The Incomplete Guide to The Muppets
In which Elliot digs into the recent works ahead of their next Disney+ project, and Vanessa shares her favourite troupe members
The Muppets
By Elliot Wengler
In a rare glimmer of hope for the world, The Muppets are back next month, with what’s being dubbed a ‘special’ edition of The Muppet Show with Sabrina Carpenter.
The publicity has ramped up and there is no greater joy than seeing Kermit appearing on chat shows. As someone who used to work on the BBC’s cosy daily chat show, The One Show, when Fozzie Bear arrived to plug The Muppets Take the O2 was one of the greatest days of my life. We were told that the second Fozzie was out of his transport case, we were to direct questions to Fozzie, to make eye contact with him, and that he would speak on behalf of his… crew. Even the real life behind the scenes of these characters, most of the works about them being shows about the behind the scenes lives of them, is appropriately surreal and chaotic comedy. Quite the tautology.
I love The Muppets. Who doesn’t? Apparently some people, who confuse me. I remember The Muppets from childhood, finding their antics simultaneously joyful and weird. Seeing old episodes of The Muppets on a bonus disc for their 2011 film, it’s amazing how many of the actual music hall variety numbers were everything from laugh-out-loud hilarious to heartwarming. Poor jokes dealt with in-universe by Statler and Waldorf jeering them is such a tight way to face the shonky cringey humour.
Last year, I was lucky enough to visit Walt Disney World, and several friends (editors note: including Vanessa) were jealous that I was among the final audiences of Jim Henson’s final Muppet project: Muppet*Vision 3D, the immersive show in which they experimented with 3D cinema and live theatre. It was wonderful. It had a bit of everything. I went twice in one day. I felt like I’d made a sort of Muppet pilgrimage.
Like many people, my deep affection for the characters comes from the movies, particularly The Muppets Christmas Carol. Their fall from pop culture and subsequent revival, as documented in 2011’s The Muppets, came at just the right time for me. I had just started university, and the meta narrative really appealed to me.
Jason Segel’s passion project is truly one of my favourite films: funny all the way through, with references galore as well as a heartwarming human story in Gary (Segel) and Mary’s (Amy Adams) relationship, and Walter, the muppet who must decide if he is a man or a muppet (in one of the greatest songs in film history), it’s wonderful. Also, to repeat what I said earlier, their press junket for that movie was amazing, from an appearance on Jonathan Ross that left him in awe to Miss Piggy’s savage takedown of Fox News.
That film makes me cry so much. From “Life’s a Happy Song” to “Man or Muppet”, or Kermit and Piggy’s singing of “Rainbow Connection”, or Kermit’s speech to his defeated troupe. It has such a triumphant and confident ending that it makes it a real shame that it didn’t pan out to make them a dominant force in popular culture again.
2014’s follow-up Muppets Most Wanted has its highs, but also has Ricky Gervais singing and a confusing heist-heavy plot, rather than The Muppets doing what they do best. It’s sort of a bad remake of Muppets Take Manhattan and The Great Muppet Caper. Still, it does have Ty Burrell singing with a French accent. It’s a shame, because of the winning team of James Bobin’s directorial hand and Nicholas Stoller’s writing, along with Flight of the Choncords’ Bret McKenzie supervising the songs, but Muppets Most Wanted is no-one’s favourite. No further theatrical films have been made since.
The Muppets have put their hand to a variety of other projects, including Muppets Now, which was a sketch show parodying YouTubers, released very appropriately in 2020, so it being Zoom-coded worked very well, but didn’t lead to much else. Their last major outing was the ambitious and chaotic The Muppets Mayhem, a documentary comedy about Dr Teeth and the Electric Mayhem. Maybe because it was entirely focused on a slightly more niche group of them, it hasn’t really gone anywhere since.
(Editors note: In 2025, Disney made the decision to retheme the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster at Hollywood Studios from Aerosmith to the Muppets, with Dr Teeth and the Electric Mayhem as the musicians at the core of the ride. Regardless of why they moved away from Aerosmith, the reception of the show indicated there was enough popularity to move The Muppets from Grand Avenue to Sunset Boulevard, rather than complete removal after making way for Monstropolis.)
