The Muppets S01E09 “Going, Going, Gonzo” REVIEW

Airing in the UK on Sky One, Mondays, 8pm
Writers: Jordan Reddout, Gus Hickey (teleplay), Shane Kosakowski, Franklin Hardy (story)
Director: Randall Einhorn

Essential Plot Points:

• Gonzo reminisces about his old stuntman days and decides to fire himself out of a cannon – finishing the one great stunt he never managed.
• Unfortunately, the odds of death are high. So he chickens out.
• Scooter decides he’s not enough of a daredevil himself, so bravely declares he’s going to get his ear pierced.
• Unfortunately, he also chickens out. But while doing so, he fights the band and basically becomes a badass karate demon, thus proving he’s a daredevil after all.
• Joseph Gordon-Levitt sneakily defeats everybody at poker.
• Dave Grohl sings “Learn To Fly” on the show, and while watching him, Gonzo decides to be brave after all – and he doesn’t die doing the stunt! Cue Kermit’s “Yayyyyyyy!” flaily arms.

Review:

Well done to the showrunners this week for not only snagging two mega-profile guest stars but also coming up with a genuinely hilarious script, from Miss Piggy trying to flog her new Piggy Water (which inexplicably contains tonnes of fat and should be labelled as a sauce – go figure) to Gordon-Levitt’s brilliant speech about how he if can play young Bruce Willis in Looper, he can damn well win at cards by acting. Laughs? This episode’s got ’em. Bravo!

And best of all, there’s the Dave Grohl versus Animal drum-off, which is truly one of the greatest Muppet moments. This went viral after airing, and with good reason – the Foo Fighters legend is clearly fulfilling a crazy childhood dream, and we can only imagine what the hell was going through the minds of the puppeteers controlling that bonkers Animal puppet (probably, “We can’t believe we’re getting paid for this!”). This show has been doing fairly well over in the US, but it certainly hasn’t been barnstorming as much as it could have done – let’s hope this wonderful, glorious, hilarious clip will now put The Muppets on everybody’s radar. And rightfully so.

The Guests:

• Joseph Gordon-Levitt
• Dave Grohl

The Good:

• Piggy Water comes with lipstick already on the rim. This is such a genius/gross idea it’s astonishing nobody’s thought of doing it for real yet (though we suspect Kim Kardashian’s publicity team are now stroking their collective chins thoughtfully).

• “Joseph Gordon-Levitt! I hear you started out as a child actor. Why’d you give that up?” Miss Piggy’s banter was clearly written by Fozzie, who no doubt meant it seriously…

• Miss Piggy falls into a “glamour coma” after being electrocuted. We may laugh, but who wants to bet that, somewhere in LA, this kind of thing actually happens?
• Why is Animal crunching ice cubes so damn funny?
• Ditto Animal jumping on Scooter’s back during the fight. Animal most definitely rules this episode.

The Bad:

• Hard to think of anything this episode that doesn’t quite work. Gordon-Levitt’s pronunciation of “worship” as “warship” during “Fly Me To The Moon” might count.

The Random:

• Why does Gonzo say that if he hits the ground, there’ll be an explosion of fur, not feathers? Surely he’s a bird? Then again, nobody seems to know what Gonzo is. According to his performer, Dave Goelz, in an interview from the ’90s: “Nobody knows except his parents, and they’re not talking. It was always one of those taboo subjects around the dinner table.” He’s usually classed as a “Whatever”.
• Best Quote: Miss Piggy: “I need this! I lost a lot of money on my shower gel! It’s still a mystery to my why nobody bought Hog Wash.”

Reviewed by Jayne Nelson

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