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The Worst of the Muppets - Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree · Muppet Fan Podcasts with ToughPigs.com

• 0:13
  Hello and welcome to The Worst of The Muppets Holiday Edition
• 0:17
  presented by Tough bigs.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.
• 0:25
  Even Kermit the Frog. In this podcast miniseries,
• 0:29
  we'll be taking a closer look at some of the worst holiday
• 0:32
  specials The Muppets have ever been a part of.
• 0:34
  Truly, these are the proverbial lumps of coal in our stockings.
• 0:39
  This week we'll be talking about Mr. Willoughby's Christmas tree,
• 0:42
  in which Robert Downey Junior and The Muppets simultaneously
• 0:46
  hit rock bottom in what is commonly agreed upon as the
• 0:49
  worst Muppet Christmas special of all time.
• 0:52
  But before we get into this mess, let's meet our special
• 0:55
  guest. He's a puppeteer, puppet
• 0:57
  builder, illustrator, and a long time friend of tough pigs.
• 1:00
  Please welcome Noah Genex to the podcast.
• 1:02
  Hello, Noah. Hello, it is great and awful to
• 1:08
  be here. First of all, let me apologize
• 1:10
  to you. I forced you to watch Mr.
• 1:13
  Willoughby's Christmas tree just so we can talk about on this
• 1:15
  podcast, and that was a really mean thing for me to do.
• 1:18
  Yeah, it's OK. And I was willing to do it for
• 1:20
  tough pigs. And I was I I was delightfully
• 1:25
  surprised at how how I could compartmentalize the terrible
• 1:32
  from the amazing. That's good.
• 1:38
  I'm looking forward to hearing about both of those sides of the
• 1:41
  special. But first, can you tell me what
• 1:44
  is your history with the special?
• 1:45
  Do you do you recall the first time you saw it?
• 1:48
  I saw it when it aired. I don't even remember what year
• 1:52
  it was 19. 95. Five.
• 1:57
  OK, yeah. And I remember at the time
• 2:03
  thinking what a giant turd it was like.
• 2:09
  And I didn't even I didn't know enough about the people involved
• 2:14
  yet to recognize what amazing potential was just squandered in
• 2:24
  this, you know, thing. I mean, I guess any bad Muppet
• 2:30
  thing is gonna feel like squandered potential.
• 2:32
  You know, we know what they're capable of.
• 2:34
  And then for them to just grab the bed, it's like, overly
• 2:38
  disappointing. We expected more from you.
• 2:40
  Come on, guys. Yes, it's like they got a little
• 2:44
  bit from every good thing that The Muppets have ever done, and
• 2:49
  like, they all joined together and like, lit a fart on fire.
• 2:55
  Like, yeah, let's. Yeah, let's actually talk about
• 3:00
  some of those people. So first of all, before, before
• 3:02
  we talk about the people who made this thing.
• 3:04
  So yes, this special came out in 1995.
• 3:05
  It was 1/2 hour TV special and it aired on CBS.
• 3:11
  It was based on a picture book by Robert Berry from 1963.
• 3:16
  So this is not an original story.
• 3:17
  This is, this is a it was an original story in 1963, but not
• 3:21
  by the time The Muppets got their hands on it.
• 3:24
  And we'll we'll skip around a little bit this the beginning
• 3:27
  here. But, like, we get this, like,
• 3:28
  opening credit crawl at the top of the special, and you see
• 3:33
  names like executive producer Michael K Frith, who, you know,
• 3:38
  he, he was the designer of Fozzie Bear and the Swedish Chef
• 3:41
  and the Muppet Babies and the Fraggles, and you're like, whoa,
• 3:44
  Michael Frith. And then it's teleplay by
• 3:48
  Mitchell Kriegman, who created Bear in the Big Blue House.
• 3:51
  And Clarissa explains it all and you're like, whoa, that guy's
• 3:55
  famous. And then you see it's directed
• 3:58
  by Johnstone, who's the executive producer of Sesame
• 4:02
  Street and basically created the TV show.
• 4:06
  Yeah, we also, I can't remember if it's in the opening credits
• 4:10
  or the closing, but it's music by Michael and Patricia
• 4:12
  Silvershur, who wrote the theme songs for The Gummy Bears and
• 4:17
  Tailspin and that maybe that's not quite as exciting, but like
• 4:21
  Gummy Bears is an ear worm, right?
• 4:23
  Well, and also the cast, like I guess at the time they weren't
• 4:28
  as like Stocker Channing was would go on to be, had been, you
• 4:34
  know like a star of Grease and would go on to be the like First
• 4:38
  Lady on the best political television show ever, you know,
• 4:44
  like she was on The West Wing for all seven seasons or
• 4:48
  whatever. That's right.
• 4:50
  And like Leslie Nielsen and it just Robert Downey Junior, It
• 4:55
  should have been just so fantastic.
• 5:00
  It's weird that it it seems like everyone that you just
• 5:03
  mentioned, including The Muppets, are at a weird place in
• 5:07
  their careers where they're just in between things.
• 5:10
  Like Robert Downey Junior obviously had a huge bout of
• 5:13
  success through the 80s and into the 90s.
• 5:16
  And then, like this is in his his dark period, which we'll
• 5:20
  talk more about and still like a decade before.
• 5:24
  A decade. More than a decade before he
• 5:27
  gets into Iron Man in the Marvel Universe.
• 5:29
  Yeah, he'd he had been. Chaplain already right?
• 5:33
  Oh, that's a good question. I my, my, my Robert Downey
• 5:36
  Junior timeline is not quite so well honed to know off the top
• 5:40
  of my head. And I could Google it, but so
• 5:42
  could the people listening to this.
• 5:43
  You find out. That's right.
• 5:45
  So this special starts with Kermit the Frog, the guy that
• 5:49
  you came here to see, right? Like, you wanna see Kermit?
• 5:53
  And he, he kind of like wanders into frame.
• 5:55
  He's wearing a top hat and a winter coat.
• 5:57
  He's looking all fancy and in like the weirdest, like stilted
• 6:02
  way of speaking, he goes, hi ho, Kermit the frog here.
• 6:05
  Welcome. We must hurry or we'll be late
• 6:08
  for Mr. Willoughby's famous holiday party.
• 6:10
  Who is Mr. Willoughby? Good question.
• 6:13
  He's the very cheerful fellow who lives just beyond those
• 6:15
  trees. Who is this guy who's talking?
• 6:18
  That's not Kermit. Kermit doesn't talk like that.
• 6:22
  And he like is limited to like 1 little section of the frame too.
