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The Great Muppet Fandom Panel - Fall, 2023 Edition · Muppet Fan Podcasts with ToughPigs.com

• 0:00
  This is a great puppet random panel.
• 0:13
  Hello, and welcome to Yes, the running gag that we're still
• 0:18
  doing only because Ryan Rowe finds it funny.
• 0:20
  I should have expected that you probably did.
• 0:24
  Well, here's something you weren't expecting.
• 0:41
  Welcome to the Great Muppet Fandom Panel, A Muppet News Show
• 0:45
  brought to you by toughpigs.com. It's your favorite news show
• 0:49
  that's not like the others. Here Muppet fans, unbeknownst to
• 0:53
  them until this very moment, will be competing at talking
• 0:56
  about recent Muppet events. To see who's this week's
• 0:59
  Greatest Muppet Fandom Panelist, I'm your host JD Hansel of
• 1:03
  toughpigs.com. Today on the Great Muppet Fandom
• 1:06
  panel, we're borrowing the format of another tough Pigs
• 1:10
  podcast, Hubba Wah, which is currently taking a mid season
• 1:12
  break, but we'll be releasing new episodes in this feed at
• 1:15
  some point soon in the meantime. For just this one episode, we're
• 1:19
  a game show. Are we?
• 1:21
  Are we? Actually committing to this bit
• 1:22
  Joe. I have planned so many questions
• 1:25
  and I have an Excel spreadsheet. So we're going to try to do it
• 1:27
  and if it fails spectacularly then we will change course.
• 1:30
  I can't argue if somebody have an.
• 1:32
  Excel Spreadsheet, Yeah, if you have an Excel spreadsheet, then
• 1:34
  I can't argue with that, that that's that's completely
• 1:36
  reasonable. I know.
• 1:37
  He means business. I know you know.
• 1:40
  I've never been on a Tough things Podias before, but I have
• 1:43
  accidentally ruined the ending of an episode of Hubba Wah, so
• 1:46
  let's see how this goes. Well Tori, now you get to be on
• 1:50
  2 Muppet podcasts at once. How cool is that?
• 1:53
  Just think of what you could ruin.
• 1:56
  There's so much potential. Opportunity of a lifetime.
• 1:59
  This podcast is a recap of the highlights from The Muppet News
• 2:02
  over the past few months. It's sort of like a quarterly
• 2:04
  report on the state of The Muppets.
• 2:06
  Except, unlike in a real quarterly report, the people
• 2:09
  having this conversation today were actually directly involved
• 2:12
  in creating the value that made this quarter so special.
• 2:14
  That's because some of the biggest Muppet happenings of the
• 2:17
  past few months have been in person.
• 2:19
  Events that bring the Muppet fans together, including an
• 2:22
  event at the Center for Puppetry Arts, multiple conventions, a
• 2:25
  walking tour of New York City, another of Craig Shemin's
• 2:28
  fabulous screenings of rare Muppet clips, and a Toy Fair.
• 2:31
  Let's introduce the panelists who will not be getting freebie
• 2:34
  points for introducing themselves, like on Hubba Wah,
• 2:36
  because I expect them to earn their keep.
• 2:38
  First up from the tough pigs team.
• 2:41
  This looks familiar, vaguely familiar, almost unreal.
• 2:44
  Yet it's Johannes. Kissy Kissy.
• 2:47
  My name's Johannes. My pronouns are he, him, and
• 2:50
  this is the part where JD asked me to say something that amuses
• 2:52
  me. Great.
• 2:56
  Thank you for being here. Next from Muppets, no contacts
• 3:00
  and live from Muppetland. I wish I had a House of stone
• 3:03
  that looked down on Tori Schmidt.
• 3:05
  Hi, my name is Tori Schmidt. I use she her pronouns.
• 3:10
  And has anybody ever tried eating frazzle?
• 3:13
  Because I want to try to eat frazzle.
• 3:17
  Great. Next up is an artist, puppet
• 3:19
  builder, and too many impressive things to mention.
• 3:21
  Some folks remember their mothers and others, Richard
• 3:23
  Gomez. Thank you, JD How do you do?
• 3:27
  My name is Richard Michael Gomez.
• 3:29
  I use he him pronouns and they can't stop me from bringing a
• 3:32
  kazoo into a podcast. Unfortunately, he is correct.
• 3:38
  Finally, one of our friends from The Muppets, Twitter and Discord
• 3:42
  communities whom you may know for his YouTube channel, A
• 3:45
  Bagel. He's also Richard's roommate.
• 3:47
  Find where you hide and look inside and you've got Gap.
• 3:51
  Hi, my name is Gav. I use he, him pronouns.
• 3:53
  I'm also known as Miss Piggy Cleavage Coin Bank and I'm so
• 3:57
  happy to be here. Yay.
• 3:58
  Thank. You, Gav, I'm glad you're here
• 4:01
  too. And I'm your moderator, JD
• 4:03
  Hansel. Thank you.
• 4:06
  Yeah, that's fair. OK, let the games begin.
• 4:09
  Your first challenge is a game we like to call the Great Muppet
• 4:12
  Question. Panelist, are you?
• 4:14
  Oh, shoot, The echo is still on. How the heck do you turn this
• 4:16
  thing on? Is it this?
• 4:18
  Did that button work? Here we go.
• 4:20
  OK, OK, I'm not doing that effect again.
• 4:22
  Panelists. It feels like I have toothache
• 4:24
  all over my body. Panelists, your great muppet
• 4:30
  question is, what do you think was Jim Henson's most valuable
• 4:33
  contribution to the world does? It matter what order we go in.
• 4:36
  No, it's chaos on this show. OK, I'll go first.
• 4:41
  Well, you know Jim Henson. He was a wordsmith he left
• 4:44
  behind. A lot of really great quotes.
• 4:47
  I see them all the time on Facebook.
• 4:48
  You know, it's a black and white picture of Jim and white cats on
• 4:52
  a black background of stuff. He totally, really said, you
• 4:54
  know the one I think was his greatest accomplishment on this
• 4:58
  earth is the one that of course scholars study and they teach in
• 5:02
  elementary schools and is there's a big, there's a big
• 5:04
  giant mural of it at my college campus actually.
• 5:07
  So I think his greatest we all know the one.
• 5:10
  I think his greatest accomplishment in this world is,
• 5:12
  of course. His classic quote One door's red
• 5:15
  and the other's blue When you play The Muppets Party Cruise,
• 5:18
  it's. Interesting.
• 5:19
  I have a similar mural at my college but it says what the are
• 5:23
  you talking about instead? No duty for Diana?
• 5:28
  Hey Joe, how are we handling profanity this time around?
• 5:33
  Oh, yes, no, my apologies. We'll put kazoo noises in there,
• 5:37
  yeah, we'll just bleep that. Oh, I wanted a new sound effect
• 5:40
  for this season actually, instead of the honking.
• 5:41
  So if you want to do. Kazoo sound.
• 5:43
  You have a basket of swoop formals.
• 5:45
  I do. I do.
• 5:47
  I've considered using that. Richard, what's your question
• 5:50
  right? Or your answer to.
• 5:52
  The question rather No question. Just kidding.
• 5:54
  Much like Tori, I was inspired by a phrase of Jim Henson.
• 6:00
  I think the world's that the couple of words icky gunk are
• 6:04
  perhaps. The greatest things that Jim
• 6:07
  Henson has left to us. I just think it congeal it It it
• 6:11
  congeals and compels something in me.
• 6:14
  Icky gunk. I wanted that to stay with
• 6:16
  everybody. It's a moist, sensuous phrase.
• 6:20
  Thank you, JD. All right, great.
• 6:21
  I hated that bit. Oh.
• 6:23
  Joe Hennas, what do you think was Jim Henson's most valuable
• 6:26
  contribution to the world? Oh, this is such an easy
• 6:29
  question, JD I I don't think it actually constitutes an actual
• 6:32
  discussion. It's barely even like a trivia
• 6:34
  question. It's so obvious.
• 6:37
  The answer is Janice, the guitar player for the Electric Mayhem.
• 6:39
  It's it's in the way she speaks, the way she dresses, all of her
• 6:41
  mannerisms. You can hear it in her most
• 6:43
  famous catchphrases, like when she says for sure really could
• 6:46
  get behind it. It's all these reasons and more
• 6:49
  why Janice is easily Jim Henson's most Valley Girl
• 6:52
  contribution to the world. Joe, Joe, I I said most.
• 7:00
  Valuable contribution to the world?
• 7:03
  Oh. Never mind.
• 7:05
  But that was a very nice try. I tried.
• 7:08
  I tried so hard for you, JD Yeah, I can.
• 7:10
  No, I can tell you, you clearly care about the quality of your
• 7:13
  podcasts, given that that that the the attention to detail that
• 7:16
  you paid in answering that question.
• 7:17
  Gav, what do you think was Jim Henson's most valuable
• 7:20
  contribution to the world? I think Jim Henson's most
• 7:23
  valuable contribution to the world was of course The Muppets,
• 7:27
  which weren't valuable just enough because they only cost
• 7:32
  6,000,000. For Disney, there was a
• 7:34
  15,000,000. Either way, it was not enough
• 7:37
  and I believe Jim Henson maybe should have worked a little
• 7:40
  harder. Yeah, yeah.
• 7:43
  Yeah. Down with Jim Henson.
• 7:45
  That's the second episode of this podcast on which I've said
• 7:48
  that no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, To be clear, dressed
• 7:52
  down with. Jim, I think he should have, you
• 7:53
  know, maybe kept up a little bit of a better work ethic.
• 7:57
  Yes, he he could have worked harder.
• 7:59
  He could have traveled more. He could have slept less.
• 8:02
  He could have been like Richard. Absolutely.
• 8:04
  That was wonderful. You all got 20 points for your
• 8:06
  answers, except for Joe, who you know didn't really understand
• 8:09
  the question. Only got 10 points for that
• 8:11
  answer. It's OK, Joe.
• 8:12
  I'll loan you a couple of my points.
• 8:14
  Oh, thanks Gav. No.
• 8:16
  Problem anytime Gav. How many of your points are you
• 8:18
  giving to Joe? I'll give him 10 for now.
• 8:20
  All right? Oh buddy, that's so sweet.
• 8:24
  It's all right. Can I take points from Joe?
• 8:26
  No. Darn it.
• 8:28
  All right, I've updated the scores in the Excel spreadsheet.
• 8:32
  So far this is going. Great keyboard track, yeah.
• 8:37
  We'll see how long that lasts. Bet you're getting that choice
• 8:40
  now, Gav. Well, panelists, thank you for
• 8:43
  whatever that was. At this time, I'd like to remind
• 8:45
  our listeners that we're not covering all the Muppet news on
• 8:47
  this show. This isn't a weekly updates
• 8:48
  podcast, so if you're looking for that, listen to another
• 8:50
  podcast. However, if you'd like to stay
• 8:52
  up to date on everything happening in the Muppet world as
• 8:54
  it's happening, you've got to follow toughpigs.com wherever
• 8:56
  social networks are sold. I ran out of breath that time.
• 9:01
  Here are a few examples of places where you can find tough
• 9:03
  Pigs Facebook. X Instagram, TikTok, Blue Sky
• 9:08
  Threads, Throg Gorch, the Cube, Vinnie's Puppet, Pleasure Land,
• 9:12
  Grouchland, and the Bog of Eternal Stench.
• 9:15
  Most of those are owned by Elon now, and it turns out he always
• 9:18
  owned that last one, but we try our best to make them a little
• 9:21
  nicer in the news. Let's get into the trivia
• 9:25
  portion of the show with a game I like to call Bonus Round.
• 9:28
  Now. You may ask as well you should.
• 9:30
  Why are we starting with the bonus points?
• 9:35
  Why are we? Are we starting with the words?
• 9:36
  Why are? We.
• 9:37
  Starting why JTY? Very good.
• 9:41
  You all get a point for that. Thanks for asking.
• 9:47
  We're actually not starting with a round of bonus points.
• 9:49
  This is in fact a round of questions about Muppet Home
• 9:52
  Media bonus features. Here's how this is going to
• 9:55
  work. When I ask a question and you
• 9:57
  think you know the answer, just type the 1st letter of your
• 9:59
  first name into the Zoom chat and whoever sends that first
• 10:02
  buzzes in first. You do not have to wait until
• 10:05
  I've finished asking the question before you buzz in.
• 10:07
  It's your call. It's entirely up to you.
• 10:10
  I love doing this far more chaotically than Becca does her
• 10:15
  show to remind all of us to take this a little less seriously,
• 10:20
  since this is way worse, all right?
• 10:24
  And hey, let's not agree to play fair today.
• 10:27
  Feel free to look at any resource you want, including
• 10:30
  Muppet Wiki, toughpigs.com, or An Inconvenient Truth by Al
• 10:34
  Gore. Although that last one will not
• 10:35
  help you answer any of these questions in any way.
• 10:38
  Just keep in mind that in the time you were spending trying to
• 10:40
  open up the right tab, your opponents may be buzzing in
• 10:42
  before you. That sounds like a trick
• 10:45
  question. I feel like I should have that
• 10:46
  Al Gore book handy, just in case.
• 10:49
  No, I'm not pulling any tricks, all right?
• 10:51
  I see you're all typing farts into the chat.
• 10:54
  OK, let's begin question one. Which of the following?
• 10:57
  Titles. I know, I know.
• 10:59
  Gap. 37. All right, you lost that one.
• 11:03
  Which of the following titles was not released with a bonus
• 11:06
  featurette hosted by Pepe the King Prawn A The Muppet
• 11:09
  Christmas Carol, B Muppets from Space C The Muppets Wizard of Oz
• 11:13
  or D Studio DC Almost Live? Tori Studio DC Almost live.
• 11:24
  Incorrect. Anyone else want to steal?
• 11:28
  Joe buzzed in next. What you got, Joe?
• 11:31
  Whatever whatever the first one was.
• 11:33
  The Muppet Christmas Carol. Was that the first one you said?
• 11:36
  That's the first. One, I said.
• 11:36
  The first one I said was the Muppet Christmas.
• 11:38
  Yeah, sure, why not? That is also incorrect.
• 11:40
  Gav. Are you sure?
• 11:42
  Gav, you've already answered. All right.
• 11:45
  Well, Joe, Richard, I don't. Know is, I think Joe is right.
• 11:48
  Yeah. Hi, my turn to talk.
• 11:50
  Yeah. I'm going to go with a fifth
• 11:52
  answer, JD OK, what's that? The correct one.
• 11:57
  All right, well, none of you are getting any points for this.