It’s been a rough start to 2026 for me. Another relationship has ended, and I’ve been out of gainful employment for a while, so I needed some comfort viewing, so I was shocked to realise that I hadn’t watched the 2015 sitcom, The Muppets, which tragically only lasted one season. I’ve since addressed this failing of mine.
If you haven’t seen it, The Muppets is from 2015, and features all the familiar characters working on Miss Piggy’s Late Night show, Up Late with Miss Piggy. Kermit is producing the show, and unfortunately, has recently broken up with Miss Piggy again. Almost every episode has a big guest star or celebrity cameo, including Elizabeth Banks, Kristen Chenoweth, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and RuPaul, to name a few, which willingly parodises themselves, or they sing with The Muppets or Dr Teeth’s band. It uses a single-camera mockumentary set-up, lampooned almost immediately by Gonzo.
It’s flawed, but it’s incredibly good if you want to spend time with The Muppets. It’s the first time outside of the 2011 reboot film (why couldn’t they have called that something like The Return of the Muppets? It’s such a confusing title despite its simplicity), that we actually see The Muppets living day-to-day lives and developing over the course of a narrative. Fozzie has a relationship, has difficulties with Kermit actually criticizing his writing, and heartwarmingly, a whole episode where he visits a hospitalised Statler. The drama of Kermit and Piggy being broken up is heightened by his new pig girlfriend, Denise, who works in marketing.
Not all of it works, and, because there are very few human characters, a lot of the show’s weight is on The Muppets’ shoulders. Rizzo, Pepe and Gonzo get much more screentime than I expected. Piggy’s fabulous, over-the-top confidence can be downright arrogant, but it gives the show somewhere to go. It is so much fun to watch The Muppets living real, fleshed out lives beyond their show performances. Halfway through the season, direction changes and makes it even more palatable, giving Kermit an antagonist in the network’s branding guru, Pizza, pronounced Paché.
It’s genuinely lovely to see The Muppets in an adult and anarchic setting, dealing with real-life problems, and singing big musical numbers. It’s a shame that it only ran for one season, and I remain amazed that the Muppets don’t currently have a continuously running chat show (a la Muppets Tonight). But it’s hyped me up for the return of the most sensational, inspirational, celebrational, muppetational show.
Almost the entirety of The Muppets works are on Disney+. The Muppet Show returns on 4 February 2026.
The Incomplete List of Most Underrated Muppets
By Vanessa Burke
It may not be easy being green, but it makes you very famous: Kermit’s cross-over appeal makes him an undeniable star among The Muppets. I’ll take this opportunity to shine a light on my favourites who don’t necessarily have the iconic status that allows them to garner opportunities like booking advertisements.
1. Pepe the King Prawn
Despite my recent diagnosis of a prawn allergy, I can’t get enough of Pepe’s sass. His Unbelievable Game Show segments on Muppets Now had an unhinged energy that captured the surrealism of the pandemic. He has become more prominent in Muppets content, due to the mothballing of Rizzo the Rat due to an actor dispute, and stands out in Muppets Haunted Mansion.
2. Sam Eagle
He shines in Muppets Most Wanted in his ideal role as a member of law enforcement, as Sam Eagle portrays a CIA agent collaborating with Interpol. He has a great love for the United States of America, which is honoured by Walt Disney World’s Epcot theme park, in the form of the Regal Eagle Smokehouse restaurant, “a Distinctly Patriotic Salute to All Foods, But Mostly Barbecue Meats”, as one of my favourite sources of Disney theme park strategies calls it.
3. Sweetums
Sweetums is a good argument for the adage to not judge a book by its cover. His shaggy imposing appearance belies his kind nature, as a true supporting act. He has been a mechanic in the films, and holds the cue cards in the 2015 show. In a nod to his fourth wall-breaking finale of The Muppets Movie, he was the last Muppet you could see regularly in Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Muppet*Vision 3D, making the Muppet magic real for children and adults alike.
4. Beverley Plume
This turkey is no spring chicken, and in Muppets Now, she both managed to rein in the chaos of the Swedish Chef and fawn over various celebrity guests in the Økėