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The Worst of the Muppets - A Special Sesame Street Christmas · Muppet Fan Podcasts with ToughPigs.com

• 0:13
  Hello and welcome to The Worst of The Muppets Holiday Edition
• 0:17
  presented by toughpigs.com. We all know that The Muppets
• 0:20
  have made some of the greatest films, specials and TV episodes
• 0:23
  in history, but everyone makes mistakes, even Kermit the Frog.
• 0:27
  In this podcast miniseries, we'll be taking a closer look at
• 0:29
  the worst holiday specials The Muppets have ever been a part
• 0:32
  of. If only these specials came with
• 0:34
  a gift receipt. This week, we'll be talking
• 0:37
  about a special Sesame Street Christmas, in which the Sesame
• 0:40
  Street gang steals the plot of A Christmas Carol to guilt Oscar
• 0:43
  the Grouch into playing against his own nature.
• 0:46
  But before we get into this mess, let's meet our special
• 0:48
  guest. He's an actor, writer, director
• 0:51
  and puppeteer who's appeared on Broadway and shows like Hamilton
• 0:54
  and Camelot. And now he's slumming it on a
• 0:57
  silly podcast about Muppets. Please welcome Fergie Philippe
• 1:00
  to the podcast Hey Fergie. Hey, how's it going?
• 1:03
  Good. Thanks so much for joining me
• 1:05
  for this. Always happy to be here with
• 1:07
  tough pigs. Wonderful.
• 1:08
  And I, and I must apologize for making you watch this special in
• 1:12
  preparation so. Sorry.
• 1:14
  No, it's OK. I I didn't realize that I
• 1:19
  because we discussed that I do this and I was like, yeah, you
• 1:21
  know, I know this. And as I was watching it, I was
• 1:23
  like, oh, I haven't seen this in a while for good reason.
• 1:27
  Right. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:29
  It's a hard watch every year. It's probably the like the
• 1:33
  Sesame Street equivalent of the Star Wars Holiday Special.
• 1:37
  Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking.
• 1:38
  No life. That's exactly what I thought in
• 1:41
  my head. Yeah.
• 1:42
  Wow. So what is your history with the
• 1:44
  special? Do you recall seeing it for the
• 1:46
  first time? Yes, I I mean obviously
• 1:51
  Christmas Eve was probably the number one in my house that was
• 1:54
  like the big one that we all loved.
• 1:56
  And the first time I heard of special Sesame Street Christmas
• 2:01
  was actually when I think it was like 2005.
• 2:05
  Two thousand. No, it was like 2012.
• 2:07
  They did like a ADVD release of it and it is not only a terrible
• 2:12
  special, but the DVD cover is the most like horribly designed
• 2:17
  like ratchet, like you would think somebody on 125th and
• 2:20
  Malcolm X sold it. Like it is absolutely terrible.
• 2:25
  And I saw it in a Walmart in the like throwaway bin for like 5
• 2:28
  bucks and was like what what is Michael Jackson doing next to
• 2:32
  Oscar the Grouch? I have to have this in my house.
• 2:36
  We we have to talk about this DVD real quick because so first
• 2:39
  of all, I I can, I can now say that I was working at Sesame
• 2:42
  Workshop when that thing came out and I was working in the
• 2:44
  department that handled home media.
• 2:47
  Oh my God, I found out about the.
• 2:49
  DVD Release. And I'm like, that's weird
• 2:51
  because normally these things go through my department, so we
• 2:55
  didn't approve that. I'm like that.
• 2:57
  I feel like it's bootleg. So what I did, of course, was I
• 3:00
  ordered myself one and the second it arrived, that was when
• 3:05
  I was like, hey guys, what is this thing 'cause I want to make
• 3:07
  sure I got mine, you know? Yeah, absolutely.
• 3:11
  So it turns out that even though the characters are owned by
• 3:14
  Sesame Workshop, the the special itself is owned by Bob Banner's.
• 3:21
  We'll talk about Bob Banner in a minute.
• 3:22
  But yeah, so like they had, I guess they had permission.
• 3:25
  They had the rights to release it, Although maybe not because
• 3:29
  can they just put Big Bird on the cover of a DVD without
• 3:32
  permission? That seems weird.
• 3:34
  I mean it might be a bad contract.
• 3:35
  I mean whatever. What's his name?
• 3:37
  Is it Stewart? Whoever the the the vice
• 3:39
  president of CTW at the time. That deal he made with Bob
• 3:43
  Banner just sounds shady in general.
• 3:46
  And so, yeah, I can imagine that, like, there was some
• 3:49
  horrible loophole that's in there where it's like, yeah, we
• 3:52
  absolutely have the likeness of these characters for this one
• 3:55
  special. Right.
• 3:56
  Yeah. Like in 1978 they were like, I
• 3:58
  don't know, There's like, yeah, sure, if if you ever can put it
• 4:00
  on a disc and watch it at home, sure you can have the rights to
• 4:04
  that, whatever that that sci-fi concept will be.
• 4:07
  Exactly. Yeah.
• 4:10
  So, but the other thing about this DVD is that, so we'll talk
• 4:14
  about the about Michael Jackson in a little bit, but Michael
• 4:16
  Jackson makes a very brief appearance, does not sing a
• 4:19
  song. It says maybe 3 lines of
• 4:20
  dialogue. And on the DVD there's a special
• 4:24
  feature, a bonus feature where they remixed Michael Jackson's 3
• 4:28
  Lines of dialogue to like an auto tune song.
• 4:32
  Yes, they did. It's horrible and it's just
• 4:35
  like. Floating heads.
• 4:36
  It's so wild. Of Michael Jackson and Oscar the
• 4:38
  Grouch floating on the screen. It's insane.
• 4:41
  It's legitimately insane. So anyone out there who doesn't
• 4:45
  own this thing already, you got to go find this DVD.
• 4:47
  You have to watch this thing. It's I just went silent because
• 4:50
  I was like wow I I've, I remember that like auto tune
• 4:55
  thing and I blocked it out so hard because it's actually like
• 5:01
  one of the most disturbing things.
• 5:03
  But now that you mentioned that like the Bob Banner production
• 5:05
  company released it. It all actually is coming
• 5:08
  together quite swiftly for me in my head now because even the DVD
• 5:15
  menu is like, so just like Ratchet, like it's just so
• 5:21
  poorly produced. And yeah, I'm sure that company
• 5:24
  like, hired some poor college kid to just like, make a song
• 5:28
  out of this. Yeah, right.
• 5:30
  Exactly. This is going to the dollar bin
• 5:32
  anyway. Like, this is not a big money
• 5:33
  making. We just need it to exist.
• 5:36
  And I'm so glad that it does exist, even though it's
• 5:38
  terrible. There's so many awful Muppet and
• 5:41
  Sesame Productions out there that have never had a home video
• 5:44
  release and people just don't know.
• 5:46
  So we have to tell them about about it or like we have to like
• 5:50
  write about them on On Tough Pigs and just just just believe
• 5:53
  us that this. Exists.
• 5:54
  Make them aware. Yeah, yeah.
• 5:57
  I swear this happened, right? I swear Ethel Merman sang
• 6:00
  tomorrow as a Christmas song. I promise you, bonkers.
• 6:05
  Bonkers. All right, so let's talk a
• 6:07
  little bit about what a special Sesame Street Christmas is.
• 6:10
  So it's from 1978. It aired on December 8th, 1978.
• 6:15
  And that's the same year that Sesame made Christmas Eve on
• 6:20
  Sesame Street. It's the best trivia about this
• 6:23
  thing and my favorite. I'm sorry if you're going to
• 6:25
  bring this up. My favorite trivia is that they
• 6:28
  both got nominated for the Emmy that year and Christmas Eve won.
• 6:34
  Oh, what if it? Didn't, though.
• 6:35
  What if it? What if this one I That was the
• 6:37
  story. It would have been like the
• 6:39
  greatest troll of all time if Special Sesame Street Christmas
• 6:43
  won over Christmas Eve. That would have truly been so
• 6:45
  good. I honestly can't believe it got
• 6:49
  nominated. Yeah, it is so wild.
• 6:53
  Yeah. Oh my God, it it it tells you
• 6:55
  about what? The state of children's TV was
• 6:57
  at the time, where it's just like, I don't know, Sesame made
• 6:59
  a thing. Give it a nomination.
• 7:01
  Yeah. They're the only game in town.
• 7:03
  They made two and stuff. Whoa.
• 7:04
  Good for them. And also that there are there
• 7:10
  are just no, there's only Oscar and big.
• 7:13
  That's just so good. Yeah.
• 7:15
  I'm. I'm guessing that only Carol was
• 7:17
  like OK, I'll do it. Yeah.
• 7:19
  What else was like? Absolutely not Totally.
• 7:24
  The other weird thing about the fact that they made these two
• 7:26
  specials in the same year is that the the executives at
• 7:29
  Children's Television Workshop were like, yeah, let's do 2.
• 7:33
  Because that increases the chance that one of them.
• 7:36
  Might be made. Which is not just getting made,
• 7:40
  but like airing like Sesame in its long history.
• 7:43
  At that point, almost a decade of history has had never
• 7:47
  produced anything that never that was never seen on screen.
• 7:51
  So why would they think that it might not?
• 7:53
  So let's double the production and whatever, like that makes no
• 7:57
  sense whatsoever. Even today, that would never
• 7:59
  happen. I also couldn't because Joseph
• 8:03
  Bailey wrote about this whole scenario in his memoirs and it
• 8:07
  is the most fascinating thing when he's like me and Johnstone
• 8:11
  heard they were doing this and was just like OK and I feel like
• 8:16
  that was what everyone at the workshop just did.
• 8:18
  Like everyone kind of just went. I guess they're making two.
• 8:21
  No one put a stop to it. And we're going to get into
• 8:26
  this, but like all the writing in this is so bad.
• 8:28
  And then? You come over here to.
• 8:29
  Christmas Eve, which is so thoughtful and heartwarming.
• 8:32
  Just the through line is just so it's so insanely bad, yeah.