• 11:59
  It was Muppets from Space. They did not release Muppets
• 12:03
  from Space with a bonus feature hosted by Pepe the King Prawn.
• 12:06
  Surprisingly, since that's his movie, it does look like there
• 12:09
  was a release of The Muppet Christmas Carol where they
• 12:11
  tacked on one of the Pepe things.
• 12:13
  I hope you all appreciate that I had a 5050 chance and I wanted
• 12:16
  to do a bit instead. I don't.
• 12:19
  Thank you. Wait, wait, I just had a
• 12:21
  revelation. Did Studio GC almost live have a
• 12:24
  DVD? Release.
• 12:25
  Yes it did and it has a Pepe bonus feature.
• 12:32
  Yes, also the Pepe's Profile feature.
• 12:36
  I legitimately owns it. I don't know one person and I
• 12:38
  don't I've. Never heard of anyone owning
• 12:40
  that DVD. Question two What Muppet home
• 12:42
  video release included a behind the scenes featurette called On
• 12:45
  the Set with Kermit in which we see Kermit in the make up chair?
• 12:49
  This is not a multiple choice question, GAV.
• 12:55
  Muppets Wizard of Oz. Nope, everyone came in at once,
• 13:01
  but Tori's here first, Tori. Is it Studio DC almost live?
• 13:05
  No, it is not, Joe. Well, let's go with the 2011
• 13:09
  Muppet movie. Also wrong, Richard.
• 13:14
  Can you repeat the answer but not the question?
• 13:17
  Absolutely not. You all lose points, or at least
• 13:20
  get no points. For that, the answer is Kermit's
• 13:22
  Swamp Years. We see him made-up to be young
• 13:25
  Kermit in that, which is a funny bit.
• 13:27
  Oh yeah, it's unlikely Comet. Infamously.
• 13:31
  Oh no. That's that.
• 13:33
  Does anybody own that DDDI? Do I do, Yeah.
• 13:39
  That's The thing is, I put that question here because I knew
• 13:42
  most of you should have that. Most of you are younger than me.
• 13:46
  Listen, if somebody wants to send me a copy, I'll take it.
• 13:49
  I own the DVD and have never watched like I've seen the movie
• 13:53
  before. But I've I bought the DVD and
• 13:56
  put it on my shelf and literally never watched it.
• 13:59
  Are you proud of me? Yeah, you're such a great Muppet
• 14:01
  fan. I'm so glad that you're in
• 14:03
  charge of the most prominent Muppet fan site on planet Earth.
• 14:05
  And finally, I think, I think everyone would would, would
• 14:09
  support my, my, my actions here on this one when it comes to
• 14:12
  Kermit Swamp Years. Maybe finally.
• 14:16
  The reason for the segment What's the latest Muet Home
• 14:19
  Media release to feature a new director's commentary?
• 14:26
  Gav. Just kidding.
• 14:30
  Muppets take Manhattan. It is The Muppets Take
• 14:32
  Manhattan. We learned back in August that
• 14:36
  this movie would be getting a new 4K remaster, and it was
• 14:39
  released on October 24th. Frank Oz personally oversaw the
• 14:42
  new transfer and recorded a digital commentary track for it,
• 14:45
  and it comes with a digital copy of the film panelists.
• 14:48
  This is not for points. What are your thoughts about
• 14:50
  this news? So I don't know who the director
• 14:54
  is of this movie or if I should know him, but I am thrilled that
• 14:58
  a Pepe mephotism is included. So the weird thing about this
• 15:02
  release is that the audio commentary is only on the 4K
• 15:05
  version, but they also include the Blu-ray with the bonus
• 15:08
  features that it used to have, which I think come from the DVD,
• 15:12
  which is why the the Pepe stuff is carried over, the Jim Henson
• 15:15
  interviews carried over that sort of thing.
• 15:17
  So it's a frustrating thing where?
• 15:20
  You can buy it and it says Blu-ray on the front cover and
• 15:22
  think, well then I'll just put the Blu-ray disc into my player
• 15:25
  and enjoy this Frank Oz commentary.
• 15:26
  But that won't. Work.
• 15:28
  I'm sorry. You'd rather listen to a man
• 15:32
  talk about puppets for two hours and watch Pepe possibly more
• 15:37
  than one time. Richard, we're we're counting on
• 15:40
  people wanting to listen to people talk about Muppets for
• 15:42
  hours at a time. That's what we're doing on this
• 15:44
  podcast. You can get you can get two DVDs
• 15:47
  and have one with a with one of a man talking for two hours.
• 15:52
  Or you could get multiple copies of Pepe sharing his little
• 15:56
  shrimpy joy with you for about 2-2 joy filled minutes.
• 16:01
  And honestly, it's no competition to see what the
• 16:04
  people are flocking for. Richard, I will pay you cash to
• 16:08
  never say the word shrimpy joy again.
• 16:12
  Richard, I will pay you to never say words again.
• 16:14
  Joe, what were you gonna say? OK, so I I have the the new
• 16:18
  Muppet Stick in Manhattan. Blu-ray.
• 16:19
  I was very excited to get it in the mail the other day and I was
• 16:23
  planning on watching the Frank Oz commentary today in
• 16:27
  preparation for this podcast because I knew we'd be talking
• 16:29
  about it. And as you said, I was one of
• 16:32
  those people who put that Blu-ray into my Blu-ray player
• 16:35
  and did not know that it wouldn't work until the Blu-ray
• 16:39
  player told me that it wouldn't work.
• 16:42
  And then I went on to Amazon to figure like, well, how much
• 16:46
  would I need to spend to get a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray player?
• 16:50
  And they're like $200.00. And this is the only 4K Ultra HD
• 16:56
  Blu-ray I intend on owning. So is it worth $200 for me to
• 17:01
  watch Muppets Take Manhattan in 4K with the Frank Oz commentary?
• 17:05
  And the answer of course is yes. But like I don't wanna like.
• 17:08
  I think someone should buy it for me.
• 17:09
  This is the but you. Joe, Joe, could you or could you
• 17:15
  not watch the Pepe Muppetism? Richard, get out of here.
• 17:19
  OK, I'm in the bit there. Such a genuine joy.
• 17:23
  There's a beautiful lesson to Frank Oz Talk about this.
• 17:26
  Sorry, Gav. I think, oh, sorry Gav, go
• 17:28
  ahead. There's a digital movie included
• 17:31
  with the disc, right? So yeah, so you you got 3
• 17:35
  versions of the same identical movie.
• 17:38
  But does the digital version come with the Frank Oz
• 17:40
  commentary? Is I think the question No, no,
• 17:42
  no, no, it doesn't. It's not.
• 17:44
  It's I I mean, I will double check that, but I'm 99% sure
• 17:48
  it's only on the 4K version 'cause it doesn't say that on
• 17:51
  the back. On the back, it's like it just
• 17:53
  says 4K with Frank Oz commentary.
• 17:56
  I think the idea is that he is also talking about the transfer,
• 18:02
  right, 'cause Frank oversaw, Frank oversaw the new transfer.
• 18:06
  And I'm sure that's something he's way more interested in as a
• 18:09
  director than no, you you're laughing.
• 18:12
  But like, I think it's true, like, like Frank Oz being a guy
• 18:14
  who's in his in his 80s, right. And he's, you know, still like
• 18:18
  very much a a director first in his mind.
• 18:21
  Like, I think he cares a lot about that kind of thing.
• 18:23
  We're like, we're just like, I don't know, why did Fozzie Bear
• 18:25
  do that thing with his hand? And he's like, I don't care.
• 18:28
  Like look at how how Crisco looks.
• 18:30
  You can really see. This is all about the craft and
• 18:33
  I think this was an opportunity for him to focus on the craft
• 18:35
  and actually celebrate his Muppet movie as a movie.
• 18:39
  Not just as I'm up. And of course, like, I don't
• 18:41
  know that for sure because I didn't get to watch the movie
• 18:43
  with the commentary yet. True, We don't know.
• 18:46
  Very upset and. First of all, yeah, it's my turn
• 18:49
  to talk. Thank you.
• 18:51
  First of all, Frank, Oz is not a day over 79.
• 18:56
  And let's not get it twisted. First of all, we are, Yeah,
• 19:00
  pretty sure I said he's like 80, which is 79, is like 80.
• 19:05
  Correct. Let's.
• 19:06
  OK, Well, thankfully we don't have a record of what I've said
• 19:10
  or didn't say. And second of all, I would just
• 19:15
  pay Frank Oz to make a podcast. Can he just talk and have
• 19:19
  somebody else? Richard.
• 19:21
  Richard, let me tell you, man, I've tried.
• 19:25
  I have tried. I have asked and I honestly, I
• 19:30
  think it's it comes down to the fact that like it's not that
• 19:33
  Frank wouldn't want to do a podcast.
• 19:35
  I think he just doesn't want to hang out with me on a weekly
• 19:37
  basis. OK.
• 19:38
  I didn't say anything about you. Right.
• 19:40
  That part's important. If only there was a podcast
• 19:43
  episode on this very feed that featured Frank Oz.
• 19:47
  Oh, if only. Thank you for the plug, Tori.
• 19:50
  Yes, if on this very feed. If you go back a bit, you'll
• 19:54
  find an interview that Jared and I did with Frank Oz on our
• 19:57
  podcast to introduce our guest star and what a joy it was to
• 20:01
  get to talk to him. You'll send me the check for
• 20:03
  plugging. You'll send me the check.
• 20:04
  Yeah, yeah. You'll get a percentage, Tori.
• 20:06
  OK, good. You're good.
• 20:07
  Thank you. What do you want?
• 20:09
  Great 5% Fifty percent 150 percent 27.
• 20:12
  You know it is it is a little bit frustrating to me that we as
• 20:15
  fans want to be treated as a significant audience for
• 20:19
  collectible items and here they are releasing a really great
• 20:24
  collector's items for fans of of particular film franchise.
• 20:28
  And in theory we should all be snatching it up.
• 20:31
  And here I am a film fan and a Muppet fan and I'm like, but do
• 20:35
  I want to buy a 4K Blu-ray player just for this?
• 20:38
  And if I bought the player I'd probably end up buying other
• 20:41
  titles, which is why they do it this way.
• 20:43
  But I don't know. I just don't know.
• 20:46
  And I feel bad for not knowing because like.
• 20:50
  If the fans don't respond when they give us a cookie, then we
• 20:53
  can't ask for milk and expect milk.
• 20:55
  But also, this isn't Disney. This is Sony.
• 20:57
  Even still. That's true.
• 20:59
  This is Sony. What?
• 21:00
  Don't Don't you want them to release more Muppets from Space
• 21:02
  stuff? Come on, give me, give me the
• 21:04
  four hour cut of that. This takes me back to when they
• 21:08
  were going to make that remember that, that big Cookie Monster
• 21:10
  replica? It was going to be like, yeah.
• 21:12
  Yeah, I think about the. Other bucks or something like
• 21:14
  that. So I I talked to my God, Hasbro,
• 21:18
  right? Was that a Hasbro thing?
• 21:19
  I'm. Sorry, I think so.
• 21:20
  And I remember talking to Hasbro at the time and they were like,
• 21:23
  So what do you think? Will Muppet fans buy this?
• 21:26
  And I said, well, first of all, I think some Muppet fans will.
• 21:29
  But second of all, Muppet fans are not like other fans.
• 21:32
  We're not like Star Wars fans. We're like, you've got your
• 21:34
  casual fans and you've got the people who are going to spend
• 21:36
  thousands of dollars on merchandise.
• 21:38
  We don't really have that with Muppets.
• 21:39
  Like there of course are always a few people who are going to
• 21:41
  spend a lot of money. But Muppet fans, for the most
• 21:43
  part. Don't want to spend or probably
• 21:46
  don't have large amounts of money.
• 21:49
  We'll always buy stuff. We'll always want more.
• 21:52
  We'll always like we'll buy stuff at piece meal or or you
• 21:55
  know little by little that'll add up.
• 21:56
  But we're not big item people, and I know this is getting a
• 22:00
  little bit off topic, but we've been talking about this recently
• 22:03
  with the Super 7 Super Grover and count figures that are
• 22:07
  $300.00 for these giant figures and.
• 22:11
  I don't know a single human being, and I know a lot of
• 22:14
  Muppet fans of different types of Muppet fans.
• 22:17
  I don't know a single person who's interested in even
• 22:19
  considering to buy those, and it's specifically because it's a
• 22:23
  lot of money. Right that it does really
• 22:27
  capture. How Muppet fans work very well.
• 22:30
  I want all of the Muppet stuff. However, we as Muppet fans, for
• 22:34
  whatever reason, probably budget a bit more than others.
• 22:37
  Or maybe just have to? Yeah.
• 22:38
  And and I think we also like to collect, you know, I think about
• 22:41
  things like the Diamond Selects or the the Palisades figures
• 22:44
  where it's like, yeah, 1520 bucks a pop, whatever it costs
• 22:47
  like, yeah, I'll do that. And then next thing you know,
• 22:49
  you spent hundreds of dollars, but you have.
• 22:51
  Like 50 of these figures. Right, and it's worth it to us
• 22:55
  and the things that we'd like to collect.
• 22:56
  Like we generally would be happy with relatively inexpensive and
• 23:01
  perhaps even relatively inexpensive looking plush dolls
• 23:04
  of obscure characters. Like, so long as they're not
• 23:06
  crap. So long as they're not hideous.
• 23:08
  Yes. We'll take just a very simple,
• 23:11
  inexpensive, nice thing for the sake of having.
• 23:15
  Nice versions of The Muppets we like to look at more than like
• 23:19
  we feel the need to show off that we have a $300.00 Muppet
• 23:21
  object, which most of us don't feel any need to do or don't
• 23:25
  have the means to do. I think.
• 23:26
  Let me let me pay $20.00 for a plush of Frazzle and I will be
• 23:32
  very happy. Same.
• 23:34
  Oh my gosh, same. Could be said of any of us.
• 23:37
  They not done frazzle at Sesame Place yet I I.
• 23:39
  Don't they have not done Frazzle anywhere?
• 23:41
  They haven't done Frazzle. I mean.
• 23:43
  That might be so I I If people don't know.
• 23:47
  At the Sesame Place theme park once a year, they choose a
• 23:50
  classic character to make a plush out of.
• 23:52
  And they've done like Hairy Monster and the Two headed
• 23:54
  Monster and Ovajita and Murray and Telly and like all these
• 23:59
  other Barkley slimy pause for just two seconds.
• 24:03
  Ovajita, a classic character. I can't.
• 24:06
  That does not make any yurts to me, but I understand.
