Sesame Street has long been in the pop culture parody business; in fact that’s basically it’s whole model, come up with concepts that will educate children but also entertain adults. But lately, they’re becoming kings of the genre, with Mad Men, 30 Rock and, most recently, True Blood parodies. And now they’ve moved even further from the mainstream with their version of Old Spice’s “Smell Like a Man” campaign:
Between Grover and Justine Bateman we’re feeling really uncool.
And apparently three-year olds can’t be exposed to breasts but they can watch a parody of a show that is ostensibly an excuse for soft-core porn. I guess this spoof of True Blood is one of those segments that’s really for the adults, because it’s be a sad state of affairs if today’s parents let their kids see Stephen Moyer’s penis, but not the suggestion of Katy Perry’s cleavage.
To be fair, this follows in the proud tradition of Sesame Street’s 30 Rock and Mad Men parodies, two series that are also NSFC. And they really captured Anna Paquin’s essence.
He would have been 74 years young today. Wonder what it he would have thought of all this hoopla over Katy Perry’s breasts. My guess is he wouldn’t have objected. It’s a shame it has to mar his day.
(sidenote: never thought I’d be able to tag a post with “Jim Henson” and “breasts.” Just goes to show that anything is possible).
I know it’s kinda fashionable to rag on Katy Perry, and she’s certainly no Brendan Fraser when it comes to acting in front of a green screen, but she’s good fun and so is this Sesame Street‘d version of “Hot & Cold.”
However, did her co-star have to be Elmo? That Muppet wouldn’t know what to do with a woman if he (?) had an instruction manual. When’s Bert going to catch a break?
And, come to think of it, if you didn’t love Jim Henson already then you probably hate this blog (and we hate you).
Everyone’s favorite PBS affiliate, Iowa Public Television, has unearthed a charming video from 1969 featuring Jim Henson teaching local Ioawans how to craft their own homemade Muppets. Watching this little gem, it’s no wonder that the Muppets just years later make Henson a household name. I’d like to attempt one of these little guys, but I think there’s just something special about Henson that brings the creatures to life. Just as soon as he slips his hand in they seem to become living, breathing entities. Also, eyes really help.
This reminds me, if you’re still looking for a birthday gift for me (only 2 months left!), I’m still hoping for one of these.
Just going to do a little bit of Muppet housekeeping and get out a couple overdue Kermit & Co related items as we head into the long weekend.
First, as widely reported last week (thanks, Yahoo! News), the original Kermit the Frog and some of Jim Henson’s other early creations have been donated to the Smithsonian, where they will sit alongside another more modern Kermit that has been on display for several years. Many of the Muppets, including Kermit, are from Henson’s local DC television show Sam and Friends, which you may remember from “The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years” (because I certainly wasn’t around to see it when it originally aired in 1955). Scroll to about three minutes to see the Sam and Friends clips:
When there’s a crossover between two or more of our favorite things, like here, we like to think of it in terms of the intersection on a Venn diagram, where something awesome meets something equally awesome. However, College Humor went ahead and took that idea a bit further, creating a Venn diagram by parsing out just one thing we love, that thing, of course being the Muppets. Below, the Muppet Names Etymology:
I feel silly for never seeing this before. And I have a human name. So I guess I’d fall into the top left intersection. Very illuminating.
Coming up next week: More Muppet news and/or links and/or old videos!
Ten years ago you were the object of affection of every girl in my AP European History class, and the envy of every guy (well, not every guy). Then the constant giggling became kinda annoying, and then you went and made Taxi, and then you became sort of a joke. And, to be completely honest, we were pretty skeptical when you were named Conan O’Brien’s Late Night successor. Like the homecoming king who left the hometown only to flame out and return to work in his dad’s hardware store.
But damn if you haven’t gone and totally redeemed yourself. But this isn’t really about you. Rather, this isn’t really about your show. We talked enough about that. This is about you, once again, recognizing something brilliant. In this case it’s the maze of pipes hidden inside of Studio 6B dressing room decorated by Jim Henson and his confederates 40 years ago, before an appearance on Jack Paar’s Tonight Show. Fallon, love him or loathe him, appreciated the genius and made good on his promise to put the installation behind glass, and now the pipe-art is a new stop on the NBC Studio tour, as Fallon, along with Yoda, er, Frank Oz shows us here:
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And, just to show that the more things change the more they stay the same, and that everything is cyclical, here’s a 30 year-old video of Henson giving a tour of the pipes to Gene Shalit (!). And look at that mop on Brokaw!
