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The Muppets: The Sitcom: The Podcast: Bear Left Then Bear Write · Muppet Fan Podcasts with ToughPigs.com

0:05
Hello and welcome to the Muppets the sitcom, the podcast
0:08
presented, by tough pics.com, this is the podcast where we
0:11
revisit the Muppets Grand return to television in the 2015 ABC
0:15
series The Muppets and see how it holds up five years.
0:18
Later, you can follow along with the series by revisiting The
0:22
Muppets to now streaming on Disney.
0:24
Plus, I'm Johannes your host for today's show and today our
0:28
special guest is one of our fellow.
0:30
Tough pigs writers. Please introduce yourself
0:32
friend. I am Anthony Strand.
0:35
And like Joe said, I write for tough pigs.
0:38
I'm also one of the hosts of our other podcast moving right along
0:41
a Muppet movie podcast presented by tough.
0:44
Exact calm presented by dumping the back out.
0:47
That's right. It's a great podcast.
0:48
And if anyone out there is at all interested in Muppets which
0:51
I assume you are because you're listening to this, then I highly
0:54
recommend that you listen to it. It's great.
0:57
And Joe has been on our show, I don't know.
1:00
Probably 10 times or something, I don't know, you've been on a
1:02
lot. I hold the record for guest
1:04
starring on your on your show there.
1:07
But today we are not talking about Muppet movies.
1:10
We are talking about the Muppets episode 3 bear left than Bear
1:14
right in which Fozzie Bear attempts to live in the woods
1:18
and write a screenplay Miss Piggy attempts to revenge on
1:21
Christina, Applegate, and Gonzo attempts to trick a woman into
1:24
dating him. But before we talk about any of
1:27
that, Anthony did, You watch The Muppets back in 2015 and if so,
1:33
what was your opinion of it at the time?
1:35
Yeah. I watched every episode right
1:37
after it aired and I tried so hard to like it.
1:42
I like I reviewed the second episode.
1:44
I reviewed last week's episode hostile makeover for tough pigs
1:48
at the time and it was like a stirring defense of how like No
1:53
Kermit has depth in this. Now they're writing Kermit like
1:57
a real person like on The Muppet Show.
1:59
Muppets muppets are having depth and it's going to be so good.
2:03
And everyone should be watching this new show that the Gars to
2:07
treat them up. It's like real people and I
2:11
tried so hard to continue feeling that way and I liked it
2:15
especially during that fall season.
2:17
You know, on the first thing, the first half, the first Eight
2:20
Episodes. Yeah, I would say I liked it
2:23
less and less every episode probably.
2:25
Yeah, that's probably accurate. And I think I think a lot of
2:28
fans especially those of us. Of us who are working on
2:31
reviewing the show. We tweet probably probably agree
2:33
with you. You know, we were so excited
2:35
about at the beginning and then that excitement went down and
2:38
then I went back up. But really like, you know, in
2:41
the end was more of a downer than anything.
2:44
Well, and I just re-watch them all for.
2:46
I did it in a tough pigs article ranking, all the episodes of
2:49
this and a couple other shows. So I just re-watch them all in
2:52
July. And the second half really is so
2:55
much better than the first half. Like like so much better.
3:00
But here I am talking about one of these instead but go ahead.
3:03
That's all right. Well, I mean, they were they
3:04
were fixing the show, you know? And like it was a show that you
3:06
need to be fixed. I mean, most shows do and, you
3:09
know, they just didn't get the chance to really, you know, be
3:11
too late. But you know, we do have this
3:13
first half of the Season, we're like, it has problems.
3:17
Like it's we've got something we need to work out and I'm looking
3:20
forward to, like, diving deep into this episode with you, but
3:22
I'm curious for the, the article that you wrote were, you ranked
3:25
all the the post Muppet Show TV episodes.
3:30
Where did this one rank and what was your review of it?
3:34
So I ranked this episode at number 48 who the 50?
3:39
Oh no yeah yeah and only only ahead.
3:43
No, I'm sorry I'm looking at number 49 actually kind of one
3:47
other episode of this series actually, next week's episode.
3:52
But so here's what I wrote about it, I just wrote like a very
3:57
brief. 'F sentence about each one.
3:59
I put. What If instead of jokes Kermit
4:02
and Fozzie just say you're the man at each other for a solid
4:05
minute. Does that count as comedy and
4:08
does it will? No, no no.
4:11
It's terrible. It's like like and that's I mean
4:14
we can we get well, I guess we'll probably go in order or
4:17
something but that specific scene that I'm talking about
4:20
where Kermit and Fozzie literally just say you're the
4:23
man. No you're the man.
4:24
No, you know, you you it's about 30.
4:28
S of the show and it's that's that's not a joke, like he's on
4:33
the same two guys who did good grief the comedian's of bear.
4:36
Yeah, yeah. And now they're just like now
4:38
they're just being a beer commercial for some reason.
4:43
Like watching this one today. Like what struck me now and I
4:46
paid more attention today than I did for that other article,
4:50
right? You only have to write one
4:50
sentence for that one. Right.
4:54
Um, but like watching this episode, what struck me is that
4:57
the writers have no interest in who these characters are at all?
5:02
It's just Jeanette mean, this could be the third episode of
5:06
any sitcom where we don't know the characters that well, yes,
5:10
like they don't act like they have a history.
5:14
They don't act like they have established personalities.
5:17
They act like people that the writers haven't haven't learned
5:22
who they are yet, and it's very frustrating.
5:24
That's an interesting point, especially because, you know, I
5:27
think this show was reliant on the fact that we know who these
5:31
characters are before coming into it because the Muppets had
5:34
this long history like they may not be who they were like in the
5:38
early 80s anymore. But at the same time, like like
5:41
I was crimin Fozzie and piggy Gonzo like, you know who those
5:43
guys are. Are like come see, their new
5:45
Antics but at the same time they completely change to they are or
5:49
watered them down so much that they maybe don't even want you
5:53
to know who they are because they want you to forget about
5:56
the grief, the comedian's a bear.
5:57
So that maybe you're going to laugh at your the man.
5:59
No, you're the man. No.
6:00
You're the man. No.
6:00
You're the man. So like I said it, when we open
6:04
this episode, there's three main plot lines.
6:07
And they don't really intersect all that much except for the
6:12
fact that like Gonzo has a line in the piggies storyline and
6:15
Kermit has a line in the, you know, like here and there, like
6:17
I mean there's no real. There are real divisions between
6:21
those restore lines. So, rather than go scene by
6:24
scene and kind of mish-mosh through them.
6:27
Because it my original notes for this episode, it was like likes.
6:31
We spend ten. Atkins with Fozzie.
6:32
Then we spend, you know, a minute and a half with piggy.
6:34
Enemy do 10 more seconds with Gonzo and it's like, rather than
6:37
that, lets just take each of these three story lines, one by
6:39
one, sure. So, okay, starting with the one,
6:42
I mean, the big one because it's in the, the title of the
6:44
episode, which again is better left than Bear, right?
6:48
Right. Spell writereview430134 Ozzy
6:53
Bearer storyline. So Fozzie apparently wrote a bad
6:59
sketch. Is you mean you may not believe
7:01
Leave it. But Fozzie wrote something
7:03
that's not very funny and he wants it to be on the show up
7:08
late with Miss Piggy. Which by the way, we have not
7:09
really seen them do sketches yet.
7:11
It's really just an interview show where I assume that Gonzo
7:14
Pepe and Rizzo as the writing team are writing sketches enter,
7:17
they're not making it to air. Well, they talked about the
7:22
dancing with his with the czar's thing, right?
7:23
That was a couple episodes talked about that already.