• 6:26
  Like I don't know if it was in that shot but or like one of the
• 6:29
  other ones. But like he's standing there
• 6:31
  narrating in front of like just a very long you know like
• 6:37
  establishing shot of trees. And it's just, he just, it
• 6:41
  almost looks like a green screen, just like he's, you
• 6:44
  know? Standing.
• 6:44
  Well, it is. Well.
• 6:45
  Sure, Yeah. It's still, he's definitely crow
• 6:47
  the keyed in, Yeah. Like a like a weatherman, you
• 6:50
  know like standing there like in here like he it's not he's
• 6:54
  totally disconnected from the unlike Emmett Otter where he's
• 6:58
  you know, riding a bike and he falls off and all this stuff
• 7:01
  like. In in Emmett Otter, he's riding
• 7:04
  a bike in Christmas toy. He's like climbing up and down
• 7:07
  the Christmas tree. The I'm sorry the the chimney,
• 7:10
  you know, dressed as Santa. It's like, there's fun stuff
• 7:14
  happening. And like, yeah, he's not really
• 7:16
  part of the story, but like, you get the sense of fun before
• 7:19
  anything happens. He is.
• 7:20
  There's absolutely no purpose to him being there, except for the
• 7:24
  fact that they want to make sure that people know, oh Muppets, I
• 7:27
  already like this. And you?
• 7:29
  Don't have to prove yourself to me.
• 7:31
  Through the whole thing, I don't think Steve did anything else.
• 7:36
  He was just Kermit. So it's possible that he didn't
• 7:41
  even come up to New York to shoot it.
• 7:43
  Like he could have just shot it on a green screen in Atlanta,
• 7:49
  And that's right. That's why it looks so
• 7:52
  disconnected. You know?
• 7:53
  Like, I don't know. Yeah, it it gives you a sense
• 7:56
  of, well, of how they were investing, how deep they were
• 8:02
  investing into this special. Yeah, it's like we don't even
• 8:04
  need to get them here. You're fine.
• 8:06
  Do it at home. Right.
• 8:09
  You know, ship him the frog in a box.
• 8:11
  That's way cheaper than. Right.
• 8:14
  Yeah. Get him.
• 8:15
  Get him the top. Hat.
• 8:16
  Yeah, Yeah. Was he still wearing his
• 8:19
  cratchit outfit from From Christmas Carol, I mean.
• 8:23
  Thankfully, it is not the it's not the cratchit outfit it is.
• 8:27
  It is an updated cratchit outfit.
• 8:29
  It's definitely, it seems a little bit slightly more modern,
• 8:32
  only only slightly. It seems like what Bob Cratchit
• 8:35
  would have worn if he was rich, right?
• 8:38
  Yeah. So he introduces us to Mr.
• 8:43
  Willoughby the the first thing we see is Robert Downey Junior's
• 8:45
  Mr. Willoughby. He flings open his front doors
• 8:49
  and he says those immortal words.
• 8:51
  Where on earth this on this most Christmas Eve of Christmas Eves,
• 8:55
  can my Arboretum Arbor vitae be? And who, boy, is that a
• 9:00
  mouthful? And that's not the time he says
• 9:04
  it. I don't.
• 9:05
  No, it's not. It's it's Can I swear on this
• 9:10
  podcast? I insist that you swear.
• 9:13
  'Cause I don't know that it's Latin, I think it might just be
• 9:15
  bullshit like. Yeah, yeah.
• 9:20
  Do you, do you think it was in the script or do you think that
• 9:22
  was just Robert Downey Junior being like, don't worry guys, I
• 9:25
  got this. I'll make up some words and
• 9:27
  it'll sound super cool. You know it might.
• 9:33
  I wouldn't. You have to think about Robert
• 9:35
  Downey Junior at the time, like now.
• 9:38
  He certainly wouldn't offer to make up stuff then maybe he
• 9:46
  would have like, thought himself, you know, the cleverest
• 9:49
  one in the room. But boy, is it bad.
• 9:54
  I mean we we have to address the elephant in the room, which is
• 9:57
  this era of Robert Downey Junior.
• 9:59
  He you could tell, you could see it in his eyes.
• 10:01
  He is not presence. I don't think he is of this
• 10:04
  earth, you know there's probably some sort of substance abuse
• 10:08
  going on which you know we have sympathy for it, especially if
• 10:10
  if we now know he continues to be sober as far as we know.
• 10:15
  But like this is like I said at the beginning, like this is
• 10:18
  seems like him hitting his bottom, like he doesn't even
• 10:20
  really know where he is. Like it's it's more sad than
• 10:24
  funny. Yeah.
• 10:29
  And they mostly pin him to doing that one physical bit with
• 10:36
  Leslie Nielsen and the the vase that like he almost knocks over
• 10:42
  like 7 or 8 times. And right I I I think they
• 10:49
  probably knowing what I know about Johnstone and how
• 10:56
  frustrated he could get with you know people not focusing and
• 11:03
  paying it. He probably just, it was like,
• 11:05
  OK, he can do this one thing. Let's just do that a bunch, you
• 11:08
  know. Right.
• 11:10
  Yeah. Johnstone also is famously like,
• 11:13
  OK, we got it. We gotta move on.
• 11:15
  You know, like, we're on a time frame.
• 11:17
  So, like, that also might have been part of it.
• 11:19
  But yes, you're right. So they're singing the song
• 11:20
  about the perfect tree, which I guess is what Arboretum
• 11:23
  Arboretum means. On and on and on.
• 11:26
  He just does not know what it. Is on and on, no.
• 11:30
  But yes, he's flinging his arms and Leslie Nielsen's moving the
• 11:33
  vase out of the way every time he flings his arms.
• 11:35
  It's not very funny. And then he goes Baxter, which
• 11:39
  is Leslie Nielsen's character's name.
• 11:40
  And Baxter drops the vase and he says, where could Maya Arboretum
• 11:46
  Arbore Vita be? Who cares, man?
• 11:52
  So we also in this moment, meet the Mouse family performed by
• 11:57
  Kevin Clash, Julian Beischer and David Rudman.
• 12:00
  They are also looking for a perfect tree.
• 12:03
  Got what are the odds, right? Yeah, they go outside to find
• 12:07
  their perfect tree. They spot it.
• 12:09
  It's how big do you think that tree is?
• 12:10
  Like 20 feet more. I don't know the the ceiling
• 12:15
  that they have to cut it maybe 30.
• 12:19
  Let's let's be. Generous and say it's a 30 foot
• 12:22
  tree and these mice are like it's our tree, we're taking it.
