think I think that they do do that well.
• 30:32
  And as we've seen, they're rotating in some of the ones
• 30:35
  that have come from other productions being Bunny, We've
• 30:39
  got in there, we've got Rizzo, who was not on the original.
• 30:43
  Well, he. Was but.
• 30:45
  Yeah, yeah. But you know, it just feels as
• 30:48
  if like they are like giving that idea that that could
• 30:52
  happen. So I'm looking forward to seeing
• 30:54
  what happens with some of those characters.
• 30:55
  Yeah, and you even think of like, you know, Pepe and Bobo
• 30:59
  who are, I would say, you know, Pepe certainly is a main
• 31:03
  character. Bobo's maybe in more of a
• 31:05
  secondary role at this point, but like, those were breakout
• 31:09
  stars of a 90s Muppet show. So like, you know, there was
• 31:14
  something really exhilarating about seeing Bobo in the arches
• 31:18
  too, in the in the longer teaser that we got.
• 31:21
  I do love that that mix of the characters from different eras.
• 31:24
  I think that's really satisfying and it really calls back to that
• 31:27
  whole like more dogs and frogs and bears and chickens and
• 31:30
  things from Mummosig Manhattan, which I, I believe in both on
• 31:34
  screen and behind the scenes, they should be getting more and
• 31:37
  more involved. But one thing that I love about
• 31:39
  the Muppet characters is that they have an opportunity to
• 31:42
  create characters that fit either 3 dimensional characters
• 31:48
  that we know everything about them and like they're very
• 31:50
  specific personalities like Herman, Piggy and Fozzie.
• 31:53
  And then you've got these, these two-dimensional characters were
• 31:55
  like, we know enough about them and they can have a little bit
• 31:59
  of nuance. Like I'm thinking about like
• 32:00
  Bunsen and Beeker, Stettler, Waldorf, where like they're
• 32:03
  really defined by what they do, but there's there's more to them
• 32:06
  than just that. And then you've got these
• 32:08
  one-dimensional characters who do one thing and you know, like
• 32:11
  your crazy Harry's or or whatnot.
• 32:13
  And oh, actually then there's a fourth one which are just like
• 32:16
  these background characters like like I'm thinking about like
• 32:19
  Boppity and. Gaffer.
• 32:21
  Gaffer is a great example and can.
• 32:23
  You imagine having to do a whole episode on gaffer.
• 32:26
  That's The thing is like I. Absolutely can, and it would be
• 32:29
  awesome. But like, I don't feel like we
• 32:32
  need to have like, well, then this is the Miss Mousey episode
• 32:35
  so that we can give Miss Miss Mousey our personality.
• 32:37
  I don't think that's necessary. But I do think that these
• 32:40
  characters being given more time and more screen time and getting
• 32:44
  helping us to get to know what their shtick is will help.
• 32:49
  I think it would be really hard to do the Uncle Deadly thing to
• 32:52
  to most any Muppet character because Uncle Deadly, we forget
• 32:56
  like he had a personality, like he was like this scary phantomy
• 33:01
  guy. And then they were like, forget
• 33:04
  that. We'll keep some of that stuff.
• 33:06
  But we want to make him this other guy that, you know, is
• 33:09
  Miss Piggy's wardrobe person. And like that was brilliant and
• 33:14
  it works perfectly. But you know, I think to do that
• 33:17
  with Crazy Harry or Loose Zealand or something like that,
• 33:20
  it just wouldn't wouldn't feel right.
• 33:21
  But we do have all these characters that are poorly
• 33:24
  defined, like Miss Mousey or like Annie Sue.
• 33:27
  And or even like lips initially. I mean, it's a great.
• 33:30
  Example. And if Muppets Mayhem, we're
• 33:32
  able to pull out a whole, right? Because you could argue that
• 33:36
  lips didn't have a personality that all these different
• 33:38
  attempts at like giving him a little thing and then just they
• 33:40
  never did anything with him. I've said this before, my spouse
• 33:43
  had no idea who Lips was. You know, I've seen great Muppet
• 33:47
  caper just like didn't resonate. We were watching Muppets Mayhem
• 33:51
  and they were like, who's the new one?
• 33:53
  Yeah, right. We're like, is that Mahamena?
• 33:55
  And I was like, no, but that's OK.
• 33:58
  No, that's a chrysanthemum. Enjoy this new character.
• 34:00
  Right. Yes.
• 34:02
  Anyway, that said is like, you know, I think there's a reason
• 34:04
  that some of these characters that we're mentioning did not
• 34:06
  get their own dedicated week in the official 70th anniversary
• 34:09
  campaign. Because even though we all know
• 34:11
  them and we consider them like us, the fans consider them
• 34:14
  iconic or important. They have no personality.
• 34:17
  They have no background. They have no real consistent
• 34:21
  voice. And to be able to give them some
• 34:24
  sort of consistency in some sort of like, OK, we've given a
• 34:28
  personality trait to Miss Mousy, so now you know who she is when
• 34:30
  she shows up, or there's a little bit of weight to it when
• 34:32
  you see her singing in the background with 30 other
• 34:35
  Muppets. I do know that she doesn't want
• 34:38
  boys to boil her or try to spoon, so just jot that down.
• 34:42
  OK, got it. But then like the other thing
• 34:44
  that we're talking about here is creating new characters.
• 34:47
  And I think there's such an opportunity to create some new
• 34:54
  characters. But the thing that I'm worried
• 34:56
  about with that is this thing, Becca, you know more about this
• 34:59
  than any of us because you've been doing this research on it
• 35:02
  for the period on Companion Podcast in that it can't just
• 35:08
  say here's our new character like here she is.
• 35:12
  It doesn't work. It doesn't work.
• 35:14
  It almost it almost never works. I guess Abby is is like the one
• 35:19
  exception and or Zoe. But like that was a a concerted
• 35:23
  like major push Abby. Abby was a whole marketing and
• 35:29
  media blowout kind of thing. I think the solution though is
• 35:33
  like, you have to create 10 characters and hope the two of
• 35:37
  them stick like that. Look at Muppets tonight, all
• 35:39
  those characters and then you end up getting Bobo and Pepe and
• 35:42
  great, we got 2 new ones. Seymour who?
• 35:46
  Who is that Seymour? Seymour who?
• 35:48
  Joe Joe, you still promised me your spare Phil Van Neuter
• 35:51
  action figures. Did I?