7:25
Yeah. That was, that was in the first
7:27
episode, but, but we didn't actually see it and like, it was
7:31
almost more fun. We, we mentioned in the podcast,
7:33
like, it's almost more fun to see them talk about it, then to
7:37
see the sketch itself in that 30 Rock kind of way.
7:41
But, you know, in a muppet, sure, kind of way, that doesn't
7:43
work at all like weed. Now we just want to see, you
7:47
know, Muppets in crazy costumes dancing.
7:50
Dancing around and you know, having fun but we don't get
7:53
that, we get Kermit saying, no, that's not funny and then they
7:56
don't do it. And that's pretty much what
7:59
happens here. Because Fozzie has the sketch
8:02
and Kermit doesn't want to tell him that it's bad and it won't
8:05
make it to air because he's balancing.
8:07
The fact that he is both fuzzy, bears, boss and Fozzie's best
8:11
friend, which is interesting because it's, like, in the old
8:16
Muppet Show. It's like, yeah, they were
8:17
friends but like Fozzie definitely Like, you know, was
8:22
employed by Kermit the Frog and he like had a fear of Kermit the
8:26
Frog in a certain sense, because of that right on the, on the
8:30
Muppet Show, Kermit would have told them.
8:31
It was bad like immediately backstage and it would have been
8:36
like in a laugh line, right? It would have just been like
8:38
Kermit dismissing it out of hand and then like the joke would be
8:42
fuzzies. Despair.
8:43
That Kermit doesn't like it or something, you know.
8:45
Yeah. And then I wonder if a big part
8:47
of the reason why it's like, well now they have to be best
8:49
friends. Is due to Muppet Babies, because
8:52
they were best friends, a Muppet Babies.
8:53
And that really like affected a lot of the way that the
8:57
characters were written for, you know, decades beyond that.
9:01
It's funny that you say that because to me, it's the great
9:03
Muppet Caper, mmm. Yeah, sure.
9:05
Yeah. And the Muppet movie, frankly,
9:08
like, yeah. But both of those movies like
9:10
they're just, here's coming and Fozzie.
9:13
Here's the crew, you know? Yeah, I think you're right, but
9:16
at the same time, you know, fuzzy still in both.
9:18
Those movies was like permit sidekick, you know, like he
9:22
still called him sir rights. No, no, even though they were
9:25
supposed to open, Brothers, Joel.
9:28
Yeah. Right.
9:28
But like this show is awful like you're you're like flake like
9:34
but it's just going back to what I'm saying.
9:35
Like these writers have no interest in who these people
9:37
are. Yeah they want it to just be
9:39
like these are the best friends. These are Joey and Chandler or
9:42
whatever. Yeah.
9:43
Because like which like that's the other thing is like imagine
9:49
you don't know who the Muppets are and you stumble upon this
9:51
thing and it's just like some generic like it's just it's go
9:57
on. Or whatever.
9:58
It's just some generic sitcom that nobody cares about go on
10:01
for up all night. I we're up all night featuring
10:04
featuring this episode's, guest star, Christina FM, good, that's
10:06
better. But I am.
10:08
Genuinely curious, if anyone listening this podcast is ever
10:11
heard of go on, okay? But like those are other sitcoms
10:16
from around the same time that are totally very similar.
10:18
Correct. Yes.
10:20
And and and and and depended on like the audience's fondness for
10:24
the Stars. Oh yeah, yeah, you know.
10:27
Like like that's the thing, the show Doesn't Remind me of other
10:30
Muppet stuff. It reminds me of other Bad.
10:33
Come back vehicles that comes like that's the biggest tragedy
10:37
of this thing and I, you know, I often go back to the question
10:40
of, you know why? Like, when the Muppets do
10:43
something, the question we should be asking the question.
10:46
Why puppets, like, why does this have to be puppets?
10:48
What I said we Muppets, but like puppets first, you know?
10:51
It's same as like as something animated.
10:53
Why is this animated, you know, like, are you doing something in
10:55
animation that you can't do in live action?
10:57
Ian and what this show in particular.
10:59
Are you doing something with Muppets or puppets that you
11:04
can't do with, you know, Matthew Perry and the answer is no, like
11:08
they're not like not one bit of this right?
11:12
At this point, absolutely zero. Right?
11:14
Like it's you could not change. You could you could film this
11:18
whole episode of humans and change.
11:20
Nothing right. Like not even a sight gag.
11:24
One thing that you would have to change.
11:25
Though is the scene at Ralph's Tavern.
11:28
This episode introduces us to the concept of roles Tavern,
11:31
which is the bar LED owned by Ralph.
11:35
The titular role in his scene. He is wearing a dog cone because
11:40
he just had surgery but he kept biting at the stitches and so he
11:44
had to put it on himself so so you're smiling which implies to
11:49
me that you find that amusing. I found that amusing.
11:53
I did find that amusing. I like I like the fact that like
11:56
Rolfe is equal. Art's like middle-aged man and
12:01
dog. And the fact that he's just
12:02
like, yeah, I mean like he's surgeries like but you know like
12:05
I had to put on it. I put the dog down on myself and
12:07
someone else but the dog going on him that wouldn't have worked
12:10
but the fact that he's just like that's what dogs do you know?
12:13
So I don't bite it this but the stitches like yeah, it was
12:15
nothing, that's fair, but like, I don't know to me, it's like so
12:21
who is Ralph? He's a laid-back dude that plays
12:24
the piano when they sat down to write this.
12:28
They thought, who is Rolf? I don't know what talking dog,
12:31
loll. Yeah.
12:32
Well, if he talks about dog stuff, wouldn't that be unusual?
12:36
Like that's it. He doesn't play the piano.
12:38
Like you doesn't need to play the piano like, you know, but
12:41
like he has a bar and he never once plays the piano at his bar
12:47
in the series, I think the, I think the expectation, when we
12:51
heard that rolf's role on the show was that he was going to be
12:54
working like across the street at the bar, which first of all,
12:57
I hate. Hate the fact that he's not with
12:58
the rest of them up at group like working on the show.
13:00
Yeah, but we heard that. The first thing I thought was
13:03
like, okay, he may not be like the piano playing dog, but he
13:05
still gets to play, like the bartender, which tends to be
13:08
like kind of a psychiatrist /, you know, philosopher, for
13:15
people who raised the bar with problems, he doesn't really do
13:17
that. He doesn't do that in this
13:18
episode and only see him doing that.
13:20
But that was the hope behind, right?
13:22
No, no, it yet. That there were a lot of hopes
13:25
that this show would be like, we We were really excited for the
13:30
show before it aired. Yep, that's right.
13:33
But like, I don't like to me now that this show is is first of
13:38
all dead and buried years ago. Like it's not it's not like this
13:42
Show's been on for five years. It's, it was like a thing that
13:45
happened that nobody like nobody cares about this, but I was
13:48
right, right? Yeah.
13:50
And it's like, so, we can sit around here and be like, well,
13:54
it could have been fun for Rolf to own a bar, but it wasn't no.
13:58
Thinking, oh yeah, no, I agree. I agree.
14:00
Although, I will say and here's another reason why I had to
14:03
laugh at the Roth acting like like a human dog hybrid joke is
14:08
like, that's that's dog City. That's one line from dog City.
14:12
Yeah, he's dark city. But it, that's true, but it's
14:15
had. And if that was, I don't Rob,
14:17
the only thing if that was, the only thing he did was be like,
14:20
like, hey guys, I got fleas or like, hey guys.
14:24
Like I just pooped on the sidewalk, then it's like, well,
14:26
no. Okay, that that's not Ralph
14:27
anymore. That's Just dog man.
14:29
But like it's one. Rolf had one line and that's why
14:33
I'm a gave them. I thought was pretty amusing.
14:35
Yeah, I guess I guess it honestly.
