The Muppet Show: Difference between revisions

See [[The Muppets]] for various other Muppet productions, and [[Muppet Cameo]] when they show up in other shows.

 

 

* [[All Asians Wear Conical Straw Hats]]: Including the Muppets representing Japan in the Spike Milligan-hosted "Salute to All Nations" episode.

* [[All Drummers Are Animals]]: Literally! According to legend, Animal was based upon [[The Who|Keith Moon]].

** Several of the guest stars tried shamelessly to out-Muppet [[The Muppets]] -- like [[Spike Milligan]], [[John Cleese (Creator)|John Cleese]] and [[Peter Sellers]] -- with results that were indeed highly awesome.

*** "When the show first started, the producers would call upon friends in the entertainment business. However, about half-way through the second season when Rudolf Nureyev appeared, his appearance gave the show so much positive publicity, that other celebrities came to the producers instead of the other way around. " (from Wikipedia). Nureyev had seen the show whilst staying in London and liked it so much he actually called them up and asked if he could appear.

* [[Chuck Cunningham Syndrome]]: Hilda the seamstress and George the janitor are almost completely absent after the first season.

* [[Clip Show]]: Not in the original run, but in [[The Eighties]] the ''Jim Henson's Muppet Home Video'' series of ten VHS tapes were clip shows linked by newly-shot material with the regular characters. Notably many of the U.K. spots were included (thus making their U.S. debuts), as well as at least two Season One musical numbers ("All of Me" and "You've Got a Friend", the latter being the finale from the Vincent Price episode) that would not appear on the Season One DVD set due to music rights issues. Similar compilations appeared in [[The Nineties]].

* [[Endangered Souffle]]: In a brief bit in the [[Spike Milligan]] episode, a tap-dancer's conversation with Kermit comes to an abrupt end when the Swedish Chef rushes up and attacks him because his tapping has collapsed the Chef's soufflé.

* [[Everybody Laughs Ending]]: Used frequently, especially if the guest was the butt of the joke of the sketch. Said guest would laugh with everyone else at the punchline to show that the sketch was an act and that there were no hard feelings.

* [[Exact Words]]: In one sketch, Sam claims that eventually he will receive his "just desserts" for acting as the moral centre of the show. [[Pie in The Face|He's immediately hit by a pie.]] What was it according to the monster who threw it? "Just dessert."

* [[Executive Meddling]]: Averted in that Henson had a degree of immunity. The show's British producer Lord Lew Grade gave Henson one condition; that he produce the show in Grade's London studios. Apart from that Grade pretty much gave Henson ''carte blanche'' to do what he wanted. As a thank-you, Henson wrote a Lew Grade [[Expy]] into The Muppet Movie, played by Orson Welles.

** The "Koozebanian Mating Ritual".

* [[Gladiator Games]]: [[Sylvester Stallone]] appeared as a gladiator fighting a lion. When the lion realised who he was, it tried to escape, and failing that turned the fight into a rendition of "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off".

* [[Grand Finale]]: While not technically an episode of the series, ''The Muppets Go to the Movies'' was meant to serve as this to this series.

* [[Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress]]: One of Gonzo's outre stunts involves reciting the seven-times table while holding a grand piano over his head; partway through, he gets lost and stops to count on his fingers -- and the moment he realises this means he's no longer holding the piano (but not a moment before) it falls on him.

* [[Groupie Brigade]]: The [[Sylvester Stallone]] episode is the [[Trope Namer]].

* [[Gun Twirling]]: The villainous Bullets Barker in the Western-themed [[Roy Rogers]] episode.

** In ''The Great Muppet Caper'' Fozzie and Kermit play twins. Nobody recognizes them as such until Fozzie removes his hat. Later on Kermit is sitting alone and a passerby mistakes him for a bear. Someone else corrects him; "Bears wear hats."

* [[Handcar Pursuit]]: In the Loretta Lynn episode, a mix-up leaves Kermit and Gonzo stranded miles from the train station where the show is temporarily set, and they travel back by handcar. At one point they get chased by a locomotive.

* [[Hawaiian Shirted Tourist]]: One appears in several sketches in the episode guest-starring Jean Stapleton.

* [[Kent Brockman News]]: The "Muppet News Flash" sketch.

* [[Knife Throwing Act]]: Leslie Uggams inadvertantly becomes part of one as Lew Zealand, Boomerang Fish Thrower gets carried away and starts throwing swordfish. The scene ends with Leslie surrounded by swordfish in a [[Knife Outline]].

