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The Great Muppet Fandom Panel - Winter, 2022 Edition · Muppet Fan Podcasts with ToughPigs.com

• 0:00
  Many years ago, tough pigs.com began a great tradition of
• 0:05
  arguing about the Muppets on the internet now.
• 0:09
  Tough pigs has assembled a team of Muppet experts from all over
• 0:14
  the world for a summit on the state of the Muppets.
• 0:18
  This is a great Hello and welcome to the winter
• 0:41
  2022. Oh no.
• 0:43
  Are we doing this again? Come on, little show.
• 0:54
  Thank you. Hello.
• 0:55
  And welcome to the winter 2022, edition of the great Muppet
• 0:58
  fandom panel from tough pigs.com.
• 1:00
  This is a panel discussion show during which you'll hear
• 1:02
  highlights from the Hansen headlines, discussed by a panel
• 1:05
  of the internet, stop Muppet experts.
• 1:07
  If you're looking for the latest Muppet news, hot off the
• 1:09
  presses, you're in luck. You can read our website for
• 1:12
  that but that's not what this show is.
• 1:14
  It's just a big picture overview of what's going on with the
• 1:16
  Muppets explained and debated by a new panel every time.
• 1:20
  It's sort of like a quarterly report except a quarter would be
• 1:22
  25 cents. And this is More people giving
• 1:25
  their two cents which makes a total of eight cents and that's
• 1:28
  how math Works. Am I fired yet?
• 1:29
  Show your we're going to double your Salary.
• 1:32
  Thank you. Each of our panelists has
• 1:35
  brought a discussion question for us which could be about
• 1:37
  anything related to Jim Henson or the Muppets.
• 1:39
  But we expect our main topics will be a muppet appearances on
• 1:42
  TV and streaming and fraggle, rocks holiday, special night of
• 1:45
  the lights. Let's introduce the panelists.
• 1:47
  First up when it's nice and bright and it brings to light,
• 1:50
  let your heart choose. Julia gasps go.
• 1:54
  Hi, that's really lovely. Thank you.
• 1:57
  They guys they get worse. Alright, next also from tough
• 2:01
  figs.com, it's true wherever you find love.
• 2:04
  It feels like Louis Perlman is very nice.
• 2:10
  Thanks for having me. JD.
• 2:12
  Oh my pleasure. And finally, of course a tough
• 2:14
  fix co-owner tis the season to be jolly and Johannes.
• 2:20
  Thank you, but I hate Christmas. So can you do it?
• 2:22
  Can you do a Hanukkah one? What about that song?
• 2:25
  Would you like to do for that show?
• 2:27
  You know, the famous Hanukkah Muppet song about Monica.
• 2:32
  Nope, we're going to move on. We're gonna move on this one and
• 2:35
  I'm JD Hansel. Thank you.
• 2:38
  Thank you. Let's begin with a fairly
• 2:40
  obvious Icebreaker. Have any of you been
• 2:42
  re-watching? Interesting Muppet Productions,
• 2:43
  her puppet Productions, this month.
• 2:45
  I did give the vinyl soundtrack to Emma.
• 2:49
  Water is Jug Band. Christmas this pain while I was
• 2:52
  decorating with my partner the other day and it was really,
• 2:54
  really nice to listen to it and I believe that I have that vinyl
• 2:58
  because Joe got it for me on Record Store Day.
• 3:01
  And one of the, you know, what's funny?
• 3:03
  Louis is, I also listened to that same record while we were
• 3:07
  decorating, our Christmas pole and what's extra funny I didn't
• 3:13
  listen to the vinyl but I did watch.
• 3:15
  Emma daughters, drugged and Christmas.
• 3:17
  While I was decorating the Christmas tree of the other
• 3:19
  night. So apparently that's the one
• 3:21
  that screams Christmas for all of us.
• 3:23
  Hmm. Wow.
• 3:25
  Well and nobody watched mr. Willoughby's.
• 3:29
  I shoot coming close last year. I'm not watching it again.
• 3:32
  This year. It is now time for the great
• 3:36
  Muppet. Question panelists, are you
• 3:38
  ready? Maybe great this episode's great
• 3:41
  Muppet. Question is what do you think
• 3:44
  the Muppets would be doing? Now, if their creator Stanley
• 3:47
  was still alive today? This is a serious question.
• 3:52
  Why are you giggling? Well, you know, I think that
• 3:55
  the, the MCU, the, the Muppet Universe would like be wrapping
• 3:59
  up their third phase, where we saw not only like the Muppets
• 4:02
  take this big epic like movie, but we saw them join forces with
• 4:05
  like the fraggles and sesame and it was this huge box office.
• 4:09
  Smash. And now they're they're going
• 4:10
  into phase for. They would be going to Face
• 4:12
  Forward. They would be doing TV shows and
• 4:15
  movies on more obscure characters would get like a
• 4:17
  George and Mildred. Team Up.
• 4:19
  Sitcom that like Would get a lot of flak online and people would
• 4:23
  like see the Auntie Sue movie and be like, oh, this is woke
• 4:27
  media being made and, you know, that kind of stuff I would
• 4:30
  assume Stanley was still around, would they call would people
• 4:35
  call a nice? Ooh a Mary Sue?
• 4:38
  Oh, 110%, absolutely. Okay, good.
• 4:43
  That's two episodes of this podcast in a row that mentioned
• 4:47
  Mary Sue's. I think, I don't know.
• 4:50
  Someone keep a tally of that but was a nice.
• 4:52
  Ooh, mentioned in the last episode.
• 4:54
  No, okay, no. It's as if these podcasts are
• 4:58
  hosted by the same person or something.
• 5:01
  Last time. It was Ryan.
• 5:02
  I take no responsibility for that.
• 5:05
  Yeah. I was gonna say it's almost as
• 5:07
  if it's just, you know, podcast full of like geeky folks, who
• 5:10
  are familiar with the phrase, Mary Sue, true.
• 5:14
  Joe. Do you have an answer?
• 5:15
  What do you think the Muppets would be doing now if their
• 5:17
  creators Stanley were still alive today?
• 5:19
  Oh, gosh. Well, Stanley was still alive
• 5:21
  today. I think that he would finally,
• 5:23
  get around to creating a comic or TV show, or probably three,
• 5:26
  or four separate film franchises.
• 5:29
  That are based around one of his most famous yet actually pretty
• 5:32
  obscure characters. This is from Muppet Babies,
• 5:36
  actually his famous Stanley's, famous cartoon, Muppet Babies,
• 5:42
  this character. I mean, they appeared in
• 5:44
  literally every single episode and I feel like nobody talks
• 5:47
  about them and he has potential. I think to be a household name.
• 5:52
  He's my favorite Muppet probably yours as well.
• 5:56
  It's that spits that Spider-Man, that lands on top of the Marvel
• 5:59
  Productions logo at the end of the credits, like I could do
• 6:03
  right? That like silver Spider-Man.
• 6:06
  Yeah, my yeah, he's over. He said of my favorite Muppet,
• 6:11
  baby. I know because this is for tough
• 6:14
  pigs. We can get away with doing some
• 6:16
  deep cut jokes, but once we're doing more obscure characters,
• 6:20
  And mr. Curly twirly Joe?
• 6:22
  No one's going to know who that is.
• 6:24
  I'm not sure that that's going to make it into the Final Cut.
• 6:25
  Will see what my producer says about this.
• 6:27
  Okay, maybe. Well, first of all, I'm your
• 6:30
  producer and I say it's terrible cut this entire segment.
• 6:34
  Okay, great. No, silver logo Spider-Man, I've
• 6:37
  I'm vouching for him. I have an answer.
• 6:42
  I mean before Stan, Lee died, he was doing a lot of boob Centric
• 6:48
  work so I'd imagine That the Muppets would be doing more
• 6:51
  work. There was just kind of all about
• 6:54
  boobs but which yeah, which I'm not really into.
• 6:57
  So we've got kind of glad that he's gone, you know, I don't
• 7:01
  need any, I don't need a lot of, you know, Muppet humor, that's
• 7:04
  just like all about boobs personally, not really my thing.
• 7:08
  So, yeah, that's that's what I think they'd be doing when you
• 7:12
  said that. I just imagine all the Muppets
• 7:15
  with, like giant racks and I really did not need that image
• 7:18
  in my head. And that's what I'm hoping.
• 7:19
  Our Sinners are imagining to see, I was imagining buddy.
• 7:25
  I was imagining that the Muppets would themselves be boobs or
• 7:30
  rather that the boobs would be puppets.
• 7:32
  Oh, I'm not sure if that I don't know if that's a show, nobody
• 7:39
  could see what I'm doing. All right, you know, I think
• 7:42
  it's time for us to get to the news, but before I do, I'd like
• 7:45
  to remind everyone that we're not covering all the Muppet news
• 7:48
  on their show. This isn't a weekly updates
• 7:50
  shows If you're looking for that, listen to another podcast.
• 7:52
  However, if you'd like to stay up to date on everything
• 7:54
  happening in the Muppet world, as it's happening, you've got to
• 7:57
  follow tough pigs.com, wherever social networks are sold.
• 8:00
  You don't have a choice resistance is futile.
• 8:03
  The Muppets have been getting some cool little TV appearances,
• 8:06
  that we appreciate like animal presenting an award at the game
• 8:09
  awards, on December 8 plus Sesame, Muppets at the
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  Rockefeller Plaza. Christmas tree, lighting a
• 8:15
  highlight from the past few months.
• 8:17
  However was Muppet night on The Masked Singer on October 26.
• 8:20
  With. That's right.
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  They built a whole special episode around Kermit.
• 8:24
  Piggy, Fozzie Uncle deadly animal, crazy, Harry.
• 8:27
  And the snouts and my purse. Am I pronouncing that right is
• 8:30
  its notes. Is there an agreed upon
• 8:31
  pronunciation? Does anyone care Dave goals?
• 8:33
  Says snuff. I think we should say difficult
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  says. It's now.
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  That's enough. Yeah.
• 8:39
  Good good. I like to think it's a
• 8:40
  combination of the words snout and mouth because that's most of
• 8:44
  what those puppets are. Yeah, there's no sense.
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  Yeah. And I believe it's something
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  about a cow. Well because of the really yeah.
• 8:53
  Yeah. They're very, they're obviously
• 8:55
  cows. I mean, come on.
• 8:58
  There are levels this, I mean he's just getting interrupted by
• 9:03
  those cows. Every time he sings that song,
• 9:06
  anyhow this revered too late for us to talk about in our first
• 9:10
  episode so I'd like to talk about it.
• 9:11
  Now they opened with Kerman singing, Rainbow Connection and
• 9:14
  the judges joining in with them and then they pepper Muppets.
• 9:18
  And throughout piggy sings. A few seconds of Mahna Mahna
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  Kermit plays a little bit of Bohemian Rhapsody on the piano
• 9:23
  for a robot, a perfectly normal show.