• 35:53
  Yes. Yes.
• 35:54
  Great. Good.
• 35:57
  But yeah, you know, I think that there's a lot to be said for
• 36:01
  these characters who sort of emerge organically.
• 36:04
  And I think we have seen that sometimes be some of the most
• 36:08
  memorable characters. You know, Rizzo, for example,
• 36:12
  definitely feels like like he he was kind of created that way.
• 36:17
  And obviously, obviously on Sesame Street, you even kind of
• 36:22
  see that with like Elmo and Telly, who sort of just grow
• 36:25
  over time and become two of the biggest stars of Sesame Street.
• 36:30
  It's it's a balance. And again, part of what that's
• 36:33
  required is time and space. And it also requires, you know,
• 36:37
  new voices and new ideas. And I'm really glad, you know,
• 36:42
  we, we don't know much. We, we, we might know a little
• 36:47
  bit, but not that much. But one thing that we do know
• 36:50
  and that is public, is there was a huge team of puppeteers on
• 36:53
  this this Muppet Show special. And probably a lot of them will
• 36:58
  just be puppeteering Muppets in the background and in Group
• 37:02
  shots and right handing and all of these different things.
• 37:07
  But here's hoping that a lot of them do get a chance to try new
• 37:11
  characters. Because again, I think bringing
• 37:13
  in a new voice is also just a great way to make a new
• 37:17
  character. I mean, like, that's part of
• 37:20
  that's part of why I think Mary Dawn works is because she was
• 37:24
  this character who was added and also was added at the same time
• 37:28
  as Fran Brill, you know, and, and developed that way.
• 37:33
  So I think giving those kind of new, new voices and, and new
• 37:38
  people a chance. It's why I'm so hyped for for
• 37:41
  Bradley Freeman out here doing doing Rizzo and Dean is I really
• 37:45
  want that injection of of new blood and and new ideas into the
• 37:49
  family. You know who's doing that
• 37:51
  perfectly right now is the new Fraggle Rock series where
• 37:55
  they're like, hey, let's, you know, give Kanye Chen this
• 37:59
  character that pops up and says I'm Pogey.
• 38:02
  And then a year later, like Pogey has their own episode and
• 38:06
  this entire back story and personality.
• 38:09
  And and then even like these smaller characters, like, like
• 38:12
  one of my favorites is little Raggo and little Raggo has this
• 38:15
  one little joke and we don't want to know anything else about
• 38:17
  little Raggo. And I think it's hysterical.
• 38:19
  And that only works because like someone took that character and
• 38:22
  wrote a little bit of something and then that they liked it.
• 38:25
  They were a little bit more and then became a running thing.
• 38:27
  You know, they were playing around with the with the doll on
• 38:30
  set and making jokes with people and they're like, oh, we'll
• 38:32
  write that in Index season. Exactly.
• 38:35
  And to my earlier point, they've got a John Tartaglia on set
• 38:39
  who's able to be like, yes, best idea, let's go with it.
• 38:42
  Totally. And I, I do think some of what
• 38:45
  we're pointing to, but I haven't said out loud yet, is this idea
• 38:50
  of, of knowing that there's a little bit of opportunity for
• 38:56
  maybe quantity over quality, but definitely knowing that like
• 39:00
  there will be a next season or there will be 10 episodes to
• 39:04
  play an experiment. I think that's why the SNL
• 39:08
  metaphor is again, apartment to go to, because there is this
• 39:13
  sense of players who they are in the background for a bunch of
• 39:18
  weeks and then all of a sudden they have a great sketch and
• 39:21
  everyone's like, Oh my gosh, I want to see Marcelo Hernandez in
• 39:24
  everything. Right, And The Muppets kind of
• 39:27
  have that lineage as well. Sesame Street has that lineage
• 39:31
  and I think it's a great comparison to, you know, what
• 39:34
  you see with with Zoe and Tally and and Rosita characters that
• 39:39
  existed in 130 episode character ecosystem versus and I'll say,
• 39:45
  and I know some of the people who perform these characters,
• 39:48
  but these new puzzle place Sesame Street puppet humans,
• 39:52
  like I could barely tell you a thing about them beyond maybe
• 39:57
  their names, which I feel terrible about.
• 40:00
  I I do like Andrew Cano is one of my best friends and I don't
• 40:05
  know the character that he plays on Sesame Street or what the
• 40:07
  character is really about. It's important to know that Joey
• 40:11
  is the first Italian American Muppet.
• 40:14
  And Joey has one major like that is he likes cooking with his
• 40:20
  dad. Did you?
• 40:22
  Is his dad Angelo? No.
• 40:24
  Maybe because you just described Angelo like a young version of
• 40:27
  Angelo. But no, I totally get it and I
• 40:31
  feel this I I have I have mixed feelings about the.
• 40:34
  And and truly no hate like again, that's some of that is
• 40:37
  more to like you. There's a lot more you could do
• 40:39
  in 130 episodes than you can do in 26 or however many they're
• 40:44
  making now. That they appear in maybe one of
• 40:47
  of those 26. Yeah.
• 40:49
  And again, that's the thing. And that's why with this
• 40:51
  special, I'm not necessarily expecting us to get like a ton
• 40:55
  of new characters and bold new ideas in this one special
• 40:59
  because it's 40 minutes or we're assuming it's 40 minutes.
• 41:03
  Yeah, we actually don't. That's we, we know very little
• 41:06
  by the way. Like I mean, by the time this
• 41:08
  episode comes out, maybe this podcast, I mean like we might
• 41:12
  have a little bit more information.
• 41:13
  But as of right now, all we know is we've got that little teaser
• 41:17
  and we know when it's airing, what day, not what time.
• 41:22
  And like, that's it. Which is also, I mean, we don't
• 41:25
  have time to get into this, but like, bonkers how how little we
• 41:28
  know just a few weeks away from this premiere.
• 41:31
  You know, and here's hoping that this is that we do get more
• 41:34
  episodes because this is kind of what I, what I do want to see.
• 41:38
  I mean, and, and often, but here's hoping because in today's
• 41:43
  media landscape, that kind of stuff is not a guarantee.
• 41:46
  Can I give you my hot take on this?
• 41:48
  I don't know if this is specifically what you were
• 41:50
  saying, but we we're talking about more episodes.
• 41:52
  Everyone, everyone wants this to be a series pick up.
• 41:55
  I'm kind of against that. There's my hot take.
