Saturday, December 10, 2011

"MuppetGate" = Mayhem & Madness!!


I like to refer to it as "MuppetGate"... especially since it is starting to get as much press as any other "-gate:"
I could go on, as it has been a pretty highly covered story. 

Muppet CommunistsI am still shaking my head at the attack that Kermie and company have been getting this week, all stemming from Eric Bolling (of Fox's Business News) and his Muppet name-calling, equating them to "communists" and "anti-capitalists."  It even evoked an entire Facebook debate in my own world based on my dismay over the Huffington Post link.

They're muppets people!?  They're lovers and dreamers and rainbow connectors. They're singers. They are entertainment meant to bring a smile or two in our pent up, stressed out, over-worked, over-serious world!

Can't "they" (the universal "they" that's always out there)...can't "they" realize it's a movie?!? Not a propagandizing anti-capitalist attack.  Movies have plots. Some plots are against the bad guy... and some bad guys are oil tycoons. The plot point of the movie is that Tex Richman wants to tear down the Muppets' theater, which is something that the Muppet love. Which is the point of the story: be passionate enough about something you love and do what you can to save it.
  
Co-filmmaker & scriptwriter Jason Segel (and human lead male in the latest Muppet movie) needed a plot point that would put the Muppets in need of saving their theater. The choices are always plentiful:  it could have been to tear it down for condos, to make a strip mall, or to renovate the neighborhood.  Segel and company opted for the demise being to dig for oil right under the land where the theater stands. Any of the choices would have been considered by the far-right as anti-capitalist.  The movie doesn't have the same draw, appeal, or plot "sense of urgency" if you are tearing down the Muppet theater to build a day care center,  organic food market, or welfare office for Muppets who are down on their luck. Bottom line: movies need plots. Sometimes it's about vampires, sometimes it is about a talking cat who wears boots, and sometimes it is about a New York City crime caper. Aren't we lucky we live in a country where all these movies can hang out under one roof together?!

To quote a friend of mine:
"I guess boycotting A Charlie Brown Christmas is next, since they [the Peanuts gang] didn't splurge on the big shiny corporate Christmas tree, but bought the little, organic one.   If you don't like the Muppet movie for 'anti-capitalistic' reasons, well, then you shouldn't like Charlie Brown. Or for that matter, any Muppet movie."
Plus, hasn't Kermit had it rough enough? I mean, come on, man! He's an amphibian living in a human world. He's lived the life faced with the fact that it's not easy to be green, he's in love with a pig, and now he's facing name callers and bullies telling him he's unAmerican AND a Commie? Yes, that indeed is high travesty in my book!

In today's world, where a song and a smile are a welcome respite, I will always choose the Muppets.  It brings new meaning to the "Man or Muppet" Song from this now-controversial Muppet movie.  Maybe I'm naive to think that movies can be fun and entertaining alone, lacking of bipartisanship & name-calling negativity. Or perhaps, just perhaps, I'm a very wo-man Muppet.... or maybe rather, a Muppet of a wo-man.



Muppet Movie Poster from http://www.daemonsmovies.com/2011/07/31/the-muppets-2011-new-posters-jason-segel-and-amy-adams/the-muppets-movie-poster-03/; Muppet pic from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/06/muppets-are-communist-her_n_1131408.html, "Muppet or Man" Video from http://youtu.be/m5iN0QNT6Uk

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