Shooting Gonzo Out of a Canon

[daibhidc]

I was perusing Tough Pigs, the Muppets fansite, as I do occasionally (all right, frequently), and I came across this in their recent review of the Sandy Duncan episode of The Muppet Show:

Muppet fans love to argue about whether or not there’s such a thing as a Muppet canon. Some people feel that there’s a line of continuity from one Muppet project to the next – that if you squint hard enough, you can imagine that Kermit and the gang went to Danforth College after completing their Standard Rich & Famous Contract. Others believe that’s a lot of nonsense, because trying to create a Muppet canon can only lead to insanity.

And I thought "Well, unlike Anthony Strand, I do believe there's a Muppet canon. But Danforth College isn't part of it; that was just a film." And then I thought that was a strange thing to think, since it's all just a film (or a TV series). The Muppets aren't real. I know that.

But it seems to me there's two levels to their unreality; they're consistently presented as a troupe of performers putting on a show. There's a level where what's happening in the show isn't real, but the Muppets themselves are. And if you look at things from that level, Muppet canon no more needs to explain why they were at Danforth College than why they were in Dickensian London. Or indeed how Kermit and Fozzie can be brothers in The Great Muppet Caper, but nowhere else. That's all part of the show.

If we stick to things that actually appeared on screen (more or less), my canon events are:

• The events that inspired The Muppet Movie (which is only "approximately how it happened").


• The backstage scenes on The Muppet Show.


• The opening scene of The Muppet Movie.


• Possibly at Piggy's behest, genuine minister Reverend Dr Cyril Jenkins performs the wedding at the end of The Muppets Take Manhattan, leading to endless debates as to whether it was real.


• The control room scenes on The Jim Henson Hour.


• The backstage scenes on Muppets Tonight.


• Walter joins the troupe (Unlike The Muppet Movie, I don't think The Muppets can be even approximately how it happened, because it suggests they've been separated since shortly after The Muppets Take Manhattan, but clearly Walter did join because, well, he's there.)


• the muppets

(If we don't stick to things that actually appeared on screen, it quickly becomes a mess of interviews, publicity stunts [like Piggy's feud with Joan Rivers], special appearances at things, the Electric Mayhem's gig at Outside Lands, and the official Twitter feeds. But it's still more-or-less consistant.)

Comments

[pedanther]

That's pretty much how I see it, too.

[julesjones]

I haven't seen most of the films, but my take on it is also that there is a troupe of performers, and there are the things they perform. Backstage on The Muppet Show is "real life" in the Muppet universe. Some of the films occupy the same place in their universe as biopic films of human performers - there is some vague relationship with reality, but it's been heavily edited to make a good story for the screen.