• 41:58
  I don't want a series pick up. I want Disney to commit to doing
• 42:02
  regular specials. I want them to be able to take
• 42:04
  the time to be, to do because, you know, because if, if we knew
• 42:09
  that like, OK, they got three months to like, you know, write
• 42:13
  and perform and film a thing as opposed to dedicating themselves
• 42:17
  having to do something for 10 weeks in a row and then get
• 42:19
  behind schedule. And then the writers don't have
• 42:21
  time to, to judge things the way that we've been talking about
• 42:25
  it. You know, on the day I, I, I, I
• 42:28
  would rather they do something of quality over quantity because
• 42:33
  I worry that if they got a whole season of something that like,
• 42:37
  you know, it, it would kind of get stale after a few episodes
• 42:40
  or the audience isn't going to stick around.
• 42:41
  And then suddenly you have another failed Muppet project.
• 42:43
  And for the failed Muppet project to be The Muppet Show,
• 42:47
  the one thing that should not fail in my opinion.
• 42:49
  Like I think it'll be kind of devastating to the brand and
• 42:52
  it'll be devastating to me. And that's all I really care
• 42:53
  about. That's a that's a good point.
• 42:55
  I I guess when I say quantity over quality, I guess what I'm
• 42:59
  more looking for is the promise of a next project.
• 43:03
  You know, Carole Spinney years ago said this great thing about
• 43:06
  the the beauty of of The Beatles was that Paul McCartney always
• 43:14
  knew that he was going to write another song.
• 43:16
  Like he never wrote anything thinking, well, this is I hope
• 43:19
  this works or else these Beatles might go away.
• 43:22
  Like we're we're always going to be writing more stuff.
• 43:25
  And I think The Muppets just need that.
• 43:27
  And they haven't had that in a long time of like, Oh yeah, save
• 43:31
  that for next quarters Muppet special or 2028 Muppet special
• 43:36
  or whatever it is. But just knowing that something
• 43:39
  else is is on the horizon. And as we know, The Beatles
• 43:42
  never broke up. They're still making.
• 43:43
  That's right. Yeah, famously.
• 43:45
  Well, two of them are still making music.
• 43:48
  Not as The Beatles though. Sorry.
• 43:50
  Drake, please. No, I I kind of feed them.
• 43:53
  I was wondering which is what, what would say to you that damn,
• 44:00
  this was good. Like this was successful.
• 44:03
  What what? Because I hear a lot about like
• 44:06
  if this isn't good again or, or if this isn't in there, there's
• 44:11
  a lot of like this isn't. But what would, what would make
• 44:14
  people feel like? That's what I wanted to see.
• 44:17
  Nothing, because people are dumors and defeatists.
• 44:21
  No, not. You Becca though.
• 44:23
  But some people, for some people, that's true because
• 44:27
  there's nothing that they can do that will be good enough.
• 44:30
  Nothing can match the nostalgia in your, in your, in your of
• 44:33
  your memory. Like not even real nostalgia,
• 44:36
  just what you kind of think you remember.
• 44:38
  No, And I think that's true. But for people on this call,
• 44:40
  what it what TV would say like because I don't look at you as
• 44:44
  doomers. I look at you all as like, you
• 44:46
  know, optimistic Muppet fans who are coming back to see more and
• 44:51
  hoping for more and have ideas about what you want to see.
• 44:54
  And I guess what I'm wondering is like, what is it that you
• 44:57
  want to see from this? Well, here's the thing.
• 45:00
  How many times Joe, Joe and I have been in the Muppet Muppet
• 45:04
  fan journalism game forever? How many times have we seen a
• 45:10
  project where we felt or by we, I don't necessarily mean Joe and
• 45:16
  I, but I mean like people at large felt like if this one
• 45:20
  doesn't succeed, The Muppets are doomed.
• 45:24
  How many times has it felt like Muppets 2015 ended?
• 45:29
  We're never going to see The Muppets again.
• 45:32
  Muppets Mayhem ended. This might be it for The
• 45:34
  Muppets. Muppets Tonight ended.
• 45:37
  This might be it for The Muppets.
• 45:38
  Muppets from Space flopped. This might be it for The
• 45:41
  Muppets. You know The Jim Henson Hour
• 45:46
  flopped. This might be it for them.
• 45:48
  Oh my God you're giving so many examples.
• 45:50
  This is so depressing. The Muppets really haven't been
• 45:52
  the same since Sandman Friends ended.
• 45:55
  But like, but like, but like, I know from being on the forums
• 45:59
  and stuff and then for writing for Tough Pigs for for half of
• 46:03
  those that we had these discussions, you know, when when
• 46:07
  the show was cancelled, when 2015 was cancelled, there were
• 46:11
  people being like, this is it Disney doesn't Disney doesn't
• 46:15
  like The Muppets anymore. And then they they do always
• 46:20
  come back. You know, guys, they have a new
• 46:23
  roller coaster this year. And I know that that roller
• 46:26
  coaster is not maybe what everybody wanted, but there are
• 46:31
  other things The Muppets are doing.
• 46:34
  So I don't think that The Muppets are dead as a brand if
• 46:37
  this show. Doesn't get picked up.
• 46:40
  That's not Drake's question, though.
• 46:41
  Oh, I'm sorry, I I misunderstood.
• 46:43
  It no, no, you made some very good points, but the question
• 46:46
  being the opposite of that is what could they do that would
• 46:49
  make you go? They like they they're back.
• 46:51
  They did it like they're like, is there something that could be
• 46:53
  in this special like and and you know, for me, like I'd like to
• 46:56
  put a lot more thought into this than than just speaking off the
• 46:59
  cuff today. But I do think that there are
• 47:02
  probably like a bingo card of like, I want a memeable moment.
• 47:07
  I want, I want there to be like a genuine, clever laugh out loud
• 47:13
  moment. Like I want The Muppets to be
• 47:15
  funny. I want I want Sabrina Carpenter
• 47:22
  to do such a good job that other celebrities take to social media
• 47:25
  to say, Oh my God, I want to do that.
