Shortpacked! by David Willis
Toys are serious business.
Convention appearances:
Calgary Expo Calgary, AB: April 26-28
Phoenix Comicon Phoenix, AZ: May 23-26, 2013
BotCon San Diego, CA: June 28-30
San Diego Comic-Con San Diego, CA: July 18-21
SPX Bethesda, MD: September 14-15
Phoenix Comicon Phoenix, AZ: May 23-26, 2013
BotCon San Diego, CA: June 28-30
San Diego Comic-Con San Diego, CA: July 18-21
SPX Bethesda, MD: September 14-15
Multiplex
Sorcery 101
Templar, AZ
The Transformers Wiki
Hail to the Slash
80 page GIANT
Axe Cop
The Book of Biff
Butt-Taco
Comics Curmudgeon
College Roomies from Hell!!!
Diesel Sweeties
Dinosaur Comics
Dr. McNinja
Dresden Codak
Fans!
Fleen
Gastrophobia
Girl Genius
Girls with Slingshots
Goats
Hark, a vagrant
Hijinks Ensue
Intrepid Girlbot
Legend of Bill
Medium Large
Not Invented Here
Octopus Pie
Overcompensating
Penny Arcade
PhDcomics
Power Nap
Questionable Content
Real Life
Rob and Elliot
Bad Machinery
Schlock Mercenary
Sheldon
So Far Apart
Something Positive
Two Lumps
Wapsi Square
Wonderella
Wondermark
Frumph.NET
Sorcery 101
Templar, AZ
The Transformers Wiki
Hail to the Slash
80 page GIANT
Axe Cop
The Book of Biff
Butt-Taco
Comics Curmudgeon
College Roomies from Hell!!!
Diesel Sweeties
Dinosaur Comics
Dr. McNinja
Dresden Codak
Fans!
Fleen
Gastrophobia
Girl Genius
Girls with Slingshots
Goats
Hark, a vagrant
Hijinks Ensue
Intrepid Girlbot
Legend of Bill
Medium Large
Not Invented Here
Octopus Pie
Overcompensating
Penny Arcade
PhDcomics
Power Nap
Questionable Content
Real Life
Rob and Elliot
Bad Machinery
Schlock Mercenary
Sheldon
So Far Apart
Something Positive
Two Lumps
Wapsi Square
Wonderella
Wondermark
Frumph.NET
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©2005-2013 David Willis | Powered by WordPress with ComicPress | Subscribe: RSS | Back to Top ↑
Mana Mana
Wokka, wokka.
Doot doo de-doo doo
Mahna Mahna!!!!
but seriously, this comic forgot Chris Cooper Rapping
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9dvz29Kr7Y
In that case, I wish my mind was like this comic.
What’s the story behind this comic?
The movie, apparently.
There’s a new Muppet Movie out now? It’s the first I heard of it.
can’t tell if serious
HAHA! I was wondering if he’d do a take on the new movie!
Sadly I am totally serious.
To be fair, the only reason I heard about this movie is because it showed up in my RSS feed when Lady Gaga’s and Katy Perry’s scenes were cut (as if I cared).
In my defense, I’m currently living abroad, but still.
Yes. It’s called “The Muppets.” I saw the poster last week when I went to see “Puss In Boots.”
How is life under that rock?
Coober Pedy is a pretty good rock to live under actually. ^_^
How is life under that bridge?
I love how in the movie, they completely gloss over how Gonzo could have easily bought the theater back
Loved the whole thing.
I loved that too. And that none of the celebrities answering the phones donated the 10 million themselves. They surely each had about 10 times that amount.
Realism in a Muppet movie? That’s not right. QUICK! SOMEONE THROW A PENGUIN!
Gonzo blew up all his money with his plumbing supply factory. But that line was deleted.
Yyyyep. Yeah, pretty much.
I should point out that Kermit the Frog and company are a collection of oddball misfits who under no circumstances could raise more than a handful of quarters under normal circumstances. Sorry, but mocking the Muppets doesn’t work since 90% of their comedy comes from them being earnest losers.
Yes, the Muppets are above criticism.
/sarcasm
Hey, they’re not above criticism but this is about criticizing the Muppets for not being a movie with LOGIC in it. Not being a movie about LOGIC with the MUPPETS about SHOWBUSINESS and SUCCESS. I’m just saying, that’s a bit like criticizing Opitmus Prime for being too noble and one dimensionally paladin-like.
you are the first other person i have ever heard say that about optimus prime and get away with it.
marry me.
Yeah, I really gotta agree. It just seems an odd target.
Well said.
Yeah, you kinda have to accept the odd rules by which their universe operates.
For example, they had tons of celebrities on their show, but also one episode where Kermit needed to find money to pay the other Muppets, and their combined total paycheck amounted to less than a buck.
