Muppets Go Boom

After my initial analysis of The Muppets, I’ve continued watching, and come to the conclusion that one thing missing from the new show is incredible levels of violence.

The reality in which the Classic Muppets lived was both plastic and volatile.  Muppets were always being eaten, blown up, transformed, annihilated, stretched, kicked, shot, duplicated, and having their heads smashed by mallets.

On The Muppets, very little of this is going on.  A recent episode was built around the idea that Gonzo wanted to be shot from a cannon in an epic stunt.  There was the moment when Gonzo began to experience Doubt, followed by Cancellation, Revelation, Decision, and then the moments when Gonzo actually went through with it and landed in the tiny pool of water he was actually aiming at.

Whereas Gonzo should in fact have been shot through several windows, been hammered by industrial machinery, used as a puck by hockey players, zoomed through the bedroom of a Recognizable TV Star, bounced off a moving vehicle, been used as a shuttlecock in a badminton game, dived down a coal chute, been blown out of the smokestack of a power plant, and then landed in the pool of water.

It could have been epic, but instead it was just another predictable sitcom moment.  Again, there was no reason for the character to be a Muppet— Zack Galafianakis could have played the part just fine.

The Muppets need to be in another reality, where this kind of stuff can happen.  There can be a plot, too, I suppose, but one of the basic rules of Muppetdom is that one thing can at any moment become another thing, particularly if enough force is involved.   If the Muppets are in a sitcom, I want it to be a sitcom in which the rules of the sitcom are continually being violated, along with the rules of physics, chemistry, and plausibility.

It’s not like I normally recommend this kind of thing, but basically everyone on the show needs to do a lot more acid. Waka waka!