• 12:29
  They climbed to the top and but before they can do anything, the
• 12:33
  tree's cut down by a bunch of they're like lumberjacks, but
• 12:36
  also soldiers. Like they're marching with their
• 12:39
  feet. Like we.
• 12:40
  Yeah, we only. See their feet?
• 12:43
  Because if they are only feet, they can get anybody to play
• 12:47
  them, like just throw some matching pants on Bill Beretta
• 12:52
  and like, you know, the 16 other additional cast members or
• 12:55
  whatever. If they shoot their faces, we
• 12:58
  have to worry about what they look like.
• 13:01
  There could be three of them. There could be 30 of them.
• 13:04
  There could be 300 of them. We have no idea.
• 13:08
  I think whoever did the costumes for this thing was probably
• 13:11
  like, oh, so I'm just gonna like make shoes and and like the
• 13:14
  bottom half of pants, like, easy.
• 13:20
  Who did the costumes for this? Was it Polly Smith?
• 13:23
  Or do you know who the? According the the wiki does not
• 13:26
  have a costume designer listed. I don't know if if that means
• 13:30
  that there was nothing in the credits.
• 13:32
  There's probably something in the credits, but I don't know
• 13:33
  who it was. They probably just pulled from
• 13:35
  stock. It's likely, yeah.
• 13:40
  Wouldn't it take like 6 years for these mice to get to the top
• 13:43
  of a 40 foot tree or whatever? I mean, mice can probably climb
• 13:46
  pretty quick. I don't know, sure, it's mad.
• 13:49
  But I just like, what was their plan?
• 13:52
  I mean, it seems like they were like, yeah, we're gonna cut this
• 13:54
  whole thing. So at the beginning it's like,
• 13:55
  they're gonna cut down the top of this tree, like the, like the
• 13:58
  tippy top of it, which is the whole point of this special, is
• 14:02
  like, oh, it turns out that was the perfect tree all along.
• 14:04
  But like that was their plan from day one.
• 14:08
  That see that element world I like.
• 14:11
  It's like, you know, it's the fun of, you know, like they
• 14:17
  every new person that the tree comes to, they have to cut it
• 14:22
  down and then the mice get this little, you know, teeny version
• 14:25
  like that. That part of it is fun, but
• 14:27
  yeah. No, I agree with you.
• 14:28
  But like that, that was the mice mice's plan.
• 14:32
  Plan all. Along the get go, Yeah, they
• 14:34
  were just gonna take that little piece anyway, so I don't know,
• 14:38
  whatever. So this tree, like, you know,
• 14:39
  like the guys drop it off in the Wilby's mansion and they stand
• 14:43
  it up and it's too tall. And so Robert Downey Junior's,
• 14:47
  like, throwing around all these $5 words and he's trying to
• 14:50
  figure out, you know, oh, should we cut a hole in the ceiling,
• 14:53
  Should cut a hole in the floor. And then Leslie Nielsen just
• 14:55
  lops off the top of it. And let me tell you something,
• 15:00
  If it was the perfect tree, it no longer is.
• 15:04
  Like, that's not a perfect tree. Like, he cut like a like, 1/3 of
• 15:08
  it off the top. That's.
• 15:09
  Right. That is not the end from which
• 15:16
  you cut. No.
• 15:18
  If a Christmas correct too tall, you cut from the bottom like
• 15:21
  that's. That's right.
• 15:24
  Idiots. They don't know.
• 15:25
  They don't know from Christmas. So also, wait, I wanted to ask
• 15:30
  this about Mr. Willoughby. Yeah.
• 15:32
  How do you think he made his money?
• 15:38
  I'm gonna guess writing for a thesaurus because he has so many
• 15:46
  five and six and seven dollar words.
• 15:50
  Like we didn't even go into the, you know, three different like
• 15:57
  words he used for floor and ceiling.
• 16:00
  Like it? I don't know it.
• 16:03
  He looks like he could be an inventor.
• 16:05
  Or maybe it's family money. Like, it really feels like
• 16:09
  family money, 'cause he's such a spoiled little brat, yeah.
• 16:12
  That's what I'm gonna. Guess.
• 16:13
  But I like your I like the idea that he he's like, oh, I wrote
• 16:17
  all these new words, and I'm gonna use them all the time
• 16:19
  until they're common knowledge, like everyone's gonna be using,
• 16:22
  you know, Splendiferous every other day.
• 16:26
  Baxterian or whatever, he says to Leslie Nielsen.
• 16:30
  But that's that I I'm getting ahead of myself.
• 16:33
  Yeah, so, so now they have this top of the tree, Mr. Wilby, says
• 16:39
  Baxter. You should take the tree, the
• 16:41
  new tree. I guess it makes a new tree.
• 16:43
  That seems right to Miss Adelaide, who's Doctor Channing,
• 16:48
  who you mentioned before. And Mr. Baxter seems horrified
• 16:53
  at this idea that there's one other person who works in this
• 16:56
  building with him, and he is apparently completely
• 17:00
  intimidated by her. I think he has a crush on her,
• 17:03
  right? Like.
• 17:04
  That, yeah. Yes, he absolutely does.
• 17:07
  Yeah. Yeah, for sure.
• 17:09
  Although I I didn't look it up. I wonder what the age difference
• 17:11
  is. Doesn't even matter what the age
• 17:12
  difference is. He seems to be like like her
• 17:14
  dad's age. I think Leslie Nielsen went Gray
• 17:20
  early. But true.
• 17:23
  Also Stocker. Channing famously played a high
• 17:26
  schooler when she was like 35. Yeah.
• 17:29
  So a lot of age discrepancy stuff going on here.
• 17:32
  Stocker Channing is 79 and Leslie Nielsen is passed away.
• 17:39
  But he's dead, right? So he's a good 20 years older
• 17:44
  than her, So. Yeah, yeah, that's what I would
• 17:47
  have thought. Yeah.
• 17:48
  Yeah. All right.
• 17:49
  Well, weird. Yeah, he so he could have been
• 17:53
  her dad. That's super weird.
• 17:54
  I don't know how I feel about that.
• 17:57
  Speaking of weird discrepancies, so Miss Adelaide is Swedish.
• 18:01
  And boy, that accent sure sure comes and goes, doesn't it?
• 18:07
  She is about as convincing A Swede as she is a high school.
• 18:12
  Or that's true. Being the First Lady of the
• 18:21
  United States was the most convincing acting job she ever
• 18:23
  did. That may be true, yeah.