Shoulda hit it with a sonic.
Let’s not forget that in the new movie, the villian was an oil baron that wanted to drill for oil in the middle of Los Angeles. Like anyone was going to allow that to happen.
Even with a lack of logic, it was still a fun movie with some catchy musical numbers. So, I’m fine with it.
There’s oil drills all over LA, actually:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/18/secret-oil-rigs-in-los-an_n_362153.html
Man, I live in Canada and I think twice before taking anything the Huffington Post says.
Okay- how about the Los Angeles Times?
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jul/19/travel/la-tr-laoil-20100718
I applaud you for finding supplementary citation. This is a very interesting thing, indeed!
Cracked did a cool piece on it, they’re really all well hidden.
The muppets are the 1%!
hmm, I don’t think they reach .01% of the population …
I do admit, some of the movie was questionable to me. For example, why is Kermit rich? Kermit is the kind of guy who’d give the majority of his fortune away to American Wetlands Conservation groups every year. Plus, Fozzie would never say fart shoes. He’d call them whoopie shoes.
I’m a dork, I know it.
As I understood it, Kermit wasn’t rich. He had a massive house because Piggy built it for them, and he wasn’t really taking good care of it.
wait… WHY DIDN’T THEY CALL THEM WOPPIE SHOES? that would have made more sense for fozzie.
After the politicizing of this movie by the radical right on Facebook I said, “Yeah, well…Miss Piggy, Hilary Clinton–same difference really!”
(FTR, I agree with Clinton a great deal ideologically but completely despise her personally and hope she never gets elected President.)
It was years before I realized Miss Piggy being a glamorous pig was a joke. She was just that fabulous.
….because when I think of Hillary Clinton, I think “ironically glamorous actress who spends all her time being militantly infatuated with some small little dude”?
I confess, I do wonder about that myself. I mean, wouldn’t that mean Kermit was President at some point? In which case, I believe in change.
To be fair, Billy was more a toad than a frog, personal- behaviorwise.
You, Willis, with the art skills I certainly lack:
http://shortpacked.bigcartel.com/product/waspinator-plans-poster
This, but as Kermit!
That would be amazing.
Until I put the Trudeau “U MAD BRO” on it, that was the lock-screen on my Zune HD.
The art actually exists already, I saw it in a recent issue of the inflight magazine on planes. Didn’t think to take the copy of the magazine since it was a rather short article and the only one that held my interest.
At what point did the conversation shift to discussing the republican primaries?
Is the movie worth seeing? Or will it ruin my fond memories of The Muppet Show and its earlier movies?
It’s a little fanfictiony, but pretty fun and funny overall. I’d recommend it.
Good concept, poor script, but the earnestness keeps it at a thumbs up (if just).
It was pretty good for the most part. The scenes with the Muppets are great, but the human scenes come off as very awkward and forced after a certain point. The two main humans become a moot point once the Muppets are introduced and gathered into one spot. It’s currently the best reviewed movie of the year so I assume that’s worth something too.
“Best reviewed movie of the year” according to the Rotten Tomatoes algorithm, which only measures the percentage of critics who gave the move generally favorable reviews. The movie only scores a 76 on Metacritic, for example, which averages the reviewers’ scores. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, for example, scores an 87 on Metacritic, but ranks below the Muppets on RT by 1%.
Are you fucking kidding me!? Harry Potter Part 2?
I’m sorry guys, but that movie was shit. Part 1 was good, yeah, but Part 2 is a two and a half hour climax which, on its own, is really uninteresting because it has barely any story itself. It’s only worth watching alongside Part 1.
Heh, heh. Two and a half hour climax.
Well, if it lasts longer than four hours, consult a doctor. Otherwise . . . have fun!
W-WIN!
Most had the opposite opinion, they might function better together, although I cant see how Kill Bill got away with it, probably the structure allowed it. CHEESE!
If you love Muppets, you will love this movie. It was made with pure love by people who love loving the Muppets.
Love.
That sounded dirty.
Exactly.
The comic has a point, though. I enjoyed the movie, it was full of love and glee, but also thinly felt-covered plot holes.
This is a great statement in regards to the movie. If so many scenes/lines hadn’t been cut, perhaps there would be less plot holeyness, but it didn’t matter to me, as fun was to be had and memories flooded back.
But if you go in with intention for a logical plot without holes, there will be disappointment…
As said, there’s precedent in Muppet films for that, being that they know they’re in a movie and make references to that.
Also, if anyone is complaining about Mister Willis’ strip (I haven’t read all the comments yet), keep in mind the Muppets are all about parodies and being parodied, plus it points out a legitimate plot hole.
