Comment: The Muppet Show Failed Me

I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but after twenty some years, "The Muppet Show" is not holding up as well as I had hoped. We got the season one DVD and my kids have been watching it avidly, though without a whole lot of laughing out loud.

It's not that they don't enjoy it. But the jokes are either (a) wickedly dated or (b)inappropriate in today's world. There are endless physical gags, which, though at times funny, aren't so funny when the monster is beating on the girl over and over. It's a little disturbing.

I know, I know, we watched Wile. E. Coyote and look how we turned out. Seriously, look how we turned out. Dubya and co. grew up on Wile E. Coyote. Do you see what I'm saying?

Anyway, it's very old-school vaudeville. It's not the kind of humor we are used to these days in the postmodern, postironic adult world, nor is it the kind the kids seem to really like. They enjoy slapstick, sure, but goofiness is more laugh-inducing than subtly and endless ham/pork puns about Miss Piggy. I think maybe my kids are a little young for the puns. In another year or two they'll probably be hysterical.

I had a really interesting experience with one of the episodes, which I was watching with the kids today. Charles Aznavour, famed French chanteur, was on signing "Inchworm" and I remembered seeing that very episode lo these many years. I didn't remember him, I remembered the counter point choral melody that the Muppets were singing. It was wild. I got the shivers.

But then, I don't get out much.

And it still beats the hell out of those damn Doodlebops.