* [[Lampshade Wearing]]: Beaker attempts the disguise version in the Elke Sommer episode in an attempt to get out of a particularly hazardous Muppet Labs sketch. It works right up until Beauregard tries to plug him in.

* [[Large Ham]]: The cast in general qualify; but Miss Piggy qualifies in [[Incredibly Lame Pun|more ways than one]].

** ''[[Muppets From Space]]''

** And in 2011, there came ''[[The Muppets (Film)|The Muppets]]'', which is intended to [[Re Boot]] the franchise and (hopefully) pave the way for further outings. This film features a traditional-style Muppet Show.

* [[Ninja Prop]]: The ping pong ball in ''[[The Coconut Effect]]''

* [[No Fourth Wall]]: The fact that the series takes place on a stage show seems like justification for the lack of such... until you realise that the Muppets constantly break it backstage. And the audience keeps laughing at everything said and occuring off stage, even though there's absolutely no way they'd be seeing or hearing them.

* [[No Kill Like Overkill]]: The Swedish Chef ends up "cutting" a ([[Ninja Pirate Robot Zombie|sentient, Japanese]]) cake in half with a "[[As Long As It Sounds Foreign|cakenschmooscher]]" (baseball bat). Of course, the cake was more crushed than sliced, but by that point the Chef didn't really care too much...

* [[Noodle Implements]]: Gonzo once attempts to perform an act using a torch, a tire swing, and a cow. Exactly what he was planning to do with these is never shown, as he was booed off stage before he could start, but he had originally planned to use a typewriter instead of the cow (they didn't have a spare typewriter he could use).

* [[Noodle Incident]]: On the episode with Loretta Lynn, Scooter tells Fozzie to use the joke about the electricians and the polar bear, saying, "I laughed for days." Sadly, the middle of the joke is lost due to a passing train...

* [[Painful Rhyme]]: [[In Universe]] in the "Robin Hood" episode; Scooter, doing exposition in the role of Alan a Dale, rhymes "in sooth" with "living fast and looth", prompting a complaint from Fozzie.

* [[Pants Free]]: In a "Muppet Newsflash" sketch, the newsreader reads a report about a newsreader who forgot to put on his pants before going on air -- then realises that the newsreader in question is himself.

* [[Parachute Petticoat]]

* [[Parental Bonus]]: ''Tons'', which was part of the show's point. Jim Henson and Jerry Juhl saw it as a show aimed at ''everyone'' watching, not just children or adults.

* [[Saw a Woman In Half]]: Fozzie attempts this trick in the [[Sylvester Stallone]] episode, but is unable to find a volunteer and has to settle for a robot in a blonde wig. He ends up cutting into its main power cable, giving himself an electric shock and making the robot explode (for the second time in the episode).

* [[Security Cling]]: The Pigs in Space sketch where Link and Miss Piggy explore the alien planet Koozebane has the exaggerated leap-into-his-arms version -- but it's dashing hero Link who leaps into Piggy's arms, much to her disgust.

{{quote| '''<s>Mark Hamill</s> Luke Skywalker''': Listen pal, we're on a mission. There's no way we're gonna be involved in some third-rate variety show!<br />

'''Kermit''' ''(deeply wounded)'': ''Second''-rate variety show! }}

** The Liza Minnelli episode was a Whodunnit murder mystery.

* [[So My Kids Can Watch]]: The reason why [[Sylvester Stallone]], of all people, ended up in an episode.

* [[Sour Supporter]]: [[Statler and Waldorf]]. There every single show.

* [[Space Pirate]]: Attacks the ''Swinetrek'' during the "Pigs in Space" sketch in the [[John Cleese (Creator)|John Cleese]] episode. Technically just a normal pirate (complete with [[Hook Hand]] and [[Pirate Parrot]]) who's very, very lost.

* [[Wanted Poster]]: In the "Bear on Patrol" sketches, the walls of the police station are decorated with Wanted posters for the members of the band.

* [[Weapons Grade Vocabulary]]: Guest star Avery Schreiber engages in a duel with Sweetums. The weapon of choice: insults.

{{quote| '''Floyd:''' Hey, now we'll really hear some music!<br />

'''Animal:''' Yeah... what music?<br />

** In the [[Sylvester Stallone]] episode, an orchestra performs the William Tell Overture and finishes with the cellist firing the bow from his cello to shoot an apple off Beauregarde's head.

* [[Wraparound Background]]:

** During the cowboy sketch in the [[Bob Hope]] episode, as Cowboy Bob rides his horse across the lone prairie.

** In the Loretta Lynn episode, as Kermit and Gonzo travel by handcar.