• 9:26
  How do we feel about this gang? What a sentence speaking for
• 9:30
  myself? I have never seen The Masked
• 9:33
  Singer and when I saw this was going to be something we talked
• 9:36
  about. I was like, well, I guess I need
• 9:37
  to like read a recap. And I assumed Muppets night
• 9:40
  implied, that the contestants were going to sing Muppet songs.
• 9:44
  And yeah, I was very disappointed to see that, it's
• 9:47
  just curve. It singing Rainbow Connection,
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  the song, we've seen him sing a million times and then everyone
• 9:51
  just kind of sang their own stuff just permit?
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  No other songs. I don't think he's ever sung
• 9:56
  another song and 1:30 on The Muppets, ya know, you can always
• 10:03
  pull up being green. No, no, no, no, Julia, you're
• 10:06
  mistaken. He's only sung the Rainbow
• 10:08
  Connection of course, how can how foolish of me.
• 10:11
  Yes, but Julia you're 100% right.
• 10:13
  I think we all got excited about this because we've been
• 10:15
  complaining about the fact that Kermit's only sung Rainbow
• 10:18
  Connection for a couple of years now.
• 10:20
  And we were like, oh great, like Muppet night, we get to hear all
• 10:23
  these classic Muppet songs. Maybe some obscure ones may be
• 10:27
  some Songs that like someone saying on The Muppet Show.
• 10:30
  It's not technically a muppet just song, but we know, wink
• 10:32
  wink. You know, it's on the Muppet
• 10:34
  Wiki already. But yeah, it was just like that
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  one. And I mean, I guess, Bohemian
• 10:39
  Rhapsody technically is a Muppet song now, but I thought, but I
• 10:43
  don't, I feel like that. You know, why that song got
• 10:45
  chosen. No, it's definitely not.
• 10:49
  And even to start the whole thing with Kermit seeing rainbow
• 10:52
  connection with a bunch of people who I really don't want
• 10:55
  to listen to sing Rainbow Connection.
• 10:57
  Yeah. It's just like I'm torn paddle
• 10:59
  about. Yeah, I'm torn about this whole
• 11:01
  idea of like, I don't want to hear Kermit sing Rainbow
• 11:03
  Connection as much as he currently does, but also I don't
• 11:06
  want to hear human singing it. So I guess nobody should ever
• 11:09
  sing that song again or just give it a rest.
• 11:13
  It's just it's over exposure, more than anything.
• 11:15
  Take, like a two-year Hiatus, you know, focus on some other
• 11:18
  songs and then when it comes back, people will be excited for
• 11:21
  it. Did did any of y'all actually
• 11:23
  like watch the episode? I watched you today actually.
• 11:27
  Yeah. Yeah, you know, and I enjoyed
• 11:30
  it. I thought that there were a lot
• 11:33
  of moments that were pretty genuinely funny in the episode
• 11:37
  and also Masked Singer. I've seen a few episodes here
• 11:41
  and there it's definitely nothing that I really follow but
• 11:44
  it exists in such a bizarre kind of garish surreal world that the
• 11:51
  Muppets actually fit quite well in that world.
• 11:55
  So I thought this was a good a good match.
• 11:58
  Of Aesthetics which I appreciated because I do often
• 12:04
  feel and I think we're going to talk a little more about this
• 12:06
  later that recently, especially the Muppets have been shoehorned
• 12:10
  into these projects that are Like These reality show projects
• 12:14
  that are just like in no way the right fit for them and it's like
• 12:18
  very confusing to have them there in my opinion.
• 12:20
  So this at least I felt had a little bit of life to it and
• 12:25
  also allowed the form up and performers a little bit of
• 12:30
  ability to improv off of the human human panel, and I
• 12:34
  especially thought Eric Jacobson was really killing it.
• 12:37
  This episode is Miss Piggy. Like I thought he was very funny
• 12:41
  and, and like, you know, Miss Piggy, this is a good role for
• 12:45
  her actually. That's sort of commentary role
• 12:47
  was really. It's a smart.
• 12:49
  It's a smart match for her. Yeah.
• 12:50
  I could see piggy doing really well, unlike any kind of judge
• 12:53
  panel because that's a lot of what she does to begin with.
• 12:55
  And so that's that's good to hear.
• 12:57
  It seemed like maybe they had a bit more fun with it than they
• 13:00
  have with some of the other programs.
• 13:02
  That, as you've said, they definitely just have kind of
• 13:05
  been shoehorned in. Yeah, yeah.
• 13:07
  Like they're there is a joke that Miss Piggy had with one of
• 13:12
  the singers, the the robot where robot this piggy literally said,
• 13:19
  she's so talented. It's so wonderful.
• 13:21
  That must be me under the helmet.
• 13:23
  I don't know how they're doing it, but it's me and I felt like
• 13:25
  that was a surreal enough. Joke to really land.
• 13:29
  And we haven't heard actually such a weird joke from the
• 13:31
  Muppets in a while. So I appreciated that and then
• 13:35
  she like stuck to her guns and when they were trying to guess
• 13:37
  the robot at the end she like insisted it was her Under The
• 13:41
  Helmet so that was pretty funny. One thing I was really
• 13:44
  disappointed with about this episode was actually not
• 13:47
  something that was in the episode itself.
• 13:49
  But I'm really disappointed in my mother because she watches
• 13:52
  this show religiously and she did not call Or text to be like,
• 13:59
  did you see that? There were Muppets on Masked,
• 14:02
  Singer. Did you see that?
• 14:03
  Like even when they were doing commercials, they're going to be
• 14:05
  doing a muppet night? We haven't spoken a peep about
• 14:09
  this and I don't know what she's thinking.
• 14:12
  I don't know why she's keeping this to herself because she's
• 14:16
  definitely thought about it. She doesn't was like, Joe should
• 14:18
  know this, but she decided not to bring it up to me, maybe.
• 14:22
  But in all seriousness, you already knew about it.
• 14:25
  I'm sure I did. As as Muppet fans.
• 14:30
  How often do we get the message from a friend or family?
• 14:33
  That's like, hey did you know that they're making a new Muppet
• 14:36
  thing and it's like yes, I found out two years ago.
• 14:39
  Yes, exactly. And so maybe maybe this is a
• 14:43
  sign that your mother is very considerate.
• 14:45
  Joseph to think about that. Well I brought her on this
• 14:48
  podcast, she's gonna explain herself to the pump.
• 14:52
  No, she's not here, but but in all seriousness like I did make
• 14:56
  me think about the last I'm the Muppets were on, the Masked
• 14:59
  Singer wouldn't Kermit was one of the surprise contestants and
• 15:03
  like that was done so well. We're like I remember getting
• 15:07
  texts that night of like, oh my God, the snail was Kermit the
• 15:09
  Frog and I'm like, what are you talking about?
• 15:11
  Are you does it smell like toast.
• 15:16
  So you can't pull that trick twice though.
• 15:19
  Not you like once and something but younger joke of you unmask
• 15:23
  what you think is going to be a human and it's Kermit the Frog.
• 15:26
  Like right. We're gonna To do it again but
• 15:28
  this time, it's mr. Curly twirly know, if you've
• 15:30
  only get to do it once, but here's the funny thing is a few
• 15:35
  months, maybe not even a few months, but like a bit before
• 15:38
  this episode aired. I heard from someone at Muppet
• 15:42
  studio at Disney. Hey, we're going to be doing
• 15:45
  Miss Piggy on the best singer, and I'm like, you're not allowed
• 15:48
  to tell me that man. Like, that supposed to be a big
• 15:50
  secret, you just, you just said it.
• 15:52
  You nieven, say off the Record, you just told me.
• 15:54
  And like, I just assumed at the time, of course, it, Miss Piggy.
• 15:57
  Is going to be one of the singers and thinking exactly
• 16:00
  what you said. Like, you can't pull that trick
• 16:01
  twice, especially like back-to-back Seasons.
• 16:04
  That didn't make any sense to me.
• 16:05
  But, yeah, it was, I'm glad to see that they came back to the
• 16:10
  show. I think, to lose Point.
• 16:12
  Like it does feel like a very Muppet e thing to do but I do
• 16:15
  wish that we could recapture that magic of.
• 16:18
  Oh my gosh, this this singer has been a muppet all along and we
• 16:23
  didn't know until until this very moment Louis you already.
• 16:27
  I touched on this. But I did want to Circle back to
• 16:31
  your discussion question for this week.
• 16:33
  You wanted to ask the panelists about more or less this topic,
• 16:38
  right? Yeah.
• 16:39
  Well I think it has to do with prepping for this episode and
• 16:43
  watching two very disparate examples of the Muppets making
• 16:47
  guest appearances on these sort of reality /, variety type
• 16:52
  shows, and I'm wondering in general.
• 16:55
  Do you guys think that That it helps or harms the Muppet brand
• 17:01
  for them to be guesting on these types of shows.
• 17:05
  I mean, I think that I can definitely help when it's done
• 17:09
  correctly. I remember back when they were
• 17:11
  promoting The Muppets and gosh 2011, the, the movie that came
• 17:15
  out, you know, they did a stint with Jason Segel on SNL.
• 17:18
  And I remember thinking that that was absolutely great to
• 17:21
  this day. My boyfriend will talk about how
• 17:23
  much he loved seeing the Muppets on his on WWE, you know.
• 17:28
  Like, I think that when it's like, it feels right, and you
• 17:32
  can tell like the people want them there, and it's a good.
• 17:35
  Good fit. I think it can be a huge help,
• 17:36
  but often a lot of these things that they've been popping up on.
• 17:41
  I don't know. I like I'm a huge Muppet fan.
• 17:44
  I don't feel like I want to watch it because it just feels
• 17:46
  like it's going to be awkward to watch and it does it's not the
• 17:49
  right fit and that does feel like a hindrance because then it
• 17:52
  just, you know, we the Muppet fans who want to show up to
• 17:55
  watch them, don't really want to watch these things that we know,
• 17:58
  it's not going to work as well. Then the people who are watching
• 18:01
  those things to be again with are also just confused about why
• 18:04
  the Muppets are Our guesting on that week's episode.
• 18:07
  So it's like it could go either way, I think.
• 18:11
  Yeah, it's such a double-edged sword, you know?
• 18:15
  Like we want to see The Muppets more, but we also want every bit
• 18:18
  of content to be terrific. And apparently, that's not
• 18:22
  really possible. And like, like you say, use the
• 18:25
  word shoehorn. Like, sometimes the Muppets are
• 18:27
  shoehorned on two shows where they aren't able to be funny or
• 18:32
  entertaining or there's enough time for them to do it.
• 18:35
  A whole bit. It's just Kermit the Frog
• 18:36
  standing there nodding or whatever so usually do a little
• 18:40
  better than that Joe. Well we're gonna talk about
• 18:44
  this, okay, you're all right, that's right.