• 18:26
  Yeah. It's also weird that, like the
• 18:28
  The Muppets already have a very famous Swede in their ranks, and
• 18:33
  so it's two Swedes that we. Know of even have a poster of
• 18:37
  her wall or anything. You know like like why not?
• 18:41
  It's built in, but you know that could be either.
• 18:44
  Of them, like sound like a real Swede.
• 18:46
  They're both like mock Swedish, right?
• 18:50
  Now that I think about it, that could be why Kermit is so
• 18:52
  disconnected is because, like they really wanted to separate
• 18:55
  it and like, have it not be a Muppet story at all.
• 18:59
  You know, like it. Yeah, right.
• 19:01
  Yeah. Which is why she doesn't have a
• 19:03
  poster of the chef on her wall. You know, like, here's a home.
• 19:07
  Down How hysterical would it be if this thing was all like kind
• 19:10
  of like, period accurate or whatever the hell they're
• 19:13
  they're going for? And then except for that one
• 19:16
  tacked on poster with, like like thumb tacks in the background of
• 19:21
  this Doctor Channing scene of the Swedish Chef.
• 19:25
  So, but no her. Her apartment instead is
• 19:29
  decorated with like, what looks like about 150 lit candles,
• 19:33
  which is such a fire hazard and also, I guess, a metaphor for
• 19:38
  this special, which is also a fire hazard.
• 19:41
  Yeah, the they spot the mice who've been hanging onto the
• 19:47
  tree top this whole time. Baxter goes straight to murder.
• 19:51
  He is ready to dispose of them, despite the fact that they're
• 19:56
  wearing people clothes and like are clearly sentient.
• 20:01
  And like talking like saying please don't kill us, you know?
• 20:04
  Like, yeah, right. Yeah.
• 20:05
  Please, Sir, I want some cheese. They should be saying, yeah, so
• 20:10
  this sadly, don't do it. Yeah.
• 20:12
  This scene has the funniest line in the whole special, though,
• 20:17
  when he says we have a tradition in my family where we don't put
• 20:24
  fire on our hat or something like that, like that.
• 20:28
  Yeah, right, 'cause he's he's wearing like a a crown of
• 20:31
  candles and she's about to light them.
• 20:32
  And that's right. He's like, no thank you.
• 20:35
  You're right that that might be the only joke in this special.
• 20:38
  Yes, I think that. I think it is the only joke in
• 20:41
  the special. I'm gonna, well, we're gonna go
• 20:42
  through this thing and see if we remember any other ones.
• 20:44
  But yeah, like, they didn't really, they didn't really try
• 20:46
  to make it funny. So anyway, so Miss Adelaide has
• 20:52
  the top of this tree. She puts it up against the wall,
• 20:57
  which is kind of slanted, 'cause she's in the attic and she's
• 21:01
  like like this wall comes out too far.
• 21:04
  So instead of moving the tree about 6 inches away from the
• 21:07
  wall, she's gonna cut off the top and throw it out the window
• 21:11
  with the mice. Just out the window.
• 21:13
  Just, yeah, I'll just put this anywhere, you know.
• 21:19
  Makes you wonder what else she throws out the window.
• 21:21
  Just like the trash, yeah. Just there's only two of them
• 21:24
  working there. Whose job is it gonna be to
• 21:26
  collect this thing at the bottom?
• 21:27
  You know, like. Maybe it's like I'll get it
• 21:31
  later, no big deal. So the tree falls and it is
• 21:39
  taken by a bear who looks very much like Beth the bear from
• 21:43
  opposite Manhattan, which is pretty neat.
• 21:47
  She's just back from snuggling with Fozzie Bear to get a
• 21:50
  Christmas tree, and she takes it back to their cave.
• 21:54
  There's her dad, who looks mysteriously like Bobo.
• 21:58
  Doesn't sound anything like Bobo, but it it sure looks like
• 22:01
  him and it turns out they are celebrating.
• 22:05
  His seven foot tongue like. Yeah, it's so at one point he's
• 22:10
  got a pot of honey and he's licking it.
• 22:11
  Yeah, and that tongue sticks out, and it's disturbingly long.
• 22:16
  And I I skipped ahead like, yeah, yeah, it's OK Talk about
• 22:19
  the song. Like, OK, so they're, they're.
• 22:22
  Dancing to the totally They're dancing to the traditional
• 22:25
  honeypot waltz, which, by the way, to me proves that they
• 22:29
  don't celebrate Christmas. They have their own holidays,
• 22:32
  which I think is kind of nice. This is this is the equivalent
• 22:35
  of Hey and Mr. Hooper, Happy Hanukkah.
• 22:44
  So yeah, so they do this dance. It's the the honeypot waltz.
• 22:47
  And like, they're not real. It's not really a dance.
• 22:49
  They're just kind of walking around each other with
• 22:51
  honeypots. It's not really anything.
• 22:55
  It's not much of A choreographed scene.
• 22:59
  The audience won't be able to see this, but during this song,
• 23:05
  I don't know if you can see what this is, but this bear Johnstone
• 23:10
  was. So just get on with it and do
• 23:13
  this thing that he did when they said, wait a minute, I can't
• 23:17
  hold this honey, you know thing with my bear paws, he said.
• 23:21
  Well, just stick your human hands out the end of the bear
• 23:24
  paws and hold it with your human hands, like this thing, holding
• 23:29
  this, like whatever this is you bear thing.
• 23:34
  I I so that's. Here's what I'm seeing in a
• 23:38
  glove. It's like, OK, picture like Bobo
• 23:41
  the bear. You know, Bobo, who doesn't love
• 23:43
  Bobo? And there's like a hole in the
• 23:47
  in his wrists where like like the, you know, Bill Beretta's
• 23:50
  human hands could come out. And instead and like where the
• 23:54
  hands come out, they're covered in, you know, they're like black
• 23:56
  gloves or something like that. So you you kind of can't see
• 23:59
  them. But that's what's holding on to
• 24:01
  these honeypots. And so when they're moving
• 24:03
  around holding the honeypot, it looks like there are two hands
• 24:07
  coming out of the wrist, one that looks like bare hands and
• 24:09
  one that are human hands. It's weird.
• 24:12
  It's. It does not look like it's it's
• 24:14
  way below the standard that we're used.
• 24:17
  To way below, but it's like this for the whole number like it.
• 24:23
  Yeah, it's like 3 minutes where all you could see is those hands
• 24:26
  'cause you can't look away. And I don't remember what this
• 24:31
  is. This must be later.
• 24:33
  I'm sure it is. Yeah, never mind.
