221 - The Muppet Christmas Carol
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The lads grab their tiny red scarves and head for Fozziwig’s Rubber Chicken Factory as they cover Brian Henson’s 1992 holiday classic: The Muppet Christmas Carol. Topics include the arch prose of Dickens, the cutting of “When Love is Gone”, and what it means to create a staple of the holiday season that involves Michael Caine throwing a wreath at a tiny puppet.
Media Referenced in this Episode:
The Muppet Christmas Carol. Dir. Brian Henson. 1992.
“Michael Caine Loves The Muppet Christmas Carol as Much as You Do” by Laruen Larson. GQ. December 15th, 2016.
“Brian Henson on What Makes ‘A Muppet Christmas Carol’ So Special and His Father’s legacy” by Alyssa Fikse. Uproxx. December 23rd, 2015.
“How we made: The Muppet Christmas Carol” by Ben Beaumont-Thomas. The Guardian. December 21st, 2015.
TWOAPW theme by Brendan Dalton: Patreon // brendan-dalton.com // brendandalton.bandcamp.com
Interstitial: “A Letter from Charles Dickens to His Son, Edward ‘Plorn’ Dickens, on the Day of His Departure to Australia, September 26th, 1868" // Written by A.J. Ditty // Feat. Brian Alford as “Charles Dickens” // Additional Text by Charles Dickens in a Letter to his son, Plorn
Comments (32)
We had the theatrical release VHS so the breakup song is wrong for me. Also, we watched the VHS so much that the player destroyed it. So I spent YEARS not being able to watch A Muppets Christmas Carol.
Love this episode but turkeys would not have seemed exotic to Victorians - the birds have been bred and raised in Norfolk since Tudor times.
SECRET LIFE OF TOYS WAS FUCKING SCARY
One of my dreams is to meet the Muppets someday. Growing up with Sesame Street in the late 80s, and Muppet Babies, I think I was primed to just love puppetry. Even now, my favorite stand-up comic is a puppet (Randy Feltface). The photo I use to introduce myself to students on the syllabus is a rendering of me as a Muppet. It's a whole thing.
I decided to listen to this with my sister as a fun way to hang out over Christmas. She has never heard this podcast before, but we both love this movie so I figured she would enjoy. She really liked learning about how Muppets worked and was impressed with Josh’s commentary about Dickens and history. Then we both laughed at Plorn and the lizard pervert, and I had fun explaining the bits that she would not understand having never listened before. We both had a great time and were massively impressed with AJ’s Gonzo, and Kermit impressions! Merry Christmas, lads! God bless us every lad?
Muppet master and commander is a dream of mine that has not left my mind in years
I remember seeing this movie for the first time at a babysitter's house when I was like. 5 or something. And then a few years later my mom decided to read the actual book out loud to me and my sister and I was like, "WAIT I KNOW THIS STORY" Iconic film
Awww thanks guys, I trust at least 2 of you too!
Hey! I like adult contemporary songs from children's movies!
Only a coward would's Young statler and waldorf
The voice of the Ghost of Christmas Present was the late Jerry Nelson, another one of the original Muppet performers known for his fantastic voice (Robin the Frog, Floyd Pepper, Gobo Fraggle, Pa Gorg, Mr. Snuffleupagus, Count Von Count...). That's why he could bring such character to that part!
More Muppet trivia: - The bunchy urchin character is Bean Bunny, created originally for The Tale of the Bunny Picnic special. He became such an irritatingly cute character on The Jim Henson Hour that writers loved beating him up. - One of the creepy-looking green characters in the parlor game scene was Wander McMooch on Fraggle Rock, who scared the crap out of me when I was a kid. - The antidote to The Secret Lives of Toys is The Christmas Toy special, where the toys who were spotted out of place come back to life. Now, if you'll excuse me, my husband bought me a vintage copy of The Great Muppet Caper album on vinyl for Christmas. <3
A fantastic episode to wrap the year up on. Will say I would definitely love to hear more Muppets related episodes in the future. Do agree that the point of any good "Muppets with a Human" movie is that by the end the Human is a Muppet, except for Tim Curry who just started as one and rolled with it. Also I can't remember which of you it is that has the killer good Kermit impression, but dang I'd rather have you do the voice than the current guy
Scrooged is definitely my favorite adaptation of A Christmas Carol. I love how Bill Murray's character is producing an adaptation of A Christmas Carol in the movie, and yet he never realizes that he is literally having A Christmas Carol happen to him, like he's not even aware of the actual story he's producing.
"Josh Boerman IS Tiny Tim"
…Do y’all have a postbox and also what size leather vest/jacket does Brian wear?
Oh God, I never realized or at least acknowledged all those Adult Contemporary Songs in family movies before, but now that I'm aware of them I'm realizing that they're literally everywhere. This is such a bizarrely specific querk of the industry. Every single movie had to have at least one song that was covered by some random pop artist.
Absolutely nuked from psychic orbit by the knowledge Delilah was real and not a child's feverdream of 90s adult contemporary
If you ever want to see a version of A Christmas Carol with a mean Ghost of Christmas Present watch the 1970 film Scrooge.
BRING ME MY DIDGERIDOO
Thanks AJ. Your telling the story of leaving the light on for you dog broke me. I had to stop what I was doing and go hug my dog who was happily playing with her new Christmas present. Now she's confused why im sad. 😐
"Marley and Marley" and "Shiver my Timbers" are two of my favorite movie songs. There's a great Pirate rock cover of shiver my timbers on youtube.
Shout out to my favorite Jim Henson Company production, Farscape, one of the best Scifi shows that more people should see.
2 of the main characters are puppets and they feel so real. They also go to some very. VERY dark places. Evil Spock eats a chunk of the main characters brain at one point.
What have y'all done to me that when Jim Henson's cause of death came up my first reaction--even before Josh--was to be like "the same way Whit's wife died?!"
Even though it's technically a couple of days late, I say happy Saturnalia to you all!
I am 23 minutes in (as of this writing) and absolutely dying from laughter. I don't know if I can stand two more hours.
Very stoked to listen to this. This movie has been an annual tradition for me since it came out.
Merry Christmas!
Was literally watching a couple of videos on YouTube about this last night. Hell yeah!
Let's F***ING GO!!!
Kingdom Hearts soon!?!