• 8:38
  Yeah. How bad is it?
• 8:40
  Let's get into this thing. Let's talk about it.
• 8:42
  Let's talk about it. So, all right.
• 8:44
  So the whole thing starts with the main cast or decorating the
• 8:47
  tree. It's right next to 123 Sesame
• 8:48
  Street. The main cast includes Bob,
• 8:51
  Maria, David and Mr. Hooper. And that's it.
• 8:55
  So like everyone else who is just there, like a few, like a
• 8:59
  like a few weeks ago for Christmas Eve on Sesame Street,
• 9:02
  you know, Olivia and and Louis and Gordon is like, no, we're
• 9:06
  like Linda. Yeah, no, they're not sticking
• 9:08
  around. They all went home.
• 9:09
  Nowhere to be found. Exactly.
• 9:11
  As you said, Big Bird and Oscar are both there.
• 9:13
  Later we also see Barkley, so we know there's at least two
• 9:17
  puppeteers. One of his.
• 9:20
  Like first appearances because he he had just started appearing
• 9:24
  that year, I believe. Oh yeah, that's a good.
• 9:26
  That's a good observation. I didn't have thought of that,
• 9:28
  so. That's one of his earliest.
• 9:31
  That was their trump card, that they were like, take out this
• 9:34
  new thing. Look how.
• 9:35
  Look, who is this dog? We have a puppet dog.
• 9:40
  Guys like, yeah, come on. Oh, man.
• 9:45
  So they're singing Deck the Halls, and you could tell by the
• 9:48
  way, Mr. Hooper does not know the words.
• 9:51
  No. Oh, it's so good.
• 9:53
  I was thinking about that, too. I There's a lot to be said about
• 9:56
  the actor's commitment to this special author, but I was like
• 10:04
  in love with Will Lee's bewilderment throughout this
• 10:08
  entire special. Yeah, I mean, he was a pro.
• 10:11
  Not so much of A pro that he couldn't learn little words to
• 10:14
  the very famous Christmas Carol, Deck the Halls.
• 10:17
  I believe they shot this in a day.
• 10:18
  I have to believe they shot this in one day, so I'm.
• 10:21
  Sure. You're right.
• 10:22
  The production value definitely has that feeling of like go, go,
• 10:25
  go, you know they're going to turn.
• 10:28
  The lights tomorrow is the break, yeah.
• 10:30
  Exactly. Maria says that the best thing
• 10:34
  about about decorating this tree is that they're going to plant
• 10:37
  it in the ground, but they're obviously doing it in the cement
• 10:40
  like it's right there on the sidewalk.
• 10:44
  Again, like they obviously wrote one draft enough.
• 10:48
  Just. Did not look at it.
• 10:50
  Yeah, no notes. They just went forward with it.
• 10:54
  Big Bird comes in. He's dragging a a a sled on
• 10:58
  sled. Yeah.
• 10:59
  Like with the with the gift for Leslie Uggams.
• 11:02
  We'll we'll see in a second. Let's actually, let's talk about
• 11:06
  Leslie Ugams. Leslie Uggams is like the, the
• 11:08
  star of the special and I believe it's it's just before
• 11:11
  she appears on the Muppet Show or around the time that she's on
• 11:14
  the Muppet Show. And I mean, she's doing her
• 11:19
  best. You know, I.
• 11:21
  Feel so bad for this woman. Also, I love the, like,
• 11:24
  consistency of the idea that she also lives on Sesame Street.
• 11:28
  But this is the only time we will ever see her on the street,
• 11:32
  which I'm sure we've like, done with other celebrities.
• 11:36
  But like, within the context of the show, I'm like, yeah, for a
• 11:39
  scene, that's one thing. For an entire special to like,
• 11:43
  watch Leslie have, like deep connections with everybody
• 11:48
  there, as if she's a neighbor and then never see her again is
• 11:53
  wild to me. So wait, do you think that she
• 11:56
  bought a condo on Sesame Street and then had this weird
• 11:59
  experience? So it's like maybe I'll put it
• 12:02
  back up for sale. I actually think she's the
• 12:04
  actual owner of the basement apartment on One 2-3, and Bert
• 12:10
  and Ernie were away. That's what I have to believe.
• 12:14
  They're just subletting from her.
• 12:16
  Yeah, they're subletting from her first since 1969.
• 12:18
  Well, it's a one bedroom. That's why they sleep in the
• 12:20
  same, you know. In the same.
• 12:22
  Man, so they're really, they're so broke.
• 12:25
  It's like, really not great. Wow.
• 12:28
  So they sing this awful song about all the terrible gifts
• 12:32
  that you could give to somebody. The lead up is my favorite
• 12:35
  because I actually thought they were going to go into true blue.
• 12:38
  I was like, I mean, this is such a great set up and it goes right
• 12:42
  into this really terrible song they wrote that I'm sure was one
• 12:46
  draft again about really bad gifts they got.
• 12:50
  Yeah, and like, none of them make any sense.
• 12:52
  Like she sings that she got a handmade parachute in a giant
• 12:56
  Turkey, and Mr. Hooper says he got a glow in the dark bow tie.
• 13:00
  And like, what? What are you even talking about?
• 13:04
  David got a mustache comb. David, who, by the way, has the
• 13:07
  biggest mutton chops I've ever seen on a human being.
• 13:10
  And he's like, I got this mustache comb.
• 13:11
  It's like just move it 3 inches to the right.
• 13:13
  He's right there. Come on.
• 13:19
  Oh, it's so wonderfully bad. It was that thing where it was
• 13:24
  like, we're opening and it's like, it's going to be like this
• 13:27
  really like nice Christmas moment.
• 13:31
  And it's this Wacka Do song that I think is supposed to be funny,
• 13:36
  but it's supposed to be in this moment of teaching Big Bird
• 13:40
  that, like, it's not about what kind of gift you get, it's about
• 13:44
  the fact that you gave a gift in the first place.
• 13:47
  Right, Yeah. I don't know.
• 13:49
  I mean, it's not funny, but I will say I think of all the
• 13:51
  songs I'll have to remind myself as we're going through this
• 13:53
  again, I think this is the only one that actually has a lesson
• 13:56
  to it, that the whole idea of like, oh, it's a thought that
• 14:00
  counts. Like don't stress about getting
• 14:01
  a bad gift. Like it's is actually just
• 14:03
  about, you know human connection, right?
• 14:07
  We'll see. I mean, tomorrow from Annie
• 14:10
  doesn't. We're not counting that as.
• 14:11
  AI think I think Yaketyak, Yaketyak has lots of values.
• 14:19
  In the next scene, the the gang has just finished shoveling the
• 14:23
  sidewalk, but a snow plow would come through and like push all
• 14:26
  the snow back on the sidewalk. They're already upset, but but
• 14:30
  all you see is the the the light from the snow plow like
• 14:35
  reflected on their faces. I also love the camera shot is
• 14:39
  really what gets me how it's like this very low kind of
• 14:42
  circular shot from the bottom and they're all looking off
• 14:45
  concerned. I'm like, are is the police like
• 14:48
  taking away a body like this is like the most, like drab and
• 14:52
  like sad thing I've ever seen And it's such a like eerie shot
• 14:57
  that it looks like something terrible is happening.
• 15:01
  Yeah. Absolutely agree.
• 15:02
  And you're right. It feels like you're right.
• 15:04
  It feels like it's the police, It's a yellow light, but because
• 15:07
  of how upset they are, and there's also a weird thing about
• 15:11
  the lighting in general, it always looks like it's night
• 15:13
  time on Sesame Street throughout this whole special, and I'm not
• 15:15
  really sure why. They're indoors, so that doesn't
• 15:19
  have to be a thing. But I will say to your point,
• 15:23
  like there are several shots in the special where they're trying
• 15:26
  to get creative with the camera where like they're putting it up
• 15:28
  above like a like a weird overhead shot angles that we
• 15:32
  don't normally see on Sesame Street.
• 15:35
  And this is, this is one of them like that low shot just going
• 15:38
  past 123 as if there was a camera, I don't know, like on
• 15:42
  the wheel of the of the snow. Plow.
• 15:45
  That's what I'm guessing. Yeah.
• 15:48
  If I had to guess, I mean it. It sounds like real.
• 15:50
  Like, truthfully though, it, it probably feels like, you know,
• 15:53
  Christmas Eve got all the attention and this poor B team
• 15:56
  got just pennies and they were just like, well, freaking.
• 16:00
  We're just going to try to make a special We like making even
• 16:05
  if. The I guess.
• 16:06
  Don't make sense and the songs don't make sense and the script
• 16:09
  don't make sense. I mean, I will say so like, like
• 16:13
  we said, we this thing was produced by Bob Banner, who was
• 16:16
  known for doing variety shows. And if you look at the variety
• 16:18
  shows of the 70s, it's a really similar kind of like corny
• 16:22
  humor, like songs that don't really belong, you know, like
• 16:26
  celebrities show up out of nowhere.
• 16:28
  Like it feels like one of those bad variety shows.
• 16:32
  Right. Like we keep saying, but as if
• 16:35
  they only wrote one draft. And and also to that point, like
• 16:40
  it's obvious that it was the Bob Banner people who wrote it and
• 16:43
  not the. Sesame and not the Sesame
• 16:44
  people. Yes, correct.
• 16:49
  It's just a really long abstract St. story.
• 16:52
  Yeah, I I can't. It's like the plot doesn't start
• 16:55
  till like 20 minutes in. No.
• 16:57
  Yeah, we haven't gone to the plot yet.
• 16:59
  No, not even close. But there's also a moment here
• 17:02
  that I think is hysterical, where everyone's really cold and
• 17:05
  so they're like, oh, you know, be really nice, like a like a
• 17:08
  cup of nice hot. And Oscar's like here it is.
• 17:11
  And they're like, Oh yeah, we'll trust this guy.
• 17:13
  And they drink what they think is hot cocoa.
• 17:17
  They are so disgusted. Disgusted.