14:37
If he wasn't like ripping off and biting his stitches later it
14:42
wouldn't bother me as much. Yeah.
14:44
Yeah. That like we see him again and
14:45
he's like like literally like biting at his stitches like a
14:48
dog which okay he's a dog LOL but it's just they just don't
14:53
care about who Ralph is. Yeah that's it.
14:55
I just yeah. They were they were presented
14:56
with a set of characters that they've never Ever heard of and
14:59
if we're like, this one's attacking dog.
15:02
What do talking dogs do? I don't know talk about biting
15:05
themselves because they have stitches or whatever, you're
15:08
totally right. But so current Fozzie are there
15:11
at the bar. That's the setting.
15:13
That's the only reason that we're at the bars because they
15:15
have to have a location for them to have this conversation.
15:17
But Kermit wants to tell him that the sketches and going to
15:20
make it to are we find out what the sketches about it is about a
15:22
porcupine buying dress socks which again like fun to hear
15:27
them talk about. Never once funny.
15:29
Sure. It's right.
15:30
Funny enough for for a premise, not funny enough for real
15:34
television. But what if it was about a frog,
15:37
buying a t-shirt with his name on it.
15:38
Oh man. So that's the thing is like that
15:40
sounds like exactly the same amount of stupid.
15:44
And yet that sketch from Sesame Street is one of the greatest
15:48
things that has ever existed on the, the meeting.
15:50
Absolutely, yes. So Kermit can't bear to tell him
15:54
that the idea is not. It's not gonna make it to air.
15:56
So he tells him, it's so good. He should turn.
15:58
It into a movie. And honestly, I would watch a
16:01
movie about a porcupine buying dress socks.
16:04
Sure especially if the musical. So I don't want to sit around
16:10
bashing Steve Whitmire all day and I don't I feel like 25 years
16:14
of Steve Whitmire is Kermit brought us to the point where he
16:17
can't tell Fazio sketches bad. Yeah, I think we've talked
16:21
before about how like that like Steve's went Myers performances
16:26
Kermit has like it's very it was a very slow Evolution and here's
16:31
the thing I'm I'm all four characters change.
16:33
You know vaulting even even like you know as long as it doesn't
16:37
come out of nowhere, you know we shouldn't leave these characters
16:42
like in 1976 that doesn't work for me and I don't know that
16:45
works for sharing them alive so that I'm not complaining about
16:49
that part. But the fact that the way that
16:51
he evolved was so that Kermit, you know, they like Steve had
16:54
talked about things, like Kermit doesn't like ERM it doesn't, you
16:59
know, he doesn't try to trick his friends, you know, like
17:03
these. These are the kinds of things
17:04
that make Kermit feel a little too Mickey Mouse a little too
17:08
milquetoast. For sure, for sure.
17:10
This is a, this is a good example that especially because
17:12
in this series, we're seeing little Snippets of Kermit's
17:15
snarkiness kind of coming back. We don't see it so much in this
17:19
episode, but other episodes that, that, that we've seen, and
17:22
we'll see, you know, those little things of like the
17:26
frustration that Kermit feels well being a showrunner again,
17:29
like that stuff is coming back and this one was things where
17:31
like he could have had that snarky He could have, you could
17:34
have been a dick, but instead of Kermit is leaning toward the way
17:38
he's been since, you know, the mid-90s of like like, aw gee
17:42
whiz. Well, I guess I have to be the
17:44
nice guy here. Yeah.
17:47
And it's just I don't know. I mean I guess again if it was
17:51
funnier and be fine I'm sure. Yeah you're right it's not it's
17:56
not funny but I guess this is also Act One The Hope and I keep
18:00
talking about the hope as if it means anything.
18:02
What I hope is like Right. Well, we're setting it up for
18:04
something and something is going to pay off, but you know what
18:08
ends up happening is that Fozzie wants to now quit up late with
18:13
Miss Piggy so that he can write his screenplay.
18:16
Not, I don't know why he can't do both but, you know,
18:19
apparently, he's gotta quit his job.
18:22
He doesn't have time to be the Andy Richter.
18:25
The Andy McMahon. I'm happy.
18:27
He's gonna. But the scene or he quits does.
18:32
Have my favorite In this episode by far.
18:36
What was that? Which is when Sam, the Eagle
18:39
says, I for one will miss Fozzie.
18:41
He wasn't funny, but he kept it clean.
18:44
It's what is a really good sound?
18:46
Like that is a good sample. It and that's line is also
18:49
followed up with Bobo saying that he really felt like I had a
18:53
connection to Fozzie and scooter says oh it's because you're both
18:57
Bears, right? And Bible says, no, we were swim
19:00
buddies at the Y but where's the funny images?
19:03
Very Funny image. It is Fozzie and Bobo to
19:05
swimming laps for sure. I love that.
19:07
I love the fact that they bonded over something other than being
19:10
Bears. One thing I don't care for and I
19:13
talked about this a couple episodes ago with, you know, the
19:16
whole sequence of Fozzie meeting his girlfriend's parents and
19:19
like, the innate racism, that's put on two bears in that scene
19:23
because the his, his girlfriend's father hates bears
19:27
for some reason. Yeah.
19:28
Or at least hates the idea of his daughter dating a bear.
19:32
But here, it's like, Like scooter saying like like oh,
19:35
it's because you're but you both have the same skin color, right?
19:38
It's like, well yeah, that's yeah.
19:40
We're kind of like slipping those racist jokes into a show
19:43
about the, you know, starting the Muppets which I don't know
19:45
how I feel about that. Yeah, no you're right.
19:48
It's not it's not great and it's one of those things where like
19:53
our Muppet Bears, a distinct race like within the mother
19:57
world. Oh no, no, no.
19:59
I mean, they're the answer is was no up until 2015, when they
20:03
decide to make jokes about it, right?
20:05
True. Fair enough.
20:06
Fair enough. Yeah.
20:07
But to be fair, not. So now that I'm thinking about
20:09
it is, like, I think back to like the Muppet movie and like
20:12
Herman makes jokes about being a frog.
20:13
All the time. Other people make jokes about
20:14
being a frog, but the second that doc Hopper, Says like oh
20:18
you like like you frogs expand, don't you and he make Puffs as
20:21
with cheeks out, like, Kermit is insulted, you know.
20:25
So there's a line that you can't cross.
20:28
That's true. That's true.
20:29
Scooter is the doc Hopper of this episode.
20:34
He wants Bobo the bear to be his spokes bear for his bear meat
20:39
restaurant or else, he'll stop him.
20:43
Yeah, Vincent Price talked about eating bear meat in, front of
20:46
fuzzy, one time, when the Muppets hosted The Tonight Show,
20:49
remember that. I do remember that we talked
20:51
about that a couple episodes ago.
20:53
This on this podcast, that is way better than this.
20:56
We should just watch that again. He said and hey, if you haven't
20:59
already, everyone go listen to the episode of moving.
21:02
Right? Along the podcast, where we all
21:03
talk about the Muppets hosting the Tonight Show in 1979.
21:08
Yeah, awesome. So there's an interesting line
21:11
here to where Kermit, I'm sorry, Fozzie says you don't have to
21:16
believe. In me.
21:17
I believe in me. And then Kermit tells him that
21:20
the lines a little contrived and which is garbage because
21:24
everything in this is contracted, it's no, it's no.
21:28
No different than anything. Anyone says to anyone in this
21:31
terrible script. But here's the thing, like I was
21:34
thinking about the fact, okay, you don't have to believe in me.
21:36
I believe in me that seems like the kind of thing.
21:38
The Muppets have said over and over and over and over again.
21:41
Well, the two times that I've thought of, I thought of read
21:45
right away were in The Muppet Movie.