As a second-generation Muppet-lover (I was too young to have watched the original run, but my dad was, and he introduced them to me in my early youth) I really liked it. It hit all the right notes for me, and maintained the multi-level humor that the old stuff had.
I was smiling throughout the entire movie. There weren’t many laugh out loud moments but it always provided the little chuckles.
My only complaint is Amy Adams… She does not strike a chord with me at all in Happy Go Lucky Children’s movies. Love her in Julie and Julia but in Enchanted and the Muppets she seems forced and uninspired.
I wouldn’t say “forced and uninspired”; I’d say one baby step on the sunny side of psychotic, and that works for me…
As a lifelong fan of the Muppets, I *loved* the movie. I personally didn’t mind the humans at all and just had a blast through the whole movie. Struck all the right chords with me… That’s not to say there were no complaints, but overall, it’s one of my favorite films.
[some spoilers below]
As for the (somewhat major) plot holes– throughout the movie (as in the Henson-helmed ones), there are several meta-references that they are acting in a movie. I take that as a ‘just repeat to yourself it’s just a show, I should really just relax’ license. Plus, according to what I heard from people who read the book, some of the plot holes were filled– Kermit’s mansion was in disrepair (and, yes, it was built by Piggy for her and Kermit to live together in), Gonzo *did* have enough money to save the theater but blew it up when he left, Tex Richman couldn’t laugh and didn’t like the Muppets, etc.
Thanks everyone!
It’s fantastic, perfect, and I don’t know how anyone can’t like it.
Yeah, this movie is totally realistic. Animals can’t talk!
Want me to blow your mind? Kermit and Fozzie are brothers.
That’s more believable than Gary and Walter being brothers.
You owe me a new keyboard. Mine has brain all over it.
http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Kermit_and_Fozzie%27s_Dad
It’s right here. Proof positive.
More disturbing than them being brothers, is that their dad is a human… What was that fine gent up to?
Not the human… the green haired Fozzie pictured with the human
WHOOSH!
That’s only in The Great Muppet Caper. Which, like Muppets Take Manhattan, is best thought of as a movie starring the Muppets (heck – the whole opening number is about how they’re doing a movie).
Indeed. Muppet Family christmas makes it quite clear the two aren’t related.
As was The (original) Muppet Movie –in fact, all three “original” Muppet films (the ones made when Henson was actively running the franchise) are generally metafiction. They’re movies about movies (and stagecraft, in the case of Muppets Take Manhattan), populated by characters who are probably loving parodies of people Henson actually knew and had worked with.
Remember that The Muppet Show (and the Jim Henson Hour, and Muppets Tonight) all took place largely backstage, often while the show itself was going on (unseen) off-camera. The staged variety show was never the point; it was about the process of putting on the show.
Muppet Christmas Carol and Muppet Treasure Island can be seen as following this trend, as the “Muppet Players” making films which don’t always turn out as intended (with frequent assaults on the fourth wall, plot twists that catch the narrators by surprise, and familiar Muppets playing different roles [Kermit as Bob Cratchet]).
This is why the more recent movies (Muppets From Space and The Muppets) don’t really work for me; they mostly lose the metafictional elements and become flat-out zany comedies that happen to star Muppets-as-themselves in contrived situations. The Muppets tried to get back to basics (being about the Theatre), but never really struck the right balance –once the variety show started, the “backstage” elements were pretty much forgotten.
@Cybersnark: I don’t think you saw the same movie I did. The one I saw was all about backstage antics and breaking the fourth wall. Also Traveling by Map.
The Muppets was an in-universe movie, actually. it just made it less obvious than “The Muppet movie”. Then again, either way it was very much a movie about stagecraft and filmmaking.
I agree with Zach and turkishproverb… there were several moments where they or the humans broke the fourth wall. Also, backstage antics were aplenty… it seemed more like ‘The Muppet Show’ and the first three Muppet Movies than the Muppet properties have in years (IMO).
Good analysis.
It also made it clear the Muppet theatre was a historical landmark and could not be destroyed under any circumstances.
So, yeah, the franchise has something of a loose view of continuity.
Different muppet christmas special. And in the USA? An oil magnate can get something declared “un-historical” pretty easy.
Excuse me, put they are in fact puppets and not animals.
Puppets can’t talk either.
Um, isn’t that sort of half their schtick?
Not at all. Puppeteers talk. Since they were being literal and saying they weren’t animals, I was just taking it the rest of the way.
Wait, what’s the other half?
Bad puns.
And you know Hillary Clinton personally? Interesting comment if you dont.
Just suck all the fun out of the movie why don’t you?
Not cool, Willis, you don’t nitpick logic (of all things) in a Muppets movie.
*Shakes head in disgust*
All they have to do is start their own OPI nail polish theme.