• 24:10
  Ovajita Ovajita I included because Ovajita is not such a
• 24:14
  popular character that she would justify an entire line of of
• 24:18
  merchandise. But you could at one point.
• 24:22
  You could at one point buy an Ovajita plush at at Sesame Place
• 24:26
  and nowhere else. That's my point.
• 24:28
  It doesn't matter if it's an old character or a new.
• 24:30
  Character. All right, Just sorry.
• 24:31
  Sorry for interrupting. Yeah, no, I hear you.
• 24:34
  So I think at some point they're gonna run out of classic
• 24:36
  characters that people would actually want to buy.
• 24:38
  Like I I believe. The last one was Guy Smiley,
• 24:41
  which is a obviously a great choice, but it's like who's
• 24:44
  who's left? OK, we gotta get Fraggle.
• 24:46
  Excuse me. Frazzle in there.
• 24:47
  You gotta get, I don't know, Mr. Johnson, Maybe you know,
• 24:50
  Sherlock Hemlock, but, like, we're gonna run out pretty soon.
• 24:52
  So I do think that Frazzle's probably on their short list.
• 24:55
  We just have to be a little patient.
• 24:57
  I hope so. Now it's time for a segment I
• 25:00
  like to call. Wait, I had something I wanted
• 25:02
  to say about that. In this game, I'm going to ask a
• 25:04
  few questions related to stories in the Muppet headlines from the
• 25:06
  past few weeks, and then move on to the next thing before you
• 25:09
  have time to comment on it. This might make you think, Wait,
• 25:11
  I had something I wanted to say about that, but that's okay.
• 25:14
  It's only a few questions, and at the end we'll circle back to
• 25:16
  whichever of these topics you want to discuss further.
• 25:19
  Let's begin question one. On September 6th, the Center for
• 25:21
  Puppetry Arts held a celebration of Dave Goals honoring his fifty
• 25:24
  year career with The Muppets and debuted A Gonzo puppet that they
• 25:28
  put on display through October. What was special about this
• 25:31
  Gonzo puppet, or at the very least about how it was
• 25:34
  displayed? Looks looks like Tori buzzed in
• 25:40
  first. He is in his Great Muppet Caper
• 25:43
  outfit. That is correct.
• 25:45
  How many points do I get? You got five points for that.
• 25:48
  I also would have accepted that this is like the first time
• 25:53
  they've ever displayed Gonzo, because they had to.
• 25:55
  Like this is not the Gonzo that was in Great Muppet Caper.
• 25:59
  Like the puppet just keeps turning to dust.
• 26:01
  Why are you all buzzing in, Richard?
• 26:02
  What's up? OK, I'd like to correct you a
• 26:05
  little bit. Oh, please do so.
• 26:07
  This is not the first time Gap Gonzo has, I know nearly said
• 26:10
  Gap, this is not the first time Gonzo has ever been on the
• 26:13
  display. It is the first time in recent
• 26:15
  history because in like the 80s and 90s he was on display pretty
• 26:19
  often. But we haven't had one on
• 26:21
  display, I feel like at least 20 years because of your previously
• 26:25
  stated. Reticulated foam and it toasts,
• 26:28
  unfortunately. I thought, I said the first time
• 26:30
  at the Center for Puppetry Arts. You said the first time.
• 26:33
  Said the Oh, I'm so sorry. That's my.
• 26:36
  The first time it happened. Liar.
• 26:38
  I will. I apologize.
• 26:40
  I'm gonna throw three points to Richard Most.
• 26:42
  Time It happens, We know, JD. Question two.
• 26:46
  Also in September, The Muppets appeared at the Destination D23
• 26:50
  Expo in Walt Disney World, where Dave Goles was honored for his
• 26:52
  50 years with The Muppets and was congratulated by the
• 26:55
  Chairman of Disney Parks Experiences and Products.
• 26:59
  What's that guy's name? Joe Hennis.
• 27:05
  Figment. All right, Tori.
• 27:08
  Was that was that not right, David Hogsaw?
• 27:10
  No, it was not right, Gav. Ray the Raychem seal.
• 27:15
  OK. Well, the correct answer was
• 27:17
  Josh tomorrow, but that's all right.
• 27:19
  There's always tomorrow. Question three.
• 27:23
  Speaking of Disney Parks, Muppet Vision 3D recently received an
• 27:26
  unexpected upgrade. Which scene did they punch up
• 27:28
  and what did they change about it?
• 27:33
  Joe buzzed in first. What you got, Joe?
• 27:35
  So it's the scene where. Waldo explodes into a a bunch of
• 27:40
  tiny little waldos and they made it so it's a new tech so that
• 27:46
  the Waldo is actually the ones that are projected on the walls
• 27:50
  are actually like alive. I cannot remember what the tech
• 27:53
  is called, but they changed the projection so it looks cool now.
• 27:57
  Joe, that is exactly the answer that I wanted.
• 27:59
  In fact, that is both answers that I wanted.
• 28:01
  Oh wonderful. Do you want a third answer?
• 28:03
  They are using projection mapping.
• 28:06
  Ah, thank you. I would not have remembered
• 28:07
  that. I did not remember it either and
• 28:09
  I forgot to write it down. I just checked on toughpigs.com.
• 28:13
  I checked an article that was written by 1 Joe Hennis.
• 28:15
  So it's probably right. Who I I remembered his
• 28:19
  projection map thing. You guys are fake fans.
• 28:23
  Tori, just for saying that, I'm going to give you one extra
• 28:25
  point because you're correct, we're FAKE fans.
• 28:27
  Thank you. Thank.
• 28:28
  You I know what, some people said there were changes, but I
• 28:30
  thought they were just projecting.
• 28:33
  Can we get Richard out of here please?
• 28:35
  All right gang, feel free to take this discussion to any of
• 28:37
  those topics. How about all this love for Dave
• 28:39
  Goles? It's been so satisfying to see
• 28:41
  him get this recognition from so many different places this year.
• 28:45
  I I I know this wasn't in the things you mentioned but like
• 28:48
  this the the, the the the app, the details.
• 28:52
  No, that was not in the things I mentioned.
• 28:54
  You're right about that. The D23 thing, the Center for
• 28:58
  puppetry arts thing, they were all great.
• 29:00
  But the the the Dave thing that was the most beautiful this year
• 29:03
  was the episode of the Beretta Brothers podcast, which I know
• 29:07
  isn't, which I know isn't in this section of time we're
• 29:11
  talking about. But still it's like people just
• 29:14
  in the Muppet fandom and I think also within The Muppets
• 29:16
  themselves love Dave so much. It's just it's really nice to
• 29:19
  see a guy that legendary getting the recognition he so rightfully
• 29:24
  deserves. And with that, it's time for the
• 29:27
  next segment of this game show, Gabby explains.
• 29:29
  Ray the Cam seal. Gabby.
• 29:31
  Oh, I would love to. What is this podcast about?
• 29:34
  It is now time for Gab's discussion question.
• 29:38
  Gab. What discussion question I get
• 29:40
  by first today. Oh, I'm.
• 29:42
  I'm starting. OK, yeah.
• 29:45
  What is your firmest? Muppet or Henson or sesame head
• 29:51
  cannon? I could answer this first, but I
• 29:53
  won't. Oh, that's a shame because I
• 29:55
  have been struggling to come up with an answer to this question.
• 29:59
  I don't think, I think the in terms of head cannons that much.
• 30:02
  I'm such a literalist. I'll start with my answer if
• 30:05
  you'd like. And gab, can you just pull
• 30:08
  yourself an inch or two away from the microphone because
• 30:10
  you're clipping? A little bit.
• 30:11
  Yes, I can. So one of my favorite sesame
• 30:15
  head cannons is that Chris, the character.
• 30:20
  Chris is Olivia's son. Yeah, 100% agree.
• 30:26
  Yeah, sure. That's that's that's.
• 30:28
  OK. I mean, you can't I?
• 30:30
  Thought you were gonna say something controversial like
• 30:32
  that. Just seems to make sense, no?
• 30:34
  But something. Something makes sense actually
• 30:36
  makes. Can you explain the logic of it?
• 30:37
  It could be Canon, but hasn't. Been Oh yeah, no, they in his
• 30:41
  first In his first appearance, Chris refers to Gordon as his
• 30:44
  uncle. But here's the thing.
• 30:46
  This is where it gets deep. There's.
• 30:49
  A Robinson family reunion episode in the 90s and Olivia
• 30:54
  does not show up for, I mean, obvious reasons.
• 30:57
  Well, maybe reason's not so obvious because Gordon had a
• 31:00
  brother who already had kids and were essentially Chris's age if
• 31:06
  you line the timelines up, but. But.
• 31:10
  But where did Olivia go now? This is where you know, the head
• 31:13
  cannoning can, you know, get a little wild.
• 31:16
  You can decide where she went and what she did and how Chris
• 31:19
  came back to Sesame Street and what made her leave Sesame
• 31:23
  Street. But this is the whole thing
• 31:25
  entirely, altogether. And I'll let you get to all your
• 31:27
  answers. Good Lord, Kev.
• 31:29
  OK, food for thought. So may I go next?
• 31:34
  Please. Absolutely.
• 31:35
  OK, this one isn't original to me, but another Muppet fan
• 31:40
  podcast by the name of Muppet Turgi has kind of drilled this
• 31:44
  one into my head and I am now pretty much convinced the Muppet
• 31:48
  Theaters in Pittsburgh, yes. Love it.
• 31:53
  Tell me more because there's just like, I don't remember the
• 31:57
  exact details on my head, but they go into the word a lot on
• 31:59
  that show where it's like, well, it's like a train ride from New
• 32:02
  York, but a a bus ride from Philadelphia.
• 32:04
  And they like, especially like if you look at the, is it
• 32:07
  Loretta Lynn that's at the train station?
• 32:09
  I think it's Loretta. Lynn, that sounds right like
• 32:12
  it's the train stuff and how the map works of where they might be
• 32:15
  in the United States. It's like it's it's almost
• 32:18
  certainly Pittsburgh. You know what?
• 32:21
  Really funny to me. And something Muppet fans never
• 32:24
  talk about is how much they say Yin's in The Muppet Show.
• 32:30
  Well, you know what? What, really?
• 32:32
  What really made me think of it is that one episode where
• 32:35
  Kermit's wearing a Pittsburgh Pirates T-shirt.
• 32:38
  What episode was that? I think that's every episode,
• 32:41
  right? Of season 3.
• 32:42
  Who could forget the iconic line?
• 32:44
  Charlie mailed this somewhere other than Pittsburgh.
• 32:48
  It's it's the Brook Shields episode.
• 32:49
  That's probably why you haven't seen it.
• 32:51
  I'm still scratching my head to think of a Muppet head cannon.
• 32:54
  I mean, there's the obvious. Kermit did 9/11, but everybody
• 32:57
  knows that, so that's not even. That's always a fun one.
• 33:00
  It is. But but that's not, that's not
• 33:02
  your head cannon. Like JD, I don't think you
• 33:04
  actually think that Kermit did 9/11.
• 33:07
  I think you you you got to have your own head cannon.
• 33:09
  All right, the Kermit 911 thing was my opening line of an improv
• 33:14
  show I was in two weeks ago. How did that go?
• 33:19
  They immediately shut me up and thought it was the loudest laugh
• 33:22
  in the first hour of that show. Good.
• 33:26
  That's a hard thing to yes, and. Joe, I think it's your turn.
• 33:34
  So I I'm I'm struggling to think of head cannons.
• 33:37
  I I have some that I've written about on Tough Pigs before.
• 33:41
  That are very stupid and I find them amusing.
• 33:44
  Tori reminded me about. I wrote an article about my
• 33:49
  theory that the Muppet Theatre is actually a Fraggle hole,
• 33:52
  which would explain the changing locations.
• 33:56
  And I had a theory once. I wrote an article called Why do
• 33:59
  they always come here? With all these theories about
• 34:01
  Statler and Waldorf, Why and why they show up week to week for
• 34:04
  The Muppet Show. And my favorite one of all those
• 34:06
  is that Statler is secretly Fozzie Bear's dad.
• 34:11
  Wait, no, this is revolutionary. Yes.
• 34:15
  Poorly. Well, you should have read the
• 34:16
  article when it came out. See what it made more sense.
• 34:19
  But yeah, I don't know. I'm sure I have more that are.
• 34:24
  New and original and interesting.
• 34:28
  Well, one that I've always liked is that the 2015 Muppet sitcom,
• 34:33
  I remember when it came out, because it's only a year after
• 34:37
  Muppet's Most Wanted. And we're like, on this
• 34:39
  trajectory for the character Walter.
• 34:41
  You know, like, he's in the 2011 movie, he's in the 2014 movie,
• 34:45
  he's in all the promotional stuff.
• 34:47
  He's just always there. And then suddenly he's not there
• 34:49
  for the sitcom. And so my theory was that he's
• 34:51
  the one filming the documentary about Up Late with Miss Piggy
• 34:56
  because he's a fan, you know, like he would.
• 35:00
  But then we never saw him on camera, so it was never
• 35:03
  confirmed. Gosh.
• 35:04
  This is this is amazing because I am again such a literalist
• 35:09
  that I would never think about any of this.
• 35:11
  My explanation for why Walter isn't there is that the writers
• 35:15
  didn't know what to do with him. My in Canon explanation is non
• 35:17
  existent. Yeah, but that's the thing.
• 35:19
  You're not. You're 100% right.
• 35:20
  Like, of course the writers didn't know what to do with him.
• 35:22
  The writers still don't really know what to do with him.
• 35:24
  And the question of Where's Walter is something that
• 35:27
  literally only people in this room are ever asking but.
• 35:31
  And I guess Peter Linds. But I don't know why not.
• 35:34
  Like what? Like like we never saw the film
• 35:37
  makers behind The Office or or any of those other shows.
• 35:40
  I would. And I'll just say, I would take
• 35:42
  more Walter any day. I think Walter's very fun.
• 35:44
  Well, I like and the thing that. Is just in Muncie IN and nobody
• 35:50
  told him that they were doing the show.
• 35:52
  Could have been child labor laws.
• 35:54
  I should say that. I know where Walter is.
• 35:57
  He's in a bag somewhere. Well, let's.
• 36:00
  Not get that literal all about this whole thing.
• 36:02
  Yeah, and I was being taken down to sleep with the.
• 36:04
  Fishes. You can go through a number of
• 36:08
  rabbit holes just asking yourself where any maybe obscure
• 36:12
  character went after they disappeared from any production.
• 36:17
  You know. Yeah, Where's Frazzle?
