As a Disney enthusiast, you are no doubt aware that one of the potential spots for the newly announced Monsters Inc. door coaster is – gasp! – Muppets Courtyard, home of the seminal film “MuppetVision 3D.” This would be a HUGE LOSS.
Which is why we will be focusing on the Muppets in this edition of Happy Friday, my series of posts about Disney things that, well, make me happy. Hopefully they also make you happy, and everyone has a great Friday. (This one is my favorite so far.)
CAN YOU TELL ME HOW TO GET TO SESAME STREET?
Among Jim Henson’s wonderful Muppet creations are the denizens of “Sesame Street,” a TV show that has raised not only generations of Americans but generations around the world. Over the course of the last 50 years, more than 30 countries have run their own version of “Sesame Street,” 8 of which continue to produce new episodes at the time of this writing.
All that quality television requires a fair amount of money to create, which is why the Muppets have periodically participated in public TV funding telethons. Many excellent skits have premiered during these shows, but one stands above the rest.
In the modern parlance: it lives rent free in my head.
In the parlance of the bleeding edge: it is my Roman empire.
I’m talking about “Put Down the Duckie.”
I THINK I DIG YOUR PROBLEM – IT’S RUBBER AND IT QUACKS
“Put Down the Duckie” is a tour de force of Muppet magnificence, a microcosm of what makes “Sesame Street” great. A spoonful of silliness helps the education go down, and if a wholesome celebrity can do the feeding, so much the better.
The ostensible moral of the song is that learning a skill requires focus. It’s pretty subliminal, though, when the metaphor in question is “Ya gotta put down the duckie if ya wanna play the saxophone.” Not to mention “What good are flying fingers if they’re wrapped around a duck?” What good indeed!
That’s not even the half of it; after the fashion of gags in the Muppetvision 3D preshow, more absurdist lyrics await you. It is truly cool and very fresh. And many, many decades later, it really holds up. Just like MuppetVision 3D!
There a handful of versions of the – for lack of a better term – music video. What I’ve embedded below is, for me, the platonic ideal (there’s a slightly different stable of celebrities in some versions, and one has none at all). Surprisingly, a good percentage of the faces you see are recognizable even now, such as Danny DeVito, Itzhak Perlman (just me?), Peewee Herman, Paul Simon, and many more. My personal favorite is any time Jeremy Irons dances. Turns out, Scar is adorable!
As a bonus, Wynton Marsalis – one of the aforementioned celebrity cameos – did a live version! The Muppets pull the best talent, too.
THE MUPPETS ARE AN INTERNATIONAL TREASURE
Do you hear that, Disney? I know I talk to you a lot on this blog in a sort of “Are you there, God? It’s me, Margaret,” kind of way, and given that, as with Margaret, you never directly answer, I’m just kind of trusting you here.
So bend close and listen: DO NOT TOUCH THE MUPPETS. We need MORE Muppets, not less. Expand Muppets Courtyard! You can do pretty much anything with Kermit and co.! Monsters Inc. can live happily somewhere else!
And if you’ve already started removing sets –
Don’t forget, you can follow FRoA on Twitter @fairestrunofall and on Instagram @fairestrunofall. If you have any questions or thoughts, leave a comment or email fairestrunofall@gmail.com. See ya real soon!
The Muppets absolutely are a national treasure! To say otherwise would be distinctly unpatriotic.
Der machinen is going floomy floomy!