Wait…
Odd, now I want to know what Joyce thought of the movie. I imagine her as a lifelong Muppet fan.
It’s true! She could totally relate to Miss Piggy’s violent affection.
Can I just interrupt for a minute to point out that I hate Malaya? I really really hate her. Hate Hate Hate. Thank you. Now back to the Muppets, who by the way are above reproach.
I love Malaya and hate the muppets.
Not necessarily the new movie, which I haven’t seen. Just the muppets in general.
Seconded on both counts.
How on earth could you *hate* the Muppets? I can understand not liking or enjoying them; everyone has different tastes. But actively hating them?
They can get a bit twee in my opinion. If you’ve been spoonfed too much of that kind of thing in your life I can see hating the Muppets. For myself I grew up watching them but there’s very little of it I still enjoy. I appreciate that Jim Henson accomplished a lot, but even despite that and years of nostalgia to fall back on I have zero desire to see this movie.
I’m soooo with you on Malaya, but having watched Muppets Take Manhattan as a child and loving that Kermit and Piggy got a happily ever after ending, a movie that tells me they went on to be unhappy together is really kind of a downer. It’s like they stole my inner child’s loli, tossed it to the ground in front of her, and then stomped on it for good measure.
Your inner child’s… what?
Loli. Lolipop. Sucker. Blob of hard candy on a stick. Given to small children in hopes that after eating the candy they jamn the stick up their nose and cause permanent brain damage.
hahahahhaha, fantastic
I grew up in the 80s but never watched the muppets. I suppose I’m not missing out by not watching the movie.
You are wrong.
Never watched the show either. Its great.
This is completely right.
But the movie was still fucking hilarious.
When I saw Gary talking to his idol, it made me wonder if this was what Edgar Bergen was like to Jim Henson.
Between that and the Barbershop Quartet Sketch, I got my money’s worth. It took awhile to become a Muppet Movie, but I think it took the best route. Musical numbers on a show that had a love affair with Vaudeville and those acts that eventually moved to Hollywood? I’m good with that. The little bit of Scarface and a bawdy chicken number were just nice bonuses.
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/entertainment/2011/12/fox-news-hates-those-commie-muppets/45742/
Kermit is both the 1% and the 99% simultaneously. He is everyone.
He is the Everyfrog.
What’s next, postulating why that Coyote doesn’t just buy a sandwich with all that money he apparently has to waste on Acme goods and services?
Do you know of any places that sell roadrunner sandwiches?
“..the road runner is to the taste buds of a coyote what caviar, champagne, fillet Mignon and chocolate fudge are to the taste buds of a man…”
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_0_ynVlwAg9U/S8DFai1tArI/AAAAAAAAHYw/B46x83fCL-c/s1600/01rr-chart.jpg
Wait a minute, the noodle and chop suey are pointing at the same piece! That doesn’t make sense! My childhood is ruined!
Going by their performance, they probably pay him to take them off their hands.
The episode where they coyote sued ACME for consumer fraud said that he had spent “in excess of twentyseven dolloars” on ACME products
ACME, the Mark of Quality.
(We didn’t say it was good quality.)
This coming from a guy who loves a franchise about giant robots that have emotions, genders, gods, and death (because THAT makes sense), and yet Transformers still tries to take itself seriously more often than not.
As opposed to the Muppets, who intentionally exist in a ludicrous world of ludicrous situations, and actively make fun of that fact. God forbid THEY produce a film that suffers from any logical fallacies. *rolls eyes*
You do realize that he makes fun of Transformers all the time?
Sure. And then gushes obsessively, ad nauseum.
Seriously, there’s a WORLD of difference between “mocking a ‘serious’ (i.e. not intended to be comedy or satire) TV series that inadvertently writes in some massive WTF plotholes” and “complaining about a plot for being absurd, when the whole POINT of the plot (as it was deliberately written) was to be patently absurd.” The first is about calling the writers on their BS. The second is missing the frakkin’ point entirely.
Ergo, snark.
Oh my god get that stick out of your ass before you rupture your intestinal walls you seriously could die from that. It’s a joke. Willis makes fun of things. Often things he really likes. Get over it.
Oh dear, please forgive me for bothering you with my statement, and also for having the audacity to hold to and clarify my position when questioned. See, I thought this comment section was for compliments AND criticism. I was completely unaware you had placed a moratorium on people voicing their negative opinions. In the future, I will do my very best not to offend your delicate sensibilities. My sincerest apologies, good sir.
As for that stick in my ass, quite right, I’ll have it looked at as soon as the other blockage is attended to. You see, it seems a troll has crawled up my ass and died.