21:46
When Kermit talks about how his friends, you know, believe in
21:49
him, you know, in the desert scene, when he's talking with
21:51
himself and then in the 2011 Muppet movie Kermit is giving
21:56
his big speech too. To the all the Muppets.
21:59
And he says, I don't care what anyone says.
22:01
I don't care if No One Believes In us because I believe, I
22:04
believe in you and you, and you, and it's a very I think that's a
22:07
lovely scene. But the truth is, is like, that
22:09
is contract. It's always contrived that
22:12
believing in. Someone is means nothing, you
22:15
know, it's like, you can believe in Santa Claus, like it's and
22:18
there's no action in that. That's a thought in a prayer but
22:21
can I ask you something? Yeah, if just one person
22:25
believes in, Big enough and strong enough.
22:29
Okay, here we go. Yep, doesn't.
22:31
Doesn't that make you cry? I mean, it's a beautiful song.
22:35
It's a beautiful sentiment but I think it ultimately means very
22:40
little Anthony. I believe in you though.
22:44
Thanks, thanks. Joe.
22:45
What do you want to talk about next with Kermit and Fozzie?
22:48
Well I'll tell you is fawzi has a replacement that's true,
22:51
that's pretty good, it's pretty good, it's TVs.
22:53
Nick Offerman, Nick Offerman from making it for making it,
22:57
which is the best TV show ever want.
22:58
To go watch. It is also you've seen an
23:02
approximate creation and he was a voice in The Lego Movie, and
23:08
he also Muppet connection for him appeared in a viral video.
23:13
Made in 2014 with Cookie Monster and John Oliver.
23:17
They made. They made a video and Nick
23:18
Offerman has a little Cameo on that thing.
23:21
But so Nick Offerman is hired is as Fozzie's replacement.
23:24
We never actually get to see him as Fosters replacement which is
23:27
a shame but he does tell Kermit's current.
23:31
Well Kermit ask says to him, you know, we owe you one and he goes
23:36
great I will take a cappuccino machine.
23:39
Yeah which is, which is very funny.
23:40
That's a good joke. It was a very good jockey but he
23:42
liked it, he specifically. He's describing the one he
23:44
wants, he wants the big one, you know, the kind that you see in
23:46
restaurants that are run by Italian, Guys who've been in
23:49
this country long enough to speak English but don't, but
23:52
don't ya. And then later on, he comes back
23:56
his another scene and he says, come on, I'm sorry.
23:59
You know, I shouldn't have asked you for a cappuccino maker.
24:02
I want a boat and curve, it's like, I'm not buying you a boat.
24:06
He's like, it's not a big boat, it's just a Sloop.
24:08
And I'm going to call it cappuccino because, that way, I
24:11
sort of get both. But then he has a weird sense of
24:13
the Where he says, or I'll call it Janice and he kind of has a
24:16
little little moment with Janice like he's flirting with her.
24:21
Yeah, which is like that that is funnier than when Sam falls in
24:27
love with Janice and then we'll get to that soon spoiler
24:30
spoiler. Um but also like, I don't know
24:33
man, Nick Offerman is like famously married to a fellow
24:36
actor. Megan Mullally like everyone
24:38
knows it so it's like it also just plays like he's like, hey
24:44
Janice, I'll cheat on my wife with you you know like it's
24:47
funny I hadn't thought of that and I just I'm that that Nick
24:52
Offerman and Megan Mullally are like they just seemed to be so
24:56
sexually active that like it's okay.
24:58
I hate enough Janice was on your list like have fun hall pass,
25:02
you know? Sure, fair enough.
25:06
Anyway, he's great in. There's not enough of him in
25:07
this episode, it's a shame correct?
25:09
Correct. You should be doing sketches
25:12
with muffins, wouldn't that be nice?
25:15
It would but now we're left with Fozzie Bear.
25:19
Who is now moved to the woods. So he could write a screenplay
25:24
unsurprisingly, he is terrible at living out in the wild, he
25:28
swallows a bug, his tent flies away.
25:31
Oh man, that sceneries. That's another, that's another.
25:34
You the man thing where he swallows a bug and like since
25:37
they're hacking it up. Yep, it's not funny.
25:39
That goes on, it goes on forever and it's not, it's not even
25:43
remotely funny. It's just like, we need to fill
25:46
the time. This, this episode needs like
25:49
this. This is Two minutes and network
25:51
television and that's all it is like, yeah, yeah.
25:54
You're gonna go right and and you know, we get something where
25:57
the joke is Fozzie, Bear is not very good at being a bear and
26:01
that's it. That's the whole joke, they
26:02
don't care about the characters again, same thing.
26:05
Yeah, I do appreciate the fact that like I just assumed, you
26:09
know, I think of like Fozzie Bear is this.
26:11
The parts of this feel like the evolution of Fozzie Bear being
26:14
like a barrel. It can drive a Studebaker, it's
26:16
like he's a city bear you know. That doesn't really sure.
26:19
This is this is Kazi who In my basic Manhattan.
26:21
When he's like, sleeping in the cave with the other bears as
26:23
like, I don't know how to do. Yes.
26:25
But that's way fight like that said.
26:27
You say it's the same idea but that's a funny version.
26:30
Correct? Yes.
26:32
It's but like that, like him walking around.
26:34
This is one example of like there was a joke.
26:36
That's I thought started funny and did not so funny but he's
26:39
walking around the woods hungry. He didn't bring any food with
26:42
them because he could have sworn.
26:43
There was a Panda Express around here.
26:46
And then he goes, oh no. Wait, I'm thinking of the
26:48
Glendale Galleria, just your It's funny when he says, I
26:51
thought there was this fat Panda Express around here gets its are
26:54
just saying yes and then it's and then they do the same joke
26:56
again so they like explain it too loud.
27:00
So it stops being funny. Yes, not only that but the fact
27:04
that like, it's a very La specific joke and yeah, I get
27:08
that like I live in New York City and I watch TV shows and
27:11
movies. All the time that make New York
27:13
specific jokes that I think are hilarious and Anthony you live
27:18
in Missouri. I told him.
27:20
A useful in Missouri. Whoops, was the other I'm state.
27:23
You live in Minnesota. And I'm sure you hate when
27:26
people make when TV shows, make New York or La, jokes all the
27:31
time. I wouldn't, I wouldn't see that.
27:33
I hate it. It's just like often my reaction
27:37
is like, oh yeah, TV writers. Think everyone cares about this.
27:41
Yes. Like it's not like I'm like it's
27:43
not like I'm like how dare you make reference to traffic on the
27:46
George Washington Bridge. Like it's just like yes, is
27:50
this? Like oh.
27:51
Okay. You know.
27:52
Yeah but Fozzie spots some food tied up in a tree and he smells
27:58
Oreos. There's a nice little bit of
28:01
puppetry where he's jumping for it.
28:02
And his feet are wiggling as he's in the air.
28:05
Thankfully doesn't last too long because it's people find it
28:07
really creepy when they seem up at feet for some reason.
28:11
I don't I don't share that bad feeling.
28:13
I like to see him. Yeah I like the fuck you calling
28:17
Muppet feet and then what happens?
28:19
And then what happens to Phi Z while he has?
28:21
Tranquilized good? Jokes, funny comedy, Man. 3, get
28:25
started in the neck by a park ranger.
28:29
And and then we get one of my least favorite jokes at The
28:32
Muppets ever make is I do not like when Muppets make boy.
28:37
Am I drunk or boring? My high type of jokes?
28:40
Yeah, it's like the last. Into this episode and none of
28:42
it's like none of it. Like here.
28:45
Here's exactly what I put in my notes.
28:47
Tell me please, let me let me read it directly from my notes
28:50
Here. Read them verbatim for me.
