What the Muppets Knew.

    My son and I regularly go to the library together.  He is free to pick out any books he wants and other media he can get if I approve. Several weeks ago he discovered the Muppet Show. He has seen Sesame Street, The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth and so has been exposed to pieces of Jim Henson’s legacy. To say that these things don’t compare with being exposed to the Muppet Show for the first time would be a severe understatement. Like someone saying they love chocolate because they eat M&Ms.

     After watching several episodes my son, very seriously, asked his parents to sit down because he had some questions. He begins, “So there’s this show…and it’s filled with puppets, mostly monsters (a key point because his deep love of monsters is nearly unparalleled in his life) and in EVERY episode there is tons of music and singing and new instruments (another key point, music MIGHT be the only competitor for his monster love).” My husband and I both nod, agree, yes, yes, that’s right…did you have a question about that? He sums up, “Neither one of you ever thought it might be a good idea to show this to me? I had to discover it myself?” He asked this wryly in a tone and attitude well beyond his years that implies not only sarcasm, dismay and complete befuddlement, but also an unspoken belief that surely there was no entrance exam for this whole “parenting” gig. Touché.

     As a family we enjoyed watching the entire second and third season of the Muppet Show including all the special features. Thackery is a connoisseur of special features. In one of the features, Jim Henson and Frank Oz do a tutorial on how to create a puppet’s character using detachable interchangeable features and different gestures and voices. Pure genius. Thackery watched it again and again creating sock puppets, stick puppets and working with his own “attachable puppet” Gooey. He at one point said to me, “All t.v. should just be these guys helping kids learn things.”  

     Which got me to thinking, you know when I was a kid, that was pretty much true. Jim Henson, Frank Oz and Dr. Seuss comprised 75% of what my generation was exposed to in early childhood. So I blame them for our complete inability to function in modern selfish consumer driven times. We are all old hippies in our hearts. We know that acceptance and inclusion are good and we know racism is bad. We know the Once-ler got it wrong and the Lorax had it right. Love your neighbor, protect the environment!!! Charity is good, greed is bad. Oh how sorrily and ill equipped were all were for the corporate buy out of our democracy and the systematic replacement of our education system with consumers-in-training programs. It isn’t our fault!! We were led to believe as very small children that the older generations had it all figured out and that they were forewarning us against mistakes that previous generations had made. We grew up in a time where parents thought Alice Cooper was the closest thing to the Devil that was out there and we got to see him ON THE MUPPET SHOW!!! Kermit made a joke (referencing Faust) to mock Alice about his “contract with the Devil” and then they all laughed about it and Alice put on a monster suit to dance with some Muppets.  Message? You can be as different as you want as long as we can all laugh about our differences and pull off the big dance number at the end of the show!

     We literally grew up thinking all the Once-lers had learned their lessons, were filled with remorse and wanted to help us fix everything. We thought everyone was on the same team. The debates were over and our job was to clean up, decrease our carbon footprint, distribute the wealth more humanely and equitably, get healthcare for everyone and walk happily into sunnier times. We were going to establish America as the leader of great minds, great ideas, compassionate humanitarianism and creative genius. Right? Right? Yeah, so what happened with that?