Freedom of speech doesn’t stop after a certain number of iterations. Willis can say what he likes about the movie, you can say how dare Willis make a joke you didn’t like, and I can say you’re stupid for doing so. You can then go on to imply I am an evil censorship fascist for that, as you have, and I can go on to say you don’t seem to understand how free speech works, as I hereby do, and so on until one of us loses interest.
You misunderstand. He said nothing about free speech. He said he could comment and criticize as he sees fit. He also said you’re kind of a dick.
Glad I could help facilitate communication.
Group hug!
You fascist pig!
Quite! See, I thought my message was OBVIOUS, but apparently I was expecting too much when I figured he’d actually read the words I typed instead of supplying his own. Oh well, thankfully there was a translator in the vicinity.
Oh, no, you never said anything about free speech. You merely complained about my moratorium on speaking freely about your negative opinions! Man, I don’t know how I managed to be so off-base!
Well, putting aside the semantic issue that I never said the words “speaking freely” either (no matter how you order or conjugate, the words simply aren’t there, stop trying), the point was NEVER that you’re being an oppressive fascist censor (you added that connotation ALL on your own, bud), but merely that you were being an insulting douche. As Jonn explained (he understood . . . why don’t you?). Constitutionality had NOTHING to do with it. So . . . yeah, I DO kinda wonder how you were so off base. Excellent point there.
Talking about how the person arguing with you is trying to disallow you from expressing a negative opinion is an appeal to free speech, whether you say the words “free” and “speech” or not. Appealing to free speech in situations where it does not actually apply is a space on the Internet Argument Losing Bingo card, which is why I pounced on it.
As for acting like a douche, I try to treat people with whatever level of respect they appear to deserve. You were flipping out over David Willis daring to make a joke that relies on overthinking something silly because apparently that’s this horrible thing, meanwhile bringing up Transformers in an apparent attempt to declare his opinion invalid because he likes something else that is also silly and him making fun of Transformers too doesn’t count because he likes it (because of course he couldn’t possibly also like the Muppets!), and basically stopping just short of calling him an idiot for making a joke you personally didn’t find funny. You’ve probably already found at least six things in the preceding sentence that make you think “what? no, I didn’t mean anything like that,” but that’s how you looked to me. So, level of respect you appeared to deserve.
No, talking about how the person arguing with you is trying to disallow you from expressing a negative opinion is an inquiry into just why you think you make the rules. As I said, free speech had nothing to do with it. If Willis said, “Hey, you can’t say that,” I’d shut up directly because it’s his house. And I bow to HIS authority to “get over it,” not YOURS. Don’t assign motivations to me. I’m the one talking, I already KNOW what my motivations are.
As for respect due . . . ok, I’ll totally give you that one. As I said further down, sick, being snarky, unjustified, my apologies. Yes, that was a serious apology. Sorry the tone of my initial post offended. Wasn’t aimed at you, but nonetheless.
hth
tldr;
/\ I loled.
God forbid Willis show his affection by joking about the movie in question. *rolls eyes*
XD XD Way to suck the magic out of it!
Well, sure, when you say it like that…
I demand equal time: Criticize The Muppet Movie’s plot.
If you say so but I have one question – what is there to criticize?
This is a guess at the authors intend but I think you people looking to defend the Muppet Movie from Willis’s attack may be taking a joke to seriously.
Author! Author! My 5YO son was completely baffled by this film. Now I know why.
This same company is what brought “Phil E. Moose” to the new ownership of the Philadelphia 76ers basketball team to replace “Hip Hop” as their mascot. What the Hell does a moose have to do with Philadelphia?? See Phil here: https://plus.google.com/113633389900884056552/posts
i don’t know. what does either mascot have to do with signing the declaration of independence?
As someone who has lived his whole life in Philadelphia, the is fucking retarded. A moose has as much to do with this city as a penguin does to Jamaica.
Ok, how long before ethan comments on the new gi joe movie trailer with the rock as roadblock ?
The part where the Cobra Standard is unfurled at the White House gives me hope that the new Joe movie will be good.
Stop white-knighting for Hollywood movies that cost millions of dollars to make. They don’t care about you and they don’t need your protection.
Just your money. You can leave your wallet on the floor.
Of course it doesnt care about you….ITS A MOVIE
Ha, yes, thank you! I spent a lot of time giggling when I saw the movie, but I really think they should have stuck to the silly jokes and not tackled things like mental illness (Animal) and collapsed relationships (Piggy/Kermit) if they were going to do it irresponsibly. The latter nearly killed the whole movie for me.
*snerk* Pfff-wha?
“Irresponsibly?” WTF does that even mean?
A family movie is a little irresponsible if it shows that the “right” thing to do is to leave your incredibly fulfilling and lucrative career in an awesome city to return to your shut-in, noncommitting lover, who says things like, “Piggy, why do you ask me that when you know it makes me have to be mean to you?”