• 17:20
  Oh, it's it's trash juice. Like he he, like, went to the
• 17:24
  bottom of the trash. It's just cold lemonade.
• 17:27
  Yeah, and they are. So upset.
• 17:31
  They're pissed at Oscar. How dare you, Sir.
• 17:35
  Ice cold lemonade. And like, you could tell, like,
• 17:38
  it was probably something else before.
• 17:40
  Like it's sardine juice and somebody was like, you can't do
• 17:43
  that for whatever reason. And they're like, change it to
• 17:45
  lemonade. And they're like, we have no
• 17:46
  time to argue, just just keep. Shooting.
• 17:49
  Yeah, the cameras are rolling. It was the and what got me was
• 17:55
  that it didn't realize until like 6 lines in that I was like
• 17:58
  they said ice cold lemonade that that reaction doesn't warrant
• 18:02
  that, no. It's like, oh, I was expecting
• 18:05
  to be hot. Anyway, things won't lemonade
• 18:06
  Oscar. I think someone said I'll.
• 18:09
  I'm pretty sure someone literally went I'll yeah, yeah,
• 18:15
  Wow. So in the next scene, Leslie is
• 18:20
  trying to convince Oscar to like Christmas because I guess it's
• 18:23
  important to her. They sing a song where they kind
• 18:25
  of go back and forth. According to the Muppet Wiki,
• 18:27
  the song has No title. At least if there's a title for
• 18:31
  it, we don't know what it is. It's like I think they listed it
• 18:33
  as as Oscar Leslie Duet, and they're going back and forth
• 18:40
  like she's singing about things that are great about Christmas.
• 18:42
  And he's singing about things like landlords turning down the
• 18:45
  heat and Winterized Tires being sold at a high price.
• 18:50
  So at this point, they're like we have to kind of play up that
• 18:54
  Oscar and Scrooge are alike. So we just have to start
• 18:56
  throwing in values of Scrooge to give us.
• 18:59
  It's a good observation. I don't think they thought that
• 19:02
  much into it. I thought they were just like,
• 19:04
  what would be funny? What do we hate about Christmas?
• 19:06
  I don't know. Tires are expensive.
• 19:09
  We're adults. We don't know what kids know,
• 19:10
  what kids like, you know? So this isn't working.
• 19:15
  Maria enters the scene with a kitten because you know it's in
• 19:19
  the script. Yep.
• 19:21
  Yeah, correct. She found him in the alley with
• 19:24
  a hurt leg, so she patched him up.
• 19:26
  He's got a little cast on. Leslie and Maria try to think of
• 19:30
  a good name for the cat, and they kind of do like a 123.
• 19:33
  And they both say Tiny Tim, as if that was like an obvious
• 19:36
  answer in front of them. Did you know they were going to
• 19:39
  say Tiny Tim? No, I did.
• 19:42
  When they said Tiny Tim, I went, I know where this is going now,
• 19:46
  right? Was like, OK, this Wow.
• 19:49
  Yeah, a little on the nose, yeah.
• 19:53
  And yeah. So Oscar sings like a they.
• 19:58
  They go back to Oscar to to see if he'll help the cat and he
• 20:01
  sings like a snippet of The 12 Days of Christmas, But he starts
• 20:04
  at six. 6. And he sings on the 6th day of
• 20:12
  Christmas, my neighbors throw in here 6 Turkey bones, 5 broken
• 20:16
  toys. There's no golden rings thing
• 20:18
  here, they just go through it. 6 Turkey bones, 5 golden broken
• 20:21
  toys, 4 lbs of wrapping, 3 shattered ornaments, 2 eggnog
• 20:24
  cartoons and some stale popcorn on a long string.
• 20:31
  Don't really know why they felt the need to do this.
• 20:33
  It's like 10 seconds and again they'd start at six, which I
• 20:38
  don't understand. Like if you're just trying to
• 20:41
  save time, just don't do the song.
• 20:42
  Just don't do the song. I feel like at this point is
• 20:45
  when they're like, we can't write any more songs, we don't
• 20:49
  have time. Just find songs that are cheap,
• 20:52
  copyright or that are free and just bring them in as we're
• 20:56
  shooting. We'll figure it out.
• 20:58
  I think you're right. At this point, Leslie is like,
• 21:03
  oh, I get it, we're doing A Christmas Carol thing.
• 21:06
  She's like, you know, he reminds me of.
• 21:07
  We're in the round. Yeah, exactly.
• 21:13
  Oh my gosh. They go back to Hooper's store
• 21:17
  and Leslie is putting together a costume for the what they'll use
• 21:22
  for the Ghost of Christmas Past. But for some reason, she feels
• 21:25
  the need to use Oscar's trash from the previous song.
• 21:30
  There's I'm sure there's logic to this.
• 21:33
  I just don't see it. No, no.
• 21:37
  I think so. Yeah, I believe you.
• 21:39
  I think that was them being like, yeah, the that's how they
• 21:42
  make it with all the trash in his thing.
• 21:44
  And then the costumes are like, really elaborate and like, kind
• 21:48
  of beautiful. But it also doesn't anyway.
• 21:52
  I mean, we, we'll see in a minute.
• 21:54
  This costume, it's like someone made like a dress that looks
• 21:57
  like a big Christmas tree. And then we're told, oh, also
• 22:01
  you're using Oscar's trash and they're like trash.
• 22:03
  I don't know, man, we'll just pin some Turkey bones to it.
• 22:05
  Is that good enough? Yeah, correct.
• 22:10
  Yeah. So yeah, no one wants to wear
• 22:14
  this costume. But then who shows up?
• 22:16
  Muppet Show guest star Anne Murray.
• 22:18
  She's here. She also has a timeshare on
• 22:21
  Sesame Street. Absolutely.
• 22:23
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 22:25
  Yeah, Oscar had given her this ugly Santa doll that has like a
• 22:28
  pull string. And first of all I have to say
• 22:31
  my wife's family has this Santa like the exact same one and I
• 22:36
  remember the first Christmas I spent with him and I saw it on
• 22:39
  display and I lost. It lost it.
• 22:42
  I could not believe it. It's.
• 22:44
  It was the same exact one. So ugly.
• 22:46
  A pulley? Oh my God.
• 22:48
  There's no pulley. The pulley is.
• 22:49
  The pulley is just for the special.
• 22:51
  It's just a doll, but yeah. Oh, that's horrifying.
• 22:54
  Yeah, it's like it's following me this.
• 22:59
  Is the curse you rot upon yourself.
• 23:01
  Exactly. But yeah, this one has a pull
• 23:04
  string and pulls it, it says in Oscar's voice.
• 23:07
  I'm the Happy Christmas Santa you love to hug later.
• 23:12
  Hug. OK, what do you think it said?
• 23:14
  It sounds like he's saying that you love to harm, which I was,
• 23:20
  like, weird. But yeah, I guess I did not hear
• 23:25
  Hug. OK, that makes a lot more sense.
• 23:27
  It it helps that we hear it twice but for some reason, and
• 23:31
  then the third time she pulls it, it just goes phooey and
• 23:34
  baloney and Bah humbug. You got him Oscar.
• 23:37
  You did it right in the kisser. And Anne is like, let's go kill
• 23:42
  him. She.
• 23:47
  Has absolutely no remorse. She's like, whatever you're
• 23:50
  planning, I am in. Yeah, you son of a bitch, I'm
• 23:54
  in. Yeah.
• 23:56
  Man, so. But first, she has to sing a
• 23:59
  song because she's Anne Murray. After Big Bird absolutely like
• 24:04
  Manipulates. Her into 200 percent, 100%.
• 24:08
  He he guilts her into like, Oh well, you were singing a song
• 24:12
  out in the street. Well, you're not going to sing a
• 24:14
  song for me. I guess you just hate me.
• 24:16
  And she's like, oh fine, Big Bird, just ask.
• 24:19
  OK. Yeah.
• 24:22
  I also like the way that they get her to the counter.
• 24:24
  It's the most awkward, like the music starts.
• 24:28
  Her back is to the camera as they're like trying to place.
• 24:32
  Her and it's just Bob. Bob literally is like, and I
• 24:35
  think you'd be better if you sit over here like he's he's he's
• 24:38
  helping her with her stage directions.
• 24:41
  There was no rehearsal. It was just you're going to go
• 24:43
  there. You're going to sing there.
• 24:45
  Bob, help her go. Yeah, and she sings a song
• 24:48
  called You Needed Me, which I I'm not familiar with, but it's
• 24:51
  a love song. It's just a straight up like
• 24:55
  here's the the the hit off my new album that I'm singing to a
• 25:00
  six year old bird. Just for the heck of it.
• 25:05
  Why not? Merry Christmas to all of us.
• 25:09
  So, yeah, so Anne agrees that she's going to help scare Oscar
• 25:11
  by dressing up in this horrible costume.
• 25:14
  She Oh. So first, every time a ghost
• 25:17
  appears, a ghost I'm using quotes.
• 25:19
  The ghost, the other sesame humans are all seen on screen
• 25:23
  going. It's just like a close up on
• 25:27
  their faces. It's such a weird.
• 25:31
  Choice. It's an amazing device.
• 25:33
  I don't know what it's supposed to represent, but I think it's
• 25:36
  absolutely incredible. Yeah, and like, again, like the
• 25:40
  fact that we're rushing through this The Christmas Carol story
• 25:42
  here. We didn't have a Marley scene.
• 25:44
  So Oscar has no idea what to expect of like, oh, there's
• 25:48
  going to be ghosts. Like he just immediately
• 25:49
  accepts, Oh yeah, you're the You're not Anne Murray in those
• 25:52
  trash dress. I didn't just see you, he.
• 25:56
  Just saw her. He gave her the doll.
• 25:59
  He didn't recognize her. Does not recognize her.
• 26:02
  A Christmas tree insight. He's like, that's a that's an
• 26:05
  entire ethereal being that is not.
• 26:08
  A human, he just went for it. So anyway, she's like look
• 26:13
  through this magic eggnog container.
• 26:16
  But she says it with with her very thick Canadian accent, so
• 26:20
  she really goes this magic eggnog container.