• 36:19
  Right, exactly where is Frazzle? And what does he taste like?
• 36:24
  OK. All right.
• 36:25
  The real. Questions Take notes, JD.
• 36:28
  OK, Gav, I'll give you 3 points for the discussion question that
• 36:31
  you brought today. Special little guy's tone, by
• 36:33
  the way. Not to butt myself in.
• 36:35
  Richard, what's your head cannon?
• 36:38
  I've talked about this extensively before.
• 36:40
  I will again. I I normally try not to go for
• 36:44
  head cannons, but are just like this character kind of looks
• 36:46
  like this character. So they're related, but I could
• 36:48
  not help myself with this one. Dawn Music and Guy Smiley are
• 36:53
  twin brothels and the reason I think this is because Guy Smiley
• 36:58
  canonically changed his name. And I highly doubt that Don
• 37:02
  Music was bone Don music. I think that they were Donald
• 37:04
  and Bony Little Krantz. And they both changed their
• 37:07
  names to get into show business, respectively songwriting and the
• 37:10
  television business. I don't know.
• 37:12
  I don't see the resemblance at all.
• 37:14
  Maybe I'm looking too deep into this, but I think Dawn music
• 37:17
  gives a little bit more Catholic vibes.
• 37:19
  And if Gaia Smiley's name was Bernie Lederkranz, I don't think
• 37:23
  they're related. Wait, are you suggesting that
• 37:25
  the guy who has has complete angst and obviously is stressing
• 37:32
  out over the tiniest little things like Dawn music is not
• 37:35
  Jewish? You know what?
• 37:36
  You make an interesting point. I can say this because I am
• 37:40
  Jewish. I want me to make that clear.
• 37:41
  I did not know that. OMG wait, new lore?
• 37:44
  This is also why more Morehead Cannon I never liked the fact
• 37:47
  that Baby Bear is is Jewish on Sesame Street when really it
• 37:51
  should be Telly Monster. Oh.
• 37:54
  I mean, they could both be Jewish, but telly should be
• 37:56
  should be. Oh my God.
• 37:57
  Mean Gav. And a couple of people on a
• 38:00
  twiddle space. We've done this like multiple
• 38:02
  times where we run through every Muppet and we ask Gav which ones
• 38:06
  he think are Jewish. It was this time this somebody
• 38:10
  said that every blue muppet is Jewish I.
• 38:13
  Was like. No, not.
• 38:15
  Oh, I heard that too. It's like, yeah, someone else
• 38:18
  does a TikTok thing, I think. I think it's a TikTok thing.
• 38:20
  Some but not. Dudley is probably Jewish, I
• 38:23
  could see that. Dog does light a Manoa and it's
• 38:26
  a very merry schmerry. Blueberry.
• 38:29
  It's a very merry, quite contrary, kind of hairy, sort of
• 38:33
  scary with the. French on Top.
• 38:35
  Muppet. Muppet, Christmas Be Weed.
• 38:37
  Thank you. Sorry that it ran away from me,
• 38:39
  JD. Let's have a moment of Muppet
• 38:41
  merch. Joe, you recently shared an
• 38:43
  unboxing video featuring some lovely labyrinth figures.
• 38:45
  Is that correct? It is correct.
• 38:48
  All right, you get a point for that.
• 38:52
  Joe, what can you tell us about about these figures or about any
• 38:55
  of the Muppet merch that is at Toy Fair or anything that you
• 38:59
  want to feature to get this conversation going?
• 39:01
  So the figures I opened were these beautiful labyrinth
• 39:04
  figures of Jareth, Sarah and Ludo.
• 39:08
  And so they're in this really cool style.
• 39:10
  They of course, I don't have the information in front of me, so I
• 39:13
  can't remember exactly what they're called.
• 39:15
  You probably have it, JD. So these are the the mini epic
• 39:17
  figures I think is what you're talking about?
• 39:19
  Thank you. Yeah, they they're they're
• 39:21
  great. Oh, and then when we were at Toy
• 39:23
  Fair, we stopped at the Weddow Workshop booth.
• 39:26
  They had a bunch of other Labyrinth and Dark Crystal stuff
• 39:29
  on display, so they had more statues.
• 39:32
  Some of these were in more realistic style of what you see
• 39:35
  in the movie and also more in this exaggerated style.
• 39:38
  But for the Dark Crystal characters, for Jen and Kira, I
• 39:42
  think they're dope. I think they're really fun and
• 39:45
  they are sitting on my shelf right now and I'm very happy to
• 39:47
  to own them. And I think other people should
• 39:50
  check them out because they're not, they're not terribly
• 39:51
  expensive, which is also, as we previously established, is a is
• 39:55
  a good thing for Muppet fans. So you can get Sarah for $40,
• 40:01
  Jareth for $40. I mean in terms of like really
• 40:04
  good action figures like these, that is a pretty good price.
• 40:07
  Ludo, which is the one I really want, is a little more.
• 40:09
  That's fifty. And if you want Sarah with the
• 40:11
  worm, that's 50. And I would also argue like,
• 40:13
  they're not really action figures.
• 40:15
  They're not articulated in any way.
• 40:16
  They're statues. You know, like, it's something
• 40:18
  you put on yourself and you look at, 'cause it's pretty, which 40
• 40:21
  or 50 bucks for for that is actually a steal.
• 40:24
  Now they do have a more complicated figure here.
• 40:27
  That is Jareth and Sarah and baby Toby in the the Staircase
• 40:32
  scene. Gorgeous piece.
• 40:34
  That one is $1200. Which again, oh, is that.
• 40:38
  All. He didn't send that to me for
• 40:40
  free. Oh, it's buying, right?
• 40:43
  This. This again brings us back to the
• 40:44
  problem of if there were enough of us, then you could justify
• 40:49
  that and there'd be a handful of people who were into it.
• 40:51
  Certainly I want it. I'm looking at this and I want
• 40:54
  it, but I could never justify the expense.
• 40:56
  All right, so here's what we're gonna do.
• 40:57
  We're all gonna chip in like 50 bucks and then everyone gets it
• 41:01
  on alternating weeks. Yeah, 24 of us just have to ship
• 41:07
  it to each. Other So, yeah.
• 41:10
  Quick quick a a small quick aside, because we're talking
• 41:15
  about Labyrinth merch, is this OK to bring up please?
• 41:20
  Who do we think is going to buy the pinball machine?
• 41:24
  Oh God I. Can tell you if Ryan Rowe had
• 41:26
  the money, he would have it already.
• 41:27
  I know, I know. It looks so cool.
• 41:30
  They did such a nice job with this new pinball machine.
• 41:33
  Truly. It's beautiful.
• 41:35
  It's great. They've just recently like this
• 41:38
  company that just started a a brand new company right out of
• 41:41
  the gate, did a labyrinth themed pinball machine and they
• 41:44
  committed. They got the rights to the David
• 41:45
  Bowie songs from the movie that are somehow in this pinball
• 41:48
  game. And it's like a real machine,
• 41:50
  beautifully crafted with these amazing little they are like
• 41:53
  statues that pop up that you're going to like, hit with a ball
• 41:58
  and bounce around and it looks looks fantastic.
• 42:01
  I want it almost as much as Ryan does, even though I am not the
• 42:05
  pinball player that Ryan is, but I nevertheless probably won't
• 42:09
  have it because it's super expensive.
• 42:10
  What Ryan recommends in his article about it on Tough Pigs,
• 42:13
  which you all can read, is try to find an arcade that buys it.
• 42:17
  And I don't know if that's going to be easy or hard, probably
• 42:19
  hard. But I need to find an arcade
• 42:22
  with the Labyrinth Pinball immediately.
• 42:23
  Probably extremely difficult, I imagine.
• 42:27
  We all know how great arcades are doing in 2023.
• 42:30
  Absolutely, this arcade. Considering this is a new arcade
• 42:34
  company and they're starting off, you know, with a labyrinth
• 42:37
  pinball machine, I think they're on the right track to make a
• 42:41
  pinball number count pinball machine, which should have been
• 42:44
  made a long. Time ago.
• 42:46
  I know there would be just as much of A market for that, if
• 42:49
  not more than when than the. I know there's a, there's a.
• 42:53
  Virtual pinball, right? It's not the same that they
• 42:57
  made. No, not the same.
• 43:00
  I'm right there with you. But that might be the closest we
• 43:02
  ever get someone's clipping again.
• 43:04
  I think it's Gavin. I'm once again going to ask you
• 43:06
  to add a little more distance between you and the mic.
• 43:09
  Yeah, a little less excited. Let's get into some of these
• 43:12
  other discussion questions. Joe and Tori's are
• 43:14
  coincidentally kind of related. So I'm going to have Tori ask
• 43:18
  hers first, and then at any time during our answers to that
• 43:21
  question, Joe can jump in with his Tori whenever you're ready.
• 43:24
  So my discussion question is very simple.
• 43:27
  It's Do you think we will actually get that third Sesame
• 43:31
  Street movie? And what are your hopes and
• 43:33
  expectations for the film? My answer, for what it's worth,
• 43:36
  is not really, and I stopped having hopes a long time ago.
• 43:43
  Oh JP, I'm so sorry. Can I answer my own question?
• 43:47
  Is that allowed? Sure, absolutely.
• 43:49
  Yeah, I think we will. But I think I actually don't
• 43:53
  know. I seriously do not know if that
• 43:55
  film will ever get me. And I feel like I've been
• 43:57
  hearing about it for like 8 years.
• 44:00
  Nine years. Maybe even a decade, yeah, But I
• 44:03
  feel like we haven't been hearing about it in the past.
• 44:05
  Yeah, that's the other thing. It's like the last thing we
• 44:08
  heard was I think Bo Burnham left, cause Bo Burnham was
• 44:11
  attached to write the songs at some point, which is was
• 44:14
  attached for a while there, yeah.
• 44:16
  Which is would have been wild first of all.
• 44:20
  And As for my expectations, modern Sesame Street, I don't
• 44:24
  want to bring this conversation back.
• 44:25
  But modern Sesame Street? So no, I don't have very high
• 44:30
  expectations if we do get it, but I kind of hope we do, just
• 44:33
  cause like it'd be nice for this new generation of puppeteers to
• 44:36
  have a movie to latch onto, if that makes sense, right?
• 44:39
  We haven't really had any sort of Muppet movie in a long time
• 44:43
  now. I mean, at this point, it's
• 44:45
  been, what, 9 1/2 years since Muppet's Most Wanted.
• 44:50
  Is that right? Well, it's it's it's only been
• 44:53
  five years. Happy time murders.
• 44:55
  I mean, we got to count that. So it's it's been nine years
• 44:58
  since the last Muppet movie and about five years since Happy
• 45:00
  Time Murders. It's been a couple of months
• 45:02
  since the last Muppet Special, and it's been one week since you
• 45:04
  looked at me. But I have hope in the Sesame
• 45:08
  Street movie. I I'm.
• 45:10
  Like I I I think Sesame executives sort of need to
• 45:16
  reprioritize. Their educational efforts and
• 45:20
  maybe focus maybe just a little less on education and a little
• 45:24
  more on making that damn movie already, even though, you know
• 45:28
  there might be absolutely no chance anymore.
• 45:30
  But you know, you can always you can dream.
• 45:34
  I have a funny feeling there might be a panelist here who is
• 45:37
  is limited in the extent to which he will be comfortable in
• 45:40
  talking about this or able to talk about this.
• 45:42
  But we have another discussion question from one of our
• 45:45
  panelists. OK, so I I don't wanna comment
• 45:49
  on the on the current slate of sorry, excuse me, the current
• 45:53
  state of Sesame Street. As you know JD recently wrote
• 45:58
  about on top pigs about you know the questions of quality.
• 46:02
  But I I kind of regret that article 'cause I shouldn't have
• 46:05
  even weighed in on it either. I disagree.
• 46:09
  I think it's a very well thought out article and and I and I
• 46:12
  stand by it. But.
• 46:14
  The article did raise the topic that it's very possible that
• 46:18
  Sesame Street may not last forever.
• 46:20
  We've always kind of assumed that Sesame Street would last
• 46:23
  forever 'cause it's been around for more than 50 years at this
• 46:25
  point. But if the day were ever to come
• 46:29
  when the Sesame Street brands were to be sold to another
• 46:32
  company, what company would be the best new home for the
• 46:36
  franchise? Joe, can I just say it's so
• 46:39
  funny, This was the other question I was thinking about.
• 46:43
  Oh, well then then you probably have a really good answer,
• 46:45
  because you've already been thinking about yeah, Tori.
• 46:48
  No, no. I.
• 46:51
  I think there's only two answers to this question that makes
• 46:54
  sense logistically. And I don't want to say 2
• 46:57
  because there's only four people here, 5 people, sorry and I
• 47:00
  don't want to take someone's else's answer.
• 47:02
  So I am going to say Apple as in the phone company that also.
• 47:10
  Sometimes Moonlights is ATV company and I just say that
• 47:14
  because they have worked with Sesame Workshop in the past with
• 47:16
  Helpsters, which I haven't seen, but I'm sure it was a quality
• 47:20
  show. And of course, they have such a
• 47:23
  strong puppet connection with Fraggle Rock and they seem Apple
• 47:26
  seems really invested in children's content.
• 47:30
  And we've we've already seen them buy up legendary children's
• 47:33
  stuff because they now own the broadcasting rights to Peanuts.
• 47:36
  And so we've already seen them like take classic children's
• 47:39
  brands and put them on their platform.
• 47:41
  So honestly, I think Sesame Street would fit really well in
• 47:44
  with Apple TV Plus. And I think Apple would probably
• 47:48
  put the whole series on there on like HBO at least try.
• 47:51
  I feel like they would care a little bit more.
• 47:52
  So I'm going to go with Apple. I think that the joining
• 47:59
  together of two not so much companies, but two production
• 48:04
  organizations would probably be best for Sesame Street, and
• 48:09
  that's the Carnegie Foundation and PBSI.
• 48:12
  Think they'd make a great Sesame Street show?
• 48:16
  No. All right, That joke plummeted.
• 48:19
  All right. My question for that is, is that
• 48:21
  do they have the money? It was a joke suggestion, 'cause
• 48:26
  that's because Sesame Street started there anyway.
• 48:29
  Yes, but I I also wanna, I wanna remind.
• 48:31
  I wanna remind 'cause I know, I know, this is a joke answer, but
• 48:33
  like. You know, I think certain people
• 48:36
  might be listening to this and and wondering, well, it used to
• 48:39
  be owned by PBS and now it's owned by HBO and that these are
• 48:41
  not ownership. These are not like production
• 48:43
  houses that are putting Sesame Street on or or taking care of
• 48:47
  the brand. They're just distribution deals.