• 18:54
  But you know this is a complaint that a related to a complaint
• 18:57
  that I've had over the years where when the Muppets have in
• 19:01
  the past decade or so done a new project I mean that's that's big
• 19:06
  that they own. It's almost as if Disney feels
• 19:09
  like they have to reintroduce The Muppets to everybody, you
• 19:11
  know? It's like okay The Muppets have
• 19:13
  been away for a while. We had them in the drawer but
• 19:15
  here they are, the puppets are back and people go really those
• 19:17
  guys or they go like, oh thank goodness.
• 19:20
  That Fozzie Bear is back in my life.
• 19:22
  I forgot that he existed. And by having them in these
• 19:26
  special, or in these epic, TV shows, or whatever it is, like,
• 19:29
  making these tiny little micro appearances, at least it makes
• 19:32
  it. So that like, when inevitably
• 19:34
  Disney plus says, Great. We've got a new TV show.
• 19:36
  Starring the Electric Mayhem. We don't have to be like, okay,
• 19:38
  and the Electric Mayhem. Are these characters called The
• 19:41
  Muppets and like you should go back and watch this old movie
• 19:43
  from 1979 to like figure out who they are and blah blah blah.
• 19:46
  So at least at least it gives us like that little bit of a push
• 19:52
  so that people will remember them before we give them the
• 19:57
  good stuff. This is not really like a reason
• 20:00
  for them to continue doing exactly what they've been doing
• 20:02
  like in a perfect world. They would be on Every single TV
• 20:06
  show that ever exists. That's ever recorded but they
• 20:09
  will be doing it in a way we were like, oh my God, every
• 20:12
  single time, they're on TV, it's gold.
• 20:15
  But that's not. That's housing.
• 20:17
  How much could the Muppets possibly control that like
• 20:20
  their? I mean, is the real problem
• 20:22
  here? Oh, this sounds cynical.
• 20:25
  The death of media at large like is it just that the shows that
• 20:28
  are available to them are bad or do you think that there are
• 20:30
  better options? You think there are better
• 20:32
  places they could over the producers will be like we know
• 20:34
  what to do with these guys. Actors, let's give them funny
• 20:36
  stuff. The problem is and this is me
• 20:40
  putting on my media. Professional hat, great sin,
• 20:43
  mixing IPS. It's the idea that there's a TV
• 20:47
  show or something that already exists.
• 20:49
  They have their own writers, they have their own voice and
• 20:51
  they're being told. Okay, now Kermit's going to be
• 20:53
  on the show, what's he going to do?
• 20:55
  And they have to work with a different set of writers who are
• 20:57
  working at Disney, who knows how Kermit should sound and trying
• 21:00
  to come to an agreement that just makes sense.
• 21:02
  Forget it's fun and entertaining and Original like they're just
• 21:06
  trying to figure out a way to make it exist in this world.
• 21:10
  And that's already such a huge hurdle that you know, we're you
• 21:13
  know, mixing oil and water for almost all of these.
• 21:17
  Yeah. You know, I'm gonna be the guy
• 21:22
  who's going to say that. I think that like this says,
• 21:25
  have to do with the with the digitization of the Muppets.
• 21:28
  The Disney ization of the Muppets like something that
• 21:34
  Julia said. Said that really rang.
• 21:36
  True to me is that the appearances that stick out to
• 21:39
  her and her boyfriend are their appearance on SNL their
• 21:44
  appearance WWE we were just talking about how their
• 21:49
  appearance on Masked Singer was was moderately successful.
• 21:52
  You know, and one of the big benefits to The Muppets is that
• 21:57
  they're puppets that occupy physical space which makes it
• 22:01
  much cheaper for them to interact with live action
• 22:03
  actors. Narrative lie to a lot of other
• 22:06
  Disney properties. So they Trot them out.
• 22:10
  But I don't think Disney has a real handle on, like what the
• 22:14
  voice of the characters is and really what the characters
• 22:16
  should be doing. And I think we're seeing that
• 22:19
  time we've seen that time and time again you know there hasn't
• 22:22
  been a lot of good projects really.
• 22:25
  Since I would say Muppets Most Wanted which I thought was
• 22:28
  great, it's been a while now. And so what we have is we have
• 22:34
  something, you know like And I think that these two examples of
• 22:37
  best in snow and and Masked, Singer are like, a really good
• 22:43
  contrast with each other. Like, Masked Singer works.
• 22:46
  It's for a more broad audience. It's, they were the Muppets are
• 22:51
  allowed to play a little more adult and little more
• 22:54
  sophisticated, which is the way that they were conceived
• 22:58
  initially. Yeah.
• 22:59
  And then we had this reality snow molding competition.
• 23:05
  That really just served as a way to Hype different Disney
• 23:09
  properties, right? So like one of the other snow
• 23:12
  sculptures that they did while I was scrolling through it today
• 23:16
  and watching parts of it was Groot and Rocket Raccoon, right?
• 23:21
  Who are we much more difficult to have a guest appearance by
• 23:24
  Groot and Rocket Raccoon on that cheap-ass Disney streaming snow
• 23:32
  mold in competition, that was So saccharine that I have to go to
• 23:36
  the dentist tomorrow, you know, too many cavities so instead in
• 23:42
  trots Kermit the Frog who their writing as this like absolute
• 23:47
  milquetoast. Every man who's like, you know,
• 23:50
  maybe I could be the mayor of, and it's like, so boring for him
• 23:56
  to be doing like his initial appearance and that is him being
• 23:59
  like, well, I had to, you know, fly here.
• 24:03
  The truck should the snow. But I bet these Penguins, and
• 24:06
  it's like, it's like this character has been robbed of his
• 24:10
  soul for his appearance on this show.
• 24:14
  And that's really, you know, ultimately it's like, it's like
• 24:18
  why have them on at all? And then it's going to give
• 24:21
  people a real misconception, actually about how sharp and
• 24:24
  funny and what makes them up. It's so fun and quite magical
• 24:28
  actually, you know, well, and to bounce off of that, it's like
• 24:32
  there was an easy solution for that.
• 24:35
  Them which was have Kermit show up and the contestants.
• 24:38
  Don't know that he's going to be there and then that way it's
• 24:41
  like you're relying on Matt vogel's improvisational skills
• 24:44
  which are pretty good and the excitement of, oh my God, it's
• 24:46
  Kermit the Frog and like, you know, it doesn't have to be this
• 24:49
  like tightly scripted thing and the like, you watch that clip
• 24:53
  and the contestants are like, well, hi Kermit's.
• 24:55
  What brings you here? Like think they're not actors,
• 24:59
  they're not having fun, and I'm like that takes advantage of
• 25:04
  like, Like you said, like the Muppets take up actual space in
• 25:09
  the world like take advantage of that.
• 25:11
  Kermit King just pop up behind a brick wall.
• 25:14
  If people go, holy crap. It's the real Kermit the Frog
• 25:17
  and they start crying. And then like then we make fun
• 25:21
  of them a little bit from home but we get it.
• 25:23
  We would do it too, you know. Well I mean I just feel like I
• 25:29
  feel like the four of us would know more than anybody like, you
• 25:33
  know, crying and Front of Muppets, you know, it's sort of
• 25:38
  our whole thing like, yeah, I know.
• 25:40
  I think that's a really, really, really good point.
• 25:43
  You know, one of my favorite things about Jason seagulls
• 25:48
  interview process for the, The Muppets when it came out as he
• 25:52
  talked about doing this, press tour, with Kermit and going
• 25:57
  first, to these reporters around the world, doing his interviews
• 26:01
  first, and then, you know, You Steve with me, we're at the
• 26:06
  time, putting on Kermit to do it and that Jason Segel started,
• 26:10
  predicting when, when the reporters would start crying and
• 26:15
  that's such a good point. That like, it's very visceral.
• 26:20
  Emotional reaction to seeing a muppet in purse and they totally
• 26:23
  didn't use that for the for that, for that special.
• 26:28
  Yeah, definitely like all the contestants were like, oh, it's
• 26:31
  Kermit this person we've seen before, who Exists in our world.
• 26:36
  It's like they were seeing like the grocer at the store like and
• 26:41
  what do we take away the specialness of Kermit as a
• 26:44
  character? Yeah, and to replace like that,
• 26:47
  that improvisation or impromptu Tunis, or whatever you want to
• 26:50
  call it with something that's like not just scripted, but
• 26:52
  poorly scripted, like they just, they decided they made the
• 26:56
  decision that what they would write was very dull.
• 27:00
  Yeah, well, you know, when The Muppets aren't allowed to Lie,
• 27:05
  beyond the line. They're not really very fun.
• 27:09
  That's the thing. Because the Muppets aren't for a
• 27:14
  young audience there for families, and that means there
• 27:17
  needs to be a bit of a bit of an edginess to them.
• 27:22
  And that's probably why the WWE appearance and the SNL
• 27:26
  appearance probably worked a little better for them as
• 27:28
  characters. So, what I'm gleaning from this
• 27:31
  is when yesterday, I Googled bested snow, And saw a bunch of
• 27:35
  reviews that and I just didn't, I was like I don't have the
• 27:40
  money that much time so I'm just not going to watch this.
• 27:44
  It sounds. I made the correct decision, you
• 27:47
  know. Yeah it was I didn't watch all
• 27:49
  of it Julia but I've had a pretty painful they'll yeah,
• 27:53
  based off the reviews what I saw I was like, okay so it sounds
• 27:56
  like this is pretty bad also. Like when we got the email of
• 27:59
  like the things that we should be a little east of like
• 28:01
  casually familiar with, because we're going to talk about in
• 28:03
  this podcast episode, I was like I don't even know what best in
• 28:07
  the snow is I had Em. I'm on Disney plus like at least
• 28:11
  every other day watching stuff. And I mean maybe I've just
• 28:14
  scroll past it and just haven't registered it at all.
• 28:18
  But Disney did not promote it and maybe because it's it is
• 28:22
  just kind of like a filler holiday thing that they threw
• 28:24
  together really quickly just to make the content to get people
• 28:27
  watching, but yeah, it nothing I saw about it.
• 28:31
  Sold me on it. The host is it's Titus bird.
• 28:35
  Just doesn't it? Who I really I really like as a
• 28:37
  person. I think that he's hilarious but
• 28:39
  even he wasn't big enough draw for me to check it out last
• 28:42
  night. Yeah, yeah.
• 28:43
  He's given a lot of garbage to do as well.
• 28:45
  That's upsetting for him. So Kermit's not the only one who
• 28:49
  suffers a Max. Yeah, because when he's used
• 28:51
  correctly, he's amazing. So yeah, that's a with the
• 28:54
  Muppets. Yeah.
• 28:55
  He's so he's lovely, of course. Yeah.
• 28:58
  That's disappointing to hear that.