• 26:34
  Oh my God, it's such a fever dream, man, Right?
• 26:38
  It's so crazy. So he looks to again.
• 26:42
  They just had to use the trash. So he looks through this thing
• 26:45
  and then we get our next musical number and it's like a whole,
• 26:49
  like let's look into Oscar's past as a baby.
• 26:51
  And there's Leslie Uggams again, someone he just saw 5 minutes
• 26:53
  ago who's pushing a stroller with a trash can in it.
• 26:58
  And it like, I guess it's supposed to be Oscar.
• 26:59
  And they're like, oh see, when you were a baby you loved
• 27:02
  Christmas. And then that's kind of the
• 27:06
  whole thing. I don't know.
• 27:07
  Like all of his friends are there, Bob and Maria and and
• 27:10
  David and Mr. Hooper. And they're playing.
• 27:13
  I don't know. I feel like they're supposed to
• 27:15
  be different people who used to be on the street because like
• 27:19
  Dave and Marie, David and Marie are like in like, I don't know,
• 27:23
  like film noir clothing and yeah.
• 27:25
  They're definitely the rich couple.
• 27:27
  She's in like a fur. He's in a suit.
• 27:29
  Yeah, like Bob walks on like, just as a police officer.
• 27:33
  Like the old time. He's a police officer.
• 27:36
  Yeah. And like, of course Oscar
• 27:38
  doesn't fall for it. Not because he recognized
• 27:40
  everybody, but because he's like, I'm, I'm a grouch.
• 27:44
  I've always been a grouch. Of course I've always hated
• 27:46
  Christmas. Like, that's not.
• 27:48
  I know. I know what I looked like when I
• 27:50
  was a kid. The thing that really kills me
• 27:52
  is that to represent that Oscar was a baby, they got a small
• 27:56
  trash can. As if as grouches get alter,
• 28:04
  their trash cans also get bigger.
• 28:07
  Than like a hermit crab. Exactly.
• 28:09
  That blew my mind. I was like, honestly, this is
• 28:13
  like the one thing I'm like, I will take this.
• 28:15
  I think that is amazing. Duke made of love that I'm going
• 28:19
  to have to look. For.
• 28:21
  My copy of How to Be Grouch and See.
• 28:23
  Like when Oscar's talking about himself when he's younger, or or
• 28:26
  his younger relatives if they also have smaller trash cans.
• 28:29
  It was. It's so good.
• 28:30
  And again, Leslie Uggams is like, I remember you when you
• 28:33
  were a baby. I've been living here all this
• 28:36
  time, even though I've never been featured on this show.
• 28:40
  That's right. I guess maybe she, like,
• 28:42
  disappeared for 30 years and came back and came back.
• 28:45
  Remember Me? I was your babysitter.
• 28:47
  And then I had to go be a Broadway star.
• 28:49
  And now I'm back. I'm back.
• 28:51
  I'm back for Christmas and you're ruining it and I came
• 28:54
  just for you. Speaking of ruining Christmas,
• 29:01
  Oscar then says, Well let me sing you a song from my
• 29:04
  Christmas past and he pulls out an electric guitar.
• 29:07
  Electric guitar and he stands down.
• 29:10
  My favorite moment in the whole special.
• 29:13
  I still remember seeing this for the first time and being like,
• 29:15
  what? Like it just comes out of
• 29:17
  nowhere. And he sings yakety yak.
• 29:20
  He sings yakety yak of all the songs in the history of
• 29:25
  songwriting. Oh my God, and he sings my
• 29:28
  favorite. They all come horribly and all
• 29:31
  the like, humans come and they're so disappointed.
• 29:36
  They are so disappointed that Oscar is singing Yakety Yak just
• 29:39
  like he's learned nothing. Right.
• 29:44
  It's not like it's a song about, I don't know, Satanism or like I
• 29:49
  don't know what's anti Christmas.
• 29:50
  It's not like, I don't know. It's not like a yeah, it's not
• 29:53
  sexually. Charging song.
• 29:55
  Yeah, it's just like, Oh no, Here's like a song that's
• 29:58
  currently on the oldies station Yakety yak.
• 30:04
  They're like how dare you sing carols or you sing nothing.
• 30:09
  Let's kill him. Let's actually.
• 30:12
  Murder. Him.
• 30:12
  Let's murder Oscar. I think that's where it's all
• 30:17
  leading to. All right, so we have a
• 30:22
  commercial break, I guess. And when we come back, Oscar's
• 30:24
  reading a newspaper. This is another thing that I
• 30:25
  hate about this Oscar's reading this newspaper there's no reason
• 30:29
  for. This 6:00 PM or 6:00 AM?
• 30:31
  That's never clear either. It's not clear because he says
• 30:35
  in a second he'll say I'm going to go for a morning, my morning
• 30:38
  walk. There's no one around.
• 30:39
  I'm going for my morning walk. But then there was something.
• 30:42
  Now, of course, I can't remember.
• 30:44
  We're like, it's supposed to be in the middle of the night, like
• 30:46
  the the sun's not out, It is not clear.
• 30:49
  And nobody cared. Nobody cared at all.
• 30:51
  There's no continuity. There was no dramaturgy at all.
• 30:56
  So Oscar's reading this, this newspaper, and he says, oh, the
• 31:00
  first grouch astronaut landed on the moon, his first message to
• 31:04
  the world after landing on the lunar surface.
• 31:06
  What a crummy place. Boy, you know, it has the
• 31:09
  cadence of a joke, but that is not a joke.
• 31:15
  It is not even Christmas related.
• 31:18
  I don't know what it's supposed to be like.
• 31:23
  It it was just the it's like crazy because there's no laugh
• 31:26
  track or applause track in Sesame, but you can hear the
• 31:31
  joke land horribly. Yes, you can hear the silence
• 31:35
  and how bad the joke is after that.
• 31:38
  Absolutely. Absolutely.
• 31:39
  It was almost as if Carol was just messing around, didn't know
• 31:41
  the camera was running. I'll just read the lines.
• 31:44
  We'll fix. We'll come up with something
• 31:45
  better later then, he says. The he reads the the joke of the
• 31:50
  week for grouches out of the newspaper.
• 31:53
  Fergie, let me ask you this joke.
• 31:55
  What did one Grouch say to the other grouch when he bumped into
• 31:58
  him on the street? What?
• 32:02
  Give up. Watch where you're going.
• 32:06
  Yo-yo again, cadence of a joke. Not at all connected to anything
• 32:17
  that's happening in the special. It's not even a punch.
• 32:20
  That's what pisses me off is that I'm like, you got variety
• 32:23
  show writers writing this and it's not a punchline, it's just
• 32:27
  human interaction. Barely, barely even that.
• 32:32
  Barely. They could have come up with
• 32:35
  literally anything. They could have just asked
• 32:37
  Carol. Like, do you know any grouch
• 32:38
  jokes? We'll just throw something in
• 32:39
  there, Yeah, Come up with a bad pun.
• 32:41
  It doesn't matter. It could be a terrible joke.
• 32:43
  I'd be OK with that. But that's not a joke.
• 32:45
  No, it's not. Oh, now I'm sad for Carol
• 32:49
  imagining like what shooting this must have been like.
• 32:53
  Seriously. Yeah, yeah, but.
• 32:55
  But they were miserable. They also probably just got off
• 32:57
  again. They got off this other special
• 32:59
  where they're like, oh God, like Big Bird was up on the roof and
• 33:02
  no one came looking for him seeing out Mr. Snuffleupagus.
• 33:05
  So they were talking to kids about how they get down the
• 33:07
  chimney and like, and then it's like, how about yakety yak on
• 33:14
  electric guitar? Jeez Louise.
• 33:17
  So while he's doing this, Leslie Elgams is in the apartment above
• 33:21
  Hooper's and she's looking down at him and she sings a song
• 33:24
  called Look At That Face. Once again, a love song that has
• 33:28
  no relation to Christmas. I'm pretty sure that she's in
• 33:32
  love with Oscar. I think that.
• 33:34
  I think that she's like. Actually, like, that's why she's
• 33:36
  trying to maybe that that makes sense.
• 33:39
  Honestly, I'd take that 'cause I also was like, why at 6:00 AM
• 33:44
  are you looking out your window at Oscar?
• 33:46
  Read the newspaper. It reminds me of.
• 33:48
  I've grown accustomed to that face.
• 33:50
  I'm like there's nothing about this that is remotely connected.
• 33:55
  No, no, none whatsoever. The only other thing I have to
• 33:59
  say about this, and I feel bad mentioning it, but I can't not
• 34:03
  see it. The studio must have been really
• 34:05
  cold that day. You know, Leslie's wearing this
• 34:12
  sweater that looks really great on her, but like in this one
• 34:14
  scene where she's just kind of sticking her, you know, her head
• 34:18
  out the the window, it's like, oh, Leslie, this is a kids show.
• 34:23
  Just. Please, please.
• 34:29
  They couldn't have put something over her.
• 34:31
  Yeah, right. Yeah, just a cardigan would have
• 34:33
  been fine. It's winter.
• 34:34
  You can pull it off. It's OK.
• 34:39
  We're we're all adults here. We know we're.
• 34:40
  All adults here, it's all good. We know that's.
• 34:43
  Right. Yep.
• 34:45
  She just really loves Oscar, that's all.
• 34:48
  And she wanted us to know she did.
• 34:51
  That was her drama surgical work.
• 34:53
  We are aware, and this is also one of those things where like
• 34:55
  when I originally saw the special I I didn't see it for
• 34:58
  for the first time on DVD. I'd seen it sooner where like
• 35:01
  the quality wasn't so good. So there's a lot of stuff that
• 35:03
  like, you know, was just a little bit blurrier, a little
• 35:05
  bit more like, oh, you're watching it on like a, like a
• 35:07
  third generation VHS tape. Right, exactly.
• 35:11
  You know, these are things that I noticed when everything's got
• 35:13
  in HD. When everything's bad.
• 35:15
  Yeah. When vision is restored.
