Yesterday, the ToughPigs team shared the first part of our very own Top 70 Muppet Moments, which featured such hits as “Ernie gives you nightmares in Egypt,” and “Steve Martin sells Kermit cheap champagne.” And now we’re ready to share part two of our list, with more of our favorites!
Enjoy!
“Cockatoo in Malibu” (Muppets Most Wanted)
by Ryan Roe
Muppets Most Wanted is an excellent movie with terrific songs, and it features a great new Muppet character in Constantine, Kermit’s villainous doppelganger. How does he take Kermit’s place without the other Muppets catching on? He distracts them by giving them everything they want — and when it comes to Miss Piggy, he does it with a hilarious song written by Bret McKenzie. Constantine works his romantic spell by offering Piggy everything her heart desires… but the best parts are when he offers her silly things like kangaroos, armadillos, and thingy-things. When the movie was released, I thought this song had a good chance of getting nominated for an Oscar — and I still think it should have!
“Business, Business” (The Ed Sullivan Show)
by J.D. Hansel
If you ever needed to show with one sketch what Jim Henson was up to in the 1960s, you couldn’t. But this comes close. In this musical sketch, old creatures mutter incoherently about business and money before being overthrown by creatures singing of love and peace. As dated as Youth ‘68 and as cynical as The Cube, this charmingly strange sketch is sixties Henson at its finest and one of my favorite Muppet moments.
“Steppin’ Out with a Star” (The Great Muppet Caper)
by Ryan Roe
The Great Muppet Caper is packed with astonishing puppetry tricks and dazzling classic Hollywood-style musical numbers, and this song combines both. Kermit’s so excited about his date with “Lady Holiday,” and his joy is infectious. And he spends the whole song doing things that make you say “How’d they do that?” How does a puppet pull on his pants? How does a puppet dance on a bed? How does a puppet leap off that bed and land on the floor?! Near the end of the song, Kermit and his friends sing “Hey, good times!” And good times are exactly what the audience has during the number!
“The Word is No” (Sesame Street)
by Becca Petunia
How can just one word, with just two letters, keep so much from getting done? Well, we’d be worse off without this amazing song written by Chris Cerf and performed by our good friends Maria and Gina. It’s by far one of the catchiest songs on 56 years of Sesame Street, an original Sesame song that feels like a forgotten radio hit. (If you don’t believe that it sounds like a hit song, check out the song’s cover by the band Screamfeeder!) But what sells this song so much is its high-concept, avant-garde music video made by director Jim Blashfield, whom you might know from his collaborations with Michael Jackson, Paul Simon, and Talking Heads. Sesame Street on the cutting edge of art? The word is: yes.
“Time in a Bottle” (The Muppet Show)
by J.D. Hansel
This is a whatnot piece, taking advantage of their changing features to age the singer of this classic Jim Croce song. The Muppets used Croce’s work a few times, but this performance somehow successfully combines The Muppets’ knack for literalizing song lyrics for gags with the heartbreaking soulfulness of Croce’s writing. Viewed today, when we know Jim Henson never had enough time to do all he wanted to, it’s an unforgettably poignant Muppet Show moment.
Animal interviews with Ben Schwartz (Muppets Mayhem)
by Joe Hennes
It’s rare to see the Muppet performers show off their improvisation skills, and Eric Jacobson shines in what might be my favorite performance of his Animal, trading jabs with the hilarious Ben Schwartz. Of anything that came out of Muppets Mayhem, this is the scene that most begs for an extended cut. I would pay good money to see two full hours of Ben and Animal being ridiculously funny. You hear me, Adam Goldberg??
Beaker sings “Feelings” (The Muppet Show)
by Drake Lucas
The set up for this sketch from The Muppet Show is apparent in the first two seconds when Beaker takes to the mic, and it only gets better from there as he proves that this song is indeed about feelings and not lyrics. In a rare moment of empathy (or maybe he just wants to get to his favorite part of the song?), Animal shouts at the jeering audience to be “quiet!” in support of his pronunciation-challenged friend. Beaker so rarely escapes his tortured life as Bunsen’s assistant. I agree with Animal – let Beaker have this moment.
Gunko (Little Muppet Monsters)
by Shane Keating
There are not many highlights from what survives of Little Muppet Monsters. However, the music, often written by Christopher Cerf, is consistently pretty good, I think. And this song is no exception. It’s a great spoof of commercial jingles, advertising a product with no known use with a litany of slogans like “Batteries not included” and “Licensed drivers only.” The fact that it never got to make it to air is a shame. The world can’t be waking up to Gunko if they never see it!
“HEEERE FISHY, FISHY, FISHY!” (Sesame Street)
by Jarrod Fairclough
Every Ernie and Bert sketch is hilarious, but there’s something about Jim and Frank bouncing off each other that make those earlier sketches so darn good. This is an all time favorite of mine, to the point where I had Ernie shouting ‘Heeere fishy, fishy, fishy!’ as my text tone for about 10 years. Ernie’s nonchalant delight as his uncouth fishing technique garners great success is perfectly contrasted with an exceedingly exasperated Bert who just can’t seem to get the same results, making this just another entry in the list of ‘Perfect Ernie and Bert Sketches’. Also they redid it with the baby versions recently, and it was adorable.
The Muppet Show Pitch Reel
by Shane Keating
Jim tried to sell The Muppet Show to the major TV networks using this humorous pitch reel, and they all passed. Then, he wound up making a bazillion dollars in Muppet Babies merchandise. So, I guess everything worked out okay!
The Mystery Box (Sesame Street)
by Jarrod Fairclough
Anytime anyone has asked me to guess what they have in their hand, I immediately start shouting “It a horse! It a cow! It a cotton ball! It an ice cream cone! It a rump roast! It a, a moose!” and every time it gets a laugh, because people don’t realize I’m quoting something and think I’m just that quick and funny. I’m not. I’m just pretending to be Cookie Monster. I’ve done that a lot in my 36 years, which is why I’m now trying to lose weight. (Bicycles are delicious, but filled with calories.)
“Honk Around the Clock” (Sesame Street)
by Shane Keating
This was a favorite of mine as a kid. But now as an adult, it’s fun to know that a bunch of fellow adults got paid to run around a TV studio with these wacky puppets on and do a silly song like this. And that lil’ pink baby Honker upstaging everybody? Terrific!
“La La La” (Sesame Street)
by Drake Lucas
This is a Joe Raposo song – of course it is – simple, charming, funny. Just like Ernie and Bert, who show off their Odd Couple relationship and for once, Ernie is not trying to screw over Bert. This is what happens when the writer knows the characters perfectly, so that Ernie sings about lullaby and lollipop and Bert sings about a lump in his oatmeal. Both are delighted in what they sing; both are teaching us about the letter L. And nothing beats Bert’s sheer joy as he belts out “linoleum.” I have never looked at kitchen floors the same.
“Six String Orchestra” (The Muppet Show)
by Shane Keating
One of those Muppet Show numbers that, even though it’s a cover, perfectly suits the character singing it. The song totally tracks for Scooter (even though he’s technically already famous). And they make such a big production out of it with fancy video effects, snazzy costumes, and neat puppetry tricks (literal smoke and mirrors!). I’m very glad it ended up in the Star Wars episode because nowadays, a lot of people will deliberately seek this episode out to see the crossover element, and they’ll get to enjoy a wonderful, unrelated musical number as a result.
That’s a wrap on part 2, but stay tuned! We’ve got three more parts of this story coming throughout the rest of this week!
Click here to shout “linoleum!” on the ToughPigs Discord!
by The Entire ToughPigs Team