• 48:49
  So Carnegie is a funder and PBS it, it can air the network.
• 48:55
  PBS could potentially, you know, own it.
• 48:57
  That that is a that is an answer that you know.
• 49:00
  That you could give for a potential future for Sesame
• 49:03
  Street, but that is that was never the case previously,
• 49:06
  right? It was always CTW and then just
• 49:09
  Southwest. So we went from we had
• 49:12
  CTWPBSHBO, Now IDC and IDK, but you can watch Cold Sorbo by
• 49:20
  Tower Bennett on YouTube. Oh.
• 49:22
  My gosh, there's Richard's plug for.
• 49:24
  So does anyone else have an answer to this stupid question I
• 49:27
  just asked? I feel like they wouldn't.
• 49:29
  They wouldn't. They wouldn't trust any other
• 49:32
  company really, with their brand other than, you know, PBS.
• 49:36
  But then again, PBS would never have enough money to buy Sesame
• 49:40
  Street and the whole brand unless it were like a mutual
• 49:42
  thing. Well, but, but we're saying
• 49:44
  like, let's let's say that Sesame Workshop completely tanks
• 49:48
  like it. It's done, it is done, done.
• 49:50
  It is like there's not anything left.
• 49:53
  There's no functional entity left.
• 49:55
  It's not about who will we sell these characters to for money.
• 49:58
  It's like that. That is the only option.
• 50:01
  Someone's going to get them somehow who's who's the who's
• 50:05
  the company? Who's going to get it?
• 50:06
  That's what I'm wondering about. Maybe that's not Joe's question,
• 50:09
  but it sounded like it to me, no?
• 50:10
  No, that that is, that is it. And and who do we, the the five
• 50:13
  of us, think would be the ideal home for Sesame, like the Sesame
• 50:19
  franchise? Yeah, ideally it would be Henson
• 50:22
  or PBSI. Don't think there's any company
• 50:25
  in existence right now that could do a better job, at least
• 50:28
  not that I know. For those discussion questions,
• 50:31
  I'm giving the full five points to Tori.
• 50:34
  I'm giving one point to Joe's question because it was a
• 50:37
  question that Tori thought of and then scrapped in favor of a
• 50:39
  better one. Why did you settle for Tori
• 50:42
  Second choice, Joe? Moving on, I'd like to take a
• 50:45
  moment to remind our listeners that we really benefit from
• 50:47
  ratings and reviews in your pod catching app of choice, but
• 50:50
  especially Apple Podcasts. I'm sure that sometime over the
• 50:53
  next few hours you'll have a moment when you ask yourself,
• 50:55
  wasn't there something I was supposed to be doing today that
• 50:57
  I'm forgetting? And I want you to ignore that
• 51:00
  and take that moment to instead remember to open up the Apple
• 51:02
  Podcasts app and give this feed as many stars as you see fit.
• 51:06
  Remember that we're just do it now unless you're driving.
• 51:09
  I just did it, Joe. We're going to jump back to
• 51:12
  current events trivia now, but this time the questions will be
• 51:14
  about stuff that we were actually there for.
• 51:16
  All of us were there for some of this stuff.
• 51:18
  Some of us were there for all of this stuff.
• 51:20
  But I'm going to try to give each of you a fair shot at
• 51:22
  getting some points for context for our listeners.
• 51:26
  This year on September 24th, Jim Henson's birthday, The Museum of
• 51:29
  the Moving Image in Queens, NY held a special Route the Dog
• 51:32
  themed screening hosted by Craig Shemin with music to celebrate
• 51:35
  Jim Henson at the beginning and end of the presentation, a
• 51:38
  structure that made it feel sort of like church.
• 51:40
  The music was performed by that incomparable banjo master Lucas
• 51:44
  Ross, who was hilarious and delightful as always.
• 51:47
  Before that, Lucas was also part of a Sing Along stroll along
• 51:50
  through New York City hosted by Heather Henson with the help of
• 51:53
  1 Joe Hennis. Our stops included the Jim
• 51:56
  Henson Bench in Central Park, a pond in Central Park where Jim
• 51:59
  Henson skipped stones one time, and the Carriage House
• 52:02
  panelists. Let's see how much you can
• 52:05
  remember. I'm not sure I was there.
• 52:07
  This is your life. Gav, you were you there.
• 52:10
  Was Gav thing? I don't remember Question one.
• 52:13
  Question one, what is the name of Heather Henson's organization
• 52:16
  that held this walking tour? Tori.
• 52:22
  Ibex puppetry. Sorry, that's the wrong one,
• 52:27
  Gav. The Green Feather Foundation,
• 52:31
  that is correct. Tori, you would've been
• 52:33
  incorrect a couple of months ago.
• 52:36
  See, I wasn't at this one, so I. I don't.
• 52:39
  I don't even know why I answered.
• 52:41
  There will be there will be questions for you soon, don't
• 52:44
  you worry. Question 2 Craig Shaman's
• 52:47
  presentation featured clips of Ralph the dog with what?
• 52:49
  Singing breakfast icon Johannes. It was Lucky, the leprechaun
• 52:58
  from Lucky Charms. That is correct, Richard.
• 53:02
  Joseph Gordon Levitt That is also correct.
• 53:06
  Anyone want to come in with the right answer for the easy
• 53:08
  question, The easiest, most obvious one?
• 53:11
  Buzz buzz buzz. Tori.
• 53:14
  Jimmy Dean, There we go. Take your points, Tori.
• 53:17
  Thank you for actually playing along with the Dang game.
• 53:19
  Who, may I say makes terrible breakfast sandwiches that I ate
• 53:22
  throughout all of middle and high school?
• 53:24
  The sandwiches are bad. The breakfast bowls are OK.
• 53:27
  They've gotten worse over time. Anyway.
• 53:28
  Question three, What other Muppet character appeared on the
• 53:32
  Jimmy Dean Show and was in Craig's compilation?
• 53:39
  Oh, Tori, I think just barely got in first with that one,
• 53:42
  Tori. Are we talking about Ralph's
• 53:44
  nephew named Nephew? That is correct.
• 53:47
  It is Ralph's nephew named Nephew.
• 53:50
  I'll throw in a bonus point if you can.
• 53:51
  Actually, I'm not gonna do that, 'cause I guess we don't know for
• 53:53
  certain. I was gonna say, if you can tell
• 53:55
  me who performed the character, I think it was Jerry Jewel
• 53:57
  'cause it sounded. Exactly, I was gonna say.
• 53:59
  I was gonna. Say it was Jerry Jewel Great.
• 54:01
  Confirmed Jerry Jewel. Awesome.
• 54:04
  Is he here? He's around somewhere.
• 54:07
  No, no. Right behind that curtain, just
• 54:11
  look over to your. Left, I'm quietly like shushing
• 54:16
  Bob Payne. I'm like, no, we needed Gary.
• 54:19
  Bob Payne Question Four I gotta meet Bob Payne.
• 54:23
  Question 4. Good old Bobby Payne.
• 54:25
  Good old Bobby Payne Question 4 Throughout the Jimmy Dean Show,
• 54:29
  a romance develops between Ralph the Dog and Lassie.
• 54:32
  Before this was established, however, in Ralph's first
• 54:34
  appearance on the show, what else does he tell us about
• 54:38
  Lassie? I can't tell who sent that in
• 54:44
  first. Was that Richard first?
• 54:46
  It was Joe. It was Joe.
• 54:47
  Joe, Skip, Skip me. No, no.
• 54:50
  Go with Joe. What's your answer?
• 54:52
  I well, also I thought you were going to ask who is he
• 54:56
  infatuated with? And I was going to say Lassie,
• 54:57
  all right. And then you asked some other
• 54:59
  question and I didn't. I wasn't listening because that
• 55:01
  was scaff. Yeah.
• 55:03
  They're cousins. Incorrect.
• 55:07
  Why? This is I was so confident in
• 55:10
  that I really thought this is on muppet wiki and it was in It was
• 55:13
  in the compilation Tori. Are they like, were they, like,
• 55:18
  betrothed? No.
• 55:20
  This has nothing to do with the romance, Richard.
• 55:22
  You you take a random stab in the dark.
• 55:25
  He found out. No, I I agree.
• 55:30
  You all lose. I have no bit.
• 55:32
  I have no. Bit Richard not having a bit,
• 55:35
  what is it? Leap year.
• 55:36
  Ralph establishes that Lassie is the president of Dogs.
• 55:40
  Like she's just their president, which is very progressive for a
• 55:44
  show in the in like 1963. That's great.
• 55:48
  Queen. Queen Five, Question 5.
• 55:52
  In that first appearance of Ralph on the Jimmy Dean Show,
• 55:55
  Ralph and Jimmy sang a duet together.
• 55:56
  Which of these songs was that duet?
• 55:59
  A swinging on a star? B.
• 56:01
  Side by side? C Nobody or D Have yourself a
• 56:05
  Merry Little Christmas. It looks like Joe was first, but
• 56:10
  Richard are you were was that for this question?
• 56:13
  How do you? How do I even tell who was
• 56:15
  buzzing in first? This is it probably helps when
• 56:18
  there are only two players. Joe, what you got?
• 56:20
  Nobody, Joe. That is correct, even though
• 56:24
  that Richard should have gotten that you like.
• 56:26
  That song, Richard. Let's have a little Lassie
• 56:29
  podcast. Sometimes we're not doing
• 56:30
  another one of these, Richard. We've got it's, it's we got to
• 56:33
  keep going. OK, Question 6.
• 56:35
  Speaking of singing Muppet songs, which of the following
• 56:38
  songs did those of us who were there on the stroll along sing
• 56:41
  together? A, what's the name of that song?
• 56:45
  B. Sing After Me.
• 56:47
  C You are My Sunshine or D Just one person?
• 56:54
  Gav, what's your answer? You are my sunshine.
• 56:58
  That is correct. Question 7.
• 57:02
  This is the last one. On the subway ride home from the
• 57:08
  On the subway ride home from the BBQ place Tori and I saw a man
• 57:10
  dressed as what Restaurant brand icon Tori.
• 57:14
  What the hell? Colonel Sanders, that is
• 57:18
  correct. We did.
• 57:20
  We really did. It was weird.
• 57:23
  We really did that, that Tori tweeted about that.
• 57:25
  That was public information. But Tori was not with us on The
• 57:27
  Walking tour, so I had to make that even.
• 57:29
  Thank you. Thank you.
• 57:31
  OK, All right, Gag, I'm opening up the floor for discussion.
• 57:33
  What was your favorite part of the trip?
• 57:35
  I liked that too. Joe, can you tell us about how
• 57:37
  it was decided where we would walk on The Walking tour?
• 57:41
  Yes, I'll tell you very briefly. So this is a walking tour that
• 57:44
  Heather Henson and I put together as an auction item.
• 57:47
  So for example. The Center for Puppetry Arts
• 57:51
  might say, hey, we want to do an auction.
• 57:53
  What do you have for us that we can auction off?
• 57:55
  And you can put a bid on doing a walking tour in New York City
• 58:00
  with a real Henson of Jim Henson's New York.
• 58:03
  So this is something that she and I put together of just a few
• 58:07
  places where it's a lot of like filming locations and things
• 58:10
  where things used to be like there's where Jim used to live,
• 58:14
  there's where this building used to stand, and now there's
• 58:16
  nothing. But on that tour, as you
• 58:18
  mentioned, it's also Jim Henson's bench in Central Park,
• 58:23
  which is a great filming location, excuse me, a great
• 58:25
  photo op. And then we veer off into the
• 58:30
  city streets of Manhattan. We see a few of the old
• 58:32
  buildings, for example, the old townhouse that a lot of you have
• 58:36
  seen in photos before. And then we end at the carriage
• 58:38
  house where they still do a lot of puppetry work today.
• 58:42
  So this is something that we've been doing for a couple years
• 58:45
  now. So the locations were already
• 58:48
  kind of set for where we wanted to walk.
• 58:50
  But I will say we, we dream big and we have a lot of ideas for,
• 58:56
  you know, if we were going to do this again in future years of
• 58:59
  how we can kind of up the ante to make it not feel like we're
• 59:01
  doing the same thing every time. So you know, for example, this
• 59:05
  year we really wanted to have a Sing Along, which is why this is
• 59:08
  a Sing Along tour and unfortunately it was pouring
• 59:12
  rain the entire time. Or else we would have had Lucas
• 59:15
  Ross there with his banjo. But it is a vintage banjo and we
• 59:19
  didn't want to get it wet and damaged.
• 59:21
  So it ended up just being a regular old let's walk and sing
• 59:26
  type of the one of those normal sing along stroll alongs the the
• 59:29
  typical kind that. We exactly every week, as we all
• 59:32
  do. Yes, of course the but the I
• 59:33
  would say, I would argue that the most special part about the
• 59:36
  entire thing was when we did stop at Jim's bench.
• 59:39
  We were all really excited to decorate the bench.
• 59:42
  Richard can talk a little bit about what he did, but I I think
• 59:46
  they everyone did an amazing job decorating the bench and
• 59:49
  bringing out chalk and drawing. And also, people who are passing
• 59:52
  by would just stop and we would invite them to join us.
• 59:55
  And I feel like that's a very gym thing to do.
• 59:58
  So there was a moment on that walking tour when we're all
• 1:00:02
  gathered around this bench that we've been not quite
• 1:00:04
  graffitiing, but it felt close to that because of all the chalk
• 1:00:07
  drawings around it on the ground, the Muppet parts all
• 1:00:10
  over the bench, the flowers that we put on the bench.
• 1:00:13
  We did so much to that Jim Henson bench.
• 1:00:16
  Hopefully it it all came across to to to Jim Henson, as
• 1:00:21
  respectful as we meant it for for it to be to him.
• 1:00:23
  And we all know that Muppet people do live on in their
• 1:00:26
  benches as we know from Don Celine using his bench to to
• 1:00:29
  give us the name for deucers. But there was a moment when,
• 1:00:32
  like, it looked like Central Park security had stopped and
• 1:00:36
  was checking out like, what the heck are all of these weirdos
• 1:00:38
  doing to this bench? And then very quickly just had
• 1:00:42
  the biggest smile on his face and got on his phone and was
• 1:00:44
  just recording all of us celebrating Jim Henson and
• 1:00:47
  really enjoying it. Everyone seemed to enjoy the
• 1:00:49
  positive vibes that we were giving off.
• 1:00:51
  I certainly was. Can I mention another
• 1:00:53
  interesting moment with security observing us though?