• 24:39
  But yeah, this. That's the first thing I noticed
• 24:42
  when I watched it, when it was on.
• 24:44
  Yeah. Was like, I've been telling this
• 24:46
  story for what is it now, almost 30 years that like this
• 24:54
  Christmas special has that, you know, the single worst shot in
• 25:00
  the world, which is this shot where, like, the performer's
• 25:04
  hands are just sticking out the ends of the like, he just forgot
• 25:08
  to put it just this. Is like watching the the movie
• 25:15
  Cats from a few years ago where they they left Judi Dench's
• 25:20
  hands like on CGI Ed in a few scenes.
• 25:25
  Did they? I I didn't even see that movie
• 25:26
  like I. Didn't care.
• 25:28
  Oh, I didn't see it, but it's another it's it's a very similar
• 25:31
  example I guess. Johnstone was just like, OK,
• 25:36
  let's just get on with it. Do we know where this was shot?
• 25:38
  Did they do it in the carriage house?
• 25:39
  Like what it? Had to.
• 25:42
  No, it wasn't a carriage house. But I don't know.
• 25:46
  I don't know exactly where it was.
• 25:47
  This would have been like just, I think, just before they had
• 25:49
  the carriage house. But that's a good question.
• 25:52
  I would love to know. I mean the the Mr. Willoughby's
• 25:56
  mansion set looks like big enough that they had a real set,
• 26:01
  you know what I mean? They had the carriage house in
• 26:03
  the 80s because they shot the. Oh, you're right.
• 26:09
  You're right. Yeah, I take.
• 26:10
  That back you're. Right.
• 26:11
  Yeah. Cloud Forest was was there?
• 26:13
  Yeah. No, you're totally right.
• 26:14
  In any case, that tells you what I know.
• 26:16
  I don't know anything. So.
• 26:18
  OK. Yeah this is such an
• 26:21
  embarrassing moment for Muppet history and like such a, I don't
• 26:28
  know like an example of how little anyone cared.
• 26:32
  It's it really makes this whole special feel like we gotta get
• 26:35
  it out the door cause CBS is paying us a little bit of money
• 26:37
  to get something on on the air by December and we just need to
• 26:41
  move out move on with our lives. We have Sesame Street to to
• 26:44
  film, you know. So once again this tree that
• 26:52
  they now that these bears now have is too tall for their cave.
• 26:56
  I guess The Cave has low ceilings because we saw how
• 26:58
  short the the the wall in Miss Adelaide's apartment was and she
• 27:04
  cut part of that off like already.
• 27:06
  It's like it looked like she threw about about 12 inches of a
• 27:09
  tree out the window. So these are very tiny bears, I
• 27:11
  guess, And they Chuck it. And also weird that, like,
• 27:19
  everyone just agrees to cut up a tree.
• 27:24
  Like like they don't even consider anything else.
• 27:26
  There's no, like, well, hang on, can we move it somewhere else?
• 27:28
  There's no, there's no, there's no problem solving.
• 27:31
  It's just, oh, just hack it. You could hack it.
• 27:33
  Yeah, that's what everyone does. The new piece of tree is taken
• 27:41
  by the owls, who are the natural predators of the mice, which is
• 27:49
  terrifying. Like the weirdest looking puppet
• 27:52
  I've ever seen. Like this.
• 27:56
  They have such a great history of making really good looking
• 27:59
  owls like hoots. And you know the owl from
• 28:03
  Labyrinth? Yeah, this.
• 28:07
  Like, it doesn't even look like an owl.
• 28:10
  It's like. Is this this is your your least
• 28:13
  favorite Muppet owl? Huh.
• 28:14
  A craft project that like somebody made in like a summer
• 28:18
  camp or, you know, like they bring it home and the parent is
• 28:22
  like, that's great, Why don't you tell me about the fridge
• 28:27
  thing that you made? You know, they don't wanna guess
• 28:31
  what it is, 'cause they don't wanna upset their kid.
• 28:37
  But, like, but here's the thing for me is, so the owls take the
• 28:41
  take This tree and the mice to their like, crystal cavern nest
• 28:47
  with, like, icicles hanging down.
• 28:49
  And they start like, I don't know how to say it other than
• 28:52
  they're singing a song, but they're not singing.
• 28:55
  I don't know how to describe this.
• 28:57
  It's like like a melodic synthesizer noise, and they're
• 29:02
  just kind of swaying around a little bit as if this is their
• 29:05
  Christmas tradition. And it's nothing.
• 29:09
  It's definitely feels like we have about 60 seconds to get
• 29:13
  through this plot point and we really have to move on.
• 29:14
  We've run out of time, 'cause that Honey Bear dance took up
• 29:17
  way more time than we expected. And it was only that good.
• 29:23
  Yeah, right. And the father, father mouse,
• 29:25
  just like, oh, it seems like their tree is too tall too.
• 29:28
  They're gonna cut it up and they get dropped out of the nest once
• 29:32
  again to their death and. Like how do these mice not have,
• 29:37
  like, severe physical ailments? Like after they know, right?
• 29:41
  Like. They they should be dead four
• 29:45
  times over now. And also like, no reason why the
• 29:47
  owls didn't eat them. Like once again, like owls eat
• 29:50
  mice. Like that is fact.
• 29:53
  And also no, like there's no ceiling they're in.
• 29:56
  They're in a nest. Like, there's no way that their
• 30:00
  tree could have been like, too short like they they just, like,
• 30:04
  forget it, We're just gonna move on.
• 30:05
  They're gonna cut it, they're gonna move on.
• 30:06
  Because that's what happens in the book.
• 30:07
  We gotta move on. Are they putting?
• 30:09
  It's just occurred to me. Are they putting a Christmas
• 30:11
  tree in another tree? Oh, good point.
• 30:15
  Where do these owls live like? I mean, if anything, because
• 30:20
  they they're kind of doing away with with like traditions that
• 30:24
  we're familiar with. They should have just been
• 30:26
  thinking like, oh, we're gonna put this this Christmas tree as
• 30:31
  a part of our nest and we only need a few twigs and we can dump
• 30:33
  the rest of it. But they don't talk, so we don't
• 30:35
  know anything. They just kind of sway and look
• 30:38
  stoned. Yeah, that it's so much of the
• 30:42
  cast. Yeah.
• 30:45
  Slays and look stoned. Yep, so now the mice have found
• 30:52
  themselves with their perfect tree 'cause now it's finally the
• 30:55
  size that they like. Right?
