Daibhid's Journal

So I was browsing Muppet Wiki, as one does, and I learned that the Irish Rodents, from that one episode of Muppets Tonight, have a fake vinyl hanging on the wall in Walt Disney World's PizzeRizzo restaurant (along with the Mice Girls from Muppets From Space, the Ratler Brothers from the "Flowers on the Wall" YouTube video, and Roland Rat from something approaching real life). And I thought it might be a fun exercise of the song parody muscles to actually write the songs on that record: "Salty Rat", "Pied Piper's Call", and "Take It and Scurry".

...So, it turns out that "Piper's Call" is an instrumental (assuming for multiple reasons that it's not the Dave Gilmour one), while "Salty Dog" by Flogging Molly and "Take It and Run" by the Dropkick Murphys are both incredibly dark, so I'm struggling to come up with fun, Muppety versions. I haven't given up, but I'm struggling.

In the meantime, it occurred to me that the Irish Rodents are named after the Irish Rovers, and the Irish Rovers are named after another folk song, so I did that instead.

The Irish Rodent
(with apologies to The Dubliners.)

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It was over a week ago, but I was there, and it was brilliant!
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Oh, yeah, two stories of varying but non-zero ridiculousness I wrote recently and then forgot to publicise in any way.

The Doctor Who drabble "Really Stretching ... Something", which is a Thirteenth Doctor story where I cleverly get round the fact we don't know what she's going to be like by giving her one line of being bemused, and is also a not-much-of-a-surprise crossover.

And the Furchester Hotel (yes, really) double drabble "Mr Dull Makes a Telephone Call" in which, with the literalism one expects of CBeebies episode titles, Mr Dull makes a telephone call.

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.)

Since it doesn't look like anyone else is going to guess, here are the results:
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Memed from lost_spook and john_amend_all:

Choose 5 OTP’s without looking at the questions behind the cut first, then tag friends to do the same.

I'm always useless at the shippy stuff, but here goes:

1. Moist von Lipwig/Miss Adora Belle Dearheart (Discworld)
2. Clara Oswald/Danny Pink (Doctor Who)
3. John Watson/Mary Morstan (Sherlock)
4. Floyd Pepper/Janice (Muppets)
5. Clark Kent/Lois Lane (DC Comics)
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My characters were:

1. Wally West/The Flash (DC Comics)
2. Sandy (Absolute Power)
3. The War Doctor (Doctor Who)
4. Dr Bunsen Honeydew (The Muppets)
5. Jack Dodger (Dodger)
6. Otto Octavius/The Superior Spider-Man (Marvel Comics)
7. Mycroft Holmes (Sherlock)
8. Eddie Watts (That Puppet Game Show)
9. PC Peter Grant (Rivers of London)
10.Gytha "Nanny" Ogg (Discworld)
11.Queenie (Blackadder II)
12.Arnold J Rimmer (Red Dwarf)
13.Lt Cmdr Montgomery Scott (Star Trek relaunch movies)
14.Lobsang (The Long Earth)
15.Fitz Kriener (Doctor Who EDAs)

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12 drabbles, based on the song. Seemed like a good idea at the time

WARNING: "Dodger: Three French Hens" contains SPOILERS.

( Blackadder: A Partridge In A Pear Tree )

( DC Universe: Two Turtle Doves )

( Dodger: Three French Hens )

( Discworld: Four Colly Birds )

( Legion of Super-Heroes: Five Gold Rings )

( Sherlock: Six Geese A-Laying )

( Bleak Expectations: Seven Swans A-Swimming )

( Discworld (again): Eight Maids A-Milking )

( Merlin: Nine Ladies Dancing )

( Doctor Who: Ten Lords A-Leaping )

( Hamish and Dougal: Eleven Pipers Piping )

( The Muppets: Twelve Drummers Drumming )

Memed from john_elliott

1. Pick five fandoms. List them in alphabetical order.

2. Visit this site to find your first RANDOM POEM OF POWER. Write down the 5th line (yes, even if it's an E.E. Cummings poem and you wind up with an apostrophe). Repeat five times and — you guessed it — list 'em in alphabetical order! (No cheating, mind! This is a challenge and it's always been about creativity.)

3. I think you can see where this is going. Write a very quick 50-word half-drabble for each fandom (try to do it all in one sitting — make your brain explode!), using the line from the poem as a prompt. You don't have to include it in the half-drabble — it's just inspiration.

4. Bravo! Have a cookie.

And because John did his in verse, I felt obliged to make an attempt likewise. (I didn't manage it in one sitting; I got three of them, then decided I needed sleep.)

The fandoms are Demon Knights, Discworld, Doctor Who, The Muppets and Red Dwarf.
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Fanfic Only The Casting Was Done For #2 That I Got Three Quarters Of The Way Through Before Realising It Was A Copyright Nightmare #1
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