Sunday, November 22, 2009

The Letter S, Part 2

Scooter

Like Robin, Scooter is one of the younger members of the Muppet Show cast and crew(Richard Hunt said that the character of 14 year-old Scooter comes from how he remembers his own voice and personality at that age). Scooter serves as the show's gofer (although not an actual gopher, Scooter claims his mother was a parrot and he never knew his dad, which is really creepy considering he's more human-like than most Muppets), hired for his efficiency as an aide and also because his uncle, J.P. Grosse, owns Muppet Theater.

As with virtually every other member of The Muppet Show, Scooter occasionally pulls double duty as an actor, singing songs like "There's A New Sound" and performing characters like the son in a production of "Jabberwocky."

Unlike other Muppets, Scooter frequently liked Fozzie's god awful jokes. As a matter of fact, with the exception of Kermit, Fozzie performed most with Scooter in acts like "Simon Smith and His Amazing Dancing Bear" and "The Telephone Pole Bit." So, I mean, it's good someone finds Fozzie easy to deal with.

Statler and Waldorf

Two crotchety old men take the piss out of almost every Muppet Show sketch. Half the time it's funnier than the actual sketch itself. That's partly what made The Muppet Show so smart. Statler and Waldorf, the show's biggest critics, were basically written as a way to shut up any harsh critics of the actual show. It's like how on "The Simpsons" Comic Book Guy would sometimes complain about whatever would happen regarding some fictional thing in the Simpsons universe and just end up looking like a hilariously big dork. It's like that but instead of a dork, Statler and Waldorf are hilariously big pissants.

Basically, it's some puppets watching something they hate and mocking it. It's a Mystery Science Theater before Mystery Science Theater was even an idea in Joel Hodgson's mind(not that I'm taking anything from MST3K which is one of my favorite shows). However, unlike Joel and the Bots, Statler and Waldorf are free to not watch it. They just like shitting all over everyone's good time and having a friendly laugh about it.

In conclusion, I have a love/hate relationship with this show (oh yeah?) Yeah, I love to hate it! Dohhh ho ho ho ho ho!

Sam the Eagle

The Muppet Show is, for lack of a better word, a cesspit. Filled to the brim with the lunatics, the morally unjust and, worst of all, weirdos. Thank our one nation under God that an upstanding American eagle to uphold classic American values of censorship and culture.

More than anything Sam is a giant foam rubber middle finger at the square right of the 60s and 70s. Henson's super-hippie nature and mischieviousness made sure that Sam wouldn't be outright offensive but just the right amount of dickishness to get the point across while still being hilarious. Sam serves as the Muppet Show's self-appointed censor and cultural expert.

Despite his claim to be an expert on wholesome culture, his knowledge is very limited. Once claiming Beethoven as his favorite playwright and not noticing his favorite ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev(who he initially thought was an opera singer) and ejecting him from the theater.

Sam is divorced and has two kids, both in college. One is studying taxidermy and the other is dating an owl. He would rather not talk about any of this.

Swedish Chef

Yorn desh born, der ritt de gitt der gue, Orn desh, dee born desh, de umn børk! børk! børk!
The star of his own Muppet Show segment, The Swedish Chef is all kinds of fucking awesome. He's a chef who speaks mock Swedish(that was once translated into Chinese) with human hands clacking everything around whose specialty dish is spaghetti and is frequently confused over how to make certain food items (once trying to make chocolate mousse with a brown colored moose).

One time he made pancakes. When he flipped them, they got stuck on the cieling so he SHOT THEM DOWN WITH A FUCKING GUN. Can you fucking believe that shit? Who the hell does that kind of thing? In A Muppet Family Christmas, he was this close to cooking Big Bird for Christmas dinner.

According to Muppet lore, The Swedish Chef segments were the only sketches that didn't need canned laughter as the crew would find visit the set whenever the scene was happening and laugh so loud that they could just forgo it.

The Swedish Chef is one of my absolute favorite Muppets. This should be for obvious reasons.


Børk børk, you guys.

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