#the muppets 2011

[adobe-outdesign]

was reading up on deleted Muppet scenes. this one's my favorite

[lastoneout]

Alright everyone, it's time we settle this once and for all...

[kazbrekkeratemyson]

[caecaesclubhouse]

Is... is the Muppets fandom still alive....???

[gifs-of-puppets]

The Muppets (2011)

[muppetstimmoment]

The Muppets (2011) Stimboard!!! [Self-Indulgent!!!]

Creds:

https://www.tumblr.com/in-love-with-movies/697567837166895104/the-muppets-2011?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/moosetrails/691050290425856000/the-muppet-movies-are-the-movies-they-are-so-cute?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/toastedstims/730632069564252160/a-project-voltage-fairy-type-miku?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/stimjuice/680473779730857984?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/ritz-stimzz/720148773646581760/movie-nights-with-fig?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/meilia-stims/712862972277555200/eddie-dear-welcome-home-stimboard?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/mike-stims/729385945326026752/golden-retriever-stimboard-with?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/artipollostims/725425122366914560/ena-stimboard-requested-by-one-of-my-friends?source=share

[muppet-facts]

Muppet Fact #779

The Never-Ending Mahna Mahna Phenomahna was an app/website that allowed viewers to submit clips of themselves into footage of "Mahna Mahna." The service opened in 2011 and closed in 2015. It served as a promotion for The Muppets.

Source:

Never-Ending Mahna Mahna Phenomahna. (Archived).

[astronoglow]

[letsallsayweresorry]

I watched The Muppets (2011) with my boyfriend tonight and this picture of Kermit in Miss Piggy’s dressing room gives off Jones energy to me. (Probably because of the pose, but still).

[mx-piggy]

he’s my special little guy

[adobe-outdesign]

Nigel: The Muppets' Most Interesting Uninteresting Character

(This was supposed to be a fun little post about an obscure Muppet character but now I fell down a hole doing too much research and sunk cost fallacy won't let me live it down unless I include all of the useless information I've learned so enjoy knowing more about this character than you ever have or ever will want to know)

Nigel was created to be the host of the Muppet Show's Sex and Violence pilot instead of Kermit (who only appears in the pilot for like 30 seconds)

He was originally puppeteered by Jim Henson himself, giving him a vaguely Kermit-esq voice initially

Nigel Voice Count: 1

Nigel is a yellow... something. You’d assume he’s just a stylized human Muppet but in S4E18 Sam refers to him as a “thing”

He actually looks near-identical to a Fraggle minus the tail. I don’t know what to do with this information

Nigel was diagnosed with terminal Boring Personality disease due to the following attributes:

He’s very meek. Unlike Kermit, who will freak out and tell people they suck to their faces, Nigel raises his voice one (1) time and mostly relies on Sam the Eagle and Crazy Harry to deal with the assorted chaos

His face is flexible like Kermit’s, but he has permanently partially-lidded eyes that leave him looking exhausted in every scene he’s in

He’s generally unenthusiastic and seems like he wants to go home constantly

Jim Henson: The Works describes him as "lacking in spunk and charisma," which is hilariously cruel yet 100% accurate

What’s surprising at this point is that instead of scrapping him, he instead took on the role of orchestra conductor on the show proper, where he proceeds to do almost nothing for five seasons

The Muppets Character Encyclopedia actually provides a canon reason for this: Nigel lost the job of host due to his “shy manner”, and Kermit, feeling bad for replacing him, gave him his new job

He can technically be seen in basically every episode during the theme song, but aside from that, he often pops up in the chorus during songs

Which is funny when you consider he should be in the pit Doing His Job during those sequences

A quick list of his more important (if you can even call them that) appearances:

S1E2: He has Zoot play a song called “Sax and Violence” b/c pilot references

It’s actually implied the Mayhem falls under his jurisdiction as he threatens to fire Zoot, but this never comes up again

S1E24: Playing the part of a library patron noisily chewing gum (despite not having teeth. idk you figure it out). This one’s only notable because he’s wearing the same outfit from the pilot

S3E16: Nigel’s eyelids are not connected to the rest of his body and he’s facing backwards through the entire backstage segment so you’re uncomfortably aware of this

S1E23 has Floyd complaining that the theme song is cringe(TM), at which point it’s casually revealed that Nigel wrote it?? how is this character so important and unimportant at the exact same time

If you’ve seen this episode and aren’t deaf you might have noticed he has a completely different voice here. This is because John Lovelady has taken over as his puppeteer, presumably because Jim was busy Running The Entire Show