28:52
Anthony I will read them verbatim fuzzy getting drugged
28:56
and acting drugged at the end is dumb and bad.
29:03
Yeah, it's not great. You know, he he's like stumbling
29:07
around, I will say like there's some good puppetry from Eric
29:09
Jacobson, like Fonzie looks like he's got Got a lot of weight to
29:12
him like because Kermit's kind of like holding his arm but you
29:17
know he's like looking for his hat but he's wearing his hat.
29:21
Yeah Fozzie asks Kermit have you ever been tranquilized and
29:25
Kermit says no but I did like my third cousin once and the walls
29:29
started melting. So I feel you bro and there's a
29:32
lot of I have a lot of questions about that too.
29:34
It's not, well, it's but it's like a joke that like is
29:38
supposed to seem edgy. Yeah, but like doesn't make any
29:43
sense at all because it's like kind of a drug reference and
29:47
kind of an incest joke, right? Why did he lick his cousin?
29:52
So there's this show called The Big Bang Theory.
29:55
Like, I don't know if you guys have talked about the Big Bang
29:58
Theory yet which had the same, I mean, Bill pretty was executive
30:01
producer of this, who was the showrunner of The Big Bang
30:04
Theory for many years. We can't pretend that.
30:07
There's the two shows are not more closely related than the
30:11
Joe and and this right, correct? Um, but like they did a joke
30:15
where they're all like pâté they'd like pot cookies and
30:19
they're all laying around giggling, you know?
30:22
I mean every sitcom has done that, right?
30:23
It's like your classic. It was good, it was good.
30:25
When taxi, did it was good when Barney Miller get it, it was
30:28
less good when the Big Bang Theory did it.
30:32
But of course, of course, one of the things that they have the
30:35
characters say is Howard is like lost my virginity to my cousin.
30:41
And my second cousin law. It's the same crap.
30:45
It's just stuck garbage, like, sitcom writers room like this
30:50
has the Cadence of a joke, nothing.
30:53
It's, yeah, this show makes me so mad.
30:56
Joe. I could tell.
30:58
But, and but like this awful joke, also like specifically the
31:01
show of Kermit's. It's the same thing as like the
31:04
wrong thing where it's like someone saw on a piece of paper.
31:06
This character is a frog and like, great.
31:08
Let's make a frog joke. I don't know some fun.
31:11
Not poisonous. So there you go.
31:13
Like that's that's the whole joke as looking to Ackerman.
31:16
It is everything with being a frog.
31:19
Right, like every home and and I do again, I do think the show
31:23
got better about this as it went on.
31:25
Yeah, but I agree like at this point it's just every character
31:30
is Yeah, I don't know, like it's one of those things where you
31:36
watch, you watch the middle seasons of The Simpsons.
31:40
And it seems like the writers have no idea who the characters
31:44
are anymore. Hmm.
31:46
And then you watch the like the later like 20 something, you
31:50
know, 30-something now seasons of The Simpsons.
31:53
Yeah, it reached a point where eventually, the writers were
31:56
fans who had grown up with the show and even though the writing
31:59
is not up to the level of the, of the classic, here's the
32:02
characters feel more like themselves because the writers
32:05
like know the rhythms of what the Simpsons is.
32:10
That is what the, to the Jason Segel and extol.
32:13
Our movies are right? Like like those guys know, the
32:16
rhythms of what the Muppets are and this is the middle Seasons
32:21
where like they just hired people who write TV shows,
32:24
right? Don't ya don't know, the
32:26
characters. So here's, here's my big
32:28
question. This is where the episode ends
32:30
for these characters and they are leaving the woods.
32:34
Now pause, he's completely drugged-up.
32:36
We assume the Kermit is going to drive him home.
32:38
So what are they doing with Fozzie's car?
32:40
There's leaving it in the woods, he's got that, great convertible
32:44
but like Kermit can't drive two cars at the same time.
32:47
They never answer this question and we'll never know.
32:49
It's very upsetting. That's my only problem with this
32:54
script. All right.
32:55
So that that's a story. That's our a plot here.
32:58
Let's go to one of our be plots. So Christina Applegate is a
33:04
guest star on up late with Miss Piggy, she's being interviewed
33:07
by Piggy. And by the way, Christina
33:10
Applegate's. Well, known for her role as
33:13
Kelly Bundy on Married with Children.
33:15
She was in the the, to Anchorman movies.
33:18
She's currently on the TV show, dead to me, which is phenomenal.
33:21
And she is just like spectacular on this show.
33:25
Don't forget that. She didn't tell Mom.
33:27
The babysitter was dead. She didn't tell, mom mom had to
33:30
find out all of them. She didn't tell her, but she
33:35
also appeared in 2009, was in the word on the day segment, on
33:39
Sesame Street. She explained the word booth
33:42
with Elmo and then the following year, probably in the same photo
33:46
shoot or video shoot, she appeared on Shalom Sesame home
33:51
video explaining the word, shalom.
33:54
Oh fun. The title that the titular word.
33:58
If only the show was called Shalom Booth, then she would
34:00
have had the Monopoly on all those shoes.
34:05
Like those. I like those Shalom.
34:07
Sesame videos though, man, I do, I learned a lot, did you?
34:11
Yeah, that's good to know. We should do a whole podcast
34:13
about Shalom Sesame then it shows the way he better than
34:16
this. All right, everyone should just
34:18
go watch a lime Sesame and forget about the Muppets.
34:21
There is nothing in 16 episodes that approach.
34:24
Has that the level of matzah in the house?
34:29
Great. I actually, I actually totally
34:30
would do a podcast about some Sesame, I think they'll be
34:32
fascinating. But in any case, Shalom, Sesame
34:36
of chum Sesame, good, Lord, get it off your brain drain.
34:39
Christina Applegate, she she is being interviewed by picking and
34:43
she surprises piggy with a video from her baby, shower of piggy,
34:49
stumbling into the, into the room, face-planting into a cake
34:53
falling. Backwards tugging on the
34:56
tablecloth tablecloth with the cake on it.
34:59
Falls on top of piggy. Presumably and piggy looks super
35:02
embarrassed and vows revenge on Christina Applegate.
35:07
So that's that premise. It happens, you sure does.
35:12
But then but also right before we go to the to the opening
35:16
titles, Gonzo turns to Kermit and says, like I told you, you
35:20
wouldn't approve it and laughs. He's like, ha ha ha.
35:23
Well, the joke that he makes, which I appreciate the Cadence.
35:26
At least of this is gonzo says like, oh, I knew that you
35:30
wouldn't, you wouldn't like it. So, I went over your head Kermit
35:33
says, but I'm the boss, he goes, oh, well, then I went behind
35:36
your back. Yeah.
35:38
Redwood that. That's pretty good but it's
35:40
getting late Cadence. Yeah.
35:42
Look, great deal goals knows what he's doing.
35:45
Yeah. Yep.
35:47
The man's a legend. But but no, like, Gonzo went
35:52
behind Kermit's back to get him some material on the air and it
35:56
was Christina Applegate. Showing an embarrassing video
36:00
from her baby shower, right? Because most of the motivation
36:06
behind a lot of the Shirts on that are working on up late with
36:10
Miss Piggy. Is that they hate Miss Piggy,
36:12
right? Because everyone hates each
36:14
other on this, right? But like gone.
36:16
So I'm normally like it would be like if it was a weird or if it
36:19
was about art, or his view of what art is, then that would
36:24
make sense, but it's not, it's just like, hey Piggy, fall down.
36:27
Go, boom. Right, exactly.
36:30
Because yeah, I mean we'll talk more about Gonzo not being done
36:33
so I guess later, but sure. But that's just another example
36:37
of it, you know? Yeah, absolutely.
