Think of Kermit the Frog: a fun, lovable green frog created by Jim Henson in the '70s.
Now think Fozzie Bear: a truly lousy comedian, but you've got to love him.
The Muppets are known to do ridiculous things to get their audience to laugh. When you think of the Muppets, you might think of a kid's show encouraging children to smile and possibly learn a thing or two about numbers and manners. But, what most of the public is not aware of is that the Muppets were first created by Jim Henson to be a strictly adult humor show.
The Muppets Show was originally going to be called Sex and Violence. Crazy right? How would you expect a kid's show with furry creatures to be derived from an adult show promoting sex and violence? It is unbelievable what creative people think of. It is ironic that a show promoting good discipline and learning could have potentially equaled such vulgar concepts.
However, about a month ago, the Muppets did fulfill their original name. The Muppets(2015), created by Bob Kushell and Bill Prady, show a different take on the original Muppets kids know and love.
1) Gonzo the Great has all the Ladies:
Other than his want to create a fabulous show for all of his viewers by flying out of cannons, he now wants to flirt with the ladies. The new Muppet show has made this characteristic of Gonzo more apparent. Gonzo has always had his fan base of chickens, symbolizing chicks that follow him around, but we see in more recent episodes of the Muppets how this has become more frequent. Therefore, the concept of sex in the original title of Sex and Violence is being brought out.
2) Kermit the Frog gets the steady girlfriends:
Kermit has always been one to be in charge. We see in the new show how he is in charge of a whole daily show, but the viewers of the Muppets also see a few more characteristics of him that stand out.
For one, the ladies love a man in charge-- the ladies as in pigs-- Kermit is their guy. Miss Piggy has always been after Kermit, but as we see in more recent episodes, Kermit has broken up with Miss Piggy and is now with a whole new girlfriend. Hopefully this one works out.
Well, the pigs surely have the hots for Kermit. Strange how a pig and a frog can fall in love, right? This just does not happen in real life. But, abnormality is expected by the Muppets.
3) Animal has always been crazy:
The character of Animal hasn't changed much in more recent episodes, but he has always elicited a sense of violence and craziness.
4) Beaker and Doctor Bunsen Honeydew are mad scientists:
Doctor Bunsen Honeydew's experiments never go right. While on one hand he is trying to create things that will help people, other times poor Beaker is forced to be subjected to his crazy experiments that most of the time go poorly wrong.
What we see here in the new Muppets show is the original ideas of Sex and Violence. While some of these concepts may not be noticeable to a younger audience, older audience members are able to catch onto these mature ideas with ease.