• 1:00:56
  This is later in the day when we were at the museum at a certain
• 1:01:01
  point to continue the celebrating of Jim Henson, I got
• 1:01:04
  out my bag of party blowers, swoop foomers that I didn't know
• 1:01:09
  whether or not I was going to bring these.
• 1:01:10
  But you know what? I said I was going to.
• 1:01:12
  This is the continuation of a bit that goes back a long ways,
• 1:01:15
  all the way to my episode of Fraggle Talk when I was talking
• 1:01:19
  about the episode of Fraggle Rock that introduces Doc's love
• 1:01:21
  of swoop foomers. Can we play a clip?
• 1:01:28
  Well, well, I know we've barely begun the episode, but while
• 1:01:31
  we're on this topic I have gone looking for these online in the
• 1:01:36
  past. And very often if you're trying
• 1:01:37
  to find one of these party blowers or noisemakers or
• 1:01:40
  whatever you want to call them, you end up looking for the wrong
• 1:01:43
  kind of noisemaker or you get one that's not.
• 1:01:47
  That doesn't make a sound. That seems to be the most common
• 1:01:49
  version of This is one that makes no sound, which makes
• 1:01:52
  sense for children's parties where children would just be
• 1:01:55
  making non-stop annoying noise. So I tried to find one that I
• 1:02:00
  could have specifically for this episode so I could make annoying
• 1:02:03
  noises throughout this show and online.
• 1:02:07
  They're all pretty like poorly rated for the most part, unless
• 1:02:10
  you buy an enormous package, Like unless you get 100 swoop
• 1:02:14
  filmers, which they they do sell them in 100 packs, it's very
• 1:02:18
  difficult to get one where the reviews don't all just say it
• 1:02:20
  broke immediately. So I think we can call that a
• 1:02:23
  business expense, right? Yeah, I felt the same way.
• 1:02:26
  So I bought 100 swoop foomers and.
• 1:02:30
  Are you serious? Oh my God.
• 1:02:33
  Glorious. Let's see, what are you going to
• 1:02:36
  do with those? Oh my, that's so many.
• 1:02:39
  I mean, step one, use them to make annoying noises on a
• 1:02:42
  podcast. Step 2.
• 1:02:44
  I haven't tested them yet. Planning and in person, tough
• 1:02:48
  pigs get together where we can all blow the swoop foamers
• 1:02:51
  together. That's my thinking.
• 1:02:55
  Oh no, it's already broken. There we go.
• 1:02:58
  Luckily you have 99 more that was also.
• 1:03:01
  This was also part of my. 99 swoop firmers there in the box,
• 1:03:05
  99 swoop foamers there. You take one down, it doesn't
• 1:03:09
  make sound. 98 swoop foamers left in the box.
• 1:03:12
  There we go. Thank you.
• 1:03:17
  And I somehow got to carry on this bit all the way to the
• 1:03:22
  ideal punchline, which was Heather Henson blowing a swoop
• 1:03:26
  boomer and then everyone else following suit.
• 1:03:30
  And museum security looking at us, wondering what to do about
• 1:03:34
  the fact that 30 people are blowing party horns in a museum.
• 1:03:38
  And the answer, seemingly, was just to just be pleasantly
• 1:03:42
  bemused and let it go. So I feel like I won.
• 1:03:47
  I can close the book on that bit.
• 1:03:49
  I still have some other needlessly complicated running
• 1:03:52
  gags that are still open. fundthepigs.com is a bad running
• 1:03:56
  gag of mine that is still open. For what it's worth, I have not
• 1:04:00
  finished promoting that gag just yet.
• 1:04:03
  Pleasantly, Muse is my favorite sort of reaction.
• 1:04:06
  Yeah, you get it all the time from me.
• 1:04:09
  It's true. Anything else?
• 1:04:11
  We we. What else can we say about that
• 1:04:13
  day? It was a an an incredible day.
• 1:04:15
  Can I just say it was an amazing.
• 1:04:17
  I wanna, I I wanna add one quick thing before we talk more about
• 1:04:20
  how great this was. I have heard from several people
• 1:04:24
  who were not there with us and they wondered why they were not
• 1:04:27
  invited or why they hadn't heard about it.
• 1:04:30
  And I do apologize just because you know, we there was no way
• 1:04:33
  that we could have had 500 people join us on this walking
• 1:04:36
  tour that is against many, many Central Park rules.
• 1:04:40
  So we're hoping that we'll have opportunities to include more
• 1:04:44
  people in future years or more people in future events that we
• 1:04:48
  might or might not be doing. Hopefully we'll figure something
• 1:04:51
  out because we really like celebrating Muppet fans and
• 1:04:55
  their fandom of The Muppets. So, yeah, so apologies to anyone
• 1:04:58
  who was not able to attend, but we hope that we'll get you at
• 1:05:01
  something else in the future. Richard, do you want to ask your
• 1:05:03
  discussion question? Right now, yeah.
• 1:05:05
  I was about to say directly ties into that so.
• 1:05:10
  Obviously it was a huge honor to be able to take part of that,
• 1:05:14
  but the whole time, especially since last year, I had such a
• 1:05:18
  blast doing it last year. We and I hope it becomes like an
• 1:05:22
  A little annual thing. But something that stuck with me
• 1:05:25
  was I am one of maybe like 20 people that gets to have this.
• 1:05:30
  And I feel kind of wrong about it.
• 1:05:33
  Like, I don't know. There are a lot of people who I
• 1:05:38
  like want to share this sort of thing with.
• 1:05:40
  And when I when I have this sort of moment with other people who
• 1:05:45
  all the same kind of weird that I am, it makes me think about
• 1:05:48
  how I felt like as a kid when I was like alone and I didn't
• 1:05:52
  really get to participate in this with the people.
• 1:05:56
  So taking the last to September 24th celebrations of gym into
• 1:06:01
  account and all meet ups, I was wondering what the future of
• 1:06:05
  Muppet fan meet ups looks like and how we can make them.
• 1:06:08
  More accessible to people that aren't maybe in a place where we
• 1:06:11
  can go to that, like on the West or East Coast.
• 1:06:16
  I've been trying to think about how we can, like, digitally make
• 1:06:20
  it more accessible to people too.
• 1:06:22
  It's so difficult because it's like you want people who can go
• 1:06:26
  to them to be able to go to them.
• 1:06:27
  But it's also like, it sucks. You know, for like when when
• 1:06:31
  there's an event. Like when I found out about the
• 1:06:33
  Dave Gold's event, which I know is a completely different thing
• 1:06:35
  and less fan focused and more like an official museum.
• 1:06:38
  I was bummed I couldn't go because it was like, oh man, I
• 1:06:41
  wish that was the other museum and that's the one that's in a
• 1:06:44
  completely different state that I had no opportunity to go to.
• 1:06:47
  Granted, that event I think did have a digital component if I'm
• 1:06:50
  not completely. Yeah, that was great.
• 1:06:52
  It was, it was great. Anybody could be a part of that
• 1:06:55
  if they wanted to. Same with the celebration of
• 1:06:57
  Dave Golds at the Bretta Brothers Thing Podcast.
• 1:07:01
  I know a lot of us tuned in live to that, right?
• 1:07:04
  And that's part of what I'm talking about.
• 1:07:06
  And As for like the September 24th walk, I remember I I did
• 1:07:10
  not go this year because someone didn't realize that I was in New
• 1:07:12
  York. Not going to say names.
• 1:07:15
  Excuse me? Heather Henson, Heather.
• 1:07:20
  Yeah, Heather. Why did you call me but like I
• 1:07:23
  remember doing it last year or something similar last year
• 1:07:26
  being like how how did I get picked for this?
• 1:07:29
  How I I felt like imposterous from them like these are like.
• 1:07:34
  Like how am I here? Like so many other people more
• 1:07:36
  deserving should have had this slot.
• 1:07:38
  And just like that like how did how did all this happened?
• 1:07:43
  As just like hit my mind several times and thinking about my
• 1:07:46
  place, Muppet, fandom and definitely these type of in
• 1:07:49
  person events are one of the highlights and also one of the
• 1:07:53
  things I'm like most confused on how I'm included in.
• 1:07:57
  But also like I I appreciated that it was a cool group of
• 1:08:01
  people and I. I do, too.
• 1:08:04
  I appreciate because there's two different, there's two very
• 1:08:07
  different sides of me. There's the, there's the part of
• 1:08:10
  me that's like I I do like it when I have a more small,
• 1:08:14
  concentrated group that I can just kind of talk to and eat
• 1:08:18
  with and just, yeah, that kind of more more intimate gathering.
• 1:08:24
  But there's also a part of me that wants to be like.
• 1:08:27
  Like, I want to throw a puppet at you, and I want to throw a
• 1:08:29
  puppet at you, and I want to count them later when I get them
• 1:08:31
  back. And I want everybody to sing
• 1:08:32
  together and I want everybody to dead, all mess around and
• 1:08:36
  celebrate and get weird. I think a lot about Jerry
• 1:08:40
  Nelson's poem for Jim. I think a lot about a lot of
• 1:08:43
  specific phrases in it, like Mr. Hands open wide.
• 1:08:46
  Like I think about like how we can interact with each other.
• 1:08:50
  I mean, I I'll also say that there are times when some of us
• 1:08:55
  independently do choose to meet up.
• 1:08:58
  Like Gav, you were one of the people who was helping to
• 1:09:01
  arrange the time when a bunch of us got together in Baltimore.
• 1:09:04
  That was not a group of the same size, but it was still quite a
• 1:09:08
  group of just fans. Like, no Heather Henson there
• 1:09:11
  yet. Richard, get into our DMS.
• 1:09:15
  Don't test your luck. So as the the old man in this
• 1:09:21
  room, I I've been a part of online Muppet fandom for a
• 1:09:26
  really long time. Not as long as certain people,
• 1:09:28
  but definitely longer than. Certain people here maybe or
• 1:09:33
  have been alive, and I've seen a lot of different ways that
• 1:09:39
  Muppet fans have gotten together.
• 1:09:40
  The Internet has definitely made this a lot easier.
• 1:09:43
  But you know, for the most part, it starts, you know, it's stuff
• 1:09:46
  that you're talking about JD. Like it starts with, like,
• 1:09:49
  finding that online Muppet group, whether it's the tough
• 1:09:52
  pigs forum or your Facebook group or your Discord group.
• 1:09:58
  Or, you know, like all this the. Folks on Muppet Twitter And
• 1:10:02
  then, you know, somebody saying, like, hey, seems like there's a
• 1:10:05
  lot of us in Pennsylvania, let's all have a picnic and then
• 1:10:08
  there's a picnic and suddenly you're you're rubbing elbows
• 1:10:11
  with all these fellow Muppet fans.
• 1:10:13
  But ever since I took over tough pigs, we've always been trying
• 1:10:17
  to find these ways that we can get people together.
• 1:10:19
  And it's really hard. The first time we ever tried, a
• 1:10:23
  million years ago, we tried to host a a picnic on Governor's
• 1:10:26
  Island in in New York City. And we told people just like,
• 1:10:29
  hey, here's where we're going to be show up at this time.
• 1:10:31
  Boom. And, you know, we had a really
• 1:10:34
  small group. We probably knew already knew
• 1:10:36
  about half the people there and then the half people who just
• 1:10:38
  like, like new friends to us. And, you know, I think we were
• 1:10:42
  kind of expecting, like there could be hundreds of people we
• 1:10:45
  don't know. You know, it's the Internet.
• 1:10:47
  And it was just a few. It's like nothing that we would
• 1:10:50
  want to do over and over again, 'cause obviously our reach
• 1:10:54
  wasn't what we thought it was but then was years later.
• 1:10:58
  Oh my God, good question. If I had to guess, 2006, 2007
• 1:11:06
  maybe? Is everyone here older Maybe?
• 1:11:07
  2008 Yes. OK, Yeah 'cause I I know.
• 1:11:11
  I feel like. There's somebody after 2000 8
• 1:11:13
  younger than Tough. Wait.
• 1:11:15
  Just a couple. Of Ryan Ryan had moved to New
• 1:11:17
  York in 2008, so definitely after 2008, now that I'm saying
• 1:11:20
  this out loud. But yeah, it was.
• 1:11:22
  It was. Around there, you know, years
• 1:11:25
  later, Ryan and I started doing these monthly events, these
• 1:11:28
  Muppet Vault events, which were great because we would get like
• 1:11:31
  regular people who are coming over and over again.
• 1:11:33
  And if you missed one, it's OK 'cause we'll do another one next
• 1:11:36
  month. And it was just a great way to
• 1:11:38
  get Muppet fans in a room together to celebrate Muppets.
• 1:11:42
  The closest that I think that were coming, at least in New
• 1:11:44
  York to anything like that is the events at the Museum of of
• 1:11:49
  of the moving image that Craig's putting on.
• 1:11:52
  But. That for some reason doesn't
• 1:11:54
  feel like a fandom event. It just feels like it's just a
• 1:11:57
  cool screening. And so we we're still trying to
• 1:12:00
  figure out what that thing is. These events that we've done the
• 1:12:03
  last couple of years have been really good for that because,
• 1:12:05
  you know, Heather Henson seems really invested in wanting to
• 1:12:09
  embrace the fandom, which is a beautiful thing.
• 1:12:12
  We've got the the topics community, the Muppet, Twitter
• 1:12:14
  community, everyone that we personally know.
• 1:12:17
  You know, all of you fine folks. Who are in this general area of
• 1:12:22
  our country. But to Richard's point earlier,
• 1:12:27
  that is so exclusive to so many people, and again, because we
• 1:12:30
  started this, this whole thing as online Muppet fans, you could
• 1:12:33
  be living anywhere in the world. And it's I I understand like
• 1:12:38
  that's really difficult for anyone who doesn't live within a
• 1:12:40
  certain radius of New York City or Los Angeles.
• 1:12:43
  So we haven't quite cracked that code yet.
• 1:12:47
  I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll show one more failed attempt which was
• 1:12:50
  when the 2011 Muppet movie came out.
• 1:12:53
  We had this great idea to host Muppet fan gatherings all over
• 1:12:58
  the world, and we had volunteers from every major city that we
• 1:13:02
  could find people who we who were, We knew people.
• 1:13:05
  To say like, OK, like if you live in Cleveland, show up to
• 1:13:09
  this theater at this time, if you live in Detroit, show up at
• 1:13:11
  this theater at this time. If you live in, you know,
• 1:13:13
  Austin, TX, this theater at that time.