Nigel Voice Count: 2

Nigel has a talent for whistling, which is shown off in S2E18 during a performance with Floyd (this is the only time he comes on stage to perform that isn’t with a crowd)

He shows this off again in S4E18 to participate in the age-old sport of Annoying Sam the Eagle backstage

As of the 2011 movie Walter takes over as the show’s resident whistler because Nigel isn’t allowed to have character traits

He briefly shows up during the credits of The Muppet Movie (now puppeteered by Dave Goelz). Because of this, in the UK version of the end credits, he has another completely different voice

Nigel Voice Count: 3

After a brief background appearance in The Jim Henson Hour (S1E12), Nigel proceeded to completely disappear for 20 years

I’m guessing the reason was that his puppet was becoming unusable. The foam used for the muppets disintegrates over time, and his puppet was ~15 years old at this point

Things were particularly bleak for him in the 90s because Muppets Tonight came out with a new unrelated TV director character named... Nigel. Because Jim had passed away at this point and I think everyone working on the show literally Forgot they already had a character named that

Not that it would be that big of a problem, seeing as the chances of yellow Nigel returning were bleak. who was gonna spend time and money rebuilding an incredibly minor background character like him

TRICK QUESTION because he was rebuilt for The Muppets (2011), which is pretty amazing when you consider that he does Nothing during this movie

The new puppet looks pretty similar to the old one. I think the face is a bit rounder/more structured but I could also be losing my mind

(Side note: shoutout to whoever decided to give him a scarf in this scene. that’s such an unnecessary detail)

What’s great is that now that the puppet’s been rebuilt he’s shown up in a lot of stuff because they have no reason not to include him. Some of the more notable examples include:

The music video for OK Go’s cover of the theme song (which I certainly hope he would show up in I mean. it’s his song)

In the live shows (The Muppets Take the Bowl and The Muppets Take the O2) there’s a parade of overlooked characters, which includes Nigel. I just find it funny that:

A) The writers fully acknowledge that he’s King of the Background Characters

B) The in-universe implication that Kermit was like “no one knows who you are, wanna be in a parade celebrating that fact” and Nigel was like “okay”

His most recent appearance was in Muppets Haunted Mansion, where he’s dead (don’t worry about it). More importantly, he gets an entire shot to himself conducting some skulls, which I think is the first time the camera’s been focused solely on him in literally 40 years. Good job, buddy!

Here’s some other misc appearances that I couldn’t fit elsewhere:

He appears alongside Jim and a few other Muppets in a 1977 commercial for American Express (once again wearing his pilot outfit), which is particularly strange considering he’s the only character there that used to be puppeteered by Jim

In 2010 he got a somewhat important role in the first issue of Muppet Sherlock Holmes, playing the part of a butler suspected of poisoning the head of the house

He gets one whole page in The Muppets Character Encyclopedia from 2014 (right next to other Nigel). In addition to the aforementioned info bridging the gap between the pilot and the show proper, it also states that he’s susceptible to hypnosis and he trained at the Tommy Newsom Academy for Music and Charisma

In terms of future projects: there is both a Jim Henson biopic and documentary coming in the future (side note: why???), so it’s possible he might be discussed briefly in one of those

I have no thesis statement or reason for writing this, but I guess I’ll close out by saying that I find it fascinating that a failed main character from a pilot episode is still appearing in recent Muppet productions but solely as a background character. I hope that in 2073 I can put on some Muppet media and Nigel will still be there still doing absolutely nothing

thanks for coming to my TED talk

[inbarfink]

[notadwarf-planet]

Wanted to share this with you all

[crispycreambacon]

Yazrin! The Yazter (can I call you that?), are you a woman, a muppet, a very womanly muppet or a muppet of a woman??

Please don't kill my friend for wishing for a man pickle and then doing evil with it.

Have a nice day!!

Yazrin: I don't mind being called Yatzer! But uhm...

Yazrin: Ohhh! Can we watch it together?

Connie: Of course!

(One hour and 43 minutes later...)

Yazrin: By the way, tell your friend to count their days

...Until their birthday! Eyyy!

Connie: Nice save there.

Yazrin: I'm not inciting violence onto someone just for stacking donuts on a pickle. Who do you think I am?

Connie: ...A muppet of a gal? :3

Yazrin on the brink of tears: ♪ If I'm a man, that makes me a muppet of a man...... ♪

Connie: ♪ A muppet of a man ♪

[caecaesclubhouse]

THANKS FOR 200 FOLLOWERS!!! 🤗

Here's a quick Beaker gif I made. Finally learning how to animate! ....Kinda.