• 29:00
  That's how Kermit's appearance turned out for that show.
• 29:03
  Yep. So I got surprise egg.
• 29:05
  Fortunately I think that this whole thing was probably
• 29:10
  supposed to be a TV show. That's what it looks like to me
• 29:13
  is that it was going to be, it's a one-off special.
• 29:17
  They may not what was clearly supposed to be a TV show where
• 29:21
  like, on episode career something Kermit would show up
• 29:24
  but instead they just stuck it all together into one 97-minute
• 29:29
  thing. And yeah, would be much more
• 29:33
  understandable on network TV. We're a few episodes in you, you
• 29:36
  know, run a promos beforehand that are like this episode
• 29:39
  Kermit shows up like that would make sense.
• 29:41
  Instead you go a ways through before out of nowhere.
• 29:46
  Kermit is just there. He just walks right in.
• 29:50
  It makes no sense. And then he does spend the whole
• 29:52
  special in Bean bunny. Fashion asking what he can do to
• 29:55
  help, which feels not fair to Kermit the Frog.
• 30:00
  And there is one point at which the hosts.
• 30:03
  There is one point at which the hosts ask, Oh, can you sing and
• 30:06
  dance? Which is real interesting?
• 30:08
  Because that establishes the reality in which they don't just
• 30:13
  they're not just casually familiar with Kermit the Frog,
• 30:15
  they don't know that he's a celebrity or if they do know
• 30:19
  he's a celebrity, they don't know what for yeah, that's
• 30:23
  actually a really good point because I think some of the more
• 30:26
  successful appearances that they've had in other projects
• 30:31
  especially stuff that's with hosts and that like that sort of
• 30:34
  format. It is when they're like, this is
• 30:36
  the world-famous celebrity Kermit.
• 30:38
  The Frog who we've seen, you know what I mean?
• 30:41
  Like, they really Revere the characters and then it's sort of
• 30:44
  this kind of parody of how celebrity Works in general, you
• 30:48
  know, well, Kermit you have so much experience the other two in
• 30:51
  the entertainment Biz and they're talking to, you know, a
• 30:54
  cute little puppet. Like that's kind of the point,
• 30:56
  right? So I think that's really the.
• 30:58
  I think that's really smart. Yeah, it's something.
• 31:01
  What in theory, I really like the idea of going Back to the
• 31:06
  Muppet Show is a crummy show. The Muppets are a crummy group
• 31:09
  of entertainers that nobody really cares about her respects.
• 31:12
  And I'm always torn whether I want people to treat Kermit like
• 31:16
  crap and like nobody and like who are you or whether they want
• 31:18
  to. Whether I want to see him
• 31:19
  treated the way he was in that first appearance on the Masked
• 31:22
  Singer wherever is like, oh my gosh, can you believe it's
• 31:24
  Kermit the Frog? Like I don't know what I want
• 31:27
  but I didn't really need him to be in this show.
• 31:30
  We're Titus bird just placed the mayor of a fictional Christmas
• 31:34
  Town. In a snow globe in a
• 31:36
  stop-motion, Christmas special that's so wild I really wasn't.
• 31:40
  It's like I thought it was a competition show with like
• 31:43
  several episodes and that Kermit was just like the guest judge or
• 31:47
  host on one episode. That's okay.
• 31:50
  Well, that also equally just does not sell me on watching it
• 31:54
  at any point. There was a, there was also this
• 31:56
  weird thing where like Kermit is, is gradually getting
• 32:00
  undressed through the special, you have noticed this.
• 32:02
  We're like he's wearing Dobbs, you're not going to explain
• 32:06
  that. I'm just hold that thought
• 32:07
  snobby. Don't explain it.
• 32:09
  Was it what did Shane point that out on Twitter?
• 32:12
  I feel like I was loved his operation.
• 32:13
  Time. Is wearing hottie the audience?
• 32:17
  This podcast listeners. Imagine Kermit doing a Sly
• 32:22
  striptease is this special goes very slow a 97 minutes
• 32:26
  striptease. You know he starts out wearing
• 32:29
  like this like parka. It might be the one that he
• 32:32
  wears in letters to Santa. I don't know.
• 32:33
  I'm not going to watch that. To remind myself.
• 32:36
  And then later on, he comes back.
• 32:38
  And he's just wearing the scarf, which is my favorite Kermit the
• 32:40
  holiday look where he's, the only his neck is cold and then
• 32:45
  he comes back at the end. He's completely naked like,
• 32:48
  classic hermit, but then like he kind of jumps off screen and
• 32:52
  back and he's wearing clothes again.
• 32:53
  But it's a different outfit, though.
• 32:55
  He wearing, I don't leave his Muppet Christmas Carol outfit.
• 32:59
  Sure, who cares. But like, but my point is is
• 33:03
  that like knowing how Things work with the exception of the
• 33:06
  scarf. It's probably like three
• 33:07
  different Kermit puppets, right? Like, don't they kind of like
• 33:10
  attached. There was no reason to do any of
• 33:12
  that, they could have just had naked hermit.
• 33:14
  Or they could have scarf Kermit and it would have been fine as
• 33:19
  it stands. They do make a joke near the end
• 33:21
  about how Kermit isn't wearing clothes, which is the first time
• 33:26
  any joke about that has ever been done with the Muppets.
• 33:28
  What an innovation true, it's never happened.
• 33:31
  Um, so Speaking of Muppets and random Christmas things, The
• 33:39
  Muppets recently did an interview hosted by.
• 33:43
  How do you say his name? I forgot to write this part
• 33:45
  down. Brett Goldstein, read&write,
• 33:47
  Gold's Goldstein. Yeah.
• 33:48
  Yes, tuck it for the 30th anniversary of Muppet Christmas,
• 33:51
  Carol. It's like a full twenty.
• 33:53
  One minute long interview, in which permanent piggy have to
• 33:57
  give the usual answers about. You know, it was great working
• 33:59
  with Sir, Michael Caine and all that.
• 34:01
  Is he a sir? I think I'm, I'm just
• 34:03
  remembering that great good for him.
• 34:05
  Then the other two, Gonzo and Robin get to play around for a
• 34:08
  bit and Robin gets to be adorable and Gonzo still thinks
• 34:12
  he's Charles, Dickens, which for me is very funny and Muppet
• 34:16
  Christmas Carol, pretty funny but a little concerning at d23
• 34:21
  and once he's once, it's in this context of, he's being
• 34:23
  interviewed, 30 years later. I'm, I'm genuinely concerned for
• 34:28
  Gonzo, like, for me from here, on out, is he, are we only
• 34:33
  getting Charles? Dickens has Gonzo left is this?
• 34:36
  It I don't think you have to worry about this Shady hosting.
• 34:41
  Any this this was not in the prep materials for this show.
• 34:44
  But does anyone have any thoughts about this interview?
• 34:46
  It's delightful. I mean, I think finding out
• 34:49
  about Brett, goldstein's, love of them up.
• 34:50
  It's over this last year has been a joy since you know, most
• 34:54
  of us know him as like a very angry profanity lated.
• 34:58
  Man from Ted lasso. And so there's something I don't
• 35:02
  know. That feels really like pure that
• 35:04
  he just Genuinely is one of us and yeah, I like, you know,
• 35:08
  getting to see him interact with them.
• 35:10
  And yeah, it's just, you know, it's a nice video.
• 35:13
  Is it bad that I didn't watch it?
• 35:15
  I mean, does that make me a bad mother fan?
• 35:17
  No, I haven't finished it yet. I don't think anyone.
• 35:20
  Here is finished it yet. You're fine.
• 35:21
  I watched about five minutes of it and stopped, and this is not
• 35:26
  because it wasn't good. Although it was weird that like,
• 35:28
  he's asking them a lot of questions about this movie.
• 35:31
  That only one of the puppeteers was actually there for ya.
• 35:36
  But even beside that, you know, it's like over the past year,
• 35:42
  like Julia said, it's been fun to see Brett Goldstein like, you
• 35:45
  know, become more and more famous and to talk more and more
• 35:48
  about his love of the Muppets and like he's done this and he's
• 35:51
  done. He's been on Sesame Street and
• 35:53
  like he's kind of like being invited into the fold and, you
• 35:57
  know, like this, this is one of those weird things about like,
• 36:00
  running a muppet fan site that I can't like, you know, separate
• 36:03
  my own. Expectations for myself from
• 36:08
  stuff like this where, like, I see, you know, oh well he got
• 36:12
  his, a hit TV show and that's why he gets to interview
• 36:14
  Muppets. It's like, I want to interview
• 36:16
  Muppets or or vice versa where it's like, I've been actively
• 36:21
  trying to, you know, get in touch with Brett Goldstein
• 36:23
  because I would like to interview him about his love of
• 36:26
  Muppets and he's now officially far too famous for us.
• 36:30
  So as of right now, there are no plans for us to interview him
• 36:33
  and I don't know how How I would get in touch with him because he
• 36:36
  has two Emmy Awards and he's in the Marvel Universe, you know?
• 36:40
  So like a part of me is like, I watched five minutes of it and
• 36:42
  I'm like, I just can't sit through another 15.
• 36:45
  Like I get it. I had to kind of stop and that's
• 36:48
  a me problem. I recognize that and I just got
• 36:52
  to get over it. That's all so much of Muppets.
• 36:55
  Twitter went wild over that video.
• 36:56
  So we do have to watch it at some point before this episode
• 36:59
  comes out. We'll get angry messages.
• 37:02
  I'm sorry Joe. Come on, mother, Twitter have a
• 37:06
  heart. Since we're talking about all of
• 37:09
  these really cool Muppet appearances and all the cool new
• 37:12
  ways to watch Muppets, I want to segue to Julia's discussion
• 37:16
  question, which I think is really neat.
• 37:18
  Oh yeah, it's like a silly thing that my partner and I just like
• 37:23
  I've spent the last year talking about so in 2020.
• 37:27
  Oh my God. What year is it?
• 37:28
  Okay. 2021 time. What is time anymore?
• 37:32
  We got Muppets Haunted Mansion. Ever since then we've just like
• 37:36
  had these discussions of what would be the next special based
• 37:41
  on a Disney theme park ride? That the Muppets could do.
• 37:45
  That's such a funny question. It is awesome.
• 37:48
  My boyfriend, Steven who makes many guest appearances in my
• 37:52
  Christmas articles where I make him watch Muppet special.
• 37:55
  He's never seen before is like dead, set on watch it wanting a
• 37:59
  Big Thunder, Mountain one you want because he's like really
• 38:03
  focused in on like crazy. Very blowing stuff up and you
• 38:06
  know the fact that there's not too much of a story that you
• 38:09
  could and you can kind of like expand on that.
• 38:12
  And I was talking with him last night because I always feel like
• 38:14
  I go hard on like the Matterhorn for some similar reasons.