• 30:57
  Picky, picky. And they're they were dropped
• 31:00
  off right in front of the Willoughby house where they
• 31:02
  live. But then, once again, Mr. Baxter
• 31:06
  picks one of them up, and he has murder in his eyes.
• 31:09
  He's ready to drown the the mice.
• 31:13
  Well, he's got that handy axe that he can, you know, like
• 31:16
  just, yeah, there's that one murder shot from earlier where
• 31:19
  he, like, just picks up the axe, right.
• 31:21
  And then yeah. Yeah, it's the same look that I
• 31:25
  had in my eyes as I was watching this special.
• 31:29
  But yes, but then Stocker Channing starts singing some
• 31:31
  song about, you know, reminding him that murderer's bad Merry
• 31:35
  Christmas. So he lets the mouse go and the
• 31:39
  mice get to go home with their tiny little tree top, like they
• 31:41
  originally planned on doing. And then Kermit comes back.
• 31:47
  Remember Kermit? Remember him?
• 31:49
  He was. He was in this thing for a
• 31:50
  minute at the top. He he's back via satellite in
• 31:56
  Kromoki. And he's like, oh, we're we're
• 32:01
  here at Mr. Willoughby's party, which I totally forgot that
• 32:04
  Mister Willoughby was gonna be throwing a party.
• 32:07
  Did you remember this? Yeah, like, like that was the
• 32:11
  whole purpose of Kermit walking through this, the the woods to
• 32:14
  get there. Also, why?
• 32:17
  Why didn't even think about this?
• 32:18
  If Kermit was just riding his bike through the woods, this
• 32:21
  would have been so much better. Why he?
• 32:23
  Where is he coming from? Why is he walking?
• 32:25
  I think Kermit famously rides a bike.
• 32:28
  How cool would that have been to see him doing that again in
• 32:30
  1995? I don't know.
• 32:33
  Whatever. Who cares?
• 32:34
  I'm thinking about. I'm focusing on the wrong stuff.
• 32:38
  Yeah. They they clearly did not care,
• 32:40
  so why should you? No, good point.
• 32:42
  Good point. Speaking of not caring, this
• 32:45
  party looks like it sucks. Yeah, it's like 6 old people
• 32:49
  kind of dancing. The host is clearly inebriated.
• 32:55
  Is there anyone? And there's like.
• 32:57
  Even at this party like. No, everyone there is either mad
• 33:01
  old and there's like 3 kids there who were just like shaking
• 33:06
  presents and and guessing what's inside.
• 33:09
  Three kids who are trained to look like they they're having
• 33:12
  fun and Miss Adelaide and Baxter have a little dance.
• 33:19
  And here's the thing, they they have this exchange which has
• 33:21
  been driving me crazy since I rewatched the special, she says,
• 33:25
  Mr. Baxter, where did you learn to dance like this?
• 33:27
  And he says, Miss, have you ever been to Buenos Aires?
• 33:32
  And it's it's He says it like, again, the cadence of a joke.
• 33:37
  But that's not a joke. No.
• 33:39
  Like, what is he talking about? Is it referencing something from
• 33:45
  earlier in the special? No, I mean, unless I blacked
• 33:48
  out, which is possible, I guess. But I mean, I guess he's trying
• 33:53
  to say to her like I learned it in Buenos Aires, but that's not
• 33:57
  a joke. That's not a joke.
• 33:58
  It's not a reference. It's nothing.
• 33:59
  No. Why did he say it?
• 34:01
  Why was it in the? Script.
• 34:01
  Is it a coma? Like, is he inviting her to
• 34:04
  Buenos? Like, you know, if you like me
• 34:07
  dancing, you should watch me go to Buenos Aires.
• 34:12
  I guess I can't. I don't know.
• 34:15
  I don't know what it was. I should.
• 34:17
  I should pull out the book and see if it's in there.
• 34:19
  We should ask Mitchell Kriegman. Oh yeah, that's a good idea.
• 34:25
  So in the end, I guess like, everyone gets a shoddily chopped
• 34:30
  up piece of a tree. Merry Christmas What?
• 34:35
  What is the moral of the story? You know, I I since you said it,
• 34:43
  I can't stop thinking about something.
• 34:47
  When Miss is Miss Adelaide, is that her name?
• 34:51
  Yeah. Throws out the the piece of tree
• 34:55
  that she didn't want. It's only about a foot and 1/2
• 35:00
  of a tree. Yeah, right, Right.
• 35:04
  How is that too tall for a bunch of bears?
• 35:08
  Well, as I was saying earlier, like they must be the smallest
• 35:10
  bears. Yeah, like like the they they
• 35:14
  obviously had like no consistency with like how big is
• 35:20
  the tree then how big is the piece that they cut off and then
• 35:24
  how big is the piece that cut off of that.
• 35:25
  Like they it, it wouldn't have taken him that much effort to
• 35:28
  figure it out. It would take us 5 minutes.
• 35:31
  My brain can't do the math on why they did that.
• 35:37
  So here's what happened. She dropped that tiny ass tree
• 35:41
  out the window, and then the bears went and found a second
• 35:45
  tree that was too tall. Oh my gosh.
• 35:49
  Like, so The story just started over.
• 35:52
  They just didn't mention it. So OK, so by by this logic,
• 35:59
  every tree is the perfect tree. Maybe that's the moral of the
• 36:02
  story. Oh yeah, Whoa.
• 36:05
  If it's your Christmas tree, it it is the perfect tree.
• 36:07
  Which is also the moral of A Charlie Brown Christmas, Right?
• 36:11
  I'm that pathetic little tree. But it was perfect.
• 36:14
  It was just the tree they needed.
• 36:16
  You know, we were almost You ought to learn something.
• 36:18
  And I and I rewound us and I'm so sorry.
• 36:22
  Yeah, it's fine. It's fine.
• 36:24
  This whole this thing's a mess. Our conversation might as well
• 36:27
  be a mess as well. Yeah.
• 36:30
  So and then, like, OK, so then Kermit leaves the party and he's
• 36:36
  like, first of all, he's the first one to leave, which tells
• 36:38
  you something, 'cause he's by himself, he's walking out.
• 36:41
  And the the metal gates that lead into the compound, like,
• 36:47
  like eerily close behind him, like creaking, like like they're
• 36:51
  alive, like in the Adams family or something.
• 36:55
  And I don't know why. Did who?
• 36:58
  How does he know this guy? How do you think Kermit knows
• 37:00
  Mr. Willoughby to like well enough to get invited to this
• 37:02
  party? I've done enough, like private
• 37:11
  parties and hosting events and whatnot.