• 35:19
  Right, the next ghost appears. It's the Ghost of Christmas
• 35:23
  Presents, and it's Imogene Coca. Who?
• 35:28
  Who is Imogene Coca? Also guest star of Muppet Show
• 35:36
  and Imaging Coco's. Not on The Muppet Show.
• 35:40
  No. No.
• 35:42
  Who you thinking of? You think of James.
• 35:47
  Coco. I don't know.
• 35:49
  I don't know. Am I thinking of James Coco?
• 35:51
  I don't. I don't know.
• 35:52
  But don't worry, I can edit this out.
• 35:54
  Imaging Coco? No.
• 35:55
  You can happily put this in because this is crazy.
• 35:59
  Wait, who am I thinking of? Was there any imaging?
• 36:02
  Buzzy Ruth Buzzy is kind of a coca type.
• 36:08
  If I'm confusing Imaging Coca for Ruth Buzzy, that's
• 36:12
  absolutely incredible. Wait, who am I confusing?
• 36:15
  I don't know what you're Googling because you can't
• 36:18
  Google imaging COCA. I can't because.
• 36:20
  It's not going to come. Was there anyone else named
• 36:24
  Imaging on The Muppet Show? I guess it's James Coca.
• 36:28
  James Coco. It must be James Coco, yeah?
• 36:31
  That's so funny. I absolutely thought, yeah, they
• 36:33
  are. There we go.
• 36:35
  No, you can keep this for sure. That's amazing.
• 36:37
  Wow. So James Coco, who also plays
• 36:40
  the Ghost of Christmas Present. Right.
• 36:42
  Yes. James Coco is dressed as Imogene
• 36:44
  Coco, who is dressed as the Ghost of Christmas Present.
• 36:47
  Who she looks like a bag lady. She's she's like kind of she
• 36:52
  looks she looks like she's dressed like the the homeless
• 36:55
  lady in Home Alone 2. Home alone two.
• 36:57
  Yeah, that's exactly what she looks.
• 37:02
  Like and she's got all these ticking clocks and she's holding
• 37:04
  them in like paper bags as if they had no no budget for props
• 37:09
  on this show. This is also where we lose the
• 37:11
  like the plot of the ghost concept, because the first ghost
• 37:15
  is like constructed by the humans, but but now we're
• 37:20
  getting real. Ghosts.
• 37:22
  Do you think these are real ghosts?
• 37:23
  Do you think? These are real ghosts.
• 37:25
  I think she's like a real ghost now.
• 37:27
  And we stop. We stop with the whole, oh,
• 37:30
  they're not they're they're they're just like it's a part of
• 37:34
  a prank now. Oscar's experiencing real
• 37:37
  ghosts. Sure, we'll go with that.
• 37:39
  I'm fine with that. And this is, this is the moment
• 37:41
  where they say it's night time because she's like, look, it's
• 37:43
  we're going to show you Christmas.
• 37:44
  And Oscar's like, it's the middle of the night lady.
• 37:47
  And she's like, Nope, everyone's out and about and they're all
• 37:50
  like running around. They're singing the song about
• 37:52
  like, what's great about Christmas.
• 37:55
  And they have all the extras who like are kind of coming up and
• 37:58
  like reading one line about like the my favorite thing about
• 38:02
  Christmas is finding an extra thing at the toe of the stocking
• 38:05
  or and they're like, also they're also kind of like half
• 38:07
  jokes, like one guy says your neighbor trying out his snow
• 38:12
  blower while you're trying out your new stereo or getting a
• 38:18
  phone call from someone you love and not even caring.
• 38:20
  It comes just as you're sitting down to dinner.
• 38:24
  Was this, was this funny in the 70s?
• 38:29
  Like, is that is that comedy? There was one line that I
• 38:34
  genuinely laughed at. The last one, where a kid says
• 38:39
  Christmas is licking the frosting off a Christmas cookie
• 38:41
  and putting it back without anyone noticing.
• 38:43
  And his dad, who's holding him is like, what?
• 38:46
  Like you. You did what?
• 38:53
  How long have you been doing this, Junior?
• 38:57
  Just disgusted. Just like.
• 38:59
  Yeah. I'm sorry.
• 39:00
  You've done what? Yeah.
• 39:06
  I don't know why I didn't notice that I've completely.
• 39:10
  Missed it. Oh, you gotta go back.
• 39:11
  It's it's maybe the funniest thing that happens.
• 39:12
  In this Oh, that's so funny. But the other weird thing about
• 39:17
  this is Henry Fonda shows up as one of these talking heads, the
• 39:21
  Henry Fonda. And he's like, I I don't know
• 39:25
  what he says, he's like rambling on about fitting Part B into
• 39:28
  part C using a three quarter inch wing nut.
• 39:32
  A three quarter inch wing nut. Henry, what the hell?
• 39:35
  Did you just wander onto set? I legit he had to have been
• 39:39
  shooting something and they're like, hey, hey, come come do
• 39:42
  this real quick. Yeah, it had to have been.
• 39:46
  It is the randomest cameo. Yeah, yeah, that we have some
• 39:50
  random cameos in this thing. This is the first of the most
• 39:53
  random of random cameos. And then Fergie, you as a as a a
• 40:00
  theater actor will appreciate this.
• 40:02
  Did you notice as the humans are all singing the song, they're
• 40:06
  holding like a like a like a sheet music, like Christmas
• 40:09
  Carol sheet music. Did you notice that that they
• 40:12
  all have their scripts inside the sheet music?
• 40:16
  No. I never noticed it until today.
• 40:19
  How did you see? It so I noticed that they kept
• 40:22
  looking down like they're really reading the lyrics and I'm like,
• 40:25
  that's interesting usually even if it's, I mean it's just a
• 40:27
  prop. They would memorize the song and
• 40:29
  then I noticed that the color of the paper was different inside
• 40:33
  the thing and it's like, oh that's their script.
• 40:37
  They're reading from the the script for the special.
• 40:42
  I actually think that you have to do a another one off podcast
• 40:48
  where you find out from somebody what shooting this was like.
• 40:52
  Oh my God, I would love that. What I'd really love, I'm I'm
• 40:55
  gonna put, I'm gonna say this because I want to put this on
• 40:56
  the universe. There's that podcast.
• 41:00
  How did this get made? Yes, Paul Sheer and Jason Thomas
• 41:04
  and all that. Love it.
• 41:04
  And I would love to have them tackle this special.
• 41:09
  I would love to. I I mean, I selfishly I would
• 41:12
  love to be on this podcast to talk about it with them, but
• 41:13
  really they should be talking to people who worked on this thing
• 41:17
  to be like. What?
• 41:18
  How did this? How did this happen?
• 41:19
  Where? Did this come from?
• 41:24
  I would absolutely love that. So Imogene Coca did not appear
• 41:29
  on The Muppet Show. But you know who did?
• 41:32
  Ethel Merman. Ethel Merman and Boy talk about
• 41:36
  people wandering on the set. It really does feel like she was
• 41:42
  not asked to be on this special. She's like, I'll just show up.
• 41:45
  You're welcome. Yeah.
• 41:48
  Yeah. Oh, you're doing a musical.
• 41:50
  Here comes Seth Hall, you know. Yeah, her walking.
• 41:55
  She like, walks on. And everyone is so utterly
• 41:59
  depressed with Oscar. What did Oscar do this time?
• 42:04
  That's my favorite part. Yeah.
• 42:08
  Wait, do they say that? What?
• 42:09
  Did Oscar do this? 'Cause she get, no, she gets to
• 42:11
  Leslie and she's like, what's going on?
• 42:14
  And Leslie's like, I think Oscar's finally done it in.
• 42:16
  I'm like, what did he do? He just went on a walk.
• 42:20
  Like, yeah, he didn't say or do. Anything.
• 42:23
  Yeah, This one didn't really end with him being like, well,
• 42:25
  there's obviously fake or like Christmas is garbage.
• 42:28
  He's like, no thanks, I'm good. But that set everyone over the
• 42:33
  edge. Totally.
• 42:35
  But the best thing is that she's trying to be like, stop.
• 42:38
  What's going on? Maria, what's going on?
• 42:40
  She goes Imogene. You look like an idiot.
• 42:42
  Look like an idiot. I actually had to pause it.
• 42:47
  I had to pause it because I could not.
• 42:49
  I was laughing so hard. I was like, that is an
• 42:52
  absolutely bonkers thing to say on Sesame Street.
• 42:56
  And like, I get it like things like that were considered fine
• 42:59
  to say on children's television at the time, but that is an
• 43:02
  absolutely bonkers thing to just come on screen and say imaging
• 43:06
  you look like an idiot. Yeah, but here's the thing.
• 43:09
  She's not wrong. No, she looks absolutely out of
• 43:13
  her mind. I love that.
• 43:14
  It was truthful. Yeah.
• 43:17
  Oh my God. Amazing.
• 43:19
  And as we previously said, Ethel Merman sings that perennial
• 43:24
  Christmas classic Tomorrow from Annie just to cheer everybody
• 43:27
  up. It's so awkward.
• 43:30
  It's so awkward. And this is what I meant earlier
• 43:34
  when she gets to Maria and Bob and like hugs them to sing it.
• 43:38
  You can see on Maria's like Sonia wants to kill Joan or
• 43:46
  she's going straight to the. Top.
• 43:49
  Wow, she's going right to Kuni. She's like, I cannot believe
• 43:53
  what you've subjected me to. She is so upset during this
• 43:57
  song, yeah. I was, I was trying to figure
• 43:59
  out, like, what's going through their minds, 'cause it really
• 44:01
  looks like they're like, I don't really know what to do while
• 44:03
  she's just singing at us. But you could tell every time
• 44:07
  they make eye contact with Ethel Merman, the the sesame actors
• 44:12
  all look away like they like, it's like us.
• 44:14
  It's too awkward. I can't.
• 44:16
  This is strange. And it's also because Ethel is
• 44:18
  so committed. She's belting at the top of her
• 44:22
  throat. She is really like giving this
• 44:24
  performance like it's due. She is not shying away from how
• 44:28
  awkward it is and everyone else is like, what?
