ABC
ABC’s The Muppets continues to fire on all cylinders with this week’s episode, “Pig Out.” The episode of very Muppets-centric with only a single celebrity guest, Ed Helms. The main story focuses on the crew of Miss Piggy’s late night talk show and how they like to blow off steam after a hard day at work — and every day is a hard day with the volatile Miss Piggy — at a local bar, minus Piggy and Kermit.
Kermit is cool with it because he’s their boss and recognizes the distance he needs between him and his co-workers. Miss Piggy, however, feels that they’re all one big happy family and is insulted that she’s never been asked to hang with the crew. Not that she’d ever actually hang with those she considers beneath her, but she’d just like to be asked. Kermit agrees to get the crew to offer an invite with the promise that she won’t accept. It all goes off without a hitch until something happens … Piggy says yes.
Her presence at the bar puts a damper on things until Ed Helms shows up and joins the group, resulting in some awesome karaoke including Dr. Bunson Honeydew and Beaker doing “I Got You Babe” and the Swedish Chef putting his own spin on “Rapper’s Delight.” This is some of the funniest stuff you’ll see on TV this season, I guarantee it. Suddenly, Piggy is one of the gang telling the crew they can stay out late and show up for work any time they want, much to Kermit’s chagrin. The morning (or whenever you decide to show up) meeting, where Kermit berates the crew, leads to one of the funniest lines of the episode from Miss Piggy:
“Hello, my name is Fun. Is this where I come to get murdered?” tweet
Kermit needs to find a solution to his problem, and quickly before he loses control of the show. In the subplots this week, Fozzie accidentally shoots Statler in the face with a T-shirt cannon, which actually has quite a melancholy tone to it, and Sam the Eagle is smitten with Janice after she merely says hello to him … but finds a rival in Ed Helms.
ABC
The Muppets thrives on absurd, twisted humor and those who have been “outraged” by the grown-up comedy seem to forget that they’ve always been that way, playing to both adults and children alike. Heck, one of their first regular TV gigs was on the first season of Saturday Night Live! Yes, the new show alludes to the band’s recreational activities (Floyd recognizes Ed Helms who says maybe from The Office and Floyd thinks they work together) and some perhaps sexual undertones (Beaker and Honeydew somehow end up in each other’s clothes, but what happens in private stays private), but it really isn’t something young kids are going to question. It’s only the adults who are feeling uncomfortable and feel they’re going to have to explain these things to their kids (they probably won’t even ask), but if that makes The Muppets a show the family can and should watch together, all the better.
Here’s hoping The Muppets and ABC stay the course.
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