• 38:17
  Although, in talking with him I was like the tiki room could
• 38:20
  really probably use a relaunch rebranding and that maybe like
• 38:26
  the Muppets could like, I don't know the pup, the birds are
• 38:29
  assessed and the Eagles Tiki Room.
• 38:31
  Yeah, you know, just make a lot of Bird puppets.
• 38:34
  It's and maybe make some more, I don't know.
• 38:39
  Friendly choices with who's doing the voices of those birds
• 38:44
  from like the 60s or whatever that ride was created.
• 38:46
  So yeah, it's so the bitch here is not another special like
• 38:51
  Muppets Haunted Mansion except now it's Muppet Tiki room, but
• 38:54
  rather changing the theme park attraction to beam up.
• 38:58
  It is the special like just that that led into me writing about
• 39:01
  the tiki room right itself. But yeah, like a Big Thunder
• 39:05
  Mountain could just be like I always thought the Matterhorn
• 39:08
  could be a good setting for like, I don't know what they
• 39:11
  wanted to do, not necessarily A Christmas special but like a
• 39:14
  winter theme special because it's snowy.
• 39:15
  There's a Yeti who maybe they teach this lessons of Christmas
• 39:20
  to something like that. So I've done a few things
• 39:24
  already on topics that are kind of related to this one.
• 39:27
  A few years back, I did an article, it was like a two-part
• 39:31
  article. One was like the real history of
• 39:33
  the Muppets at Walt Disney World.
• 39:34
  A world, not the special but Muppets in the park, Walt Disney
• 39:37
  World and then the other half was things that I would like to
• 39:40
  see. And one of them actually was the
• 39:42
  Matterhorn and just replace the yeti was sweetums.
• 39:45
  Done, you know, that would be amazing, but be good.
• 39:48
  I remember some of these, it's going to come back to me, but
• 39:51
  like I remember Rebrand, Animal Kingdom as Animal Kingdom.
• 39:56
  One of them was, what's the big golf ball can thing it?
• 40:01
  Wow. The, the how the Darien I'm
• 40:05
  tired, leave me alone sticky. Thank you feel like?
• 40:08
  So basically like spray painted green and put a big set of
• 40:12
  glasses on it and looks like Bunsen Honeydew, right?
• 40:17
  Okay. So anyway, I had a bunch of
• 40:18
  ideas. I don't remember them all off
• 40:20
  the top, my head but separate from that last year.
• 40:23
  When Muppets Haunted Mansion came out, I got to do the Press
• 40:26
  junket with Miss Piggy and I got to talk to her for like three
• 40:30
  minutes and in those three minutes I pitched her on Some
• 40:35
  extra ideas and of course, again don't remember them all, but I
• 40:38
  do remember, I pitched her on Pirates of the Caribbean Bunny
• 40:46
  and and when I go for that or did make her upset, well, her
• 40:51
  reaction was like, okay, all right, which is what?
• 40:56
  But I ended it with what I thought was my the best one
• 40:59
  which was Pigs in Space Mountain, and that's what she
• 41:04
  said. It, but she said, Joe do you
• 41:06
  really think that you're the only one to think of that which
• 41:10
  really is telling me that Eric Jacobson knows?
• 41:13
  Yes, we've been talking about pigs and Space Mountain.
• 41:16
  I mean, yes, not that we should be writing Muppet specials based
• 41:20
  on the title first, but also, that's a really good one and we
• 41:23
  should just do it, right? That's really good.
• 41:26
  Yeah. Bring back pigs in space for
• 41:28
  like an hour long special where they go to Space Mountain.
• 41:32
  I have rights I have three. Pitches here, which I think are
• 41:36
  very good, which I'd like to read to you guys and I should
• 41:40
  know you did not have this pitch before helping them during this
• 41:44
  conversation, Perfect. All right.
• 41:47
  First one, I think this is a very strong idea for a special
• 41:51
  on Disney plus Muppet people. Mover good.
• 41:55
  Good. Okay, okay.
• 41:57
  Here's the next one, Muppet Alien Encounter, Good, good.
• 42:04
  Good. Last but not least, Muppet
• 42:08
  goofy. Two parking lots.
• 42:19
  All right, I do have a real one. I do have a serious one here.
• 42:22
  I do think honestly, I'd love to see this Muppets small world.
• 42:28
  I think would be amazing because Could make it some sort of Caper
• 42:34
  like globe-trotting adventure with a bunch of Muppets that are
• 42:38
  representing different cultures and I think that would be very
• 42:41
  fun when I think. Yeah.
• 42:43
  Would it be a tribute to All Nations but mostly America?
• 42:49
  Well, you know, that's the thing is, I feel like with a special
• 42:52
  like that, especially with like the imagination that, you know,
• 42:57
  like Muppet studio behind it, you could sort of, right the
• 43:00
  wrongs of that ride. I'd you know what I mean?
• 43:03
  She kind of cool. I think, can I tell you why?
• 43:06
  I hate the idea of Muppets doing small world is sure because I
• 43:11
  have a theory that at the end of the Small World ride when you're
• 43:16
  in the final room and they're all dressed in white and all the
• 43:18
  different nations are together. It means that talked about this.
• 43:21
  When we went to Disneyland together we probably did this
• 43:25
  ride ends with like yes everyone dies and we will be reunited in
• 43:29
  the afterlife. So I don't want to Go on a ride
• 43:33
  in which the Muppets all die, but then, they end up in the
• 43:35
  Muppet. Haunted Mansion.
• 43:37
  Yeah, you like them up. It's not a mansion.
• 43:41
  That's true. And maybe get maybe the connect
• 43:43
  that way. Although, I guess, like, if you
• 43:44
  were to like, say Rebrand, you know, like the Winnie, the Pooh
• 43:48
  ride with Muppets where they also die and go to hell.
• 43:53
  Like, maybe that would be okay. I don't know what you see the
• 43:57
  Pooh ride? No, it's the only They all end
• 44:02
  up in an acid sequence in it. Yeah, okay.
• 44:08
  So here's what we're going to do.
• 44:09
  We're going to put the Muppets in in mr.
• 44:11
  Toad's thing then they're gonna go to hell.
• 44:12
  We're going to the Muppets in Winnie, the Pooh's they go on an
• 44:14
  acid trip and put the Muppets in Snow White's Scary Adventure.
• 44:18
  So they could also die at the end, because I'm pretty sure
• 44:21
  that's what how that thing ends. I love Snow White scary
• 44:24
  Adventure. That is the best ride at
• 44:25
  Disneyland. It's so funny.
• 44:28
  Sorry for the tangent, but it's such a great ride.
• 44:31
  And I just think that we should find more ways to kill the
• 44:37
  Muppets and with that, we're going to take a short commercial
• 44:41
  break and when we come back we'll talk some more about my
• 44:44
  boobs will see, stick around. He Muppet fans.
• 44:50
  This is Johannes from tough. Pigs.com.
• 44:52
  And boy, do I have a treat for you?
• 44:54
  As you probably know we've got a T public store filled with fun
• 44:56
  shirts that you'll love to wear all around your Muppet fan
• 44:59
  friends or even your non Muppet fan friends and we're always
• 45:02
  adding more exclusive designs. Joining me is one of our lead
• 45:05
  t-shirt designers, marketing expert and door-to-door
• 45:08
  salesman, Haviland piece quill, greetings, and salutations
• 45:11
  Evelyn. What do you got for us?
• 45:12
  Joe. I am so glad you asked me to.
• 45:14
  Now you can't use any official Muppet characters of properties,
• 45:17
  in your designs, right? Yeah, that's correct.
• 45:19
  We got to be real careful about that, which is why what you need
• 45:22
  is shirt designs that evoke the spirit of Jim Henson and his
• 45:25
  work. Yes.
• 45:26
  Right with no copyrighted material exactly.
• 45:28
  Now, let me float. This one by you, we're going to
• 45:30
  have a nondescript abstract figure of a man.
• 45:32
  It could be Jim Henson but it could be anybody we put a quote
• 45:35
  under it that sums up. Jim Henson's philosophy.
• 45:38
  He was always saying, I think that people are basically good
• 45:41
  and it's a good life, enjoy it. And all that stuff, we're going
• 45:43
  to boil it down, stream line at Joe, and the new slogan for
• 45:46
  tough pigs.com. And all its t-shirts is Is life
• 45:50
  is good. And you like that, Joe, you got
• 45:54
  it, you got it. It have one.
• 45:56
  I got tell you, we can't use that.
• 45:57
  It's already a brand. Somebody already owns it.
• 45:59
  The Hansen's beat us to it? No, no I don't think it's the
• 46:02
  Henson's. Just somebody, I don't know who
• 46:04
  it's, it's just it's already out there.
• 46:06
  You want something that you can call your own?
• 46:08
  Yes, good. We're on the same page, then you
• 46:10
  got it. You got it, let me fold this one
• 46:12
  by you. We're going to pull from a bunch
• 46:13
  of Jim Henson's ideas. We already talked about how he
• 46:16
  liked living. Let's build on that the Muppet
• 46:18
  spread Laughter. We're going to add laughing to
• 46:20
  the mix. The Muppets are family.
• 46:21
  They love each other. The new slogan is live laugh.
• 46:26
  Love and you got it. You got it.
• 46:29
  No, no, that's already a thing. We're not going on.
• 46:32
  Is that? I don't have anyone owns it, but
• 46:34
  it's everywhere. It's in my mother's kitchen.
• 46:37
  No one who still sees how about Jim Henson or the Muppets, well,
• 46:39
  maybe they should. No.
• 46:42
  Hey listen, folks, we got a whole bunch of shirts here.
• 46:44
  Going to love on RT, public summer logos for your favorite
• 46:47
  Muppet fan, websites and podcasts.
• 46:49
  Some are quotes. We got one, that's a clever
• 46:51
  reference to The Monster at the End of This Book.
• 46:53
  Joe. Joe I'm going to stop you right
• 46:54
  there. Joe, I have a surprise for you.
• 46:56
  I want you to put on the shirt that I sent to you, put on this.
• 47:00
  Oh, is that what this is? I wonder why I got a shirt in
• 47:03
  the mail. Yeah.
• 47:04
  Yeah. It's always me.
• 47:05
  Joe. Put it on jaw, right?
• 47:06
  All right. I'm putting it on and put
• 47:07
  another sheet. This is pretty comfortable.
• 47:10
  It's really nice. Are any words on it that belong
• 47:13
  to anyone else? They're just some Doodles and
• 47:16
  neon colors. That's right.
• 47:18
  So what makes this recognizable? Yeah, Jim Henson shirt, it
• 47:21
  explodes. Of course, it does friends,
• 47:24
  visit our store, Welcome back friends.
• 47:31
  Joe. What discussion question have
• 47:33
  you brought for us? Why are we here?
• 47:37
  Oh, that's such a good idea. I have a real question okay with
• 47:42
  the holidays coming up and give shopping in full swing.