• 47:27
  How do I get on The Muppet Show? I don't know if those are like
• 47:31
  the be all end all of like, that's what calls it, that's
• 47:33
  what we'll call a success. But these are the kinds of
• 47:35
  things where like like at least on the right going in the right
• 47:38
  direction. Yeah, I think for me, I want to
• 47:42
  see something new in in terms of if it's it'll be fine if it's
• 47:51
  all just pigs in space and vets hospital and then they sing
• 47:53
  Rainbow Connection at the end. Like I'll still love that, but
• 47:57
  not as much as if they do like even AI keep saying this because
• 48:03
  I'm trying to will it to happen. But like a happiness hotel
• 48:07
  segment. But it's like the white Lotus
• 48:11
  and it's just pops in different places, different tropical areas
• 48:15
  or like, you know, some of those pre tapes that they did for the
• 48:18
  live muppet shows. Like stuff like that I think
• 48:20
  will be really exciting. I think if we could see Sabrina
• 48:23
  Carpenter humbled a little bit, which I think we've already
• 48:27
  seen, you know, she's dressed identically to Miss Piggy, but
• 48:30
  like to see her, you know, I don't know what her special
• 48:34
  skills are, but like to find out she could tap dance or could
• 48:37
  find out she could, you know, do something in the vein of, like,
• 48:41
  Beverly Sills putting a spoon on her nose.
• 48:44
  Like, I want to see something like that.
• 48:47
  And I just want to be genuinely left wanting more.
• 48:51
  You know what I want all Muppet fans, everybody listening to
• 48:53
  this. You at home, kids at home.
• 48:56
  I want you to, I want you to close your eyes, OK, and open
• 49:01
  your eyes and go walk to your television.
• 49:04
  And Cam, this is directed at you and this is directed at our
• 49:07
  listeners. I want you to go on Netflix and
• 49:11
  put on a nonsense Christmas with Sabrina Carpenter.
• 49:16
  Because here's the thing that it feels like every Muppet fan I've
• 49:19
  spoken to either doesn't know or didn't see.
• 49:25
  Sabrina Carpenter filmed a full variety special with skits,
• 49:32
  songs, covers, celebrity guests, a multiple comedy routines,
• 49:39
  takes to the audience, outfit changes, all of these different
• 49:44
  things, new songs, old songs. It exists.
• 49:49
  It happened already. Sabrina Carpenter was already on
• 49:54
  a variety show that she hosted and starred in, and it was
• 49:58
  actually a lot of fun. I mean, it was not as good as
• 50:01
  like the best of The Muppet Show, but you want to see
• 50:05
  Sabrina Carpenter use special talents to do fun things in a
• 50:10
  variety show format? It's out there.
• 50:13
  I, I appreciate knowing that. I will also say just again, as
• 50:17
  I've said, I'm a huge SNL fan. She's great on SNL.
• 50:21
  And I think I genuinely believe even before we knew that this
• 50:25
  special was happening, if you had asked me, I would have said
• 50:28
  Sabrina Carpenter is like the perfect guest for a Muppet show.
• 50:35
  So I, I, I genuinely to, to your question, Drake, I think the
• 50:38
  fact that they picked her is at least 80% of the job right
• 50:45
  there. I I have a question about this
• 50:47
  Christmas special because we know that she can sing, we know
• 50:51
  that she can act. We know that she can be funny,
• 50:53
  but I think the thing that Cam was kind of hinting at is, was
• 50:56
  there something else that she did in that special that was
• 51:00
  like, she would never have had an opportunity to do this if she
• 51:03
  was not specifically on a variety show like tap dance,
• 51:06
  like Yodel, like Hang Us. No, no, that is admittedly true.
• 51:10
  But in terms of being humbled, she is the butt of a lot of the
• 51:14
  jokes. I mean, that's great.
• 51:16
  I, I do, I do love that. But I, I do also love the idea
• 51:20
  of like when Jim Henson would take the, I think David Laser
• 51:23
  would take the, the guest star out to lunch before they would
• 51:27
  start writing and just be like, what have you always wanted to
• 51:30
  do? And you've never had the
• 51:30
  opportunity because you you're a ballet dancer and Rudolph and
• 51:34
  radio have to be able to say like, I want to sing a song and,
• 51:37
  you know, in a tuxedo, you know, or whatever it was that he said
• 51:40
  for that. And like what what an
• 51:42
  opportunity this could be. And, and also for the audience
• 51:47
  to not know what to expect. And Sabrina carpet is not the
• 51:52
  best example for what I'm about to say because she really can do
• 51:56
  so many different things. But I feel like so many guest
• 51:59
  stars and, and for the old Muppet show as well, it's like,
• 52:02
  you know, you know, Debbie Harry is going to be the guest star.
• 52:05
  She's probably going to be singing Debbie Harry songs and
• 52:07
  like, she's like, that's kind of it.
• 52:10
  But when you get surprised by someone and you're like, Oh my
• 52:13
  God, they're so good. They're so funny.
• 52:14
  And I didn't think they were funny.
• 52:15
  They sing so well. I didn't know they could sing,
• 52:17
  you know, whatever it is. I would love to see more of
• 52:20
  that. That's something The Muppets
• 52:21
  really brought out of people. Drake, did you have an answer to
• 52:25
  your own question? I think, I think everyone kind
• 52:30
  of hinted at some of the things. One is I would love to genuinely
• 52:33
  laugh out loud. Like I just want to laugh.
• 52:35
  That's why I love The Muppets and I'd love, I would love to
• 52:38
  hear the worst pun I've ever heard.
• 52:41
  I would appreciate it so much. And I guess going back to what
• 52:47
  we talked about before, I kind of want that feeling that
• 52:50
  they're having fun and they want us to have fun.
• 52:53
  Like not that this is making money, not that this is reaching
• 52:58
  so many people, not that this is whatever.
• 53:00
  Like those goals seem a little bit like not real success.
• 53:05
  I think it it is this word genuinely entertained in some
• 53:08
  way. So, and not all of not all of it
• 53:11
  means laughter. I mean, some of my favorite
• 53:13
  moments from the Mubbish are actually very quiet, but very
• 53:17
  thoughtful. And you feel something and I
• 53:19
  guess like I want to feel something coming away from it.
• 53:22
  I think that's a great word, Drake just feel something
• 53:25
  because like, I don't think I laugh out loud much watching
• 53:28
  back to the rock. But as far as reboots of Muppet
• 53:32
  things go thus far back to the rock is the is the, the, the
• 53:36
  gold standard? You know, I, I think that most
• 53:40
  Muppet fans would agree with me that in terms of just reboots of
• 53:44
  things and, and, but I do feel something meaningful about the
• 53:49
  back to the rock that I watch. I, I, I, it's so vague to be
• 53:55
  like, I want to feel something. Or I mean, like literally this
• 53:59
  is like the Supreme Court Justice who was talking about
• 54:02
  pornography and was like, I know it when I see it.