• 37:13
  I'm guessing that one of Mr. Willoughby's people hired Kermit
• 37:20
  to narrate something. Oh yeah.
• 37:25
  As entertainment for people wandering past.
• 37:29
  And that's why he's just walking away, because this is just a job
• 37:33
  to him. He's like, yeah, no, I don't
• 37:36
  want to, I don't want food because then you might not give
• 37:39
  me my full, you know, like fee. I just want to go like and so.
• 37:44
  Yeah, I like that walking away. I like that like Kermit.
• 37:48
  Kermit was a celebrity hired to be at this party.
• 37:51
  He did the job like I did the narration.
• 37:54
  You guys, you guys stay. You have a good time, right?
• 37:56
  I'm gonna go. I've.
• 37:57
  I've made my appearance. My.
• 37:59
  Friend that actually plays a lot.
• 38:00
  Piano. And got hired once to just sit
• 38:04
  in a gazebo in somebody's backyard and play for anybody
• 38:07
  who happened to be walking by. Like, I think Kermit, Wow is
• 38:10
  just, you know, just stand there and narrate something like just,
• 38:15
  you know. Yeah.
• 38:16
  Like, yeah, well, and this is exactly the kind of behavior
• 38:20
  someone who has such an obnoxious amount of wealth like
• 38:23
  Mr. Willoughby would do to be. Like, yes, I hired a famous frog
• 38:28
  to narrate my party. Right.
• 38:32
  Like the neighbors are gonna be talking about the Willoughby
• 38:35
  Party for years, and I got the perfect tree.
• 38:40
  And because he's bored, Kermit's just noticing what the mice and
• 38:43
  the bears are doing. You know, like he's not even.
• 38:47
  He's like, oh, you know, Mr. Willoughby, He like, wanted me
• 38:49
  to stand here and say a bunch of bull.
• 38:50
  So, like, oh look, it's a mouse. You know, like.
• 38:53
  Do you think that Mister Willoughby was upset that Kermit
• 38:55
  wasn't narrating Mr. Willoughby's life in this
• 38:58
  moment? He's like, why are you talking
• 39:00
  about the I hired you for my party.
• 39:02
  I'm Mr. Willoughby. Talk about me and my Butler and
• 39:07
  the lady who lives upstairs in my tree that like that we cut
• 39:11
  up. Yeah, I don't know.
• 39:15
  And that's that's just my guess. That's a good one.
• 39:19
  I like that. I'm gonna I'm that's gonna be my
• 39:20
  head cannon from now on. There's one more thing to this
• 39:23
  special that is worth mentioning that I discovered by while
• 39:28
  looking at the Muppet Wiki article for this special.
• 39:32
  So there was a commercial, like an ad for the special that aired
• 39:35
  at the time that has a voice over of Kermit the Frog being
• 39:40
  like, oh, there's well, this is special with Leslie Nielsen and
• 39:43
  Tucker Janner. You're gonna watch it.
• 39:45
  But it's not Steve Whitmire. It's a voice actor named Brian
• 39:49
  Cummings. Who was he was like the the in
• 39:53
  in that ad. I mean, it's just the voice.
• 39:57
  And so Brian Cummings would would do.
• 40:00
  He was the guy who did all the promos on CBS back then.
• 40:02
  So I'm sure he was just like, I don't know.
• 40:03
  I do a good enough Kermit if you can't.
• 40:06
  Yeah, yeah, just do that. Yeah.
• 40:08
  So if you go to the Muppet Wiki, there's a video, you can, you
• 40:12
  can watch it, you can watch the ad, and they call it a Nabisco
• 40:16
  Family Classic, which I like, 'cause it's sponsored apparently
• 40:20
  by Nabisco. It's not a Muppet Family
• 40:23
  Classic, that's for sure, but it's Nabisco.
• 40:24
  Nabisco will own it. So.
• 40:27
  So from here on we're all boycotting Nabisco products
• 40:30
  cause of what they let happen in 1995.
• 40:33
  That's right. Never, never forget Noah.
• 40:36
  Never forget, never forgive. So you said at the top of this
• 40:40
  podcast that there was some good and some bad.
• 40:43
  We've definitely covered a lot of the bad.
• 40:46
  But Noah, what was what was good about this thing?
• 40:51
  What was your favorite part of Mr. Willoughby's Christmas tree?
• 40:54
  Oh yeah. I know, it's so hard to choose,
• 40:57
  right? It's so hard to find.
• 41:01
  Yeah, I. Think my favorite part of the
• 41:11
  whole thing has gotta be it's either hearing David Redman
• 41:20
  because he's great all the time. Yep, Yep.
• 41:24
  Or it's that we don't. In my tradition, we don't light
• 41:28
  our hats on fire line like that, you know, that was the only
• 41:34
  thing where I kind of went, you know, like.
• 41:40
  Is this special so bad it's good?
• 41:44
  Like, is this like like watching the room?
• 41:47
  Or is it just like, painfully dull?
• 41:50
  It's so the the good parts, it's painfully dull.
• 41:57
  The good parts about it is the the scenes where it's just the
• 42:06
  mice family, like and they're talking to each other because
• 42:12
  Kevin and Julian and David are good at, you know, playing off
• 42:19
  of each other. Yep.
• 42:24
  And like that's the only parts where you can almost say, well
• 42:30
  don't pay attention to any of that other stuff like just focus
• 42:34
  on this. It's a nice, like everybody
• 42:38
  takes a piece of the tree like that element to it is great.
• 42:43
  Like there. It's much in the like Henson,
• 42:48
  like there's room for everybody, you know thing like we all have
• 42:54
  a place in the universe. A special that is executive
• 43:03
  bruised by Michael Frith Written by Mitchell Kriegman directed by
• 43:08
  Johnstone. Sounds like it's gonna be the
• 43:13
  most heartwarming Christmas thing ever.
• 43:16
  Like Kevin Clash is good, Rudman's good.
• 43:20
  Julianne Bischer's good, you know.
• 43:25
  And Steve Wit, like, they're all good.
• 43:31
  Downey, you know, up until that point had been great.
• 43:36
  He was great in Chapel, and he was great as a kid.
• 43:40
  Like Leslie Nielsen's very funny.
• 43:43
  Oh, it's gonna be funny. You know.
• 43:45
  Like it it, it is setting us up for so much win.
• 43:51
  And then it it's. Like.
• 43:56
  It isn't. It just isn't.
• 43:59
  Right. I hear you.
• 44:00
  I, I it's I, I every time I see this special I, I go through the
• 44:04
  same thought process that we just went over the past hour.
