A Round of Applause for The Muppet Show

by Joe Hennes – [email protected]

It’s been such a treat to see how many lost and obscure characters new Muppet Show special reintroduced to the world. Hilda and George the Janitor. Mildred and Miss Mousey. The lady that dances with Rowlf in At the Dance and that goofy looking horse Paul Revere. It’s like the whole gang got back together just to raise the curtain and light the lights one more time.

Just looking at the lines of Muppets in the arches, you’d be hard pressed to identify many Muppets who weren’t invited to the party. Even characters like Pepe, Bean Bunny, and freakin’ Howard Tubman got to make their Muppet Show debuts (sorry, Very Merry Muppet Christmas doesn’t count). But there’s one character I wasn’t expecting to return to the show, and I had no idea how important they’d be.

When I heard The Muppet Show was going to have a laugh track, I was initially against it. What was the last show I watched and enjoyed that had audible laughter? How I Met Your Mother, maybe? Even that show felt behind the times in that regard. All of my favorite classic sitcoms use it – The Dick Van Dyke Show, I Love Lucy, Taxi, Cheers. But over the past couple of decades, it’s not only fallen out of vogue, it’s actually become a sign of a cheap comedy.

But here comes the new Muppet Show, and every little joke is punctuated with laughter. We’re reminded that we’re supposed to laugh too, and we’re told when to do it. For those first few moments, it’s almost patronizing. And then, without even realizing it, it began to feel like an old friend. I couldn’t have predicted how those fake laughs made The Muppet Show feel like The Muppet Show.

I recently wrote about the importance of The Muppet Show to have that vibe of being a “bad” show, and I’m learning how important the laugh track is to keeping the quality of that balance. When the Muppets do something funny, we laugh. When they do something hackneyed or deliberately unfunny, we still laugh. That canned laughter not only gives us permission to find delight in both ends of the comedy spectrum, it also lets us know that the folks behind the Muppets are in on the joke.

Of course, the laughs aren’t perfect. There’s a realism missing from them, making them feel a little too artificial. Back on the original Muppet Show, the voices we heard were often raw and manic. If you close your eyes, I bet you can hear them. The lady who goes “ha HAAA!” Richard Hunt’s “huh huh huh.” Where are they in the new special? Even if they can’t be replicated, I hope the next iteration of The Muppet Show finds a way to bring back their spirit.

But I think there’s something else to the laughter. It’s not just the promise that the jokes are funny, it’s a reminder that there’s a real audience in the Muppet Theater. And when we laugh along with them, we’re initiated into that theater as well. By joining in on the chorus, we get to step through our TV screens and be a part of the experience. And in a way, that makes us a character on The Muppet Show as well.

So the most unexpected, yet important return to the show? It’s not a Muppet, and it’s not a laugh track. It’s you. Welcome back.