the muppets suck

"So who's your favorite muppet?" Was one (if I do say so myself) of my best pick-up lines of all times. I used it on a couple of girls that were way out of my league one night, cause I was alone, and bored, and attracted to women out of my league. It worked really well, and I found myself talking to these two very attractive creatures way longer than I thought I would.

I'm from that era in time, where I remember being a kid, and waiting patiently for the Muppet Show to come on. It was a great show, and my dad would sit behind my brother and me, and laugh at the things that I thought were funny. It appealed to all of us. Later, the whole family went to see "The Muppet Movie." Shortly afterwards, we had the Muppet Movie Soundtrack in the car, and ye gods - I still know the words to "Rainbow Connection."

I was with my mom and one of her fun friends one afternoon, and somehow it came up that she (my mom's friend) went to school with Jim Hensen! At that time, he was playing around with socks with eyes, and little proto-puppet creatures...and she said, "To my lasting shame, I actually told him, you're never going to go anywhere with those puppets."

Now that's a classic quote. Jim Hensen founded an empire that took him...well, Yoda in the Empire Strikes Back was a muppet too. So he pretty much took puppets into a whole different world. But something happened along the way.

The muppets began to suck.

I don't know when it started happening, but it did. Maybe it was after Hensen passed away, and his heirs and followers had control of his characters...maybe it was before, when he had run out of "good juice," but what the hell??

I just saw a commercial for some pizza joint (hut? domino's? I dunno) and these little puppets were hawking the wares in the most annoying fashion. They used to be characters with strengths and weaknesses, but they were loveable, mature beings, and nearly human. But now, they've lost all of that. They are nothing but shrill spokes-animals, with no charm, no warmpth and no humor. When Gonzo is annoying, when Fozzy is annoying, when Animal just bugs the shit out of you, isn't it time to stop? Please, please...stop!