The Muppet Show
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The Mup p et Show: Sex and Violence: Inv estig ating the Complexity of the Telev ision Body Rayna D enison (1) ‘I feel p retty, oh so p retty,’ sing s a blue, med ium siz ed Mupp et with small, feminine fea tures w earing a blond wig. Then she pulls off her nose, eyes and ha ir and b eg ins to a dd a new set of fea tures. ‘It’s ala rming how cha rming I feel,’ she wa rb les a s she p la ys w ith a shock of lime g reen foam hair, applying a la rg e g reen nose a nd fa ng ed teeth to her fa ce, her voice cha ng ing from F ra n Brill’s to Jim Henson’s on the pre- record ed song- tra ck. ‘And so p retty, tha t I ha rdly ca n b elieve that I’m real,’ her now g rowling voice continues the Step hen Sond heim song as the blue ‘Wha tnot’ Mup p et finishes her tra nsforma tion from girl to monster w ith a pa ir of mena cing ha iry-b row ed eyes (C ha rles Az na vour Episod e, 17/ 01/1977. See note 1). (2) Und er the d ressing tab le the Mupp et sits at, tw o Mup p eteers work in tand em to sepa ra tely manipula te the head and a rms of the blue Mupp et, creating the imp ression of a single cha ra cter for the ca mera . Watching their p erforma nce in the monitors a t their feet, at one p oint they make the b lue Wha tnot d ive und er the table, repla cing its mid- transforma tion b od y with a nother, p re-p repa red version. The end result is a sketch tha t celeb ra tes the puppet bod y’s ab ility to shift betw een a nd b eyond normative b od y categ ories, simulta neously show ca sing the cra ft a nd skill of the p up peteers. Such sketches w ere common in The Mupp et Show (1976- 1981), b ring ing the ‘real’ bod ies of the show’s cha ra cters into question while celeb ra ting the p upp et a s a site of sp ectacle a nd inventive p erforma nce. Such sketches a lso b eg in to reveal how The Mupp et Show might offer an imp ortant corrective to simp listic notions of the b od y on television. (3) The bod y on television is not alw ays a s stra ig htforwa rd a s it seems. On many occa sions, the med ia ted nature of the bod y on television d isguises its unnatura lness. The stunt d oub le sta nd ing in for Buffy, the falsified corpses of the C SI franchise mad e from p la stics, ma ke-up a nd C GI or the a nima tronic p remature bab ies of hosp ital dra ma s a re a ll instances of such constructed, complex b odies. In most of these instances the intention is to ma sk the bod y’s construction or substitution. In ma sking the pieced- tog ether nature of the performa nces tha t go to ma ke up p opula r television cha ra cters, such show s hid e the a rtistry, cra ft and skills of their p rod uction tea ms. This chapter seeks to investig ate a television series for w hich the aim wa s not to d isguise media tion of the b od y, b ut frequently to celeb ra te it. Follow ing in w ell estab lished traditions of pup p etry and light entertainment television p rog ra mming in w hich pupp et or a nima ted bodies w ere juxtaposed w ith real b od ies, The Mupp et Show d elivered a melee of ( re)p resenta tional strateg ies d esigned to cross the bord ers betw een the huma n and the Other. The Mupp et Show ’s celeb ra tion of the body ca n b e seen in numerous wa ys, from the sheer va riety found in its pupp et b odies, to the ad ulation shown to its guest sta rs, to its insistent d econstruction and reconstruction of bod ily b ounda ries a nd bord ers. (4) For these va rious rea sons alone The Mupp et Show w ould d eserve to be consid ered , along sid e Henson Associa tes’ (HA!) contrib utions to Sesame Street (1969- ), a s some of the most inventive and exp erimenta l television of its da y. How ever, unlike the pup p etry on Sesame Street, w hich wa s a imed p rima rily a t a children’s a udience and intend ed for ed uca tiona l purp oses, The Mupp et Show ’s p rima ry ta rg et audience wa s a family one tha t includ ed a s many ad ults as child ren. Monster Mupp ets played an esp ecially importa nt role in b rid ging this gap b etw een child a nd ad ult aud iences. Most frequently a ssociated with the horror g enre, a g enre tha t The M upp et Show sometimes tap p ed into b ut wa s not usually a pa rt of, monsters in the M upp ets rema in ‘a perfect vehicle for eng end ering… curiosity… b ecause monsters a re (physica lly, thoug h not g enera lly log ically) imp ossib le b eing s.’ (C a rroll 1990: 182) ‘Imp ossib le b eing s’ could d escrib e the entire cast of Mupp et cha ra cters from talking loa ves of F rench bread and d ancing fea ther boas, to singing pig s a nd comed ian b ea rs. Imp ossib le, not just beca use the Mupp ets anthropomorphise and animate everyda y animals and ob jects, b ut b eca use the Mup p ets a re pupp ets mad e of va rious fab rics a nd foa ms, w ith stuck on fa cial fea tures a nd wigs used to differentia te them from one another, thus ma king it d ifficult, if not imp ossib le ‘to b elieve tha t [they’re] real.’ Of course, b eneath their surfa ces w ere human p erformers who worked to create the M upp ets a s believab le cha racters with p ersona lities very much of their ow n. How ever, it wa s the monster M upp ets a t the ma rgins of the Mup pet ca st whose b od ies w ere p erhap s most flexibly imag ined and p erformed. It w as the W ha tnots a nd ‘F ra ckles’ (b rought to The M upp et Show from an ea rlier sp ecia l TV app earance) in pa rticula r tha t p roved the most transg ressive b odies; b odies tha t explod ed, chang ed fea tures a nd surround ed ( sometimes mena cing, sometimes mena ced b y) the huma n guest stars of the show . (5) These monsters often p rovid ed the violent a sp ects of the sex and violence tha t The Mup p et Show’s creators used to b ridg e b etw een child ren a nd their pa rents. Sex and violence, pa rt of the title of one of the ea rly p ilots for The Mup p et Show, p rovid ed Henson Associa tes with previously ina ccessib le outlets for humour a nd add ed to their rep ertoire of aud ience app eals. The Mup pet Show offered a n almost id entica l set of a pp eals to a mixed fa mily aud ience a s Tex Avery’s ca rtoons ha d d one ea rlier in cinema s and on television. According to Paul W ells, Avery ‘understood tha t child ren would b e app eased b y physica l slap stick,’ which The M upp et Show exhibited on a regula r basis, ‘w hile ad ults required a more knowing, self- conscious app roa ch, which would engag e w ith more mature themes.’ (1998: 140 ita lics in orig ina l) W ells continues b y a sserting that und erdog cha ra cters, irrationa l fea rs, surviva l instincts, resistance to conformity a nd, perhap s most significa ntly here, ‘direct engag ement with sexual feelings a nd id entity’ w ere a t the hea rt of Avery’s attemp ts to re- envision a nima tion as a med ium for adults ( 140. See a lso Sand ler 1998). W hile the monsters p rovid ed slap stick violence, it wa s the intera ctions b etw een guest sta rs a nd the central cha ra cters, and betw een the centra l Mupp ets themselves, tha t ga ve the show its ‘sex.’ Sex a nd violence rep resent important a spects of the M upp ets that ha ve been la rg ely forgotten b y a cad emics working on the cha ra cters.