• 47:45
  It's becoming increasingly difficult to find, good mother
• 47:48
  merchandise, he's either because they're not making enough good
• 47:52
  stuff or because the best stuff is vintage and it's very hard to
• 47:57
  find. I'd love to know what bygone
• 48:01
  Muppet merchandise. You would love to see come back
• 48:04
  and become available Again to this because we've had your
• 48:14
  answer. So what I was about four or
• 48:17
  five, my parents got me a Oscar, the Grouch talking alarm clock
• 48:22
  and we were able to find a few on eBay and I still have an eBay
• 48:26
  alert for it for myself. So get a new one at some point
• 48:31
  and what the alarm clock did is The alarm was Oscar.
• 48:37
  Going to wake up wake up. It's time for another horrible
• 48:41
  rotten. Hey, which is so funny for a
• 48:45
  kid's alarm clock and I accidentally set it to go off at
• 48:51
  like 3:30 in the morning and it woke me up at 3:30 in the
• 48:56
  morning and I ran screaming to my parents room and it went
• 49:01
  right in the garbage. And I've wanted another one ever
• 49:04
  since Since so that's my answers right man?
• 49:07
  All along. Yes.
• 49:09
  He wanted that trash. You wanted in that trash.
• 49:12
  Yeah, that's great. I mean, the thing that comes to
• 49:16
  mind our I would love the Muppet glasses from what was it like,
• 49:21
  McDonald's? Like back in the day, I would
• 49:23
  love it if they did something like that.
• 49:25
  Again would like cool art. Cool designs and also know what
• 49:30
  was in it was it Led Led pain? Yeah.
• 49:33
  Paint. Yeah.
• 49:34
  Make them not toxic. Yes.
• 49:35
  Yes, you know because I've got one or two that they're just on
• 49:39
  display. We don't drink from them, but if
• 49:41
  they did something like that, either, they recreated them or
• 49:44
  just did like newer ones, but also similar cool.
• 49:47
  Art styles. I would probably buy all of
• 49:49
  them. Honestly, it's good answer.
• 49:52
  I always think about those Sigma porcelain Muppet mugs and piggy,
• 49:57
  banks, and, like, all this, like, amazing stuff that like
• 50:00
  Sigma made. All these like, weird kind of
• 50:02
  fancy. But also, their Muppets, they're
• 50:04
  not at all that. Fancy merchandise that couldn't
• 50:08
  have been expensive. I mean, they must have been, I
• 50:09
  mean, they were mass-produced and I think most people, I know
• 50:12
  have, you know, at least a couple of those mugs and I
• 50:15
  recently got as a gift, this huge, it's like a boat.
• 50:19
  It's maybe like 12 to 15 inches long with Kermit on one side and
• 50:23
  P and the other side and the both rowing and it's kind of
• 50:27
  incredible and that like this is the thing that even exists, but
• 50:32
  it also may be incredible just because, like they made up Punch
• 50:35
  him in the 70s and 80s and then never again.
• 50:38
  But I'd love to see some weird Muppet stuff like that.
• 50:41
  Come back, I think it would be nice if you could go into any
• 50:45
  toy store in America. If there are still toy stores in
• 50:48
  America and see the Disco Kermit, the Frog figure.
• 50:51
  That's what we all want. Yeah, Jody have it around
• 50:55
  somewhere. Wait, I do wait.
• 50:58
  Hold on. I'm gonna is gonna say you
• 50:59
  usually have this handy JoJo. Currently has this ready to go.
• 51:03
  I'll look at disco Kermit the Frog.
• 51:06
  Look at that, he's got a green afro, and he's got like he's got
• 51:10
  chest hair. I think amazing listeners.
• 51:14
  If you're driving right now, it doesn't matter.
• 51:16
  Get out your phone and start, googling bring up a picture of
• 51:20
  disco Kermit. I don't know if I've ever seen
• 51:23
  it before, somehow. Yeah, I've never seen him as a,
• 51:25
  he's quite, as they keep Russell and all he's wearing like a
• 51:29
  white lie. Either Leisure leisure suit.
• 51:31
  Excuse me, it's from the company brass, Kiki.
• 51:35
  Sakes and he's beautiful. And I love him.
• 51:39
  When was he made? Yeah, I was going to ask 2006.
• 51:43
  Oh, great. That's that's more recent than I
• 51:47
  thought at first. But then I saw the packaging on
• 51:49
  the back and I thought that it was maybe more recent like that,
• 51:51
  but I love his afro. Love his, his locks is that by
• 51:56
  any chance Squad when the Muppets were owned by that
• 51:59
  German holding company EMT V. That's what have been later than
• 52:04
  know this. Would have been after that, this
• 52:06
  is actually purchase. It just strikes me as a German
• 52:09
  halt. I don't know why he is.
• 52:10
  This is like Disney, just like getting the Muppets and trying
• 52:13
  to figure out what the heck to do.
• 52:14
  And they're like, oh my gosh, disco Kermit.
• 52:17
  The Frog, of course people who don't love disco.
• 52:20
  Uh, no, no, just goes great. I love.
• 52:22
  This is not me insulting disco. It's just, it's just doesn't
• 52:25
  seem like a very 2006. Yes.
• 52:27
  Yeah, okay, so, so, just to go back then, to the time when this
• 52:32
  would have been produced, Michael Eisner is being forced.
• 52:35
  Out of the Walt Disney Company. And on his way out snatches, The
• 52:38
  Muppets The Thing That Got Away, and it's already bad enough that
• 52:42
  he's saddling, Bob Iger, who he did not want to be his successor
• 52:45
  with the Muppets. He adds on, you have to release
• 52:49
  disco Kermit, the Frog figures. Yeah.
• 52:51
  And that was his final flipping of the bird to buy going.
• 52:56
  Yep. That's why we own Disney now.
• 52:59
  We bought it. Oh, topics but Disney.
• 53:02
  That's great, right? So now Tough pigs is Disney.
• 53:06
  There's and there's a, there's an apostrophe in there
• 53:08
  somewhere. Completely unrelated the next
• 53:13
  item on our agenda is down in Fraggle, Rock or down at Fraggle
• 53:16
  Rock, or as I like to sink it down.
• 53:17
  If Fraggle, Rock, the Jim Henson company has given us.
• 53:20
  The gift of a new fraggle, holiday special, as a surprise
• 53:24
  14th episode of back to the Rock.
• 53:26
  Joe, you've already done a whole podcast episode about this that
• 53:28
  people can listen to if they want to, but I'd love to hear
• 53:30
  from Julia and Louis. What did you think?
• 53:33
  I loved it? It was really sweet.
• 53:35
  I love the new series so much, and it's got the same level of
• 53:38
  quality, I liked the new original song.
• 53:41
  It's nice to hear when, when they bring back, one's from the
• 53:44
  first show is, yeah. It was really sweet.
• 53:47
  It was really beautiful. I also listen to the, the tough
• 53:51
  pigs podcast today, where they discussed it more in depth.
• 53:54
  It was Joe, was you Anthony and Beth, right?
• 53:57
  Mmm-hmm, that's correct. And it's right here on this
• 54:00
  podcast Channel. By the way, if anyone else wants
• 54:02
  to listen to it, fully recommend, it's a great episode.
• 54:05
  I agree that I missed a lily, Cooper.
• 54:08
  I think that y'all made some good points about probably why
• 54:10
  she was not present. For the filming but I love her
• 54:13
  as doc so much so it would have been nice to see her and
• 54:15
  sprocket. Also enjoy the lights and I
• 54:17
  loved Coupe. Also, I was bummed that he did
• 54:21
  not come back later in the episode.
• 54:24
  Everybody's favorite. He was still asleep.
• 54:27
  He made me, he made us laugh so much and then we were so
• 54:29
  disappointed that he didn't have a Resurgence.
• 54:32
  At some point. Remember his name.
• 54:35
  They're gonna bring him back in the next holiday special.
• 54:38
  He, he, he better get a whole episode if they get a season 2
• 54:41
  That's all I'm saying. I hope they renamed it.
• 54:43
  The coop show Coupe. Rock snacks--whoo Brock although
• 54:49
  is Coupe. Rock Too Close to cop Rock.
• 54:51
  Oh no. Also also a musical nothing's
• 54:53
  too close to cop Rock because cop rocks.
• 54:55
  Wonderful is in a league of its own.
• 54:59
  I didn't get to watch the special because I currently
• 55:02
  don't have an Apple TV Plus subscription, so I need to get
• 55:05
  on that. But I mean I do just want to say
• 55:08
  that all the episodes of Back to the rock that I've seen I think
• 55:11
  are just Just really, really wonderful.
• 55:13
  And we've been talking a lot about sort of the struggle of
• 55:16
  the Muppets during this podcast. I actually think that should
• 55:19
  take a lot of cues from the new Fraggle Rock Series.
• 55:22
  Yeah. So do you love the new Fraggle
• 55:25
  Rock series enough to say by Fraggle Rock?
• 55:28
  N FTS, that's a great question. It is the big question, right?
• 55:34
  Okay. Good segue.
• 55:35
  After the fraggles just gave us a whole season of Television
• 55:38
  about, you know, the environment about like pollution They are
• 55:41
  now kind of contributing to a sort of pollution with the
• 55:44
  release of Fraggle and FTS. This is a real thing.
• 55:46
  We've been afraid. This was coming for a while.
• 55:48
  I made a cheeky joke about it in the last episode of this podcast
• 55:51
  without knocking on wood, my apologies, what I'm wondering.
• 55:54
  Is there any way to stop it? It's there anything we can do.
• 55:59
  Well, I don't know what platform, they're building their
• 56:02
  and of teas on because some of them are terrible for the
• 56:05
  environment and some some web three platforms aren't too awful
• 56:09
  for the environment. So, you know, that's something
• 56:12
  to that. I'm wondering if like, when
• 56:15
  Henson decide to do this, if they were, like, we need to
• 56:18
  create something that's sustainable, or if they didn't
• 56:20
  really care down, I doubt that they were thinking that far
• 56:23
  ahead into into something like this, especially, because like,
• 56:26
  it takes so long to get this kind of deal off the ground.
• 56:29
  It's like, they've probably been working on this for the last
• 56:31
  year or so or more, but it's it's really disappointing.
• 56:36
  For a lot of reasons that Henson would decide to do this,
• 56:40
  especially because it's It's such a dying platform.
• 56:44
  Like I don't think people really are investing in and of teased
• 56:48
  anymore. And if they are it really kind
• 56:49
  of feels like money laundering. In my opinion, I don't know
• 56:52
  about. Like it's also the question of
• 56:53
  like, who's this for? Like I don't think fraggle fans
• 56:56
  want this and if it's not for fraggle fans that you should
• 57:00
  make other fraggle merch, that fraggle fans do want to buy.