• 44:31
  What is happening? Also, we're singing about
• 44:34
  Christmas, but you're telling us that the 26th will be better.
• 44:42
  I don't. I don't understand.
• 44:45
  She's like, I understand Christmas sucks, but guess what?
• 44:48
  Christmas is going to be over tomorrow, so.
• 44:51
  Oh, get ready for Boxing Day. Ethel Merman loves Boxing Day.
• 44:55
  Wow, I never thought about that. Oh, I love that.
• 45:00
  That's incredible. Absolutely.
• 45:01
  So just just as we're coming down from this high of.
• 45:04
  I can't believe Ethel Merman just wandered on to set and
• 45:07
  decided that she was in the special who wanders on to set.
• 45:11
  It's Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson.
• 45:14
  And not like it's the weirdest. It's 78.
• 45:19
  So I guess no, he hasn't done off the wall yet.
• 45:23
  This is like. P Pretty off the wall, you
• 45:25
  could. This is like.
• 45:27
  I hate to say you could tell from his nose.
• 45:29
  Yes, I was just going to say that.
• 45:31
  Yeah, this is post Jackson 5. Or like the tail end of Jackson,
• 45:35
  I guess the Jacksons. At that point, yeah, right.
• 45:38
  I actually think he just finished filming The Wiz when he
• 45:41
  did this special. You know why?
• 45:42
  I'm pretty sure it is? Because they shot all of it in
• 45:44
  New York, and I'm pretty sure he shot that like right after that
• 45:49
  into this. So when what you're saying is
• 45:51
  when he's saying you can't win, they were like, well, you don't
• 45:54
  even know the half of it. You were like, buddy, let me
• 45:56
  tell you something, Yeah. I'm I'm looking up his his
• 46:03
  discography right now because I am.
• 46:05
  I am very curious. This is 78 so his off the wall
• 46:13
  was. A year later it was 79.
• 46:15
  This is 79 right before he blows up as a solo artist and it's
• 46:22
  weird because like he doesn't they don't give him a song like
• 46:25
  it. It does seem obvious that he's
• 46:26
  like, like you said they might have been filming at.
• 46:29
  I don't know if they were at Kauffman, Astoria, Probably not,
• 46:32
  actually, no. But that's what that's what it's
• 46:34
  still been in Manhattan. Yeah.
• 46:36
  Or maybe they were, I don't know, when they moved there.
• 46:37
  But like, yeah, either way, it's like he's just down the street.
• 46:40
  Michael, you got 10 minutes. OK, here's your two lines.
• 46:43
  He wanders onto set, reading a book called Everything You Ever
• 46:47
  Want to Know About Ghosts. But we're afraid to ask, which
• 46:49
  is also a weird joke, like an adulty joke.
• 46:55
  And I also love that it's like him like giggling to himself
• 46:57
  where he's like, then they say something, something and that's
• 47:01
  where Oscar goes, hey, what do you got there?
• 47:04
  It's the most like stupid sitcom Y way to like, introduce an item
• 47:09
  that's needed for the plot. It's true.
• 47:13
  And he just gives the book to Oscar and he walks off the
• 47:16
  stage. And I'm, I'm a little surprised
• 47:19
  that Michael never came back to Sesame Street like with the top
• 47:23
  of his career. Even like later on when he was
• 47:26
  like in his, you know, weird black and white era where he
• 47:31
  kind of felt like, oh, I'm Michael Jackson and I can have
• 47:34
  anything I want because he's just the biggest star in the
• 47:37
  world. And he's got so much money and
• 47:39
  fame and you know he could have been like, hey Sesame I would
• 47:43
  like to do a thing with with special Monster and they'd be
• 47:46
  like, yes, of course Michael Jackson come back.
• 47:50
  You know, obviously in retrospect, I'm glad that he
• 47:53
  didn't because yeah, we know more about Michael than we did
• 47:56
  at the point at that point. But but yeah, interesting that
• 47:59
  this is, this is kind of it for him on screen with anyone Muppet
• 48:02
  related. I almost feel like this was
• 48:04
  like, he's he's here, let me just do a little thing.
• 48:07
  And then, you know later on he can come back and do a real
• 48:09
  thing. And it was like right before off
• 48:11
  the wall. So it was right before he, like,
• 48:13
  truly blew up and they, like, lost him forever.
• 48:16
  Yeah, yeah, they just did. Not take advantage of it.
• 48:19
  Yeah, it is crazy. I mean, the one thing I was
• 48:26
  honestly saying, because I've always felt this and I felt this
• 48:28
  when I watched The Wiz, Michael is not a terrible actor.
• 48:33
  Like, he's pretty OK in terms of like a pop singer.
• 48:37
  He's passable. Like a pop singer who like has
• 48:40
  never taken any bit of what an acting class would be, can like
• 48:44
  do a scene with this Muppet and it's not insanely cringe worthy.
• 48:50
  Right. You know, and that's the only
• 48:54
  thought I had about that scene. I mean it.
• 48:56
  The scene goes by so fast. I wish I had more to say just
• 48:59
  because he's such a star, but. It's such a seismic moment that
• 49:04
  is so wasted it's wild. And again, like, you could tell
• 49:08
  what the people who made the DVD were like.
• 49:11
  We have to capitalize on this, but like, there's so little to
• 49:14
  work with. What do you?
• 49:15
  Do like because if he Michael was sung song, yeah.
• 49:19
  If he had sung a real song, they would be like, that's it, that's
• 49:22
  the single, we'll put it out on YouTube, whatever we got to do.
• 49:25
  But they're like, I guess we have to make one.
• 49:27
  We have to make up a whole song. They were the first dubstep.
• 49:33
  They they they did the first dubstep ever.
• 49:36
  That's it, yeah. A lot of firsts in this special.
• 49:41
  All right, we got one more ghost here.
• 49:42
  It's the Ghost of Christmas Future.
• 49:44
  It's Dick Smothers that apparently they can only afford
• 49:48
  one Smothers brother, which is I think it's hysterical.
• 49:54
  Like it would have been cool to see The Smothers Brothers come
• 49:56
  on as like, the Marley's or something.
• 49:58
  That would have been so. Fun.
• 49:59
  Not the Christmas Carol thing, but like, I'm guessing Dick
• 50:01
  Together is. What's available?
• 50:03
  No, but that would have made so much sense.
• 50:04
  But it had to be that. Like Dick was like, I'm in town,
• 50:09
  I'll do it, but it's just me. Yeah, it's it's the one who's
• 50:13
  not funny, not that Dick. Smothers isn't funny.
• 50:17
  I think he's hysterical. But like, he's the straight man
• 50:21
  so and he's wearing like a Gray parka that they're trying to
• 50:26
  pass off as a space suit. And like he's got a helmet and
• 50:30
  he's got a cart full of musical instruments for some reason.
• 50:32
  Again, what is he? What is this?
• 50:34
  Who made? I don't understand any of this.
• 50:38
  And he's trying to convince Oscar that he's from the future.
• 50:41
  So he says, When was the last time you saw an outfit like
• 50:43
  this? And Oscar says the last time I
• 50:45
  flew over Cleveland. He says precisely.
• 50:49
  It's not a. Joke.
• 50:50
  It's not a joke. It's not a joke.
• 50:53
  Or if he just said the last time I flew over to Cleveland next, I
• 50:59
  guess it's not funny. But that is more of a joke than
• 51:03
  the last time I flew over to Cleveland.
• 51:04
  Precisely, Yeah. Well, it definitely seems like
• 51:09
  whoever wrote this comes from the school of comedy of like,
• 51:13
  hey, you know what's funny? The word Cleveland.
• 51:16
  That's. Your joke.
• 51:17
  That's your joke? Yep.
• 51:19
  Yeah. Cleveland is funny.
• 51:20
  It's it's just funny. That's comedy.
• 51:22
  So put it in. It was a bunch of men with
• 51:25
  cigarettes around the table. Just saying things.
• 51:29
  That's it. Just saying words.
• 51:32
  Yeah. And as AI have to say, as a
• 51:35
  Clevelander, very disappointed, very lazy.
• 51:38
  Joke. Come on, there's so many jokes
• 51:41
  to be made about Cleveland, you could.
• 51:42
  That's exactly Come on, go Google Balloon Fest 1984 and
• 51:48
  you'll see how funny Cleveland could be.
• 51:51
  Do you want to know about Balloon Fest?
• 51:52
  This is a wrong. What is Balloon Fest?
• 51:55
  All right, I I can't get into this right now because we're
• 51:57
  we're talking about this very important special.
• 51:58
  But just imagine the city of Cleveland saying we're going to
• 52:01
  get Cleveland back on the map by releasing millions of balloons
• 52:04
  into the sky at once, and then everything that can go wrong
• 52:09
  goes wrong. A real thing.
• 52:12
  Balloon Fest. I'm going to hook that up as
• 52:15
  soon as we get off. Oh my I.
• 52:16
  Can't wait for you to learn about Balloon Fest.
• 52:18
  OK, Anyway, forget Balloon Fest. Get back to Christmas, he tells
• 52:22
  Oscar. Oh, we don't get a song this
• 52:24
  time, right? Like this is like he's just
• 52:26
  telling about the future. We're running out of time on the
• 52:28
  special. Yeah, they're like, guys, come
• 52:29
  on, They're literally closing up, closing up the building,
• 52:32
  yeah. He says that in the future, all
• 52:36
  of his friends move away. That's that's the future.
• 52:40
  So I guess, like, that's to Oscar just as bad as Scrooge
• 52:43
  dying alone in the book, which is the.
• 52:46
  Only and like the clear amount of non consideration of like,
• 52:55
  wait, that's actually exactly what Oscar would want.
• 53:00
  But we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna circumvent this and
• 53:03
  make it like, oh, that's his worst nightmare.
• 53:06
  Forget character consistency. Forget everything about what a
• 53:10
  grouch is that makes sense because it's akin to the book.
