#i was going to schedule this but it dosen't FUCKING let me whatever

[usahanna]

been thinking a lot about bee n puppycat recently

[popculturebuffet]

Pirate Week/Monthly Muppet Madness: The Muppet Show: Glenda Jackson (Comission for WeirdKev27)

In Loving Memory of Captain Glenda Jackson

1963-2023

Avast ye happy swabs and welcome to pirate week! Well half a week at this rate but it dosen't sound as good does it. Arrr.

Pirate Week continues a tradition going all the way back to .. last year with pirate month, simply compressed into a week because my schedule has been in freefall since my movie in june and i'm just now getting it back in order.

So to kick this one off we're bringing back some old friends. It's been a bit since the muppets themselves have featured on MMM, it's grown into being about muppet style puppetry in general, but their back in style with one of the best muppet show episodes i've seen.

For those like me not familliar with today's guest, Glenda Jackson was a classically trained actress, winning the triple crown of acting, having won two oscars, three emmy's and a tony and thus being a big deal i'm shocked I hadn't heard of sooner. She also went into politics and all in all seems throughly amazing and i'll certainly be looking into her more after this.

Despite this though when it came to the muppets... she was ENTIRELY chill. Jerry Juhl explained in the book of muppets and men which I just now know exists and now badly want..

“A problem with some guest stars is that they have strong ideas about the show -- about what they'd like to do on it -- and those ideas are not exactly original. Almost everyone wants to work with Piggy, and sometimes that's fine, but often we'd feel much happier if we could match that guest up with another puppet. I think we generally do our best work when we're given a completely free hand, as happened with Glenda Jackson, for example. We asked her if there was anything she would like to do and she said, 'You people know what you're up to. I'll do anything you write for me.'”

And what I love about this is it's clear from the episode.. Glenda didn't say this out of "Oh well I don't give a shit do whatever" syndrome. She's giving her all to the material this episode and having a fucking blast. She simply trusted one of the best creative teams on earth to do what they do and they in turn didn't let her down.

The result is both one of the best muppet show episodes, as I said, but also one of the fucking weirdest. And given this is the muppets that only adds to it. So join me under the cut to see classically trained award winning actress turn out to be a pirate and hyjack the muppet show under the cut!

We open with a standard mupet show opening: our host checking in with Pops the doorman. I see these more in later episodes, with most of the first few seasons instead doing the more memorable "5 minutes to curtain (Insert guest star name here)" with Scooter. She has a penguin sidekick for this one and I love how some guest stars will just casually have their own muppet entourage.

So after our into and standard gonzo gag (this time with a bunch of penguins and given I love me some pengys I loved this), we get our first musical number: Gonzo singing Jim Croche's working at the car wash. What I like is listening to the original while Croche did great Gonzo adds some nice pathos to it, his slower more glum tone giving it a bit of a more melancholy tone while the fact he's surrounded by his chickens and in fantasy takes the day off to go do some stuff i'd rather not competmplate iwth camilla makes it work. Solid sketch.

So Kermit goes to get Glenda.. and it's here the episode goes off the rails only a few minutes in and is all the better for it. So given free reign to do whatever they want with the guest, the writers decided.. to have Glenda be the decendant of the pirate, and with her crew (including my boy sweetums as long john silver, that'll teach kermit to keep leaving him places), mutiny's and takes over the show and shanghais it, leaving the muppet theater stuck on a boat. I paticuarlly love the bit with her pengy parrot, with Kermit snarking the guy up and down about being in a pengy desiguse, not being able to change and then having to go offscreen to do it. Sassy kermit is almost as good as depressed overworked kermit, aka relatable kermit.

The pirates then sing tie the man down.. I forgot this one happened.

Glenda has decided to take the theater ship to go search for treasure, and after one fozzie joke, they set sail to find One Piece!

Oh boo yourself I didn't have time for a once piece film this year. Let me have this.