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Guess I’ll have to go on the Studio tour now. Even though it’ll be awkward to return to network headquarters after NBC brass screwed me over and took my show away.
Many years ago two of my greatest, if not my two greatest, passions united in a music video. I speak of course of Weezer and the Muppets, joining forces for the “Keep Fishin’” music video. Unfortunately, by that time Weezer was already on their way to retroactively ruining the fanatical affection I harbored for them during my high school years. The union was still unimaginably cool, but would have required a little bit more freak out control if it was made just a couple of years earlier (or perhaps that’s the benefit of time talking, as well as the carnage inflicted by Make Believe and The Red Album*).
However, I have no such bitterness about this new, brain-exploding team-up, the latest in the “Lost Slapdown” series. Yes, as odd as it may sound, God (and Disney corporate synergy) have brought together Lost and Kermit the Frog.
But although this is a monumental, colossal cross-over, I will not be getting a tattoo commemorating this meeting of Kermit, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, despite what some have suggested.
Make sure to check out the other Lost-Muppet joint ventures, including Pepe auditioning for the role of the Smoke Monster, Rizzo infiltrating the writers’ room and the Swedish Chef, an apparent avid Lost fan, running the ABC cafeteria.
*For a truly thought-provoking and thoughtful look at the devolution of Weezer, specifically Rivers Cuomo’s fall from ironic yet genuine songwriter to hackneyed hyper-self-aware song-crafter, we urge you to take a look at Chuck Klosterman‘s** essay on the subject in his anthology Eating the Dinosaur. And just go ahead and read everything else in the compendium, because it’s all genius.
**And if Chuck Klosterman*** does anything with the Muppets I’ll flip out just as much, if not more. Even if it’s an essay comparing Elmo to Helen Thomas.
***Just realized that “Klosterman” contains the word “lost.” Whoa.
As Entertainment Weekly so generously reminded me, this week is the 20th anniversary of the passing of Jim Henson. It’s sad to think that he’s been gone for so long, but it’s a testament to his work that I was not quite seven years old at the time of his death and yet he had already made an inedible, lifelong impact on me. He’s been gone for 20 of my 26 1/2 years, and yet in those first 6 1/2 he shaped the person I am years later. I remember even then being aware of this death, and saddened by it, and worried that it meant the end of the Muppets. In fact, it might have been my first experience with death; at least I can’t recall anyone passing before then.
And I still remember being moved by his memorial, which, per his request, was a celebration and not a dirge And it still moves me to this day.
And to the credit of the Henson family and the Muppet family they soldiered on, and soon after the memorial they allayed my fears with a special television tribute to Jim, promising me and all the despondent, confused young fans that Muppets would live on. The fact that they confronted his death head on was somewhat difficult for a 6-year-old to comprehend, and somewhat overwhelming, but it was also somewhat appropriate, for Henson made entertainment for both children and adults alike, and I’ll always appreciate the honesty in which the Muppet team handled his death. It was immensely sad, but also immensely inspirational.
For many years now my email signature has been a Jim Henson quote, “When I was young, my ambition was to be one of those people who made a difference in this world. My hope is to leave the world a little better for my having been there.” I think I first came across it when I read a Jim Henson biography at about 10 years old and it resonated instantly, so when I was young that was my ambition too. And it still is.
Because of Jim Henson I hope to leave the world a better place. And if I can make a hundredth of the difference that Henson made then I’ll feel like I accomplished my goal.
Thanks, Jim. 20 years later you’re missed more than ever.
However, Henson wouldn’t want his Jumped The Snark in memoriam to end on such a treacle note. And the good news is that it doesn’t need to: the Muppets are on the verge of returning to the spotlight. We’ve missed a lot of Muppet news over the past month and a half, but things continue to look up for Kermit and the gang. And luckily another one of our favorite Jim’s, Jim Hill, has taken the liberty of rounding up the latest Muppet developments over on his blog. Things are looking up.
20 years later, and the Muppets are still going strong. Jim would be proud.
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Jumped The Snark 