Synopsis: In “The Secret Society of Poohbahs,” Mokey and Doc confront what it means to want to be wanted and then to be wanted when they are each asked to join a secret society.
Original air date: March 4, 1985
In the 1980’s, the trope of fraternal organizations like the Freemasons or the Elks was more visible in pop culture and in society in general. They marched in local parades. Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble belonged to one. The dad from Happy Days was in one. My grandpa was in one. It was a place men gathered and – if TV was to be believed – wore funny hats.
They are a form of secret societies, which are specialized membership organizations that have secret initiations and other rituals, like handshakes and costumes. You have to be invited to join, often through an initiation, where you are then “in the know” if you are accepted. These societies go back to the secret religions of ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome. One of the more well known ones – the Freemasonry – traces its origins to the guilds in the Middle Ages and over time became a fraternal organization for men to gather.
They can also serve important roles in the community through education and service. And then there was whatever that group was in Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut. Hey, remember when you and your mom decided to go together to Eyes Wide Shut because at the time you both liked Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman and you didn’t bother to look up the plot? Just me? Got it.
These societies are meant to be exclusive. Sometimes based on necessity – if you are a secret religion under persecution, you don’t want to announce your membership. Sometimes it hides a deeper secret that you need to get indoctrinated into, like a cult. But the secrecy also serves to make the groups enticing – are you the “right person” and “special enough.” Well, Rory Gilmore, are you? For certain people – and Fraggles – this acceptance can be very important. People like Doc and Fraggles like Mokey.
In Doc’s case the fraternal organization Ned Shimmelfinney got invited to join was the Royal Order of Chipmunks. And Doc thinks it is sooo silly. Until he is invited and immediately adopts all of the pomp, including a Viking hat with squirrel ears instead of horns.
Meanwhile, down in the caves, Mokey is positively desperate to join the Secret Society of Poohbahs despite Red telling her it is a silly fad, “the dumbest thing to hit the Rock ever since we painted our tails blue.” The Poohbah name is a nod to the “Grand Pooh Bah,” head of the fraternal organization in the The Flintstones, which in turn was a nod to the Gilbert and Sullivan comedic opera The Mikado, in which the character Pooh-Bah has the titles First Lord of the Treasury, Lord Chief Justice, Commander-in-Chief, Lord High Admiral, Archbishop, Lord Mayor and Lord High Everything Else. “Pooh-bah” has come to mean anyone who thinks too highly of themself. Still with me? Because Gilbert and Sullivan were members of the Freemasons. What? Anyway…
Mokey is desperate to join the club, gets invited, immediately tells Red, and then reads the part in the invite where she wasn’t supposed to tell anybody and stresses because she may have ruined her chances. Mokey really wants to go to this party. Red is like, Whatever.
But here’s the thing – spoiler for three paragraphs from now – Red is already in the club. As is Gobo and Wembley and Convincing John and a bunch of others. And it kind of makes sense that Mokey would want to be in it – seemingly everyone is. And even worse, no one tells her that they are in it and make her go through a ton of stress over it. It’s kind of mean. Also, how do a bunch of her friends disappear for hours to put on silly clothes and learn a language and a bunch of rituals without her noticing? Maybe Mokey was being so serious because she had a true need for acceptance given that she wasn’t feeling it from her friends who apparently disappeared together for hours at a time without telling her where. Red even notes Mokey is ”not smiling much” lately without bothering to ask why.
As mentioned, the Poohbahs are full of silly costumes and languages and ritual. And here’s where I mention the tribal staging and dress. I don’t love the choice. I think they could have gone many ways with this one – centuries of silly pomps and circumstances to draw from – and they went for well worn, racial tropes of chanting natives, with heads on a stick harkening back to Heart of Darkness. Yes, they have some other silly nods to religion and royalty and military and televangelism, but the tribal ritualism of it takes over in an unsettling way.
In Mokey’s initiation meeting, she is not proven worthy (as declared by a head on a stick sticking its tongue out at her). She is stressed and flustered and anyway, “someone” in the crowd knows she already told Red (it’s Red dressed as the Mind Reader). She will be given another chance at “The Trial” if she learns a new language and memorizes a speech and follows a bunch of silly rules. So now she is really stressed. Which prompts Red to take Mokey’s pain seriously and listen empathetically and finally admit this whole thing is a prank.
Kidding, of course – Red gaslights her and sings “If you keep on smiling, life smiles back at you,” joined in by Gobo and Wembley. Which doesn’t work because the most obnoxious thing someone can tell you is “smile more” when you don’t feel like it.
The Judge (Convincing John) at Mokey’s trial keeps making up rules for Mokey to follow, so many that she loses track and Red is taken away to return with funny glasses and juggling okra soup. Finally, Mokey laughs and calls it all silly. The one thing she was supposed to say to make it all end, so she can join the silliness.
And Doc returns from the Chipmunk meeting, where he was kicked out because he started laughing at how silly all the rituals were. Only that group was trying to be serious. And they took the Chipmunk ears out of his Viking helmet, which is a pretty serious form of silliness.
So, don’t take life too seriously. And don’t want things too much. And don’t try too hard. And don’t join a cult.
Strongest Moment – Roll call: “All present shall reply by saying present. And all absent shall reply by saying linoleum. Fritz?”
“Present.”
“Fritz?”
“Present.”
“Fritz?”
“Present.”
“Fritz?”
“Present.”
“Fritz?”
“Linoleum.”
“Ah, that Fritz. He’s never here when you need him.”
Weakest Moment – A disco chant about toenails.
MVF (Most Valuable Fraggle) – Convincing John with the best lines.
Most Classic Moment – “Guilty! Possibly innocent. I can never remember which is which.”
Darkest Moment – Mokey’s desperation to join a club that she knows nothing about. It’s just… a lot.
One More Thing… This was Convincing John’s last appearance. “Convinced you, didn’t I?”
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by Drake Lucas