• 54:05
  And the answer is like, ideally, I shouldn't know what makes this
• 54:09
  Muppet Show special good. Because when I would sit down to
• 54:16
  watch a new episode of the Muppet Show when you know, Lord,
• 54:21
  who can remember when I was watching?
• 54:24
  Well, I didn't know exactly what it was going to be right when,
• 54:30
  when when my dad put on, you know, an old VHS of Season 5 of
• 54:34
  the Muppet Show, I didn't know exactly what I was going to see.
• 54:40
  And like you said, sometimes it was funny.
• 54:42
  Sometimes it was meaningful or pretty or or interesting or you
• 54:48
  were like, how did they do that? Or any of these things?
• 54:51
  But I want to feel something. I forgot about the how did they
• 54:55
  do that in this of just having puppets on TV.
• 54:59
  I'd love to see them really do something where you're just
• 55:01
  like, wow. Like that's why that's why we're
• 55:03
  not watching a cartoon right now.
• 55:04
  That's why we're not watching something created by AI.
• 55:07
  Like there's something that only The Muppets can do.
• 55:09
  It'll be really nice to see something like that in this
• 55:12
  special, whatever that is. Yeah, and that is harder to do
• 55:15
  now too, just in this technological world.
• 55:20
  And I will say that is something that I have struggled with with
• 55:23
  The Muppets in in recent years too, is what what a a low budget
• 55:29
  production looks like nowadays. Because in the in the old days
• 55:33
  it was, you know, flats and plated painted cardboard and,
• 55:38
  you know, cheap looking scenery. But there was a tactileness to
• 55:41
  it and now in 2026 that is more expensive than very quickly
• 55:49
  doing something and layering it in Photoshop and after Effects
• 55:53
  and and all that kind of stuff. So I guess that's kind of a
• 55:58
  double like A2 pronged reaction to like, yes, I like, I want to
• 56:03
  see things that are that give you that feeling of like, Oh my
• 56:09
  God, how did they do that? But I don't I don't know that it
• 56:12
  always needs to be like frogs riding a bicycle.
• 56:16
  Sometimes it could just be like, Oh my God, Kermit just flipped
• 56:18
  1/4 into a cup. You don't even.
• 56:22
  Have a candle stop and think about.
• 56:24
  You're just like, oh, Kermit just did that because it's oh,
• 56:26
  wait. I will say we were watching a
• 56:28
  clip of something with my daughter, she's 8, and and my
• 56:33
  husband and I were like, I wonder how they did that?
• 56:35
  And she was like, it's probably just AI.
• 56:37
  And it was so dismissive. And we were like, no, it's not
• 56:39
  because AI didn't exist. But also it just showed how
• 56:44
  dismissive people are of things now, like just a computer
• 56:47
  created at somewhere. I don't even think she really
• 56:49
  understands what AI is, but it's just this idea of like, if you
• 56:52
  see something amazing, it probably isn't real.
• 56:54
  And it was probably created by a computer somewhere.
• 56:56
  And really having that moment of like, there is a time in which
• 57:00
  everything was created by hand and you had to come up with a
• 57:02
  way to just make it look that way.
• 57:05
  And I, I, I love that. I'm curious if everything in
• 57:09
  this will be practical. Do we know?
• 57:12
  We don't know. We don't know anything.
• 57:13
  I'm sure not. I mean you don't get any kind of
• 57:16
  production I don't think these days without having a little bit
• 57:18
  of of intervention. But yeah.
• 57:20
  Actually, I think we see a little bit of CGI in the
• 57:22
  trailer, but I'm not remembering specifically.
• 57:25
  I don't know. I don't want to say what I what
• 57:27
  I think I saw in case I'm wrong but but but I think going.
• 57:31
  One of those graphic was there so.
• 57:33
  Waldo was there. I didn't notice it now, but I
• 57:37
  think also hoping for the opposite of that of not the how
• 57:40
  did they do that? But look at the thing that you
• 57:42
  can only do with puppets. And the example I always give, I
• 57:45
  mentioned this in an interview I did with Matt Vogel a few years
• 57:47
  ago. We were talking about the 2015
• 57:49
  series. And there's the episode where
• 57:51
  Miss Piggy is taking the silk climbing class, whatever that
• 57:54
  is. And like that you could tell
• 57:56
  they really, they had probably had four puppeteers all dressed
• 57:59
  in green and they're moving her around and very, you know,
• 58:02
  choreographed and made it look very real.
• 58:04
  And I said, well, was there ever, you know, an option for
• 58:08
  you to just do what they would have done on the Muppet Show,
• 58:10
  which is they would have stapled her hands to a rope and they
• 58:13
  would have had someone on the bottom just swinging around.
• 58:15
  And then she would have looked like a rag doll and it would
• 58:17
  have been hysterical. And I mean, I don't know, maybe
• 58:21
  it would have been a lot of work and set up.
• 58:23
  But also maybe it wasn't. Maybe it was like, we have 20
• 58:25
  minutes. Like this is what you do when
• 58:27
  you have 20 minutes. And that's the kind of thing
• 58:28
  that like, you don't get it from a green screen or you don't get
• 58:31
  from putting a thing into AI because it's it only exists
• 58:36
  tactilely and it looks bad but deliberately mad.
• 58:41
  Does that make? Sense funny it's funny we.
• 58:44
  Don't need our Muppets to look real?
• 58:46
  That's fine. We know they're puppets.
• 58:49
  I think, I think that one thing I do want to say that makes me
• 58:52
  very excited about this, this project is the fact that at the
• 58:56
  end of the day, yeah, they probably will use CGI for some
• 58:59
  things, you know, etcetera, etcetera.
• 59:01
  I mean I'm pretty sure the arches shot is composite which
• 59:04
  the original. It was back in the day I was.
• 59:06
  Going to say it was back in the day too, but you don't have a
• 59:08
  computer, you're going to use a computer to composite it.
• 59:11
  Physically cannot put a puppeteer in there when there's
• 59:14
  an art show, but. I'm just saying we've already
• 59:17
  figured out one way that they're using a computer because they
• 59:20
  are definitely compositing on the computer.
• 59:22
  Now we've cracked the technology, but.