• 57:04
  Well, I think it's for these Tech guys that have a lot of
• 57:07
  money to spend and look at these as an investment.
• 57:11
  And I think that's sort of why nft is our existing in this
• 57:15
  space for a lot of Entertainment Properties.
• 57:18
  And I don't think that that's necessarily great, but I also
• 57:23
  don't think that it's great that there's an entire industry
• 57:26
  that's determining people's well-being.
• 57:29
  That's completely unregulated right now.
• 57:31
  So maybe the finagles just falling victim to the absolute
• 57:37
  horrors of late-stage capitalism.
• 57:38
  As are we all? Yeah, I had the thought of not
• 57:43
  really knowing who this was for as well, just because I wasn't
• 57:46
  sure if those Tech Bros that are buying up.
• 57:48
  All the nft is would be interested in Fraggle Rock.
• 57:50
  And if T's I mean, I know so little about enough to use and
• 57:54
  don't really wish to learn more based off of what I do now, but
• 57:59
  I went and read the tough pigs article written by this guy
• 58:03
  named Johannes and it was like who who is the season to be
• 58:08
  jolly and Johannes, you know? To get a little bit more
• 58:12
  information and on some level, I understand the money grab Nest,
• 58:17
  but I feel like there are better ways to do it than get on the
• 58:22
  nft train. And I think something that we're
• 58:25
  feeling sort of as fans, is that like all that nft means like the
• 58:33
  definition, is that, it's something that's printed on a,
• 58:36
  you know, a non-fun global token.
• 58:38
  But all that means is that it's proprietary to Rabbis it, like,
• 58:42
  it doesn't need to be an image, like it could be anything.
• 58:45
  It could be a media file, it could be a resume, you know,
• 58:49
  they're used in that way. Like, it's just a way to be
• 58:51
  proprietary about something and so, like, give certain
• 58:54
  attributes to the way that your programming this nft.
• 58:57
  So like, I think that images and trading them around like they're
• 59:01
  trading cards or like original art pieces, it's just like a
• 59:04
  really boring use of the, of the application.
• 59:08
  So it's like, I think that's, that's the big question.
• 59:11
  Like, Who are they for? It's like yeah.
• 59:12
  Like who are these unique? Digitized pictures of the
• 59:16
  fraggles for like, that's just very uninteresting.
• 59:20
  And I mean, look, I play Pokemon go and I can trade Pokémon with
• 59:26
  any of my friends who also play Pokemon go.
• 59:29
  And that doesn't seem to be nearly as bad for the
• 59:33
  environment or questionable and there's no money exchanging
• 59:35
  hands. It's just like I can't read
• 59:36
  pictures. I do it all the time and I don't
• 59:40
  know, I feel Like that's it has that has little to do with what
• 59:44
  they're actually trying to accomplish which is money.
• 59:48
  Grab and you know, like Julia said, you know?
• 59:51
  It's not like I mean I understand why they need money.
• 59:54
  We all do is even big production companies, but this just feels
• 59:59
  like a. I wish that they were looking
• 1:00:03
  for other ways to to recoup some investment.
• 1:00:07
  Other than something that makes everyone go.
• 1:00:08
  Why are you doing this? Yeah, mother fan.
• 1:00:11
  Don't strike me as the kind of folks that want to buy enough to
• 1:00:13
  use to begin with also. So yeah, yeah, the Muppets don't
• 1:00:18
  look enough. Like really stupid drawings of
• 1:00:20
  Apes. Also we love fungi and if
• 1:00:25
  something is non fun, guy your ball.
• 1:00:28
  Yeah, I don't want any part of that.
• 1:00:31
  Yeah, I don't want it Gonza. Wouldn't want it Stanley
• 1:00:34
  wouldn't want it. Friends were nearing the end of
• 1:00:36
  the episode which means we've come to the part.
• 1:00:38
  I've been worrying about this whole time.
• 1:00:40
  How do we talk? Talk about death on.
• 1:00:42
  What's supposed to be a fun Muppet podcast, where we're
• 1:00:45
  making cheeky jokes? Can we end on this note without
• 1:00:48
  sobbing? Will I be able to find a way to
• 1:00:49
  transition out of this discussion once we enter into
• 1:00:51
  it? I don't know.
• 1:00:52
  But I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge the passing of
• 1:00:55
  Sesame Street's. Bob McGrath who left us on
• 1:00:57
  December 4th after becoming a popular singer on.
• 1:01:00
  Sing along with Mitch in the 1960s.
• 1:01:02
  He became quite a famous singer in Japan and then played Bob on
• 1:01:05
  Sesame Street for 50 years continued to record albums wrote
• 1:01:08
  to children's books. Received the received The Scott
• 1:01:12
  Saskatchewan distinguished service award in 2013.
• 1:01:16
  That's true. This is real.
• 1:01:18
  And went skydiving out of a plane at the age of 82.
• 1:01:22
  An amazing guy. I love Bob dearly.
• 1:01:25
  I don't know what else to say. Would anyone like to share any
• 1:01:27
  memories of Bob McGrath No. Okay, I can cut this whole part
• 1:01:33
  if I need to, I don't know. We should leave this in.
• 1:01:36
  I was I was I was I was opening up the Florida Joe because Joe
• 1:01:40
  knew him. That's right.
• 1:01:42
  Yeah, I really did you meet him? I was literally.
• 1:01:46
  I was, I figured maybe Joe would be the last of us to go because
• 1:01:48
  I know Joe is met. Bob like, several times.
• 1:01:51
  I never had the pleasure of meeting Bob, although, we were
• 1:01:53
  friends on Facebook, which is really cool.
• 1:01:57
  But I love so much of the human cast as Sesame Street and Sesame
• 1:02:01
  Street, is the glaring hole in my muppet fan, numbness, as an
• 1:02:04
  adult now, but I grew up with it obviously, and even like going
• 1:02:07
  back and re watching the Clips Bob's always been, one of my
• 1:02:10
  favorite humans on the show, everything with him and Linda, I
• 1:02:14
  believe that the actors or the character's name was with doing
• 1:02:19
  sign language between the two of them is always really nice.
• 1:02:22
  You know, I don't know, I was thinking a lot this week about
• 1:02:26
  the give me five song, which is a great site.
• 1:02:30
  I meant you know him getting like choked up when they're
• 1:02:34
  talking to Big Bird about mr. Hooper's passing is also
• 1:02:37
  something that's always really touched me and he lived he lived
• 1:02:40
  a really long, good life. And so this is like the best
• 1:02:43
  possible outcome. You know, if you it is the time
• 1:02:46
  to pass away, but at the same time, it's sad nonetheless.
• 1:02:49
  Yeah, I met Bob twice, the first time I believed I was three or
• 1:02:56
  400 and it was at one of his concerts.
• 1:03:01
  And I remember waiting in line and having one of his records
• 1:03:05
  and having him sign it for me, and then I met him again, a few
• 1:03:10
  years ago at the Sesame Street, 50th Anniversary Street naming
• 1:03:16
  ceremony. The Joe was so kind to invite me
• 1:03:19
  to to do some work for tough pigs for.
• 1:03:22
  And when I dream at Bob there, I said to him, this isn't the
• 1:03:27
  first time I've met you I met you.
• 1:03:29
  When I was four years old, At one of your concerts and without
• 1:03:32
  missing a beat he went. Oh my God.
• 1:03:34
  Yeah, I remember you. Which is so funny.
• 1:03:39
  So genuinely funny. You went like, yeah, of course,
• 1:03:43
  I know. I remember you.
• 1:03:47
  Yeah, you know, I, I think that somebody was really amazing
• 1:03:51
  about early Sesame Street is that the Creator's found such a
• 1:03:57
  unique balance of elements? And I think that It's like would
• 1:04:01
  be a really, really unfair to not count the live action cast
• 1:04:08
  as part of that and they just had such an incredible eye for
• 1:04:12
  casting. And Bob was such a clear
• 1:04:15
  performer. I'm so versatile.
• 1:04:17
  He was really funny and he was so wonderful musical, which is
• 1:04:24
  probably why they cast him, and he always felt so natural with
• 1:04:29
  the Muppets. Just like, so incredibly at home
• 1:04:33
  with them, pretty much from the beginning.
• 1:04:36
  I mean, I feel like the early Sesame street performers, were
• 1:04:39
  the ones that really set the aesthetic for the show.
• 1:04:41
  And I think that he actually was a big part of that.
• 1:04:45
  I said this in social media, but II feel really lucky that he
• 1:04:49
  helped raise me. And I think we're really lucky
• 1:04:53
  that. We were part of a generation
• 1:04:55
  that God to enjoy him on TV because think that he was a
• 1:04:59
  really, really warm presence to have In our lives as children.
• 1:05:02
  Absolutely. I mean, I could talk about Bob
• 1:05:07
  for an hour on this podcast, you guys.
• 1:05:09
  You guys come here comfortable, right?
• 1:05:10
  You want to listen to this for another hour?
• 1:05:12
  You got a minute, we're running long.
• 1:05:13
  Joe, I'm sorry. Oh boy.
• 1:05:16
  I mean Bob is a character on television like Louise said like
• 1:05:21
  I mean he raised me, you know he was one of those neighbors and
• 1:05:25
  friends that you know, helped teach me my ABC's and 123's and
• 1:05:29
  then he'll always have a special place in my heart for that, but
• 1:05:33
  in more recent years, I have spent a significant amount of
• 1:05:37
  time with Bob, either through tough pigs or through Sesame or
• 1:05:41
  through seeing emit events, you know, Museum of the moving image
• 1:05:45
  or whatever. It is this for me, was the first
• 1:05:50
  person like, in the Muppet world, you know, through that,
• 1:05:54
  I've met through my work topics, who it wasn't just like, oh man,
• 1:05:59
  I love their work so much and and now they're gone.
• 1:06:02
  It's like, no, no, this was, my friend has passed away.
• 1:06:04
  And you know, to Julia's point, you know, he was 90, we had a
• 1:06:08
  great run with him. He accomplished so much my God
• 1:06:13
  skydiving, at 82. Like it doesn't get any better
• 1:06:15
  than that and you know, we got to celebrate him while he was
• 1:06:19
  here. We got to spend time with Bob as
• 1:06:21
  a ninety-year-old and tell him you know like thank him for
• 1:06:25
  everything he's done and for him to like be cognizant enough to
• 1:06:29
  be able to say like think you and I feel like we're all very
• 1:06:33
  lucky to have had that time with And you know I'm obviously very
• 1:06:37
  sad that he's gone sad that I won't get to see my friend
• 1:06:40
  anymore but I really just very happy that I got to know Bob.
• 1:06:46
  Well he was here and you know that we get to celebrate him now
• 1:06:50
  you know the like this is such a hate to say like when folks from
• 1:06:54
  our world pass away, it's a great opportunity to take some
• 1:06:58
  time and really look back and showcase.