And Animal’s story was why falling off the wagon is cool if it’s fun. I mean, he started out in an institution. The movie really just didn’t need to go either of those places. Unnecessary.
I found the bit with Animal in therapy hilarious. As well as the unbalanced relationship. If you’re analyzing it that closely, you’re missing the point of the lulz. They’re there to be funny and they were. If that’s not enough, one could argue that it’s a deconstruction of society’s portrayal of both issues and therefore not endorsing it.
Have you SEEN piggy and kermit’s relationship? This wasn’t a collapse of it, this was a period or rehabilitation.
They have now relapsed. The abuse shall resume.
Actually, yeah, good point.
I want to hate this comic so much, but there’s just something too funny about the way that Kermit is drawn, and I also read it in a complete deadpan tone.
So, it looks like the Muppets are apparently a sacred cow or something.
More like a cash cow.
and very likely to have talking cows.
Every once in a while, you click on a comic shared on some social media site (Google+) and come across a comment thread. And you read the comments, and you ask yourself “who ARE these people, with detailed thoughts and arguments about Muppets and Transformers?” And then you kind of like them. The end.
everything is great, everything is grand…
I’ve got the whole wide world in the palm of my hand.
Everything is perfect, it’s falling into place…
I cawn’t seem to wipe this smile off my face!
try Clorox wipes.They work pretty good
C-c-c-c-c-combo breaker.
=[
Life’s a happy song, when there’s someone by my side to sing along!
(combo UN-broken!)
I personally loved this movie. Yes, there were some glaring logical inconsistencies, but.. uhm, it was the muppets. It’s a movie about puppets who are treated as real people, chickens singing CeLo.
I am a huge muppets fan, and it warmed my heart to have the entire theater auditorium singing “The Muppet Show” theme, and “The Rainbow Connection” together.
Honestly, I don’t see why people are getting so offended/upset by this comic. I mean, I used to watch “The Muppet Show” as a kid (yes, I was around for much of the original series). I loved the first movie, and have several songs from the soundtrack album loaded on my mp3 player, to listen to when I’m at work. “The Great Muppet Caper,” I thought, was a fun movie, though not nearly as good as the first (though I also had the soundtrack album from that one, and “Happiness Hotel” is my favorite song from it). After “The Muppets Take Manhattan,” I stopped watching Muppet films. I’ve tried to watch some of the later films, but none of them seem to capture the spirit of the original TV series and the first two movies.
That said, none of the stuff I haven’t liked has affected my enjoyment of the original material. And a webcomic poking fun at the weird logic of a Muppet movie isn’t a personal attack on my memories of the fun I used to have watching the Muppets. Yet, the way some people react to this comic, you’d think Kermit had made a comment about being raped to sleep by dickwolves.
Of course I realize that some people will only remember the dickwolves part of my comment, and everything else will be lost, but meh. I’ve been using the internet long enough to expect that, and to stop caring about it.
tl;dr: It’s a COMIC, not a personal attack on your childhood. Get over it.
My childhood is personally attacked. I am filled with indescribable rage so indescribable that it can’t even be described with the word indescribable. Feel my anger. Grr.
You said something about GIR?
That was the most bored and/or apathetic growl I ever heard (read). [slow clap]
Dumbledore clap.
Ya know, for what it’s worth, I never thought of it as an attack. I just feel the comic isn’t funny. I think it’s not a very good joke, primarily because (as many stated above) it applies logic to the scenario. And in the context of the film, when you apply logic, the situation becomes utterly absurd, and that’s the JOKE. That’s why the movie is funny. By specifying all the absurdities with the comic, it essentially explains, in great detail, the premise of the joke itself, and as anyone knows, when you explain the joke, the joke isn’t funny anymore.
I wasn’t irritated because of the target he chose. I was irritated because I think he did a poor job, s’all. I was expecting funny. I was disappointed. And as always, that’s just my opinion and YMMV.
Probably should have made that clearer in the first place. I’m sick, and I get snotty when I’m sick. (pun intended)
Read a different comic, then? All entertainment is not designed to target you personally. There’s this crazy thing out there called…wait for it…almost there…variable audience base!
Furthermore, if you recognize that you’re a bit… intolerant when you’re sick, then why not just stay away from comment boxes?
As Confucius said: “He who knows he is a fool, is not a great fool.” In a less philosophical translation: “If you know your folly, then you can avoid your folly – otherwise you’re a willing troll.”