• 59:25
  There's there's no need to do it by actually cutting film.
• 59:29
  But but The thing is like, The thing is like it is so great to
• 59:36
  see The Muppets on a physical set again.
• 59:39
  And we do know they physically built the set and you can tell
• 59:43
  because there's something about me and, and I don't think I'm
• 59:47
  unique in saying this, but like, I find the stuff with CGI
• 59:51
  backgrounds to be kind of claustrophobic to me.
• 59:55
  And that even applies to really good CGI backgrounds like
• 59:58
  Muppets Haunted Mansion. I don't love Muppets Haunted
• 1:00:02
  Mansion as much as other people because it just, it just wipes
• 1:00:06
  right off of my brain. The the the I I really like the
• 1:00:11
  tactile feel of things. And when The Muppets are in
• 1:00:14
  front of a green screen or a what is that room called from
• 1:00:18
  Haunted Mansion? The.
• 1:00:21
  Oh, where? Like the green screen is a giant
• 1:00:22
  TV screen. Yeah, they do that in
• 1:00:25
  Mandalorian as well, and it's. Better, yeah.
• 1:00:27
  The projected backgrounds, yeah. It's better, but I still don't,
• 1:00:29
  I still don't like it. I there's something about it and
• 1:00:32
  I'm, I'm not saying that that's like a moral failing, but I
• 1:00:35
  don't like it. You know, again, and you really
• 1:00:37
  can't tell the difference between these shows that are
• 1:00:40
  made with actual sets and these shows that aren't.
• 1:00:42
  And the better things produced by Sesame Street lately have
• 1:00:46
  been the ones that don't have the green screen backgrounds
• 1:00:49
  that they like using now instead of filming on the set.
• 1:00:54
  You know, the Muppet theater is kind of a character in its own,
• 1:00:57
  you know, like I think that's I mean, I'm saying that as a joke,
• 1:01:00
  but it is kind of true. And like to have that character,
• 1:01:03
  any character except for Waldo C graphic be completely computer
• 1:01:06
  generated. I'll give I'll give Waldo a
• 1:01:09
  pass, but like we can't like that doesn't make any sense to
• 1:01:11
  me to generate the Muppet Theater when it's so important
• 1:01:16
  to let the Muppet Show is Last question for each of you.
• 1:01:21
  Our hope, obviously, is that this special is a huge hit and
• 1:01:25
  Disney's like we want more, more, more, more, more.
• 1:01:27
  So if we get a new series of specials or if we get a series
• 1:01:31
  pick up, who do you want to see as the guest star?
• 1:01:34
  And you can't say Sabrina Carpenter because she's already
• 1:01:36
  taken. I, I don't want to, I didn't
• 1:01:39
  want to jump on it, but I did bring a list because I have.
• 1:01:41
  I've been thinking about this a lot.
• 1:01:43
  Oh. My goodness, Oh my goodness.
• 1:01:45
  Cam Garrity has a list of things I.
• 1:01:47
  Have a list. I'm shocked.
• 1:01:49
  I'm shocked that Cam has a list of something.
• 1:01:52
  Written down, there's a 1200 names and counting.
• 1:01:55
  Can you do it to the tune of very merry, very modern general?
• 1:02:01
  Yeah, OK, so I have a, a a selection of names here.
• 1:02:07
  So I think first of all, give credit to Bobby Moynihan.
• 1:02:11
  I think is after all the work he did with the the live shows like
• 1:02:15
  that would be a nice thing to commemorate and and memorialize.
• 1:02:20
  Yvette Nicole Brown would be a tremendous amount of fun.
• 1:02:23
  That's nice. Jennifer Does she?
• 1:02:25
  Even like The Muppets, though, I don't know.
• 1:02:27
  I don't know it's I'm on the fence with her are.
• 1:02:29
  You just reading the the guests that we had on our no, no.
• 1:02:32
  No, I promise. I promise.
• 1:02:34
  Griffin Newman. Ready.
• 1:02:36
  Yeah. Frank Oz?
• 1:02:38
  No. Jennifer Coolidge, Jon Batiste,
• 1:02:43
  Yes, he was on. Mine too.
• 1:02:44
  An episode where it was both Steve Martin and Martin Short Co
• 1:02:49
  hosting together would be great. I think having Diane Morgan.
• 1:02:53
  If anyone's familiar with Philomena Kunk.
• 1:02:56
  I would love an episode a la the Star Wars episode where both
• 1:03:00
  Philomena and Diane were like in the theater at the same time.
• 1:03:05
  I think would be really funny. If she's up for it, Lily Tomlin
• 1:03:08
  would be great. And then I also really, I don't
• 1:03:12
  expect it for the Sabrina Carpenter episode, but one of my
• 1:03:17
  favorite parts. Go figure.
• 1:03:18
  It was when they had puppeteers featured on the show in addition
• 1:03:22
  to whoever the guest star was you look at.
• 1:03:25
  Can't wait Cam Garrity is saying this.
• 1:03:28
  I know, and I've got a list of them too, which is terrible.
• 1:03:31
  It's so out of character. Yeah, but to have, you know,
• 1:03:37
  someone like Bruce Schwartz, I think Terry, actually Terry
• 1:03:40
  Fader could probably host a whole episode and would be
• 1:03:44
  great. But also Philip Huber, who's a a
• 1:03:46
  tremendous marionette performer. He actually worked with The
• 1:03:50
  Muppets on the John Denver special, but he did the the
• 1:03:55
  marionettes in Being John Malkovich and he performed the
• 1:03:59
  China doll in Oz the Great and Powerful and lots of other
• 1:04:02
  things. Alex and Olmsted is a terrific
• 1:04:07
  puppetry troupe. They have this this character
• 1:04:09
  called Milo the Magnificent, which is so much fun.
• 1:04:13
  Everyone should know about Alex and Olmsted.
• 1:04:14
  And then Jagetto is another very talented marionette artist who
• 1:04:20
  does things that are, I think anyone who likes The Muppets
• 1:04:24
  would like his stuff, but it is so opposite of that world with
• 1:04:29
  with these very handmade, incredibly detailed marionettes
• 1:04:34
  that are just super cool. So.
• 1:04:37
  Puppets on the on the Muppet Show?
• 1:04:38
  I don't know if I see. Yeah, I don't know, Kermit
• 1:04:40
  might, might not, might not like that, but yeah.
• 1:04:44
  Great. Good list.