• 1:07:01
  What made them great. And I'd like to say we should
• 1:07:04
  You know, we should be doing that more often while they're
• 1:07:06
  here. And I'd like to think that we do
• 1:07:08
  a good amount but really, like having a lot of time to just
• 1:07:11
  like look at all this great Bob content and for everyone to talk
• 1:07:14
  about how great he was on-screen and off-screen.
• 1:07:18
  Bob McGrath was exactly who you wanted him to be.
• 1:07:22
  He was a guy that's a really good point.
• 1:07:24
  Human brain, human being mmm and and we get to we get to talk
• 1:07:28
  about that now with, you know, because everyone's listening,
• 1:07:32
  you know, the world is talking about Bob at a time when they
• 1:07:38
  outside of our world, they really hadn't been for a while,
• 1:07:41
  and we're going to use that platform to remind everybody
• 1:07:44
  that Bob McGrath was great. He was, he was the best of us.
• 1:07:48
  Yes, and I'd argue that the world could always use more Bob,
• 1:07:52
  always Panelists friends. It's been wonderful.
• 1:07:59
  Having the three of you here on this panel and I hope to have
• 1:08:01
  each of you back sometime in the future.
• 1:08:03
  Until then I want to know where our listeners can find you and
• 1:08:07
  follow what you're up to Louis. Where can people find you on the
• 1:08:09
  internet? You can follow me.
• 1:08:12
  Our find me at Lewis Roman.com at Lewis 4711 on Instagram and
• 1:08:18
  you can find me at Louis 4711 at petting zoo Dot, On Mastodon.
• 1:08:27
  Great. I keep wondering do I need to go
• 1:08:29
  ahead and make socials in on all of the other places because it's
• 1:08:34
  clear, I don't think I want to be on Twitter much longer.
• 1:08:38
  I don't know if I'll have the choice.
• 1:08:39
  Yeah seriously. Yeah.
• 1:08:41
  Well my Juliet where can people find you on the internet?
• 1:08:44
  Most social media sites you can find me at geek girl growing up
• 1:08:48
  I did finally create a website which is just Julia, gasps
• 1:08:52
  goal.com soft plug I did. Have a book of poetry come out
• 1:08:56
  this year. That has nothing to do with the
• 1:08:58
  Muppets, but if you like, poetry go to that website, and you
• 1:09:02
  could get more information. And then you can also find me
• 1:09:05
  occasionally on tough pigs, writing about the Muppets.
• 1:09:08
  Awesome. Awesome.
• 1:09:10
  And that's everybody. And now a moment of spontaneous
• 1:09:14
  Applause for our business, Joe, where can people find you on the
• 1:09:21
  internet right here? I wonder if it'll be tough.
• 1:09:26
  Dot-com. You know what?
• 1:09:29
  Sure is my friend, it's tough pigs.com but stuff pigs on
• 1:09:32
  Facebook. It's tough picks on Twitter.
• 1:09:33
  It's tough because on Instagram and stuff.
• 1:09:35
  Pigs on Tick-Tock, it's tough pigs on literally.
• 1:09:37
  I stood on my duck, like it's suffix, I'm messing on its
• 1:09:40
  topics on. What's the other one that people
• 1:09:41
  are doing that? I keep your eyes Hive, it's
• 1:09:44
  tough because on hive, man, hives words that I don't know,
• 1:09:47
  we're on the geeky hellscape that is Tumblr.
• 1:09:54
  And is such a treat. And I Highly recommend it and
• 1:09:58
  it's great. Maybe I've got look here.
• 1:10:01
  Tom, here's the thing work. Yes, Julia join me.
• 1:10:05
  That's how I met so many tough pigs folks, like, before I
• 1:10:08
  joined with tough pigs. Yeah, that's how we got to know
• 1:10:11
  you. I believe.
• 1:10:11
  The first thing we did was say, hey, do you want to run our
• 1:10:14
  Tumblr? And you said no running back in
• 1:10:18
  the day and I was like, it would just be the same content on both
• 1:10:21
  platforms. Yeah.
• 1:10:25
  But here's the thing, I don't On to do social media at all.
• 1:10:28
  I just want to convince other people to do it for me.
• 1:10:30
  Tick-Tock I sure am. I've done one whole Tick-Tock to
• 1:10:41
  do it, I know that you asked all the staff and we all were, like
• 1:10:44
  we're too old. We don't want to, we don't know.
• 1:10:46
  Well yeah. Nobody nobody wants to do this,
• 1:10:49
  and I don't blame them, but you know it.
• 1:10:52
  We're all jumping ship from Twitter at some point, it sounds
• 1:10:55
  like, I don't know. We keep saying goodbye to And
• 1:10:57
  twittered still keeps hanging around.
• 1:10:58
  So we'll see. And I'm also my personal account
• 1:11:03
  Johannes on Twitter for now, and I'm tough pigs.
• 1:11:07
  Joe on Instagram to places where I never post anything.
• 1:11:11
  So go ahead and follow me or don't, that's fine too.
• 1:11:16
  What if, what if within the next year, we end up announcing that
• 1:11:21
  the newest members of the tough Pig staff are 12 year olds
• 1:11:24
  because we need someone who knows what to To do with these
• 1:11:27
  new Social Network. I think that would be nice.
• 1:11:31
  That's gotta be 12 year olds that really like the Muppets.
• 1:11:33
  I mean maybe I don't know how let's do the math.
• 1:11:36
  How long has the new Muppet Babies been?
• 1:11:38
  Or when did that start? That was like five 2018, I
• 1:11:41
  thought years. So it's it's possible, it's very
• 1:11:46
  possible. It's like four years.
• 1:11:48
  We're not hiring four-year-olds JD.
• 1:11:50
  No, I'm saying. If someone was like eight
• 1:11:54
  watching Muppet Babies Then now they could be 12 and running a
• 1:11:59
  tick-tock. I don't know.
• 1:12:02
  All right so if there's if there's any any young people who
• 1:12:06
  are listening to this podcast we're like I could run the
• 1:12:08
  tough. Bigs Tick-Tock just send me.
• 1:12:10
  Send me an email, Joe out of place.com.
• 1:12:13
  Let's talk no, it's too late. I put my email address of the
• 1:12:15
  photo. You will get some serious
• 1:12:17
  responses from people who think you actually mean this.
• 1:12:20
  Know I do mean this JD I'm being 100% serious.
• 1:12:23
  I don't that you don't want messages from 12 year olds, Joe.
• 1:12:27
  I'm not. I don't want Miss, I didn't say
• 1:12:28
  12 year olds. Okay, young people People who
• 1:12:31
  are younger than me, that's a large, edit this all out, I
• 1:12:39
  would say in all seriousness, if there was someone who is an
• 1:12:44
  actual adult. So like over 18 I'm not dealing
• 1:12:46
  with high schoolers here because that's feel like that's weird.
• 1:12:50
  If you're over 18 and between 18 and 40, I'm 40 years old, if you
• 1:12:56
  are between 18 and 40 and you're like I could do more Muppet
• 1:12:59
  stuff on social media and Could work for free and I'm kind of
• 1:13:03
  cool. Okay, don't worry about, don't
• 1:13:05
  worry about the last part. None of us are cool.
• 1:13:08
  Then then like, hey let's let's talk about what you could
• 1:13:12
  potentially do with us but also, I probably won't hire you.
• 1:13:20
  This thing is like, Joey know, this all ends with you having to
• 1:13:23
  reject people. You're very particular, I am
• 1:13:26
  particular, but also am not that particular because I got you on
• 1:13:29
  the team JD. Hey, Oh boy.
• 1:13:33
  And now, a moment of spontaneous Applause for our panel of Muppet
• 1:13:36
  experts. Thank you.
• 1:13:38
  If you enjoyed this program, we hope you'll consider supporting
• 1:13:40
  us on patreon. Thank you to those of you who
• 1:13:42
  do. So now, give us a rating or
• 1:13:44
  review wherever you get your podcasts, this tough pigs
• 1:13:46
  Muppet. Fan podcast was executive
• 1:13:47
  produced by the tough pigs Muppet fan, podcast executive
• 1:13:49
  producer Johannes, thanks. Take any Durkin for our artwork.
• 1:13:53
  It still makes me super freaking happy.
• 1:13:56
  I'd also like to give a special thanks to Frank Oz because it's
• 1:13:59
  always a good time to appreciate Frank.
• 1:14:01
  For tough pics.com, this is JD Hansel.
• 1:14:03
  Reminding you as I always do, you'll never get out of the
• 1:14:05
  cube, goodbye. The opening murmurs opening
• 1:14:17
  rambling B, Jo. I know you said that you had one
• 1:14:20
  ready to go? Cool, I wrote this specifically
• 1:14:23
  because I wanted to read it in front of Julia.
• 1:14:24
  Here we go. Hmm, I've always thought that
• 1:14:27
  Muppet should evolve like Pokemon.
• 1:14:29
  Let's see what happens. When Robin the Frog of Olives,
• 1:14:31
  gains a fancy collar, and suddenly gets the special move
• 1:14:34
  set to host. Variety shows, or maybe Muppets
• 1:14:36
  are already evolving. Did Waldo, spend 25 candies to
• 1:14:39
  become Walter and then did Walter spend another Hunter to
• 1:14:42
  become Waldorf, although that feels like a completely.
• 1:14:45
  Reversal of the way that we think of Pokemon evolutions.
• 1:14:48
  So maybe Muppets candy evolve. Why why won't scooter return my
• 1:14:53
  texts? See mad at me to did something
• 1:14:57
  happen. If you're just hanging out last
• 1:15:00
  week. Like I thought we were friends
• 1:15:02
  but like see ghosting me like what's going on here scooter?
• 1:15:07
  He's like, he's like my favorite like Gonzo's.
• 1:15:11
  Okay and everything, but like if things aren't cool between me
• 1:15:15
  and Cooter. Like I really might have to make
• 1:15:19
  things, right? I don't know.
• 1:15:20
  Maybe I should buy him like a PS3 or something.
• 1:15:23
  Is that too much? Does he even like gaming?
• 1:15:27
  Oh no. I'm really over thinking this.
• 1:15:29
  I mean but it's been a day and he's left me on Red Scooter.
• 1:15:33
  My man, what? What's going on scooter?
• 1:15:37
  So Bobby Benson definitely stole those babies, right?
• 1:15:39
  Like, there's no way that he didn't steal those babies.
• 1:15:41
  He's such a creepy man. And where did he even get?
• 1:15:45
  All of those babies that he like do a drive-by by a daycare and
• 1:15:48
  just take them. If I had a baby and Bobby Benson
• 1:15:50
  was near, I would not trust him not in a hundred years.
• 1:15:52
  That man is sketch. He stole those babies period,
• 1:15:57
  that's it. Yay.
• 1:16:00
  All right, everybody's very funny.