We then get a great pirate shanty, A Captial Ship. It's a number that both shows off Jacksons pipes and just how game she is. She was handed this pretty nonsensical, if deeply hilariously weird idea and just runs with it. She has pitch perfect comedic timing (When one of her crew worries they've tied kermit too tight she quips "Don't worry his eyes always look like that) and a ton of energy. It's clear like most muppet show hosts she's having a fucking ball doing this.

We then get her parrot singing carolina in the morning... in the croakiest, most nausating voice possible. We don't even get the cahtarsis we should as Sweedish chef prepares to cook the bastard.. only for him to shoot him.

We then get some more antics on deck as Scooter gets seasick, complete with a brand new puppet. And I have to agree wtih muppets fansite tough pigs.. this puppet is all time great muppet stuff.

Especially since they had to make an ENTIRE MUPPET just to do this one gag. Which isn't unsuual for them and probably easier because they know how to make a scooter, but it's still bonkers they put in all that extra work for one sight gag and I salute it.

We get a segment of At the Dance, my faviorite recurring muppet show segment. For those who haven't seen this one, the muppets do a ballroom dance. Usually their pretty good but the jokes here just aren't the strongest and most of it is the boat is moving and knocking everything about. A real disapointment especially since it's a rare gimmicky one that has a certain theme.

We then get Muppet Sports and this one is fun as Lou interviews a crewman whose yard arming, i.e. hainging onto the yard arm of the ship (the thing that comes out of the crows nest that you climbed in donkey kong). He naturally falls thanks to looking down just 5 minutes shy of a world record and even more naturally takes Lou with him. A fun skit, mostly for the ending but I love that they were able to adapt every sketch after the first for this new gimmick. It's still the usual runners but fit sthe perfomers being stuck on a ship.

We then get.. the weakest part of the episode. Shakey Sanchez, the nights intended performer is donig a bomb juggling act. That on a rocky ship.. would work and be geninely funny either because he dosen't drop them and then casually whoopsies or because of all of the explosions. What we get.. is piggy threatning to tip them because she tips the ship wherever she walks. BECAUSE GET IT SHE'S OVERWEIGHT. HA HA. And look I do think you can make an overweight joke work in two circumstances: If it's clearly in good faith by someone who has some weight , like moi, or it's so cartoony and over the top it's less fat shaming and more just plain slapstick, like 80% of the jokes from the critic or this joke from family guy.

In this case it's just "THIS WOMAN IS HEFTY AIN'T THAT FUNNY" which no. It isn't. Your just an asshole. I'm not the biggest Piggy fan but of all the things nto make fun of her for, you choose a non issue? Really?

This also causes a VERY rare event: Kermit ... tries to stop the show

Keep in mind just HOW much shit Kermit goes through on a nightly basis. He didn't stop the show when Alice Cooper kept making deals for satan or when they had to do it at a train station. It just boggles the mind to think just how much this guy can normally take.. and after this too. He dosen't do this after and genuinely dosen't quit unless really pushed. After being kidnapped by a guest who sailed the theater away into the open sea what besides personal issues COULD POSSIBLY BREAK YOU.

We get our finale a battle at sea and my faviorite part. Not only is the song top notch but we get a lot of fun as Gonzo storms the ship to take it back, his chickens as his crew and some human canonballs as his ammo. It's truly awesome and wonderfuly caathartic to see the muppets take their show back. Sadly Glenda fakes just getting to into the bit and ends up winning, but frankly this episode is so insanely redieculous it works. Roll credits. This episode.. has quickly become one of my faviorite muppet show episodes. Not EVERY segment lands, like I said there's a few duds.. but the theme, Jackson's performance and the music is so damn fun you don't dwell on the weaker segments for long and instead just have a lot of fun with the insanity that's unfoldlding. Glenda Jackson trusted they knew what they were doing.. and unsuprisingly the muppet show crew absolutely did. Thanks for reading.