• 1:13:15
  And the hope was we would have all these mini gatherings of
• 1:13:19
  Muppet fans all over the country, and most of them,
• 1:13:23
  nobody really showed up. We had a small handful of those
• 1:13:28
  where, you know, a decent amount of people showed up.
• 1:13:31
  Not a lot, but like a few. And, you know, it was a cool
• 1:13:34
  idea. You know, I think if we were
• 1:13:37
  gonna do that now, we would do it very differently.
• 1:13:39
  But you know, again, like, for some reason, like, I don't know
• 1:13:43
  if it's just because there's fewer people or in a in a larger
• 1:13:47
  space in other cities compared to New York or LA, but we just
• 1:13:50
  couldn't get those numbers up in any specific location.
• 1:13:53
  Joe. So, Joe.
• 1:13:56
  Yeah, given the Muppet merch conversation that we had earlier
• 1:14:02
  about how it feels like if there's if if they make a Star
• 1:14:06
  Wars thing or a Star Trek thing or whatever in terms of merch,
• 1:14:09
  that's $1000. There will be just enough people
• 1:14:12
  who buy that that they can justify it, but not so much with
• 1:14:14
  Muppet fans. And now, considering how many
• 1:14:16
  times we've tried to get a large number of Muppet fans together
• 1:14:19
  in person and haven't. Because for all those people who
• 1:14:21
  are like, oh, I wish I could have been on The Walking tour,
• 1:14:24
  there's at this point, there's been an annual screening at the
• 1:14:26
  Museum of the Moving Image that you could have gone to.
• 1:14:29
  And yet that theater was mostly empty apart from people on The
• 1:14:31
  Walking tour. Certainly not entirely.
• 1:14:33
  But mostly, do we need to seriously consider the very real
• 1:14:37
  possibility, which I have always assumed to be the case, that
• 1:14:39
  there are not a lot of Muppet fans.
• 1:14:41
  Which makes it then, I will say much more painful for those
• 1:14:44
  Muppet fans who are real, who do exist, to not be present for all
• 1:14:48
  of the cool things. So I don't accept that as an
• 1:14:52
  answer, because if that were true, then The Muppets would be
• 1:14:55
  dead, Like if there weren't, If there weren't Muppet fans out
• 1:14:58
  there, then I don't think, I don't think that there would be
• 1:15:01
  any investment on Disney's part to make Muppet stuff.
• 1:15:03
  I think what JD is saying, I think there's a lot of people
• 1:15:06
  who aren't like The Muppets and watch The Muppets in a very
• 1:15:08
  casual way, but that the number of people who are like in the
• 1:15:13
  fandom. Is small.
• 1:15:14
  I think that's what JD is trying to say.
• 1:15:16
  And am I right that's that's more or less correct and I'll
• 1:15:19
  give you a point for. It yeah, there we go.
• 1:15:21
  Yeah, no, no, I I I actually, no, I I think, I think that's
• 1:15:24
  100% true. But I think the weird thing that
• 1:15:26
  I haven't been able to wrap my brain around is that with other
• 1:15:30
  fandoms there's a spectrum of fans where where, you know,
• 1:15:35
  people can be anywhere between, you know, hardcore.
• 1:15:38
  I've read all and memorized every fact and every book, and I
• 1:15:41
  own every single piece of merchandise.
• 1:15:43
  To like, well, I've seen Star Wars once or twice, but you
• 1:15:45
  know, I'll see, I'll see the next one if they ever do another
• 1:15:48
  one. Like there's a whole, like
• 1:15:49
  there's all these different types of fans in between.
• 1:15:52
  And with Muppet fans, it feels like we've got the Super casual
• 1:15:55
  fans who go, Oh yeah, I like that, that dog who plays the
• 1:15:58
  piano. And we've got the people like us
• 1:16:01
  who are such super fans that we do podcasts about The Muppets
• 1:16:06
  and there doesn't seem to be much in between.
• 1:16:09
  And I don't necessarily think that it's true that there's no
• 1:16:12
  one in between there. It's just that I can't.
• 1:16:14
  I don't. I don't think that that it's an
• 1:16:16
  easy clone to something like Star Wars or Star Trek or Doctor
• 1:16:19
  Who or whatever. I think that Muppets Muppet
• 1:16:22
  fandom is its own animal and we just can't see who those people
• 1:16:30
  are and where they are and what they want.
• 1:16:34
  And there's I I think that that that that group has a relatively
• 1:16:39
  limited bandwidth for how much they have Muppet stuff in their
• 1:16:44
  online feeds and how much they see this.
• 1:16:46
  And like I think that what we have found is a lot of the
• 1:16:49
  people in between to the extent to which there are people in
• 1:16:52
  between. And I agree with you that it
• 1:16:53
  certainly seems like it's it's not as many as you might expect
• 1:16:55
  or hope for. They kind of check their box of
• 1:17:00
  I have Muppet stuff in my feed with Muppet History, which is
• 1:17:04
  understandable because it's a very well run set of social
• 1:17:08
  media accounts. It's a pretty incredible social
• 1:17:11
  media project. But I think it is true that
• 1:17:15
  that's where I see like a very large number of people in the in
• 1:17:17
  the middle space of that spectrum are like, OK, I have
• 1:17:21
  this to give me my fix of Muppets for the day where I got
• 1:17:24
  to see my one picture of Kermit the Frog and I'm happy.
• 1:17:27
  And that's enough for me. I don't necessarily need to hear
• 1:17:31
  all the Muppet news or to go to meet UPS or whatever.
• 1:17:33
  Right. And those people that you're
• 1:17:36
  describing, those are the people who used to show up to our
• 1:17:38
  Muppet Vault events. Like, they're the ones who they
• 1:17:41
  knew, who who Rolf the Dog is. They're not necessarily die hard
• 1:17:46
  tough Pigs readers. They're somewhere in between
• 1:17:48
  those two things. And they like The Muppets enough
• 1:17:52
  to say, Yep, every month or every couple of months I'm going
• 1:17:56
  to leave my house, I'm going to spend a few dollars, I'm going
• 1:17:59
  to go and watch this event and have a nice time.
• 1:18:03
  Those are the people that like like who are they?
• 1:18:06
  People who love The Muppets on just a slightly larger than
• 1:18:09
  casual level, right. Gosh, that is the question.
• 1:18:13
  You go ahead, Geoff. What?
• 1:18:15
  What? Where were?
• 1:18:18
  Where were the people who went to Muppet Fest on that scale?
• 1:18:24
  All. Right.
• 1:18:24
  That's a good question. I don't know.
• 1:18:26
  I wasn't there. I don't know.
• 1:18:28
  Well, you were the one who was like born and not a small child.
• 1:18:32
  So you're the one who will have the.
• 1:18:33
  Best answer, Joe. I was in college when Muppet
• 1:18:37
  Fest happened and I couldn't really afford to get myself out
• 1:18:40
  to California and I I think. My, my recollection is that my
• 1:18:44
  dad offered to help me pay for it, but I didn't know anyone out
• 1:18:47
  there. So it's like, so how am I going
• 1:18:48
  to get around? How where am I going to stay?
• 1:18:50
  Like, I just, and I was a scared kid.
• 1:18:53
  I was like, I don't know how to do any of this.
• 1:18:54
  So you know what? I'll go to the next one that's
• 1:19:00
  wonderful. And you know, Muppet Fest and
• 1:19:02
  these walking tours are not the only events that bring Muppet
• 1:19:04
  fans together. Oh no, no.
• 1:19:06
  There was also a panel at New York Comic Con this year hosted
• 1:19:09
  by Tough Pig Zone. Johannes, is that right?
• 1:19:11
  You were the host of this panel. My God, you're saying my name a
• 1:19:14
  lot on the spot. I am.
• 1:19:15
  I know well this. Is why you're the.
• 1:19:17
  Entire government, right? These past few months you have
• 1:19:21
  been there for so much and so involved in, I think.
• 1:19:25
  It's so big to Z. JD, I don't think people realize
• 1:19:28
  how tired. I can tell that you're very
• 1:19:29
  busy. I'm shocked that you agreed to
• 1:19:31
  do this show. How do you have time?
• 1:19:32
  I haven't slept having a lot of these things too.
• 1:19:35
  That's true, I know, Richard. And we'll get to that in just a
• 1:19:38
  second. Yes, Richard.
• 1:19:40
  Mike. What?
• 1:19:40
  Gomez is just less fun to say than Joe Henry.
• 1:19:43
  New York Comic Con. The panel is here, hosted by
• 1:19:46
  Tough Exone Jo Hennesen, featuring some great Muppet fan
• 1:19:48
  artists. Which brings us to our our next
• 1:19:50
  trivia questions. Question one, This is for 20
• 1:19:53
  points. Which of the artists on the
• 1:19:54
  panel didn't know he was expected to be there until he
• 1:19:57
  read on toughpigs.com that he was one of the panelists?
• 1:20:03
  Tori, did you buzz in first for that one?
• 1:20:07
  I think you did. I know, 'cause it's also the
• 1:20:10
  person who, up until like 2 days before, I thought was crashing
• 1:20:13
  in my dorm room that weekend. It's Richard Michael Gomez.
• 1:20:16
  It is. Richard Michael Gomez.
• 1:20:17
  That is correct. It is Richard Michael Gomez for
• 1:20:22
  you get the 20 points question 2 for 30 points.
• 1:20:25
  Which member of the Tough Pig staff was responsible for
• 1:20:28
  communicating with Richard that he was expected to be there, but
• 1:20:32
  evidently failed in this responsibility?
• 1:20:37
  Joe, did you buzz in first? It looks like you did.
• 1:20:40
  I did buzz in. Yeah, what's up?
• 1:20:42
  But boy, you know, it couldn't have been me.
• 1:20:44
  In Joe's defense, he did tell me, but he told me in a
• 1:20:50
  different like, I was not actually expecting it to happen
• 1:20:53
  because of the way he told me. I think he phrased it like there
• 1:20:57
  was a chance we might need you as a backup if our planned
• 1:21:01
  person doesn't do it. And I was like.
• 1:21:05
  Okay, I'm not buying till it's. I'm not going to Comic Con.
• 1:21:10
  I don't go to Comic Con. That's too many people for
• 1:21:13
  little old me. Well then it happened and I went
• 1:21:17
  like 2 days later. Richard, you had the right
• 1:21:19
  answer there, which Joe did not give, but you didn't Buzz in,
• 1:21:22
  Tori buzzed in. Tori, what's the right answer?
• 1:21:25
  The right answer, I was gonna guess was JD Hansel, but I think
• 1:21:28
  it's actually Johanna. So you just give me 15 points.
• 1:21:31
  Well. Tori, you had the right answer,
• 1:21:33
  but you didn't phrase it in in a question.
• 1:21:35
  So you Oh yeah, who is the guy who is hosting this?
• 1:21:41
  Point. None of you are getting points.
• 1:21:42
  For that sorting podcast. None of you are getting the 30
• 1:21:45
  points. Shame on all of you.
• 1:21:47
  All right, Since I wasn't there for this event.
• 1:21:48
  Richard, can you tell me? Richard.
• 1:21:50
  Michael Gomez. There, I said your name again.
• 1:21:52
  Can you tell me what the heck happened at?
• 1:21:55
  At this event. What did happen?
• 1:21:57
  Yeah, What's your, What's your discussion question?
• 1:22:00
  I already I already gave my discussion question.
• 1:22:02
  What's your discussion? Question.
• 1:22:05
  Tori, What else was happening at New York City Comic Con this
• 1:22:08
  year? Not not a lot.
• 1:22:12
  Not a lot. I went only on Thursday because
• 1:22:15
  I am a poor college student can only afford one day.
• 1:22:19
  And I you please edit this out if you want to.
• 1:22:23
  But I was wandering around the show floor and you know how like
• 1:22:26
  when you're in a Comic Con and you see somebody dressed as
• 1:22:28
  something and you're like, hey, nice Indiana Jones costume or in
• 1:22:31
  hey, nice Spider Man costume, right.
• 1:22:34
  So I'm just walking in the show floor and I say, hey, nice
• 1:22:37
  Figment costume. And who was there under the
• 1:22:40
  figment costume? Colonel Sanders.
• 1:22:44
  No, no, I would it was Matthew Soberman.
• 1:22:47
  Tough things right here and genuinely good guy.
• 1:22:49
  Are you not joking? Are you serious?
• 1:22:51
  Yes. No, seriously, I said.
• 1:22:53
  That's amazing, I said. Hey, nice thing with costume.
• 1:22:56
  And it was. It was Matthew.
• 1:22:58
  And I had no idea it was Matthew.
• 1:22:59
  Wow, there is a great surprise. That's fantastic.
• 1:23:03
  So me and Matthew were walking around and we went to the
• 1:23:05
  Diamond Selects toy panel, which promised in the description on
• 1:23:09
  the Comic Con app that there'd be Muppets.
• 1:23:12
  And guess what we saw? What did you see?
• 1:23:16
  Colonel Sanders, the same, the same picture of the Pepe and
• 1:23:22
  Uncle Daddy figures that we have seen for months.
• 1:23:25
  Can I just briefly say it's weird that they chose those two
• 1:23:28
  to pack together? Like if that's weird, right?
• 1:23:30
  Well, they're you know, Disney does love to surprisingly
• 1:23:34
  package Pepe in with things. As we've seen with all of their
• 1:23:37
  DVD releases, that's true, that's true.
• 1:23:41
  But anyway, Matthew was asked the question if any Muppet stuff
• 1:23:44
  was coming after it and we got everybody's favorite response.
• 1:23:49
  If these sell, we have other ideas, which is yeah, yeah, I
• 1:23:55
  might buy these though, 'cause I I realized I don't have a Pepe
• 1:23:58
  figure, so maybe I'll get it. Maybe.
• 1:24:00
  Oh, and we asked they they did mention the date was coming in
• 1:24:05
  January or sometime they they were very vague about when they
• 1:24:08
  were releasing. So no news on that front, folks.
• 1:24:12
  I actually remember what I had to say about it, which was,
• 1:24:15
  first of all, what a grand old time hanging out with my buddies
• 1:24:18
  Dave Holtine, Will Carroll and Jake Fosgate.
• 1:24:22
  And there was another guy who invited me, but I I can't
• 1:24:24
  remember the the best part for me, the most standout part.
• 1:24:30
  Oh God, I'm going to talk to you long.
• 1:24:31
  I'm thinking about two different things.
• 1:24:34
  Be fast. We've been recording for so
• 1:24:35
  long. Richard, please, please let us
• 1:24:38
  out. OK, OK, so you know me.