36:40
And then, in our next scene, there's a brief moment where the
36:43
Swedish Chef is asking, Christina Applegate for an
36:46
autograph. She says, who should I make it
36:49
out to? And he says, Meghan.
36:52
I don't be saying Meegan or Megan or Megan.
36:55
I think yeah, I don't know. But Says it was that your wife
37:00
your daughter? And he's like, no, no, Megan
37:02
Megan. Me and he's putting himself and
37:04
she goes. Oh, it's you like oh hey Live
37:05
Your Truth and he does like a like a RuPaul snap and kind of
37:08
says you go girl and so here's the thing I assumed or again
37:13
going back to Hope. I hoped that this was just a
37:15
joke that we didn't get that. Maybe he's saying something else
37:18
in Swedish that she just assumes that he's saying a name and
37:22
misinterpret that as as like a female name, I have a really
37:27
good friend who is Swedish And obviously because he was born
37:31
and raised in Sweden, he speaks it fluently so I sent him that
37:34
clip and I was like is he saying like like oh it's for me or is
37:38
he saying like I'm going to sell it on eBay or whatever and my
37:41
friend was like no it's like it mean if we're looking at it from
37:44
a Swedish standpoint it's complete gibberish.
37:46
So really it's just that Swedish Chef is saying that his name is
37:49
Megan and that's right. That's so apparently.
37:53
So the but like a pet but then a pit like she says like Live Your
37:57
Truth girl or whatever. And then like you say he does
37:59
the RuPaul snap so it's like the joke.
38:03
I'm putting heavy air quotes around joke is what if Swedish
38:08
Chef trans LOL? That's it.
38:11
Guess we had a joke, a couple episodes ago where you know Pepe
38:17
said something about like gender being fluid and, you know, like
38:21
I get like we're trying to be open-minded and tolerant and
38:26
accepting, you know, for 2015. Sitcom, but like, I don't know
38:30
if that's necessarily the way to do it, especially like, as a, as
38:33
a one-off joke that is never brought up again, like, right,
38:37
right. It's just, it just seems like, I
38:41
mean, the joke is essentially like, gender identity law.
38:44
All right, like, right, it's ugly, it's Nia.
38:48
If it does not work, it doesn't add anything to who the Swedish
38:51
Chef is, it doesn't, it's not, it's not a funny joke, it's a
38:55
little shocking, I guess, I guess, you might laugh because
38:58
it's shocking. But yeah, it doesn't.
39:01
It doesn't work. Yeah, this show is bad.
39:05
So next, Miss Piggy wants to hire not hire.
39:10
She wants to recruit scooter to help her get revenge on
39:15
Christina Applegate. So he's, you know, he's been
39:17
spying on her and she's not doing anything that interesting
39:21
but I will say I like the pairing of Piggy and scooter.
39:29
In this way if only because this is historically the piggy and
39:32
scooter relationship, right, right.
39:35
It's that it's the Dom DeLuise episode, it's the yeah, that'll
39:37
and con episode, right? Yeah, exactly.
39:39
I wrote down Dom DeLuise episode of scooter, pays off the
39:42
audience to applaud for Big E and then loudly.
39:46
So they Kermit will here says something that along lines that
39:49
like, Miss B has a great offer for another show so you know,
39:54
Kermit will appreciate her more and then in the Avery Schreiber
39:57
episode. Piggy gets scooter to spread the
40:00
rumor that Avery. Schreiber is in love with her,
40:02
right? Yeah.
40:04
What happens in the middle and kind of sober mind me, maybe,
40:07
okay. I think I was thinking of the
40:09
Dom DeLuise episode, okay? Because I think of that, I
40:11
thought that the job offer was Madeline Kahn.
40:14
Yeah, for sure, I guess not, so I appreciate that.
40:17
It doesn't really pay off especially because the end to
40:21
this this go. Nowhere storyline is that
40:24
scooter is delivering a cake to Christina Applegate with the
40:29
Nation that like I guess he was going to throw it in her face or
40:32
something and he was going to film it and you ever seen
40:36
Applegate feels bad for him. Like we all feel bad for him and
40:39
everyone on the show and she's like, well I don't want you to
40:43
get fired. So she she puts her face in the
40:45
cake. It would be very easy for me to
40:48
say like, oh, on The Muppet Show Piggy and Christina Applegate
40:51
would have just had a song together and that's like how
40:55
their rivalry would be. You know, sort it out or
40:58
whatever, which is true. But I don't even mean to sit
41:01
around here and talk only about the Muppet Show because, like,
41:04
in a few episodes, they're going to do something pretty similar
41:07
with Reese Witherspoon. Yes, which does resolve with
41:10
Piggy, singing a song, right? Because they learned that, like
41:13
that's what should happen. That's what the Muppets do, you
41:17
know? Yeah.
41:18
And I think that helps, that one feel better than feel just like,
41:21
more natural than this one. Yeah, yeah, this just like it
41:26
just isn't as Story arc like nobody, nobody learns anything,
41:29
nobody changes. Nobody has, there's really not
41:31
much action in here. It's just like Miss Piggy is
41:35
like, like hates, you know, some lady and then Miss Piggy gets
41:40
arrested at the end. And that's it, right?
41:43
And don't and don't forget that. Miss Piggy also says sex it to
41:47
misaki boys. Oh I forgot about that sketch.
41:50
You already forgot because you block, you locked it out.
41:53
I did I did yeah. Christina Applegate talking
41:56
about piggies. Japanese commercials where the
41:59
catchphrase is suck suck. Suck it to me sexy boys, which
42:04
is like okay, that's kind of a cute joke, like that piggy has
42:07
to say that in commercials or whatever.
42:09
But then piggy says, actually, it was sex it to me Sake, boys.
42:15
Which like only makes sense if you've heard the other thing
42:18
right before, And also isn't funny and isn't a commercial
42:24
slogan, Not only that, but all it made me want to want is to
42:28
see Miss Piggy and like when was really bizarre Japanese
42:31
commercials like waited quick and they just show us the
42:34
commercial, right? Like like like like honestly
42:37
this whole show would be better if it was formatted like 30 Rock
42:41
instead of the office. Yeah.
42:42
And they did and they did cutaways to stuff like that.
42:45
Instead of just describing 30 Rock probably also would have
42:48
liked if not done a cutaway like that which I You're right.
42:51
They would have tossed it during the credits like they're like,
42:55
well the kids are running for sure, piggy for sure commercial.
42:57
Yeah, yeah. Well let's move on to the third
43:02
and final story line here is what we can be done, talking
43:05
about this up. Alright, this is about Gonzo,
43:09
he's really into online dating because that was in the press
43:12
release loves this in the press release for this show.
43:15
So I guess we have to follow up with that.
43:16
Oh, that makes them against. Yeah, look how lit.
43:18
Look how hip and modern you like.
43:20
I mean, I think you also Met Your Wife online, current know I
43:25
did. Yes.
43:27
And I like I met my wife online in 2009.
43:31
Which is six years before this and like we weren't, we weren't
43:35
Trailblazers, you know, this this wasn't like this wasn't
43:39
like a hot new thing. No in 2009.
43:41
So so it certainly wasn't in 2015.
43:43
That's just like how people meet each other the shape.
43:45
Yeah. Yeah.
43:47
It's not weird. It doesn't, it doesn't fit Gonzo
43:49
at all but no nothing nothing about like this Gonzo's role in
43:57
this should be played by scooter.
43:59
Well that's yeah, that's interesting.
44:01
Yeah. I can see that.
44:02
Well, yeah, every woman desperate everything about it
44:04
would make sense. Yeah.
44:05
Yeah. He's desperate.
44:07
He wouldn't. He be worried about like what?
44:08
Some girl would think of them, right?
44:10
Like I can also see this as like a bobo storyline because Bobo's
44:14
sure. Yeah.
