Muppets, We Love You, but, Seriously, No More Trailer Parodies
Just like anyone else who came of age during "The Muppet Show" and "Sesame Street," we are both excited and nervous about "The Muppets," the Muppet reboot that opens around Thanksgiving. We've had more than enough of our childhood ruined through bad reboots/remakes/sequels/prequels in our adult life, and we can't bear the idea of the Muppets being in a new movie that sucks. So we were very excited about the clever teaser trailer that came out a few weeks ago that masqueraded as a trailer for a lame romantic comedy starring Amy Adams and Jason Segel. And then they did another trailer parody. And another one. And now we want them to stop.
The latest dropped today, kicking off with a deadpan voiceover of the Green Lantern mantra ("In brightest day, in darkest night...") before revealing, ha ha, nope, it's Kermit the Frog! Where the first teaser mocked a genre, the two most recent ones have been about specific movies: first "The Hangover Part II" and now "Green Lantern." They're moderately clever, but even the folks behind "The Muppets" seem to know this shtick is running out of gas: Segel even says, "Is this another Muppet trailer parody? Why don't we just show a real trailer?" Of course, it's supposed to be a sly self-referential joke. But there's also a lot of truth in it.
Of course, parodies were always part of "The Muppet Show," but the Muppet brain trust have been quite brilliant in keeping the brand alive on YouTube thanks to a series of fun viral videos. You probably saw the (so-so) one they just did for "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark," but they can actually be pretty sophisticated. (Seriously, when you're teaching children about the number seven in the midst of an extended homage to "Far From Heaven," it's not like you're phoning this stuff in.) That's why we thing we've reached the end of our enthusiasm for these Muppet trailer parodies. We don't want to see the Muppets spoof other films: We want to see the Muppets.
