{"id":33986,"date":"2011-12-10T12:25:11","date_gmt":"2011-12-10T12:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/?p=33986"},"modified":"2017-03-04T02:17:29","modified_gmt":"2017-03-04T02:17:29","slug":"muppets-mayhem-is-misdirection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/2011\/12\/10\/muppets-mayhem-is-misdirection\/","title":{"rendered":"Muppets Mayhem is Misdirection"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Honestly, I haven\u2019t<\/strong> been paying much attention. <\/p>\n

I mean, I love the Muppets but once I stopped having to read bedtime stories in Elmo\u2019s voice to the kids, Muppet headlines stopped resonating (although the whole family does very much enjoy rewatching The Muppet Family Christmas Special each year \u2014 a classic, sadly unavailable, anymore).
\n
\nBut I\u2019m hearing some suggestions<\/strong> that the new Muppet movie is a covert action by the socialists, hellbent on denigrating capitalism and especially conservatives. <\/p>\n

I really do understand how a steady drip-drip-drip<\/strong> of insinuation can have a lasting impact on society. But sometimes I just have to shake my head at the way people react, or how eager they seem to be to get huffed up about everything, all the time \u2014 as though they\u2019ve been primed to accept an \u201coutrage of the day\u201d and one day the outrage was The Muppet Movie.<\/em> And another day it was Lily, the Food-insecure Muppet<\/strong><\/a>, who offended some by talking about free food at school, on that progressive-propaganda program known as Sesame Street.<\/p>\n

I do think Sesame Street sometimes lays on the lessons with such a trowel of progressive goo that it can be unwatchable. What started out in the 70\u2019s as fun education became so ponderously \u201cinstructive\u201d by the late 80\u2019s that my kids spent a great deal more time with Mr. Rogers than with whoever replaced Mr. Hooper. <\/p>\n

Nevertheless \u2014 though I cringe<\/strong> when I hear the politically-and-bureaucratically-correct euphemistic \u201cfood-insecure\u201d (why isn\u2019t \u201chungry\u201d good enough?) I\u2019m not jumping on the Lily-Bashwagon. Someone I love was raised in an environment where food was a scarce thing \u2014 at one point, one \u201csnack-sized\u201d bag of potato chips a day was all there was to eat, for a whole week \u2014 so I don\u2019t begrudge any kid a breakfast or lunch they can get at school. I didn\u2019t see the whole Sesame Street scene, but I hope Lily also talked about church and community food-pantries, since they do a lot of good for hungry folks.<\/p>\n

And I\u2019m not going to jump on The Muppet Movie<\/em>, either, especially not after reading this interesting tidbit<\/strong><\/a>: <\/p>\n

In the film, the oil tycoon sings a song about how much he loves money and so on and so forth. In the soundtrack, the same song is there but is slightly longer, as it includes a little section about why the oil tycoon hates the Muppets. As I recall (heard it on Sirius XM; haven\u2019t bought it yet), it\u2019s something about how they managed to ruin one of his childhood birthday parties. I don\u2019t know why that was cut out of the movie version, as without it the song made little sense. However, once you hear the complete song, so much more of the movie\u2019s plot line and motivations becomes clear. It\u2019s not all about the oil tycoon wanting to drill for oil underneath the Muppet Theater. There is primarily a personal revenge aspect in play.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course\u2026there is this stunning confession of subversive activity<\/a><\/strong> by Sam-the-Eagle: <\/p>\n

Kermit certainly knew how to crack the whip over at the UPMCMF \u2013 the United Puppets, Marionettes and Claymation Figures. The cast of Davey and Goliath was reactionary to a man \u2013 hardly surprising, when you consider the Evangelical Lutheran Church was bankrolling the show. Davey, who was the same cocky little bastard on-camera as he was off \u2013 proof, if anyone needs it, that he couldn\u2019t act \u2013 wanted to impose the blacklist. In that quiet, unassuming way of his, Kerm reminded Davey that his high and holy bosses might be unhappy to hear he\u2019d been flitting around with Roy Cohn and G. David Schine. Davey backed right off, although, to everyone\u2019s sorrow, Scooter gave Kermit the cold shoulder for some time afterward.<\/p>\n

For years, saving our own union cards was all any of us could do. That changed when ATV brought us all together on The Muppet Show. Overnight, we became culturally relevant.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In the end, of course,<\/strong> all of this Muppet mayhem is just a distraction, meant to take us away from the the training and preparation we should be undertaking<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Why waste your time on what in the end will only serve the illusion-makers, when you need to be preparing for the reality?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Honestly, I haven\u2019t been paying much attention. I mean, I love the Muppets but once I stopped having to read bedtime stories in Elmo\u2019s voice to the kids, Muppet headlines stopped resonating (although the whole family does very much enjoy rewatching The Muppet Family Christmas Special each year \u2014 a classic, sadly unavailable, anymore). But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[297,4845,4874,643,4906],"class_list":["post-33986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-anxiety","tag-faith","tag-media-excess","tag-muppets","tag-tv"],"yoast_head":"\nMuppets Mayhem is Misdirection<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Honestly, I haven't been paying much attention. 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