• 1:04:46
  Drake, did you have someone besides Jon Batiste that you
• 1:04:48
  wanted to shout out? Yeah, I also made a list for my
• 1:04:51
  returning. I had Steve Martin and Lily
• 1:04:54
  Tomlin too. I thought both of those were,
• 1:04:56
  were good ones. Yeah, I, I probably went a
• 1:04:59
  little nostalgic on it 'cause I was thinking like, who should
• 1:05:02
  have been with The Muppets? Who wasn't with The Muppets?
• 1:05:04
  So, or at least who did not guest star.
• 1:05:07
  And Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson were two of the ones on
• 1:05:12
  my list, 'cause I just think both of them.
• 1:05:13
  And of course, Willie Nelson has performed with and The Muppets.
• 1:05:17
  Yeah, so so is Dolly. The Muppets were on her variety
• 1:05:20
  show back in. The day, but I think she would
• 1:05:22
  be fantastic on Brett, Yeah. Oh, oh, I'm not what I say.
• 1:05:25
  So like Dolly has, I'm not disagreeing with.
• 1:05:29
  Yeah, no, I'm just saying the ones I picked like weren't
• 1:05:31
  necessarily on the original, but they have performed.
• 1:05:34
  Same with Brett Goldstein, who I think is another huge Muppet fan
• 1:05:37
  and he's also I think a really fun actor.
• 1:05:39
  Will Ferrell I think would do a great job.
• 1:05:42
  Maya Rudolph and then Witten Marsalis.
• 1:05:44
  I I also was trying to go in the in the main Cam of of like
• 1:05:54
  thinking through people who come from adjacent worlds but aren't
• 1:05:57
  necessarily like TV or or you know, they, they would have a
• 1:06:01
  lot of obviously musicians, but they also had a lot of random
• 1:06:05
  people. My daughter's favorite episode
• 1:06:06
  is the mom and mom and shows. I always.
• 1:06:08
  Pronounce mom and shuns. Yeah.
• 1:06:09
  Mom and Shuns, I mean, to her, all of the guest stars are as
• 1:06:12
  knowable as the mom and shuns really.
• 1:06:13
  So like, you know, and they're just kind of quirky and
• 1:06:17
  interesting and thrown in there and, and as random as anything
• 1:06:20
  anyone else does. So I, I kind of agree with you.
• 1:06:24
  I would love to see some of those others and learn about
• 1:06:26
  someone new or appreciate a different art form that I don't
• 1:06:29
  know. So I yeah, those are some of my.
• 1:06:32
  And you know what? I skipped one, too.
• 1:06:34
  But Adam Savage was on my list as someone sort of in that vein
• 1:06:38
  of like, you know, he's no stranger to a camera, but you
• 1:06:42
  know, we don't know him as a performer, particularly Andy's
• 1:06:47
  buddies with Dave Goles and and a bunch of those guys.
• 1:06:50
  So there's there's precedent for it.
• 1:06:51
  But sure, yeah, Becca, did you have a list as well?
• 1:06:55
  I didn't make a list. I, I barely have thought about
• 1:07:01
  this honestly, but I mean, listen, I mean the, the the
• 1:07:06
  obvious answer and the one that you hear floated as much as
• 1:07:10
  Sabrina Carpenter and the one that also I'm the lesbian here
• 1:07:15
  on this podcast, everybody says Chapel Roan and I don't think
• 1:07:19
  that's a bad idea. I think that could be really
• 1:07:22
  fun. But along those lines of also
• 1:07:26
  like queer musicians who I'd love to see Janelle Monáe would
• 1:07:29
  be fabulous. And Oh, there was someone else I
• 1:07:34
  was thinking of who is a queer musician who I think would be
• 1:07:37
  wonderful on it, But I. That's it.
• 1:07:40
  There are no more queer musicians.
• 1:07:41
  You named them both. I did.
• 1:07:42
  That's it. Yep.
• 1:07:43
  That's it. Those.
• 1:07:43
  Are that's the whole, that's all of them.
• 1:07:46
  You know, Lady Gaga honestly, let's second justice for Lady
• 1:07:51
  Gaga, second chance for Lady Gaga.
• 1:07:54
  She had a great album. She had a great album last year.
• 1:07:58
  She's taken a few acting lessons since the Christmas festival.
• 1:08:01
  Yeah, she could do it. She could do it.
• 1:08:03
  So I'll, I'll add to these, these, these lists.
• 1:08:06
  I, I think when I think about who works best with the, with
• 1:08:08
  The Muppets, my mind usually goes to comedians or, or people
• 1:08:13
  in the comedy world that are a little bit more versatile in
• 1:08:19
  what they do. And so, you know, my, my first
• 1:08:22
  thought was Tim Robinson and Sam Richardson, who I adore both of
• 1:08:27
  them and they're best friends. So I'd love to see them together
• 1:08:29
  with The Muppets. That would make my that would
• 1:08:31
  make my dreams come true. Also, throw in Jason Mantzoukas
• 1:08:36
  think that he would be brilliant with The Muppets.
• 1:08:40
  And when you mentioned Philomena Kunk, it made me think of folks
• 1:08:43
  like, like Richard Iowade, who I adore.
• 1:08:47
  Yeah, so weird. And like, I think, God, I think
• 1:08:51
  of anyone, you know, Matt Berry, same thing.
• 1:08:54
  Like, I'd love to see what they would do with The Muppets.
• 1:08:56
  I'll pay so much money for that. Come on.
• 1:08:59
  And I, I do think there's something about like, you know,
• 1:09:02
  you look at the list of the, the guest stars on the original
• 1:09:04
  show, there are some people who are like who?
• 1:09:08
  And I imagine, you know, even in the 70s and 80s, they were like,
• 1:09:12
  who? Jean Pierre Everyone said what?
• 1:09:14
  Yeah, but like, I think there would be it would be really kind
• 1:09:19
  of fun to see the game of that a little bit too of like, Oh my
• 1:09:23
  gosh, who knew that Kate Micucci was like, you know, an well, I
• 1:09:28
  mean, she's wonderful. I But I, you know, someone who
• 1:09:31
  is kind of off the beaten path, like not everyone needs to be a
• 1:09:35
  Tom Hanks. But on the flip side, they also
• 1:09:37
  had like one hit wonders where you're like when you ask who and
• 1:09:41
  everyone in the entire country would have known that week.
• 1:09:44
  But like they had that one song and then.
