Observer » The Muppets

Miss Piggy and Kermit to Present At Academy Awards

Daniel D'Addario — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 12:32:29 -0400

Jim Henson's Muppets will join previously announced presenters Emma Stone, Angelina Jolie, and Ben Stiller in presenting at this year's Oscars. Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog, the Muppets in question (whither the Swedish Chef?) have had a busy year promoting their film across various media, though the Oscar-nominated song from that film, "Man or Muppet," shall not be performed at the ceremony. Below, watch a video of Miss Piggy--in a charming beaded hood--hamming it up with Johnny Carson at the 1980 Oscars.

Muppets Music Vindicated Through Oscar Nomination (Video)

Drew Grant — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 10:53:28 -0400

Jason Segel and his Muppet alter-ego in "Man or Muppet"

One of our pet peeves during the Golden Globes was that they totally ignored The Muppets. No nomination for any of the original songs? Pshaw. We assumed someone in the Foreign Press Association had a problem with the liberal brainwashing of American children.

Fortunately, the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had no such qualms.

Out of the two songs nominated for the 84th Academy Awards, one of them is "Man or Muppet" by Flight of the Conchords' Bret McKenzie and performed by Jason Segel and the newest addition to the Muppet clan, Walter. (With a brief cameo by Jim Parsons from Big Bang Theory.)

Previously, "The Rainbow Connection" from 1979's The Muppet Movie was nominated for Best Song, but lost out to "It Goes Like It Goes" from Norma Rae. Since "Man or Muppet" is only up against "Real in Rio" from the Jesse Eisenberg animated flick, Rio, this might be the chance for some Muppet-y redemption.

After all, it's not like Randy Newman is up for anything this year.

The Muppets Take Manhattan, Redux (Video)

Drew Grant — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 09:10:20 -0400

Miss Piggy, Kermit, and some new gangly Muppet on 'Saturday Night Live'

In case you were living under a rock for the past month, the new Muppets movie is coming out this weekend. And boy, have those little felt feet been hitting the pavement hard. You need to look no further than Saturday Night Live opener with the movie's star and writer, Jason Segel, for proof:

New York Magazine's Vulture blog chimed in hopefully:

"Seems the whole fuzzy gang still has a lot of audience appeal, as SNL posted some of its highest ratings of the season so far, with a 10 percent spike in viewers ages 18-49 compared to last week's episode, hosted by all-around class act Emma Stone."

Then they want on to mention (hint, hint) that last week's issue of their own magazine featured an all-Jim Henson/Jason Segel revue as well.

But lest NY Mag or SNL think that they had an exclusive on the comeback tour, the puppet-y cast has been making its late-nighr rounds in preparation for next week's nationwide premiere of The Muppets. You could find Animal playing drums next to Questlove on Friday night:

And that was after Jimmy Fallon conducted a whole interview with Kermit and Miss Piggy:

From where we're sitting, The Muppet's star couple have been doing a much better job whoring themselves out to the media's PR machine than Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson have in anticipation of Breaking Dawn.

The Muppets Take a Dark Turn With Dragon Tattoo Parody

Drew Grant — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 17:40:08 -0400

The Pig With Froggy Tattoo

Look, we couldn't be more psyched about the new Muppets movie. Everything we've seen so far about the film looks great -- Jason Segel, musical numbers, tons of cameos and pop culture nods -- it's all there. But with the Muppets long history of pop culture parodies, we're baffled as to why they chose The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo to spoof in the latest trailer for The Muppets.

It's hard to believe that in the entire process of putting this trailer out that no one stopped and said, "Hey, I've read/Wikipedia'd this book. Isn't there a lot of gang rape and child molestation in it?"

To which Miss Piggy most likely replied, "Hi-ya!" before karate-chopping that nosy marketing guy in the throat.