• 44:07
  You know, everything you just said about all the potential,
• 44:10
  the stuff about the bare hands, the stuff about the boring owls.
• 44:14
  Like every little bit of this, I just like.
• 44:16
  I feel like I just replay it every single time I watch the
• 44:19
  special and I find that fascinating of like, how
• 44:22
  aggressively bad it is. But I don't know if it's if that
• 44:27
  puts in the category of so bad it's good.
• 44:30
  Like I want it to be so bad it's good.
• 44:32
  And there are pieces of it like we we used to do these Muppet
• 44:35
  Vault events, like these live events in Brooklyn.
• 44:39
  And at our Christmas event we would always play the intro to
• 44:42
  this with Kermit wandering on on, you know through the woods
• 44:45
  and then cut to Robert Downey Junior doing the beginning of
• 44:48
  the perfect tree and everyone has a good laugh.
• 44:51
  You know, it would be a little a little bit of a punishment to
• 44:54
  show any more than that, but you know, it definitely at points is
• 45:01
  absolutely so bad. It's good as a whole.
• 45:05
  It's a little too like Star Wars Holiday Special, you know, It's
• 45:09
  just like, oh oh man, that's make sometimes it's hard being a
• 45:14
  Muppet fan. Because it's not bad enough to
• 45:22
  be so bad. It's good.
• 45:27
  Correct. Like, yeah, it needs to be like
• 45:30
  like more aggressively bad to be able to like get your friends
• 45:34
  together every year and and have a good laugh.
• 45:36
  Right. And because to have a good laugh
• 45:41
  at Downey feels mean because he clearly is not in a great place
• 45:50
  in his life. And, you know, like to having a
• 45:56
  great having a laugh at how terrible the script is is fine.
• 46:00
  Because assuming that he didn't make up those, you know,
• 46:07
  unpronounceable words that he's tasked with saying.
• 46:12
  And those were all written by Mitchell Kriegman trying to make
• 46:16
  him into a Mr. Migoriam. Or you know, But even that isn't
• 46:28
  so bad. It's funny.
• 46:31
  It's just. Right.
• 46:33
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 46:35
  Well, I'll say this, it was a joy to have a reason to rewatch
• 46:41
  this, if only so that you and I could have this conversation
• 46:45
  today. Like, it was fun to be able to
• 46:47
  just rip this one apart and go scene by scene.
• 46:50
  And honestly, that may have been the last time I ever watch it.
• 46:53
  I think we talked. It I loved exactly.
• 46:56
  Yeah. I loved having a reason to watch
• 47:00
  this. And now I'm reminded of
• 47:02
  everything I hate about it and I never have to watch it again.
• 47:06
  And I am vindicated because I have been telling people for
• 47:12
  years about those hands sticking out of the bear paws and now
• 47:19
  I've seen it and I've proof and like.
• 47:22
  Yep, Yep, that's on a podcast now, everyone.
• 47:25
  Knows is satisfying, so. Yes, well, and anyone who wants
• 47:30
  to see those bare hands, or if you just need to see Mr.
• 47:32
  Willoughby's Christmas tree for Europe with your own eyes.
• 47:35
  It is shockingly not available on home video.
• 47:39
  It came out on on a DVD in Mexico.
• 47:41
  If you can believe that, that's it.
• 47:44
  So head on over to YouTube. I don't feel bad, you know,
• 47:49
  directing you to the bootleg if it doesn't exist anywhere else.
• 47:51
  But it's on YouTube. You can watch it there.
• 47:54
  It's only half hour long. Watch it with your family and
• 47:57
  then say gotcha. So, Noah.
• 48:02
  Thank you again for still sitting.
• 48:03
  There. Yeah.
• 48:05
  Right. If they're still there.
• 48:06
  Gotcha. Yeah.
• 48:07
  Yep. Noah, thank you so much for
• 48:10
  joining me for this. This was a blast to get to talk
• 48:12
  about the special with you. Can you please let these fine
• 48:15
  folks know where on the Internet, if anywhere, that they
• 48:18
  could find you? You can see my art.
• 48:21
  I'm on Instagram. It's at art by Noah Gen.
• 48:25
  X. Or you can see my puppets there
• 48:28
  at Noah Gen. X Puppet Co.
• 48:31
  You can Google my name and a ton of things will pop up.
• 48:36
  And you can see my art on tough Pigs.
• 48:42
  I do it there sometimes like. Yeah, I I do have to to direct
• 48:47
  people. Last year you did a fantastic
• 48:50
  daily series of Muppet illustrations for the entire
• 48:54
  year and we, I think we, I think we published all of them on
• 48:56
  Tough Pigs. I don't think we missed any.
• 48:59
  Yeah. If we did, I apologize.
• 49:00
  I meant to. But like, man, you did so much
• 49:03
  amazing stuff and like this, like a a Bob's Burger series and
• 49:07
  a Batman series and like all these great crossovers with
• 49:10
  Muppets and they're hysterical and very weird and I love them
• 49:13
  all. And you're still making great
• 49:15
  Muppet art, so everyone should follow.
• 49:16
  You. Yeah.
• 49:17
  I'm thinking of doing another another drawing a day.
• 49:21
  Another drawing a day. Another drawing a day we'll see.
• 49:25
  The first one will of of course have to be a, you know, A
• 49:29
  tribute to you because your birthday is the first important
• 49:34
  day of the year, so. I appreciate that that that
• 49:38
  brings a lot of joy to my face. Yeah, I I I feel honored to be
• 49:43
  to be your first drawing and like what a way to to set up for
• 49:47
  for disappointment. I feel honored to be here.
• 49:50
  I I love tough pigs so much and thank you.
• 49:55
  I'm just excited to be to be back on a on a Tough Pigs
• 49:59
  podcast, so thanks. Oh great.
• 50:01
  Well, it's a joy to have you here.
• 50:04
  And folks, if you like what you've heard, hopefully you'll
• 50:07
  check us out on toughpigs.com. We're also on all of the social
• 50:10
  media networks like Twitter and Facebook and Blue Sky and
• 50:15
  Threads and Instagram and Tumblr and Tiktok.
• 50:20
  We also have a Patreon and AT Public where we're selling some
• 50:25
  cool stuff and we also have a Discord now.
• 50:28
  So please check out our Discord and join in on the conversation
• 50:32
  and make some friends with some more Muppet fans like us.
• 50:36
  Thanks for listening everybody And we will be back next week
• 50:38
  with another episode of The Worst of The Muppets Holiday
• 50:44
  edition. Bye everyone.