• 1:09:46
  Leo Sayer, yeah. I think it was a it was a good
• 1:09:49
  mix, right, Because they did have your Milton Berle or
• 1:09:52
  whatever and then you had your really established comedians and
• 1:09:56
  then you had, I mean, some of the newbies are one hit wonders
• 1:09:59
  or just off the wall. I think that's that's what I
• 1:10:02
  want the most. If we do get a a season pick up
• 1:10:04
  and we see a whole list of people that it is it, it's old
• 1:10:08
  timers, it's people who are hot now.
• 1:10:09
  It's people from different forms of celebrity.
• 1:10:14
  Who's who's the the football player that's been doing a lot
• 1:10:18
  of comedy stuff lately. His name's escaping me.
• 1:10:20
  He was in bottoms. Oh, Marshawn Lynch.
• 1:10:23
  Marshawn Lynch. I think he's so funny in
• 1:10:26
  bottoms. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:10:27
  You need to put it in a. You need to put it in a context
• 1:10:30
  that IA lesbian can understand. Right, yes, I only.
• 1:10:34
  For not a lesbian, but I only know Marshawn Lynch from Bottoms
• 1:10:39
  as well. You should watch the what's
• 1:10:42
  what's the the Murderville which?
• 1:10:45
  Is is he in Murderville? He has one episode of
• 1:10:47
  Murderville, which, which for anyone who doesn't know, it's an
• 1:10:50
  it's an improvised mystery show where everyone's in on it except
• 1:10:54
  for the one celebrity with Will Arnett as the as the detective.
• 1:10:57
  And you could tell that he figures out right away that
• 1:11:01
  anything he does, everyone has to follow it.
• 1:11:04
  And so he's just messing with everyone the entire episode.
• 1:11:06
  It's an incredible hour of television.
• 1:11:09
  I I adore it anyway, So Rachel. Zegler was my other one who I
• 1:11:16
  know has been talked about before in this context, but I
• 1:11:18
  love Rachel. Zegler had an amazing West End
• 1:11:23
  year last year and great anyway. We should do a whole episode
• 1:11:28
  where we just pitch Muppet Show people cuz I feel like we can go
• 1:11:30
  on for another hour about. Those, my God yes I would be
• 1:11:33
  there in a heartbeat. David Byrne, he's still around.
• 1:11:36
  He could do it. Sure.
• 1:11:37
  Yeah. Yeah, I was thinking the Talking
• 1:11:42
  Head song with Permit would be amazing.
• 1:11:44
  Yeah, once in a lifetime they. Can bring it back.
• 1:11:46
  Yeah, yeah, we could. Same as it never was.
• 1:11:48
  Just do it again, same as we could.
• 1:11:49
  Just maybe just as. Never was we could keep listing,
• 1:11:52
  but maybe we should start ramping up.
• 1:11:53
  Yeah, maybe we should start wrapping this up because we've
• 1:11:55
  been going on for a little bit over an hour and I want to, I
• 1:11:58
  want to give everyone their time back.
• 1:12:00
  So thank you all so much for being here.
• 1:12:03
  I want to give each of you an opportunity to tell us where
• 1:12:06
  folks can find you on the Internet if you'd like to be
• 1:12:09
  found. Cam, let's start with you.
• 1:12:12
  Sure, I could be found just about anywhere online at Cam
• 1:12:16
  Garrity. You could go to camgarrity.com
• 1:12:19
  has lots of my work. Instagram is probably the the
• 1:12:22
  best place to to catch me. And I'm going to be doing some
• 1:12:26
  stuff with Tough Pigs later this year, which I'm really excited
• 1:12:29
  for. We are too, and.
• 1:12:31
  And you could always check out the Puppeteers podcast, which I
• 1:12:34
  did with Adam Cruttinger for a number of years.
• 1:12:36
  I highly recommend great podcast.
• 1:12:38
  A fantastic podcast and we were Ryan and I were a guest on that
• 1:12:42
  podcast. You guys were which was a great
• 1:12:44
  episode. Yeah, Thank you.
• 1:12:46
  Thank you, Drake, How about you? Where can people find you, if
• 1:12:48
  anywhere on the? Internet, I hang out on the top
• 1:12:51
  things. Discord.
• 1:12:52
  Yeah, and topics. Dot com Yeah, great, Becca.
• 1:12:57
  Yeah, you can find me on most social media platforms at Tall
• 1:13:00
  Girl Petunia. Obviously I'm on Tough Pigs and
• 1:13:03
  the Tough Pigs Discord and you can listen to my Tough Pigs
• 1:13:09
  podcast, A Prairie Dawn Companion on the this feed.
• 1:13:14
  Season 2 will be coming this year.
• 1:13:16
  I just need to actually sit down and watch every single Gladys
• 1:13:20
  the Cow clip before I can make it.
• 1:13:23
  Sounds like a pain I. Know well it's a pain to find
• 1:13:27
  them all. I'll tell you if it's fair, but
• 1:13:29
  but you can also hear my other podcast Here Comes Tomorrow at
• 1:13:36
  herecomestomorrow.net about the X-Men and finding joy in a world
• 1:13:41
  that hates and fears us. And I don't know, go to your
• 1:13:46
  local library and read books. Also, yeah, I think that's a
• 1:13:52
  good idea. Get get your head out of the AI
• 1:13:55
  and into the real world. As for me, you can find me on
• 1:13:59
  Letterbox at Tough Pigs Joe. And other than that, I'm posting
• 1:14:03
  things on toughpigs.com all the time.
• 1:14:05
  So please visit Tough Pigs. Please follow Tough Pigs on your
• 1:14:08
  favorite social media provider. Please check out all of our
• 1:14:12
  podcast channels. We've got four of them, four
• 1:14:14
  different podcast channels. I don't think that's enough.
• 1:14:16
  I think we need a. We need a fifth.
• 1:14:18
  Oh my God, I'm so tired. No, how about that?
• 1:14:21
  We're not going to do that. And if you want to support Tough
• 1:14:25
  Pigs, you can head to our Patreon or our T public page and
• 1:14:30
  you can give a little bit of money or you can get a little
• 1:14:32
  bit of merchandise and help out the website and keep us afloat
• 1:14:36
  for another year. So thank you so much for joining
• 1:14:38
  us for Tough Pigs HQ. Make sure you watch The Muppet
• 1:14:41
  Show coming up on February 4th and we'll see you next time.