• 53:13
  Not just consistency to the character in the show, but
• 53:16
  literally in this special. There are points in which he's
• 53:21
  like, oh, I love walking around when nobody's here.
• 53:25
  He's walking around like he loves being alone, loves it,
• 53:32
  garbage. So this is, I think, the only
• 53:36
  point in the special in which anyone even bothers to ask the
• 53:40
  question of like, what are you even trying to do here?
• 53:43
  What are we doing? What is your goal Like?
• 53:48
  Is it just like Christmas? Is that?
• 53:51
  Is that it? Is that it?
• 53:52
  And so, like, then there's this weird thing where the ghost of
• 53:56
  Christmas future is like, Oh well, we want you to believe in
• 54:00
  your friends, 'cause they all believe in you.
• 54:03
  And it's all this belief stuff. And like, this is nothing.
• 54:05
  It's literally nothing. Like it's it's a song queue of
• 54:08
  course. But like like there's no what is
• 54:11
  belief in people get you. Why do they need Oscar to be
• 54:16
  like, oh, OK, I believe in you, Maria.
• 54:19
  OK. Thanks.
• 54:23
  And now what? Yeah, right.
• 54:25
  Yeah. Also, like plot wise, it's like,
• 54:27
  wait, I thought the whole point is we're trying to cheer Oscar
• 54:31
  up, but now it's now it's emotionally incumbent upon Oscar
• 54:36
  to help everyone else out. You're right.
• 54:40
  It started as Cheer Oscar up. It's it's it's segued into keep
• 54:45
  the holiday I guess like that whole keep Christmas with you
• 54:49
  thing. And now it's just, I don't know,
• 54:52
  be. Don't be a Dick to your friends,
• 54:54
  I guess. Not only don't be a Dick to your
• 54:57
  friends, make them. Make them feel better.
• 54:59
  Come on. Yeah, Stop.
• 55:00
  Make it so that they don't want to actively murder you.
• 55:03
  That's the moral. They want to kill you right now.
• 55:06
  So you mean you, Oscar, you got to figure this out.
• 55:09
  Yeah. So this is the song.
• 55:15
  Cue into the song just one person.
• 55:17
  We've heard The Muppets do this 100 times.
• 55:19
  This is easily the. Worst Oh my God, it's the most
• 55:24
  disappointing and angering and just like, upsetting again for,
• 55:29
  like, moved it out of my memory 'cause as soon as it got it
• 55:32
  started getting sung, I literally went what?
• 55:35
  Yeah, yeah. There's two things about this
• 55:39
  that I find legitimately hysterical.
• 55:42
  One is so Leslie comes, comes on, and she starts singing the
• 55:44
  song and then when she gets to two and Bob joins, it's like
• 55:50
  Bob's entire face like in profile.
• 55:54
  This this was exactly going to be my point.
• 55:58
  It's so weird. It's such a choice.
• 56:00
  It's such a stylistic choice. Bob's entire face in profile
• 56:03
  like close up on the screen and then same thing when they get to
• 56:07
  three with David's whole face in profile on side of the screen
• 56:11
  it's so. Awkward.
• 56:12
  It's like that thing they used to do for music videos.
• 56:15
  When they would take, they would shoot two cameras and have one
• 56:19
  face and one profile. And in order to do a transition,
• 56:22
  you'd have a moment where both of them are happening at the
• 56:24
  same time. Yeah, so that one can fade out.
• 56:27
  But the worst part of this one is that when Bob enters the
• 56:30
  screen to go maybe 2, typically in the song they go maybe two
• 56:38
  and if two whole people, but in this one they just go maybe two
• 56:46
  and just keep their faces there. It's the most uncomfortable
• 56:52
  thing ever. Oh, it's terrible.
• 56:55
  The the genuinely what I think is the most uncomfortable.
• 56:59
  And thank God nobody pointed it out to Oscar is So then they get
• 57:02
  to 33 old people, why not four? And then Maria comes in.
• 57:07
  And if 4 old people, why not more and more and more And the
• 57:10
  camera pans out and there's no one else?
• 57:11
  There no one. There is no.
• 57:12
  More. I'm sorry, it was just the four
• 57:15
  of us who showed up. It's like the saddest
• 57:17
  intervention, right? Everyone else was like, we've
• 57:20
  get, we've tried, we gave, we gave up a long time ago.
• 57:24
  And here's the thing, though. Did you notice?
• 57:29
  Or at what point did you notice Mr. Hooper is gone?
• 57:32
  Gone. This was going to be my point,
• 57:35
  he he said. I'm shooting at 2:00 PM.
• 57:40
  I'm walking out the door and whatever you don't get, you
• 57:44
  don't get. I think the last time we see him
• 57:47
  is he's in the, the musical number for the Ghost of
• 57:50
  Christmas Past. I like, I think that might be
• 57:52
  the last time. And then, like, just casually,
• 57:55
  like he just kind of like, you know, ducked out into the
• 57:57
  shadows, but you're not going to miss this old man.
• 58:01
  But even after the opening number, we don't see him again
• 58:04
  until that musical number because he's not, he's not in
• 58:07
  any of the other group scenes. He's in one other scene.
• 58:10
  They must have done all the group scenes at once where when
• 58:12
  he was there, because he's at the end.
• 58:14
  We'll see in a second. Oh yes, he's with the, he's with
• 58:17
  the big group. But but yeah, like for the, for
• 58:20
  the story, for the street stuff, like he is just gone.
• 58:24
  He just has somewhere else to be.
• 58:25
  And you know what? Good for him.
• 58:27
  That's got out proud of him. So at the end of the song,
• 58:38
  Oscar's like, all right, let me see that cat.
• 58:40
  Oscar's nice. Now he's like, look, give me
• 58:41
  that cat. And this poor cat is screaming
• 58:44
  its head off. It's so upset.
• 58:47
  Hand it to Oscar and you have to remember.
• 58:50
  Like Carol Spinney's Inside the Trash Can.
• 58:53
  And so his arm is straight up. They hand the cat to him.
• 58:57
  He can't see what's happening. He can't see, like is the cat
• 59:00
  like on like in the can the cat? Or is like on the edge.
• 59:04
  The cat is essentially hovering 4 feet off the ground, being
• 59:07
  held by this furry Gray hand. That cat must be losing its
• 59:10
  mind. Terrified.
• 59:12
  Oh, and in the first scene it's introduced.
• 59:14
  I don't know if you noticed it like looks over at Oscar and
• 59:17
  then immediately like coils away and screams.
• 59:21
  So it is already seen Oscar and hates him.
• 59:25
  Hates him, hates the sight of him.
• 59:28
  I can't imagine being touched by him miserable.
• 59:33
  And like, I guarantee like that puppet probably smelled weird.
• 59:36
  Oh my God, that poor kitten. And also like when you watch any
• 59:42
  Muppet have to handle like puppies or kittens because
• 59:45
  they're so wily, you kind of have to grip them tight so that
• 59:51
  they don't slip. So it's also probably like
• 59:53
  pressured, like being squeezed. It's like, so upsetting or.
• 59:58
  At the very least, if there was an option for a second puppeteer
• 1:00:01
  to help with a second hand, it's like, oh, you got one on on the
• 1:00:04
  side, one on top, or whatever. Like you just kind of can you
• 1:00:06
  can cradle it, but it's just Oscar's hands sticking straight
• 1:00:09
  up. Yeah.
• 1:00:12
  So anyway, that's essentially the end of the story.
• 1:00:15
  But it's not the end of the special, because now we go into
• 1:00:17
  A Christmas Carol medley. And it's all of our extras.
• 1:00:21
  They're all sitting around the Arbor.
• 1:00:24
  Ethel Merman is still there. Singing loud and off key in the
• 1:00:30
  first song they sang, I can't remember which.
• 1:00:32
  What's it's Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells.
• 1:00:35
  She sounds terrible. Do you think in that moment she
• 1:00:39
  was like, I'm not off key all you rubes?
• 1:00:42
  Are all of you? Yes.
• 1:00:43
  Yes, I absolutely think so. She's the loudest.
• 1:00:46
  One, she's like, I have to go loud to drown all you people
• 1:00:49
  out, 'cause you're making me look bad and like.
• 1:00:55
  And also I have to, I have to say this again.
• 1:00:57
  She looks so weird, like she's got her fur coat on.
• 1:01:00
  She's got too much make up. It looks she looks like Cesar
• 1:01:02
  Romero is the Joker. She's, well, at this point,
• 1:01:08
  it's, what, 78? Yeah, she's like, dude, she's
• 1:01:12
  she's reached. She's in the age of her life
• 1:01:14
  where she's, like, cantankerous, Like people hate working with
• 1:01:18
  her. She was just like, absolute
• 1:01:20
  grouch, like diva status all the way.
• 1:01:23
  I'm sure she was miserable on that set.
• 1:01:26
  I'm sure none of them got paid, really, and that this was just
• 1:01:30
  like the weirdest and most terrible day on set.
• 1:01:34
  Yeah, yeah, ridiculous. And like just again, like fever
• 1:01:39
  dream for these people who are sitting next to FO Merman as
• 1:01:43
  she's screaming Jingle Bells in their face.
• 1:01:46
  And then there's a point. They're singing, walking into
• 1:01:50
  Winter Wonderland, and Oscar pops up on her shoulder and and
• 1:01:54
  they're kind of like looking at each other while they're singing
• 1:01:57
  and like, that's I think the craziest part of the special
• 1:01:59
  where they're just like, like we're going for it.
• 1:02:01
  We're just going to scream the song on each other's faces went
• 1:02:04
  to Wonderland. Yeah, I think at a certain
• 1:02:13
  point, Oscar was just like, it's better if I enter psychosis than
• 1:02:16
  if I actually have to, like, deal with what I really want out
• 1:02:20
  of these people. So also in the scene is Big
• 1:02:26
  Bird, Oscar and Barkley, all seen on camera at the same time.
• 1:02:30
  In the credits, Carol's obviously credited for Big Bird
• 1:02:32
  and Oscar. Toby Towson is credited as
• 1:02:35
  Barkley. The dog misspelled Barkley by
• 1:02:38
  the Way BAR. KLY.