• 1:24:41
  I'm manic at best and I was walking around this whole time,
• 1:24:46
  apart from the time we were actually doing the panel with a
• 1:24:48
  squirrel puppet on my arm that I had built in like 12 hours for a
• 1:24:53
  48 hour Film Festival. Anyhow, as I went around
• 1:24:56
  bothering people nonstop, as I typically do, there was this
• 1:25:00
  kindly gentleman. In a comet denim jacket that I
• 1:25:04
  absolved and I naturally sprung up to him and started conforcing
• 1:25:08
  with him with the squirrel puppet, of course, and to my
• 1:25:10
  delight he was very charmed and we began a natural report that
• 1:25:16
  went on for like 5-10 minutes, like way longer than it should
• 1:25:20
  have. I sprung away into the darkness
• 1:25:22
  and did not see him again for another two hours.
• 1:25:25
  And when I did see him again, I learned that he is in fact Bruce
• 1:25:30
  Connolly. Who performed Berkeley on Sesame
• 1:25:33
  Street? So that was the highlight of my
• 1:25:36
  day. Only in New York or at a
• 1:25:40
  convention or at a Muppet get together.
• 1:25:43
  Or at any of the things that we've been talking about today?
• 1:25:46
  Kind of happen to me all the time.
• 1:25:47
  This feels like a very Richard Michael Gomez thing to happen.
• 1:25:50
  I said your name again. I hope you're very happy.
• 1:25:52
  Now I'd like to take a moment to do some shameless self
• 1:25:54
  promotion. This year, Richard Michael Gomez
• 1:25:56
  and I took part in the 48 Hour Halloween Puppet Film Project,
• 1:25:59
  which is an event hosted by filmmaker Alex U Griffin with
• 1:26:01
  the support of Here's Her Name Again, Heather Henson, and her
• 1:26:05
  organization. In which puppeteers and film
• 1:26:08
  makers have 48 hours in which to write, record, and complete an
• 1:26:11
  original puppet film. I'm only going to ask the
• 1:26:13
  panelists one trivia question about this topic, and it's this.
• 1:26:16
  What is the name of Heather Henson's YouTube account where
• 1:26:18
  you can watch the screening of an awards for the films that
• 1:26:21
  were submitted for this project? Tori.
• 1:26:27
  Is that IBEX Puppetry that is. Ibex puppetry there we.
• 1:26:32
  Go is IBEX puppetry. It is the the YouTube channel is
• 1:26:35
  still Ibex Puppetry. It is handmade.
• 1:26:38
  Puppet dreams that it that that it's the name under handmade.
• 1:26:40
  Puppet Dreams is the name that that is responsible for the
• 1:26:44
  film. The 48 hour film project.
• 1:26:46
  Yes, it's. All very simple handmade puppet
• 1:26:48
  dreams. A division of Green Feather
• 1:26:52
  Foundation and Ibex Puppetry used to be the name of at least
• 1:26:56
  one of those things, and that is the anatomy of Heather Henson's
• 1:27:00
  things. OK, OK.
• 1:27:03
  OK. OK.
• 1:27:04
  Now we all understand and it's all very clear.
• 1:27:07
  For our final question, we're going to play a game we like to
• 1:27:09
  call Dog City. It's called Dog City because
• 1:27:12
  much like in the city of Dog City, anything can happen, and
• 1:27:14
  it probably will. Our panelists will hear the
• 1:27:16
  question, then wager as many of their points as they want in the
• 1:27:19
  private messages where they will also send their final answer.
• 1:27:23
  All right, let me tell you how many points you can wager this
• 1:27:28
  is. I have to say, JD, this I don't
• 1:27:30
  know if it's going to get making in the show, but this has been a
• 1:27:32
  delight and I have had a smile on my face the whole time.
• 1:27:34
  So thank you for having me. I am so glad.
• 1:27:37
  Delightful mess. I'm sorry that it went on so
• 1:27:39
  long. That's.
• 1:27:40
  Largely my fault. I'm the host.
• 1:27:42
  I take responsibility for the length.
• 1:27:44
  It's also partly gap. It's also.
• 1:27:46
  I'm not inserting myself into this conversation.
• 1:27:49
  It's also. Partly Joe's because he
• 1:27:51
  definitely had opportunities to keep the length down and was
• 1:27:53
  like, you know, let me say something else about The Walking
• 1:27:55
  tour. They have so much more to say
• 1:27:58
  that didn't make it into this podcast.
• 1:28:01
  You realize, not that we need to go back, but we didn't actually
• 1:28:04
  say what our New York Comic Con panel was.
• 1:28:07
  I know. Well, there's no time.
• 1:28:11
  There's still time we moved on. So when do I do my 20 minute
• 1:28:15
  monologue about Frazzle? You don't get to do that, Tory.
• 1:28:18
  But you know what you do get to do?
• 1:28:19
  You do get to wear a big old smile on your face.
• 1:28:22
  Because as it stands, you're in the lead with 73 points.
• 1:28:26
  Joe is behind you with 57 points and then Richard with 44 and Gav
• 1:28:31
  with 43. So they're very close.
• 1:28:34
  So I don't want. To talk.
• 1:28:36
  About anyone's game. Anyone's game.
• 1:28:38
  So wager any number less than that as the as the amount of
• 1:28:42
  points for this final question. And actually I will let you hear
• 1:28:46
  the question before you choose how much you're going to wager
• 1:28:49
  and then if do you all have the direct messages thing ready to
• 1:28:51
  go? Yeah.
• 1:28:53
  All right, your question is. Who is this week's greatest
• 1:28:58
  Muppet fan? Richard sent in his points
• 1:29:03
  before he heard the question or decided on his answer.
• 1:29:06
  That's a loud but. Not wise.
• 1:29:08
  Can you repeat the question please?
• 1:29:10
  Sure, your question is who is this week's Greatest Muppet Fan?
• 1:29:16
  This week? This week.
• 1:29:19
  Wait, what day is it? It's Wednesday.
• 1:29:20
  Who is this? Month.
• 1:29:22
  'S greatest Muppet fan. If you like, it's the same
• 1:29:24
  answer. OK.
• 1:29:27
  I don't even know how to begin to answer this.
• 1:29:29
  Needle guys, this isn't really the answer.
• 1:29:32
  Was very easy for the record. I really have nothing.
• 1:29:35
  Oh my God. Oh shoot, I just messed up my
• 1:29:38
  Excel sheet. Oh no, the Excel sheet.
• 1:29:40
  Don't know excel sheet. I'm so sorry.
• 1:29:44
  I don't forgive you. OK, the correct answer is.
• 1:29:49
  Well, first I should clarify at the top of this show, I said you
• 1:29:52
  would all be competing to be. The greatest Muppet fan Dumb
• 1:29:56
  panelist. So had you said yourself, you
• 1:30:00
  would have been close, on the right track, but incorrect.
• 1:30:04
  The correct answer is Becca Petunia for letting me spoof her
• 1:30:08
  show this week on the Great Muppet Fandom panel from
• 1:30:11
  toughpigs.com. For what it's worth, you all got
• 1:30:14
  that wrong. But Tori, who was in the lead,
• 1:30:16
  only wagered 15 points, whereas Richard wagered 40.
• 1:30:20
  Show wagered all of 57 of his points.
• 1:30:22
  All in, baby. Gav wisely only wagered one of
• 1:30:25
  his 43. So 73 -, 15 is whatever 73 -, 15
• 1:30:32
  is, and I believe that is more than the 42 that Gav has.
• 1:30:35
  So, Tori, congratulations. You are this week's Greatest
• 1:30:39
  Muppet Fandom panelist. See, I know how Jeopardy works.
• 1:30:42
  I watch that show every night. Yeah, Tori.
• 1:30:46
  Yeah, you did it, Tori. By the way, your prize is a
• 1:30:50
  swoop boomer if you want it. I I already have one, so I'll
• 1:30:52
  take I'll take another. Okay, great panelists, friends,
• 1:30:56
  we've reached the end of another edition of the Great Muppet
• 1:30:58
  Fandom Panel. Hey, why don't I ask the
• 1:31:00
  panelists where we can find them on the Internet today?
• 1:31:02
  Gav where can people find you on the Internet?
• 1:31:04
  You can find me on Twitter at Gavry 3.
• 1:31:08
  You can also you can also find me on YouTube.
• 1:31:11
  As a bagel, I'm one of the best. Baked goods on YouTube and the
• 1:31:16
  entire Internet ever. And also you can find me on
• 1:31:20
  Muppet wiki sometimes. Shout out to Scott.
• 1:31:22
  Tori, where can people find you on the Internet?
• 1:31:24
  You can find me on The Muppets. No context.
• 1:31:28
  Context. That's at Muppet.
• 1:31:30
  No. Mostly on Twitter.
• 1:31:32
  There isn't Instagram. I haven't touched it in months.
• 1:31:35
  There is a TikTok. I forgot the password.
• 1:31:37
  There is a blue sky. They don't let you post videos
• 1:31:41
  on there, so I don't even know why I made it.
• 1:31:43
  But you can also follow my personal account on Twitter at
• 1:31:45
  Spell Things, because I don't know how to spell things and you
• 1:31:49
  can also find me in the deli aisle of the local grocery.
• 1:31:53
  Richard, where can people find you in it?
• 1:31:55
  Sorry, Richard. Michael Gomez, Where can people
• 1:31:58
  find you on the Internet? You can find me on what is
• 1:32:04
  formerly Twitter, but I don't recommend it.
• 1:32:06
  You can find me on Instagram at Richard Michael Gomez.
• 1:32:09
  And you can also check out my website, Richard Michael Gomez,
• 1:32:12
  made by our very own Gav. Yeah, you can also contact me
• 1:32:15
  through his contact. Form.
• 1:32:18
  That's true. You can find me wherever Gav is
• 1:32:20
  probably. I.
• 1:32:23
  I just want to say, JD, I feel honored to be a part of the
• 1:32:26
  first seven hour podcast relating to The Muppets.
• 1:32:32
  It's oh, we're going on 8 hours now.
• 1:32:34
  Wow. That feels right.
• 1:32:36
  That feels right. Johannes, where can people find
• 1:32:39
  you on the Internet? You know, a lot of people talk
• 1:32:42
  about how Elon Musk is doing a lot of horrible things for the
• 1:32:46
  world right now. But the one nice thing that he
• 1:32:48
  did was he convinced me to really start to get myself off
• 1:32:51
  of social media. So I'm not really able to.
• 1:32:54
  I'm not, I'm not really anywhere right now.
• 1:32:57
  But the one personal thing that you can find is I have a sub
• 1:33:01
  stack where I post movie and TV reviews.
• 1:33:04
  It's called Joe Consumes Media. So you could find that on
• 1:33:08
  substack.com, and everything else I post goes straight to
• 1:33:12
  tough pigs, which JD is going to tell you all about in just a
• 1:33:15
  second. After this, yeah, I will.
• 1:33:17
  And now a moment of spontaneous applause for our panel of Muppet
• 1:33:20
  experts. Thank you.
• 1:33:22
  If you enjoyed this program, we hope you'll consider supporting
• 1:33:24
  us on Patreon. Thank you to those of you who do
• 1:33:26
  so now. This Tough Pigs Muppet fan
• 1:33:28
  podcast was executive produced by the Tough Pigs Muppet Fan
• 1:33:30
  Podcast Executive producer Johannes.
• 1:33:32
  That's my name. Thanks to Kenny Durkin for our
• 1:33:34
  artwork, and thanks to Frank Oz because it's always a good time
• 1:33:38
  to thank a Frank. Also, congratulations to Becca
• 1:33:40
  for being this week's Greatest Muppet Fan and for getting
• 1:33:42
  married. Congratulations, Rebecca.
• 1:33:45
  Of course, I'm very thankful to Becca for letting me use the
• 1:33:47
  Hubbawa Studio to record this show.
• 1:33:51
  JD. Shoot.
• 1:33:52
  What are you doing in here? Nothing.
• 1:33:54
  Nothing. Listen, listen.
• 1:33:56
  It's just a great Muppet fandom panel.
• 1:33:57
  Guys, stop hitting the buzzers. Please studio for a week.
• 1:34:00
  And you move in and start Hubba Wahing without me For
• 1:34:06
  toughpicks.com, this is JD Hansel reminding you, as I
• 1:34:08
  always do, of Jim Henson's model You'll never get out of the
• 1:34:10
  cube. Goodbye.
• 1:34:11
  Is this because? I ask you those difficult
• 1:34:15
  questions about. Prairie Dawn's Dutch name or
• 1:34:18
  whatever. This show is a tribute to all
• 1:34:20
  podcasts, but mostly Hubba Wah. Now, I'm not saying Gordon and
• 1:34:27
  Susan were sent to a retirement home, but the only other
• 1:34:30
  explanation from them being driven out of their apartment,
• 1:34:32
  they've had ownership for over 50 years, aside from
• 1:34:34
  gentrification, is that they died.
• 1:34:37
  And they couldn't have died if Gordon was proven to be in the
• 1:34:39
  new season. Now that only leaves the
• 1:34:41
  question if Susan is still alive.
• 1:34:44
  What happened to punctuality? People used to appear 15 minutes
• 1:34:47
  early to a podcast. My roommate.
• 1:34:49
  It took him like 45 minutes to get here.
• 1:34:52
  We're recording at least 1/2 hour off schedule.
• 1:34:54
  I just wanted to talk about Muppets with friends.
• 1:34:56
  And so Fozzie Bear came into my house and stole my candy dish.
• 1:35:02
  That I stole from Jay Leno. That he stole from George
• 1:35:05
  Carlin. That he stole from Lauren
• 1:35:08
  Michaels. That he stole from Bozo.
• 1:35:11
  That he stole from Ronald Reagan.
• 1:35:14
  That he stole from Jacqueline Onastis.
• 1:35:17
  That she stole from Marilyn Monroe.
• 1:35:20
  In episode 205 of The Muppet Show, Kermit the Frog interviews
• 1:35:23
  the Kusbanian Foob, which turns out to be a shapeshifter that
• 1:35:25
  transforms into an identical clone of Kermit.
• 1:35:28
  But what if the real Kermit was left on Kusbane, while the foob
• 1:35:31
  has been masquerading his Kermit for the past 46 years?
• 1:35:34
  Let's take it one step further. What if the real Kermit escape
• 1:35:37
  from Kuzbane by hitching a ride on a cosmonaut spaceship and
• 1:35:40
  then had to assume a new identity as a Russian explosives
• 1:35:43
  expert, later to be captured and imprisoned in a Siberian gulag?
• 1:35:47
  Constantine is the real Kermit the Frog.
• 1:35:49
  It's an interplanetary conspiracy.