44:14
That's Bobo and Cindy Crawford. That's exactly.
44:16
As yep. So I did a freeze frame on
44:21
gunsels profile. He uses a photo of Liam
44:24
Hemsworth as his own partially because Liam Hemsworth is a very
44:30
good-looking gentleman. Partially because they hired him
44:33
to actually appear in this episode.
44:34
So it gets the they that's that's how they landed on Liam,
44:37
right? And I think he's, I think he's
44:39
fine like he's very game. Yeah, sure.
44:41
Happy to be this fine. He doesn't really do anything
44:44
funny, but he's, yeah, he's the second best Hemsworth.
44:50
I like the one. I like the one who plays Thor in
44:53
the play in Thor Ragnarok. You mean, Luke Hemsworth.
44:57
I like that guy. He mean the one who I didn't
44:59
know who he was, but I knew he was probably someone famous.
45:02
So I had to Google him that that, yes, that was me too.
45:06
That's why. That's why I like them.
45:08
He is truly the an Cusack of Australia.
45:17
Luke Hemsworth is NQ s. I'm just saying.
45:20
Liam is John, come on? Yes.
45:22
Liam is the John Cusack? Sure.
45:25
Yeah. No, you're totally right.
45:26
You're totally right. Because because Chris is Joan,
45:29
obviously? Yes.
45:30
Because junkies like is the greatest.
45:31
Yes. You're totally.
45:32
Totally right. She's great.
45:33
They're both great. The website that Gonzo was using
45:38
for for his online dating. It's full of missed
45:41
opportunities. I wrote down everything that I
45:43
could, I could find in the freeze frame.
45:46
When we see his profile, the website is called leap for love
45:50
with the number four, not a joke, just a thing that they
45:53
made up his profile. Name is gonzo loves love.
45:57
Love a spell to separate different ways in that and then
46:02
you know in the whole description of what he looks
46:04
like. It's all probably Liam Hemsworth
46:06
stats. So he's 6 foot 3 by type is buff
46:10
and then everything else is like Kind of like Gonzo light again.
46:14
Like if you had read like a brief description of who Gonzo
46:18
is so it's things. I like art and pain things.
46:22
I dislike nothing. I see a use for the stupidest
46:25
things especially the stupidest things.
46:28
Not really that funny. It might be funny.
46:30
If Dave goes said it though, is the thing.
46:33
Yeah, maybe I don't know but he didn't.
46:35
We just saw written down in like a two second flashback flyby on
46:40
the screen and then it says 50. Words that describe me Outsider
46:44
independent, Fearless Soulful. Okay, is that five?
46:51
And and that's it. None of it's a joke.
46:55
No, no. You're right.
46:55
Just like missed opportunities. It's like you very missed
46:59
opportunities. Yeah.
47:01
So, the girl that he has matched with that, he's been chatting
47:05
with her name is Debbie. I'm reasonably sure, that that
47:09
is a reference to Debbie McClellan, who is the former
47:13
vice president of Muppet studio. She was an executive producer on
47:18
this project, she started working with the Muppets,
47:21
according to the Muppet, Wiki she started around 1999.
47:25
Her first on-screen credit is assistant to Brian Henson.
47:29
Muppets from space. I don't know.
47:32
She was working with them before that or not, but she very soon.
47:35
After quickly after became a producer on most of the mother
47:39
projects from like the early 2000s, all the way up to 2019.
47:44
So she's been very prominent with the Muppets for a very long
47:49
time. I assumed it was a reference to
47:51
Dave goals as wife, young adult. Deborah goals.
47:54
Oh that's interesting. I didn't thought of that I think
47:57
that's just as likely. Yeah that's what I assumed but I
48:01
don't really well. I'm care.
48:02
She goes by Deborah. You know she doesn't go by
48:04
Debbie so maybe not. Well in any case so Pepe and
48:10
Gonzo you know convinced I'm sorry.
48:11
Puppy and Rizzo convinced. Gonzo that maybe it was a bad
48:13
idea to lead this girl astray and this whole thing is just
48:18
like it's super icky. I don't believe that Gonzo would
48:22
would do this. This to a woman deliberately
48:26
like he's like and it's not, not because he's being weird.
48:29
It's not because he's being artistic, it's not because he's
48:32
being a crazy guy. It's because like, he's sad and
48:36
lonely and thinks he's ugly and I guess like season, one Muppet
48:41
Show, Gonzo is a little sad and lonely, and thinks he's ugly.
48:44
But, like, that's not really the same guy that we would that we
48:47
would come to know and love over the like, you know, the rest of
48:50
the 70s and 80s, especially through today.
48:53
Yeah. He's beat like once again, he's
48:55
being Raj from The Big Bang Theory.
48:58
Sure. I don't want it to show, but
49:00
that's yeah, that she was not that good either Joe.
49:04
But you know what, you know what's really, you know, what's
49:07
really sad that she was better than this one by far.
49:12
So Gonzo and Rizzo and pepe go to the bar, they meet up with
49:15
Liam Hemsworth. Somehow they convince him, you
49:18
know, they trick him into thinking, he's going to be on up
49:20
late with Miss Piggy, but really they're just hanging out at
49:22
Ralph's, Tavern. And they convinced Liam to go on
49:27
a date with Destiny. Debbie and then like somehow
49:32
convince Debbie that she actually wants to be with Gonzo.
49:36
It's not really clear what their plan is and I don't think it
49:38
really matters because Debbie shows up and first of all, you
49:43
know, she's like a humanoid-looking puppet.
49:46
Nothing interesting about her. I guess she's pretty for for a
49:51
puppet and, you know, we just a couple episodes ago met Denise
49:57
Kermit's girlfriend. And you know, these are two new
50:01
female characters that were created for this show that are
50:04
both. They both only exist as love
50:06
interest for a previously established male character and
50:10
they're both super Bland and couldn't tell you anything about
50:14
either one of their personalities.
50:17
So there's a pattern here unfortunately, although although
50:20
that does remind me that the best carrot like one of my
50:24
favorite characters on the show and gets a couple chances to
50:27
shine in. This episode is Yolanda.
50:29
Yeah, Yolanda is great. Like I you Yolanda was so funny
50:34
on this show and in this episode it starts with her talking or
50:37
she needs to break up with a possum.
50:41
Who's who she says is disgusting.
50:43
Not because he's a possum, but because he's in and the ties, I
50:47
had the will of that. The way Julian butcher says
50:50
advertising is so funny and then she also gets to brag about her
50:55
be average in night school later which I also laughed.
50:59
Yeah, like yeah, no, I'm sure you'll Londa and way less but
51:03
again like yeah, that's a character that we'd seen before
51:07
but not really, you know, like She was in boasting Manhattan
51:12
with a different performer. She was in Muppet classic
51:14
theater with the same performer, but, um, but like she's kind of
51:20
a blank slate. So like she's allowed to just be
51:22
a funny weird character, but we're not, not only that, but
51:25
Yolanda feels like a muppet. Like she like she would fit in
51:29
like this version of Yolanda would fit in on The Muppet Show
51:32
already in the movies or like any like a random commercial or
51:36
TV appearance. That would make like she very
51:38
much feels like she's a part of this tube and has Ben, you know,
51:41
for the entire time whereas like we would never have said that
51:44
about, you know, Denise Kermit's girlfriend, you know?
51:49
Right, right. Yeah, right and and and like,
51:53
again, speaking of like, before the show came out, it was like a
51:56
new Muppet Pig Denise's, the world will bow before Denise,
52:02
you know, and then you'll wanna just kind of like slipped in
52:05
there. And like, is the start of yeah,
52:07
shouldn't the Yolanda show. Go to watch that.
