From the Lawton Constitution
By James Finck, Ph.D.
It’s time to play the music.
It’s time to light the lights.
It’s time to meet the Muppets on the Muppet Show tonight.
It’s time to put on makeup.
It’s time to dress up right It’s time to raise the curtain on the Muppet Show tonight.
So now let’s get things started.
Why don’t you get things started?
It’s time to get things started.
On the most sensational inspirational, celebrational, Muppetational.
This is what we call The Muppet Show!
Historically speaking, Sept. 5th is an important date in American history. On that day in 1974, Dan and Connie Finck welcomed their new baby boy into the world and named him James. While that was an incredibly important day to me, I suppose that Sept. 5, 1976, has more cultural relevance, as it was the debut of “The Muppet Show.”
At the time, Kermit the Frog was already familiar to Americans from “Sesame Street” and earlier television appearances. But the new program introduced something different. Here were puppets performing a traditional television variety show, complete with musical numbers, celebrity guests, backstage arguments, bad jokes, slapstick comedy, and Kermit as the producer desperately trying to keep everything together.
The show ran from 1976 to 1981 and eventually became an international phenomenon. (Cue the “da-da, da-da-da” in my head.) More importantly, however, the Muppets became something larger than a successful television program. They became part of the American cultural vocabulary. Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo, Animal, the Swedish Chef, and the rest became characters that multiple generations could recognize immediately. Two of my favorites are the grouchy old men in the balcony, making wisecracks throughout the show. I am often compared to Statler and Waldorf at my school, but I have no idea why.
The genius of the Muppets was that they could be silly without being stupid. Children could laugh at Animal destroying a drum set while adults could appreciate the satire and jokes that were clearly written for them. A child might see Miss Piggy as a funny, temperamental pig, while an adult could recognize the parody of Hollywood divas. The show operated on several levels simultaneously.
I think this is why the Muppets have lasted so long. They were a staple in my own household. I watched them as a kid, then watched them again with my own children and enjoyed them just as much.
The Muppets are so culturally significant that the Smithsonian has an exhibit of them at the National Museum of American History. On its webpage, the Smithsonian explains how the Muppets reflected a particularly important period in American history. The 1970s were a time of political division, cultural change, and declining confidence in many traditional institutions. Americans were increasingly skeptical of authority and more willing to question the institutions that had once seemed untouchable.
The Muppets followed suit, but they did it through comedy. They mocked celebrities, television, bureaucracy, vanity, greed, and, most importantly, themselves. Yet they also celebrated imagination, friendship, and determination.
What is important is that the Muppets were rarely cynical, and that distinction matters.
Much of modern comedy is built around the assumption that everything is ridiculous and nothing deserves to be taken seriously. Jim Henson’s comedy was different. He could make fun of almost anything while still believing in something. His characters were flawed, sometimes selfish, frequently ridiculous, and occasionally completely incompetent, but they cared about one another. They were a family. And families, as “The Muppet Show” demonstrated week after week, do not have to agree to belong together.
The Muppets have meant so much to my family. I loved showing my kids “The Muppet Movie.” The opening of the movie with Kermit playing “Rainbow Connection” is one of greatest. I sang that song to each of my kids as I rocked them to sleep, and it has become a favorite of my daughter’s and one of the songs that reminds me most of her. It is a song I sometimes play when I am missing her the most.
For my family, Christmas has not officially begun until we have watched “The Muppet Christmas Carol,” my personal favorite adaptation of Dickens’ classic novel. Even though all my kids are now grown, they still all sing along to the songs.
I also really enjoyed the 2011 “The Muppets,” which was a movie I was able to take my kids to the theater to see. There were rumors that I might have gotten a bit misty-eyed when Kermit and Miss Piggy sang “Rainbow Connection,” but I assure you those allegations were all false. I loved that the movie gave us another classic Muppet song, “Life’s a Happy Song,” with the lyric, “Life’s a happy song, when there’s someone by my side to sing along.” The movie also taught us that life’s third greatest gift is laughter, only after children and ice cream.
For me, I would replace ice cream with the Muppets.
Thank you Jim Henson. You have given us 50 years of joy. Hopefully, in a time when we need it the most, the Muppets will give us another 50 years of laughter in the future.
James Finck is a professor of American history at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma. He can be reached at james.finck@swoknews.com.
Historically Speaking 