• 1:02:43
  And but there's no third puppets here credited, so I have no clue
• 1:02:47
  who that person would have been. And I'm I'm really curious who
• 1:02:50
  was like, well, I don't know, you guy in the background.
• 1:02:53
  Just like take this. Oscar puppet and figure it out.
• 1:02:55
  I have to go back and see I have.
• 1:02:57
  He's probably being puppeteered terribly.
• 1:03:00
  I bet, whatever. I bet he's he's very much in the
• 1:03:03
  background, like behind a bunch of people.
• 1:03:06
  Part of me wants to kind of just like look at all the extras and
• 1:03:09
  see like, OK, there's the mustache guy, there's the the
• 1:03:13
  older lady, like, who's not there?
• 1:03:16
  And that's probably. Not there and got got thrown in.
• 1:03:18
  I was like. Hey, yeah, yes.
• 1:03:21
  And then the last thing that we see is the tree, which has been
• 1:03:26
  moved a little bit to the left, further into the Arbor, and
• 1:03:29
  everyone standing in front of it, stone faced like now is the
• 1:03:34
  serious part of the special. And they're singing a verse from
• 1:03:39
  I saw three ships that I have never heard in my.
• 1:03:42
  Never heard. And they're singing the lyrics,
• 1:03:47
  but I can't look at anything except for Mr. Hooper, who is
• 1:03:52
  mouthing words to a song that's only playing in his head.
• 1:03:58
  He does not know the words, and that's OK.
• 1:04:00
  I like I said, I didn't know the words.
• 1:04:02
  Like Mr. Hooper Willie. They shouldn't be like I I.
• 1:04:06
  Grew up Jewish. Like, I didn't know any of these
• 1:04:08
  Christmas carols when I was a kid.
• 1:04:10
  But like, yeah, they didn't give him a chance to learn it.
• 1:04:12
  He was just like, forget I'll just go.
• 1:04:14
  I don't think I care. I'm sure somebody was like, hey,
• 1:04:17
  here are the lyrics. And he went, no, yeah, I'm not
• 1:04:21
  learning lyrics for this. That's right, yeah, My car is
• 1:04:23
  outside waiting for me. I'm late for Christmas dinner.
• 1:04:28
  OK. That's right please.
• 1:04:30
  Hanukkah dinner. Yes, Hanukkah.
• 1:04:32
  Yeah, there we go. I have to go please.
• 1:04:34
  Yes, I got a lot of cuz waiting for me at home and that's it.
• 1:04:39
  That's that's the end of the special.
• 1:04:41
  So Fergie, I have, I have to ask.
• 1:04:44
  We we talked about this before recording, but now that we've
• 1:04:48
  watched it again and discussed it ad nauseam, is this special?
• 1:04:54
  Just bad, or so bad it's good. It's so bad.
• 1:04:58
  It's good. It's, I mean it's akin to the
• 1:05:01
  Star Wars Holiday Special. Like it's truly just like I I
• 1:05:06
  see it in the same way where whenever I introduce the Star
• 1:05:08
  Wars Holiday Special to people where like nobody ever tells me,
• 1:05:11
  please turn this off, people, people are like I I have to see
• 1:05:15
  this through. And that's how I feel about this
• 1:05:17
  special. And I'm like, well, I have, I
• 1:05:19
  have to know where where this ends up.
• 1:05:21
  Like where does this go. Especially the more people come
• 1:05:24
  on and and the more random after Yakety Yak was truly, this time
• 1:05:29
  around was when I was like, I can't imagine someone seeing
• 1:05:34
  that and being like, OK, I'm done, right?
• 1:05:37
  Yes, there's no way. I could definitely see people
• 1:05:41
  like I, so I bring this up. Not, I don't actually watch it
• 1:05:44
  every Christmas, but I bring it up every Christmas as an option
• 1:05:47
  for us to watch. And I, no matter who I'm with,
• 1:05:49
  whether it's my wife or when I I used to be roommates with Ryan
• 1:05:53
  Rowe, like when we lived together and like almost always
• 1:05:56
  shot down. Like I just don't know if I can.
• 1:05:59
  Do it this year. But I think a part of me is
• 1:06:05
  like, I would like this to be a part of my my annual viewing.
• 1:06:08
  Like I do love watching it because it's just such a train
• 1:06:12
  wreck. It's like such an impressive,
• 1:06:15
  like open manhole cover with like a burst of flames coming
• 1:06:19
  out of it. And it's only that bad.
• 1:06:24
  It's it's good because it came out the same year as Christmas
• 1:06:28
  Eve on Sesame Street. Like if this was just a random
• 1:06:30
  special they did one year, I would just be like, that is so
• 1:06:33
  sad. You all did such a poor job on
• 1:06:35
  this, but the fact that they had just finished filming that and
• 1:06:38
  then filmed this is doubly funny to me.
• 1:06:42
  I couldn't agree more. There's there's a charm to this
• 1:06:45
  era of Sesame Street. Like it's something that they
• 1:06:48
  even maybe lost a little bit of by the time they got into like
• 1:06:50
  the mid to late 80s. But like this, this like 1978
• 1:06:54
  Sesame Street where it's still like kind of gritty, but like
• 1:06:58
  they've definitely gotten into their groove of like what Sesame
• 1:07:00
  Street is like. Even the worst stuff is like,
• 1:07:04
  oh, this is so charming, it's so good, you know.
• 1:07:08
  But this one, this one special is such an outlier for that.
• 1:07:13
  And yeah, and like to watch it back.
• 1:07:14
  I've never watched it back-to-back with Christmas Eve
• 1:07:16
  on Sesame Street, which I should do, like literally just start
• 1:07:20
  one and then the other. I don't know what order to watch
• 1:07:22
  them in, but I'm. I'm kind of fascinated to do
• 1:07:25
  that someday. But but yeah, the the oddity of
• 1:07:30
  it and the comparison of like how good can Sesame Street be?
• 1:07:34
  How bad can it be? And we wouldn't do this.
• 1:07:37
  You know, there are other holiday specials that Sesame
• 1:07:39
  Street has made that I think are not very good, but I have no
• 1:07:44
  interest in watching it for The Train Wreck Factor.
• 1:07:46
  You know, there's no Sesame Street Christmas Carol, which I
• 1:07:50
  don't really remember, like Elmo's Christmas countdown.
• 1:07:53
  Even Elmo Saves Christmas, which has its charms, you know, it's
• 1:07:56
  like, I don't watch any of that stuff.
• 1:07:57
  I'd never even think about it, but this one, man.
• 1:08:02
  This one is its own, it's its own special thing.
• 1:08:04
  What I also love about it, and I didn't realize it 'til you
• 1:08:06
  brought it up, was that like in Christmas Eve, the array of
• 1:08:12
  human characters that are on there versus this almost made me
• 1:08:19
  forget they were at the same time.
• 1:08:20
  Because in this special, it almost feels like it's within
• 1:08:23
  the first like 3-4 seasons of Sesame, just from like how
• 1:08:27
  poorly it's shot and how like dark the lighting is.
• 1:08:33
  And it's only like 4 humans and it's only Big Bird.
• 1:08:37
  And Oscar like it. Feels so rustic.
• 1:08:40
  That's 1970. That's 1970 Sesame.
• 1:08:43
  That's crazy. And then thinking about
• 1:08:46
  Christmas Eve, I'm like, that is such a clear we're moving into
• 1:08:49
  the 80s special. Like just from the tone of it
• 1:08:52
  and the writing and all the characters in it, but they are
• 1:08:56
  so vastly different. Tonally it's amazing.
• 1:09:00
  As a creative person in the arts, is there anything that you
• 1:09:06
  would have done differently to make this better or is it
• 1:09:11
  perfect as it is? No, no, I I would not touch
• 1:09:15
  this. I wouldn't do a single thing
• 1:09:19
  different. I think for what this special is
• 1:09:21
  to be, I would have maybe added two more lines to Michael
• 1:09:24
  Jackson's scenes so that the auto tune version could have
• 1:09:27
  been a little bit better. But outside of that, this
• 1:09:31
  special is perfect. I'm I'm so glad you think so.
• 1:09:36
  So I I I hope that having to rewatch this thing and then talk
• 1:09:42
  about it for so long was not quite the nightmare that it
• 1:09:45
  would have been for for other people.
• 1:09:47
  I wouldn't do this for literally anyone else.
• 1:09:51
  I I would only do this for you in tough pigs.
• 1:09:55
  Oh, thank you so much. That is the highest honor that I
• 1:09:59
  could possibly receive. And Fergie, thank you so much
• 1:10:04
  for being here. It was such a joy to get to talk
• 1:10:06
  to you about this, this horrible little thing, this.
• 1:10:09
  Is my ideal evening, so thank you.
• 1:10:12
  I'm so glad. Where, if anywhere, can people
• 1:10:15
  find you on the Internet should you want to be found?
• 1:10:18
  You can find me on the Instagrams, the I guess Twitter
• 1:10:24
  XI. Don't know what that place is.
• 1:10:25
  I'm sure I'll leave soon. And on Tiktok.
• 1:10:28
  All at Fergsters 95, that is, at FERGSTE RS-95.
• 1:10:37
  Great. Thank you again for being here.
• 1:10:40
  And everyone listening, thank you for being here.
• 1:10:44
  This has been the worst of The Muppets Holiday Edition.
• 1:10:47
  We're gonna be doing more of these throughout December.
• 1:10:50
  And if you like what you've heard, please check Tough Pigs
• 1:10:53
  out on toppigs.com on Twitter or X or whatever we're calling it
• 1:10:58
  on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, blue sky.
• 1:11:02
  I can't even remember all the social media networks.
• 1:11:04
  We're tough pigs. We're tough pigs on everything.
• 1:11:07
  We also have a Patreon and AT Public if you would like to
• 1:11:10
  donate money or buy cool things from us.
• 1:11:13
  And we will see you again next week right here on this podcast
• 1:11:18
  channel. Goodbye.