52:10
Yeah, so Liam Hemsworth goes on a date with Debbie.
52:14
Yeah. S.
52:15
You know, if I didn't look this handsome, would you still go out
52:19
of me? Like what if I looked like that
52:20
guy and kind of gestures towards Gonzo and she's like, I mean,
52:24
yeah, you know. Sure.
52:25
And then suddenly he's like, oh well, someone likes me and it's
52:29
not for my looks, and he asks, her out on a real date and they
52:33
leave and, and that's it. So, Gonzo ends up, sad and
52:36
alone, that's how that story ends.
52:40
So or Gonzo just to recap of the three stories that we have going
52:44
on here. One of them ends with the one of
52:47
the characters being drugged and basically carried out, one of
52:50
them ends with one of the characters being arrested and
52:53
the third one ends with a character being left alone in
52:57
dejected after having tried to trick a woman into dating him,
53:01
like this is a downer. This is a downer of an episode.
53:06
Yeah. You know what you convinced me?
53:09
This is worse than that, although I should have put this
53:11
number 50. Wow, this is this is the worst
53:16
episode of Television ever made. Wow, so let me ask you a couple
53:21
of questions. First of all, was there anything
53:23
that we that we skipped? Because we kind of ran over a
53:27
few of these. We didn't we didn't talk about.
53:30
We didn't talk about chip who is in heard it like this version of
53:33
chili. Yeah.
53:34
Reduced here for sure. But but that's me, but that's
53:37
because all he does is, do the same joke three times, which is
53:41
someone says, who are you? And he says, I'm chip.
53:43
I'm the IT guy, which is like again, Dave goals is great
53:47
Manilow day. Yeah.
53:48
But like, there's obviously there's no studio audience on
53:51
this show, but it's such a like say the same line throughout the
53:55
episode. So that the audience goes nuts,
53:58
that joke that says, bazinga is, I'm chip the ATI.
54:01
Yeah, it's totally his Bazinga. Like, again again, on the
54:06
Another Big Bang Theory thing that this reminds me of, okay,
54:09
there's an episode in season 3 of that show where Howard and
54:12
Raj, go out on a date with two goth girls.
54:15
And one of them keeps saying me too.
54:19
Not that anyone cares or like something else.
54:22
Not that anyone cares. And it's like not a joke but the
54:26
audience laughs every time. Sure.
54:28
So it must be a joke because the audience is telling us it's
54:30
yeah. And yeah, yeah.
54:32
And that's what I'm chip. I'm the, IT guy is.
54:34
So here's one thing. I appreciated about it is I
54:38
always think about the fact that like after after the show people
54:41
least Muppet fans were talking about Chippewa.
54:43
People really liked chip and I wonder if a part of it is
54:47
because he got to say his name and and and his job for X.
54:53
This is the, I'm Chevy Chase. And you're not like, he just say
54:56
your name and people are going to love you.
54:59
But we should also say chip was is a puppet who is designed
55:03
after Bill prady is supposed to look like Bill prayed.
55:06
And he was created for the Jim Henson our which Bill pretty
55:11
important part of the band of part of the band of Pirates Who
55:15
bust in and take over the airwaves, right.
55:18
And he's got this like Egghead looking shape, like he's
55:21
definitely a geeky looking dude. But he's got this cool thing
55:23
that I really like. We're his pupils blank like his
55:28
eyes, don't blink. But the pupils do.
55:30
Yeah. Right in the it's like tits.
55:32
Like to have like a little white film that goes over the tiny
55:35
puke? Yeah.
55:35
Yeah. Yeah, it's weird.
55:36
So I white for just like a split second, right?
55:39
Yeah. It's super weird and I just like
55:40
that it's different. You know, I appreciate that.
55:44
And yeah, it gives Dave goals are reason to be funny like to
55:47
give Dave goals, any puppet and let him go nuts and it's, that's
55:51
great. But yes, this is the injured,
55:54
our introduction to the new and improved chip and we'll be
55:57
seeing more of him throughout the rest of this season and
55:59
still chip was on my boots. Now, like, that's true.
56:05
That's true. He stole the idea.
56:07
One of the elements of this show that one of the elements of this
56:10
show that survived. That's right, along with like
56:11
Uncle deadly and Miss Piggy team.
56:13
Yeah, that's a good point. So Chip is here to stay.
56:16
Yeah, so Anthony I think we've kind of covered this several
56:21
times but now that you've Revisited this episode several
56:25
times now, how does it compare to your very first viewing five
56:29
years ago? It's so much worse than like,
56:35
I'm in again. Don't like, like I said, at the
56:37
start, like I, even after this one, I'm sure.
56:39
I was like, mmm. Actually, this is good.
56:43
I like the Muppets. So, I must like, this untrue
56:49
untrue and it, but like, I'll see this, like, I think I would
56:54
because I think this show broke me.
56:56
Because like, I've been pretty cynical about new Muppet stuff
57:00
ever. Since like, Muppets now came
57:03
out, like, I only watched one of them and I was just like this
57:06
show is nothing. You know what it is like with
57:09
this one. I like I watched everyone and I
57:11
was like it's going to get better.
57:11
It's so the Muppets will not let me down I because I love the Jim
57:16
Henson. Our I love the Muppets tonight
57:17
like you know. So I wanted to be like my
57:21
bitches will always be my friend.
57:23
Well, don't forget to like we're still coming off the high and
57:26
Muppets Most Wanted. I wanted which I know was, was
57:28
rules not like it wasn't a success of a movie but yeah, no,
57:33
no, I agree. Like it was, it's a great movie.
57:35
And so we were hoping I was like, okay, well then you know
57:37
they're still finding their footing with with going back to
57:39
TV. But like we know, they can be
57:41
good, they were just in a thing like the other day were just
57:44
right, right, right? Like like I remember talking to
57:48
either your Ryan, probably both at the time. about like, The
57:55
Muppets like, even if they never do anything ever again, like,
58:00
will still have like these two good movies.
58:03
And then like, I remember like saying, like in a good TV show
58:06
because I was like, I just knew sure.
58:08
Yeah. It was like pre-emptive like
58:10
like the, this is the Muppet Renaissance.
58:12
Muppets Most Wanted is great. The Muppets is great.
58:15
That feature film. The Muppets is great to the
58:18
sitcom, you know? And that's not, that's no false
58:24
go on. On is just as good.
58:26
Go on everyone. Go find go on.
58:28
It's like streaming somewhere but watch the watch the, Goon it
58:31
Sprout, the Goon is probably on Crackle or to be or something or
58:36
just someone uploaded all the Vimeo it's just there they don't
58:39
care. They're gonna been trying to
58:40
make money off of go on anyway. Well this has been this has been
58:45
great. Anthony, thank you so much for
58:46
joining us for this podcast. Hey, you folks out there, if you
58:50
want to learn more about Muppets or read more of the things that
58:54
people Like Anthony and myself, right?
58:57
Please go to topics.com. Go visit us on Twitter at tough
59:02
pigs or Facebook at tough pigs. Or Instagram at tough pigs, and
59:08
be sure to listen to all the fun podcast episodes that we have on
59:12
this channel, including 15 seconds to curtain, which is our
59:16
interview series with notable Muppet fans, as well as the
59:20
podcast series moving right along featuring Anthony and our
59:24
colleague, right? In row, as they review Muppet
59:27
movies, 2 minutes at a time and talk about it a lot and please
59:32
be sure to give us good ratings and subscribe and tell all your
59:36
friends and all that fun stuff that we say at the end of every
59:39
podcast and make sure you tune in for more talk, where were
59:44
bashing up 2015? Muppets sitcom right here on the
59:49
Bob is the sitcom the podcast. Thanks everybody and goodbye.
59:55
Goodbye. Goodbye.