“Do these diamonds make me look relatable?”
By Matt Fowler
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow…
Ed Helms stopped by to sing a bit of karaoke this week on “Pig Out,” as the crew of Up Late with Miss Piggy were forced to invite their esteemed, demanding boss to their traditional after work get-together. The twist here being that – they had a great time! So great in fact that they all came in late the next day and could barely function.
I’ve had more than my fair share of gripes with this new, edgier Muppets series, that’s for sure. But it’s usually gotten Piggy right. And such was the case here. Making the main story pretty good, despite some of its more cliched roots.
I mean, let’s face it. The Muppets has yet to produced an A or B (or C) storyline that hasn’t already been done before on another workplace comedy. The boss not being invited to a party. Someone trying to be nice to a mean character, only to have it come back and bite them in the ass. There’s nothing new here and this show’s greatest shame is that it’s “updated” the Muppets by giving them well-trodden, rudimentary storylines.
But – holy hell – I will say I laughed during that karaoke sequence. They got me there. Swedish Chef and Beaker will always be funny. Probably no matter what. It’s the gibberish, of course. It just hits me. So Chef doing “Rapper’s Delight” and Beaker shrieking through “I Got You, Babe” made for some honest hilarity.
Also, watching Sam pine over Janice was good fun, though nothing seemed to get resolved there. She seemed more enamored with Ed Helms, making him the second celebrity she’s possibly gotten with if you count Nick Offerman last week. Again, the Muppet/human hookups on this show are a little out of control. Helms though, like most other celebrity guests, fit in well. He was mostly in party mode here, though there was a bit right when he first appeared that seemed to imply that he was petty and shallow. You know, someone who’d easily become fast friends with Piggy.
Oh, and actually doing something with Statler and Waldorf (or in this case, just Statler really) other than have them heckle was a new wrinkle. And watching ol’ Stat take a high velocity t-shirt to the face was pretty great. But the story fizzled right at then end when Fozzie got duped again. Even though it seemed like everything was leading us toward Fozzie putting one over on Statler. I just needed that one extra scene showing Fozzie somehow getting in a final prank on the guys. Or, at least, trying to get one over.
The Muppets still has yet to produce a fresh storyline (as in, not just one “freshened up” by featuring The Muppets) but it continues to use celebrities well and Piggy’s grandiose ego is almost always a part of the show that’s handled right.