Absolutely. This comments page is intended solely for praise. Mr. Willis’ ego is FAR too fragile for me to voice any complaints. While I may feel my illness has made me cranky, thus rendering my tone perhaps unnecessarily rude, it was really the fact that I spoke up at ALL that was completely uncalled for. And while I acknowledge that I am but one of a multitude of fans, and my opinions don’t reflect theirs, theirs OBVIOUSLY must reflect MINE, so I dare not disagree with the masses. My sheer audacity to complain that I’m dissatisfied with ONE installment of this comic clearly means that I should leave and never read this comic again. That makes perfect sense.
Funny how other commenters keep telling me how off-base I am, but the actual writer doesn’t bother. Wonder why that is. Maybe it’s cause he gives WAY less of a crap about my complaint than they do. Strange, that.
You, my friend, live in Binaries.
My point wasn’t that you have to vanish forever or anything like that, all I meant is that this comment stream is clearly populated by people who both want to discuss the comic and anything else that happened that day. Walking in and being rather belligerent about all the reasons you are dissatisfied was clearly going to start a flame war. So, to continue to argue your point, regardless of the response, after it was made is just inciting the flame-war further.
You’re grumpy and you’re dissatisfied. That point was made; there was nothing wrong with making the point. Where you went wrong was trying to convince everyone else that your outlook was the only outlook, when clearly people didn’t agree.
As for David, he probably just can’t be bothered to get caught up in a flame-war. Guy’s a business man, he has thing to do. It’s people like us who have days off, or just finished exams in college, who have time to do this dance.
Yes, I made my point, and was then immediately told my point was invalid, I had a stick up my ass, I should go read another comic, called a troll, told to stay away, and that I just need to get over it. So yeah, I shot back.
Feeding the flame-war? Probably. But I’ll be damned if I ever walk away from an argument.
And that, my friend, is your folly. Have a good evening.
You as well.
Good evening, I mean.
“Yes, I made my point, and was then immediately told my point was invalid, I had a stick up my ass, I should go read another comic, called a troll, told to stay away, and that I just need to get over it. So yeah, I shot back.”
…you *do* realize that all of that happened *after* you gave someone crap for being belligerent in a context you thought inappropriate, and snarked at them for doing so, right?
You may have never thought of it as an attack, and Willis may not have thought of it as an attack, and honestly I didn’t think of it as an attack, but being told to take the stick out of one’s ass isn’t exactly Pearl Harbor, either. It’s also not very different than typing “rolls eyes” after dissecting a comic.
actually i agree with jay on this one, its just not that funny. but then it does give me a whole different perspective on the movie.. just a really disappointing one…. also tucker? did you hang around here for 4-5 hours or did you keep coming back?
I did the last of my finals yesterday, so I was just going back and forth between my computer and xbox for most of the day. Just relaxing, you know.
When I sit down at my desk I just hit the f5 to see what’s up.
oh ok. *shrugs*
the thing i don’t get is i can see gozo not having enough, i mean whats a plumbing king got 2 million at best? maybe 6 mill? but shouldn’t they have paid for the studio by now? i mean its been what? 30 years? and they must have made that much by now….
the best part of the movie was during the climax when the villain was belittling them for not making enough and some kid in the audence shouted at the top of his lungs “THATS NOT FAIR! MOM! MOM! THATS NOT FAIR!!”
yes, when i saw it the dramatic confrontation was met with laughter.
And that’s fine. You didn’t think it was funny, and you’re entitled to that opinion. What I was referring to in my comment is the people who are getting butthurt because “Not cool, man. You don’t make fun of the Muppets.”
For what it’s worth, I didn’t think this comic was all that funny, but that may be because I haven’t seen the movie. And actually, I didn’t even get it until I read the comments and found out that the last panel is a synopsis of the movie. My reaction was, “Oh, okay. Moving right along, then…” Yet, there seem to be people who, having laughed at most of the other things Shortpacked! makes fun of, seem to think Willis has crossed the line by daring to poke fun at Kermit the Frog. As though the Muppets are (as a few others have noted) a sacred cow; as though making fun of the Muppets is akin to making fun of rape victims or retarded children.
Believe me, I understand, “Yeah, okay, that wasn’t funny.” What I don’t get is, “WTF is wrong with you, dude? You don’t make jokes about the Muppets, man. That’s just wrong. What did they ever do to you?”
A lot of people have issues differentiating when Willis is making fun of something because he likes it and when he does it out of contempt. It’s completely contextual but it really isn’t that nuanced. If people would just take a breath and look at it objectively before getting offended, they’d be able to figure out which one it is.
The thing is that some people were emotionally scarred when Jim Henson died and the poor darlings have never gotten over it and that’s why if you don’t like the Muppets you have no soul and you don’t ever ever diss them.
Pitiful.
Well René sure sound like some Keynesian economist, well just in the part of “inject more money” is the lefty version of “the market know what Its doing” (I despise economist since I took a course of modern economics!).
I haven’t seen The Muppets yet (Hoping to at Christmas) but this is funny either way.
Fair warning: the movie is not a serious economic treatise.
Hopefully that doesn’t deter you from seeing the movie.
Fox News begs to differ with you.
I’m shocked Fox News would differ on something.
“The Guy with Glasses” had basically a fun skit where he was going to mock “Follow that Bird” and found that attempting to mock Sesame Street caused his inner child to assault him. I think that effect may be at play here. Mocking Kermit is well…dude it’s Kermit! What the hell!
No offense to Willis who has brought me many hours of Joyce Joy.
I really loved the crap out of this movie. I think it’s the third-best Muppet movie ever made.
I also thought this comic was really, really funny.
Gee, it’s almost as though I can acknowledge and laugh at faults in things I enjoy.
Uh oh! You’re helping me enforce my moratorium on negative opinions! Which isn’t at all the same as censorship and if I thought of censorship it’s because I’m dumb.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uV5-XiwjrI
Was intended as a reply to Wackd /\
I am amused that, depending upon one’s point of view, the muppets here could be representing the banks OR #ows.
David, after writing this comic have you been stalked by a karate chopping pig?
It’s more a negative look at Kermit than Miss Piggy.
What that was kind of a downer. I kinda feel like Fozzie should have at least thrown in a “Waka-Waka” at the end or something.
Kermit Shrugged.
I have to agree with some people, this feels less like a parody and more like explaining the joke.
I enjoyed Arthur Christmas about ten times more than The Muppets. See it!
I will second the recommendation of Arthur Christmas. It’s even worth sitting through steampunk Justin Bieber butchering “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town”.
Not going to rank it vis a vis The Muppets though. I thought both were great.
(Also great, though a totally different sort of movie: The Artist. See it if you can. It’s awesome.)
I agree! Arthur Christmas was brilliant!
What bugs me about the movie is that they’ve already done a plot like this ina recent movie.
Instead, let’s give them 100′s of millions by making this the #1 movie in the country for a few weeks and more when the next muppet movie comes out.
This was the best Muppet movie since the original, really seemed like Jim was part of it. I have always liked the Muppets, but was never a HUGE fan, and loved it for going back to its roots and making me laugh. My buddy IS a huge Muppets fan, worships them and knows everything about anything Muppets, and also loved the film because of the same reasons. Said it’s a perfect movie.
I loved the movie, I also didn’t think this comic was really funny. Applying logic to an illogical thing is odd.
Good comic and all, love the movie… but it is always very weird to me to see the muppets represented as anything but puppets. The art is fine, its just… drawings of the muppets looks SO WEIRD to me!
If Kermit was so well off, why did he have an old crappy rolls Royce? It was kind of the illusion of riches. Gonzo too was well off, and miss piggy, but nothing really suggests they were worth enough to drop ten million dollars without a thought. Of course they could have come up with some of it themselves, and telethon-ed a smaller amount, but as anyone whos seen the film knows, that wouldn’t have helped much.
Great strip and great commentary about the movie. Especially liked the part about the Kermit/Piggy relationship. Some people think it’s the pig who makes it dysfunctional, but in reality it’s the frog. Face it: Kermit’s a jerk. He asks much of Piggy but offers very little in return. She’s fabulous and he’s mostly self-absorbed and self-pitying. Sometimes it’s hard to understand why she digs him. But it’s a good thing for the franchise because it’s about the only element that’s remotely adult about it.
The movie was okay. But MAN was a shitload of stuff cut out of it. Plot holes indeed.
Must give my money to the frog…
Again, didn’t read all the comments, but did anyone else get goose bumps when they did the opening number? Sorry, grew up watching “The Muppet Show”!
Posted it there, posting it here:
Yea. You know what? If we’re going to bring real world logic into that franchise, lets start with something that has more evidence.
I see what she’s doing to Kermit’s as an abusive partner manipulating their ex back into a relationship.
If we’re talking real world logic, let’s talk about the fact Piggy was just using giving up her position so that she could lord it over Kermit later, further contributing to her emotional and physical abuse of her longtime boyfriend/stalkee. There’s a reason he was afraid to go ask her to come back. She was fucking abusive and the other Muppet’s didn’t’ understand that because unlike him, most of them thrive on that kind of insanity, whereas he tends to play the strait man. He stood up to her properly by standing her up, and now he’s crawling back because his friends think they need her to save the theater.
Effectively, in order to try to save something of his friend’s legacy together, he went back to an abusive ex, and she used the situation to manipulate him into an even weaker footing and a renewed relationship. He’s got battered spouse syndrome, and she’s using a relatively avoidable and alleged career setback to gain power over him in the relationship.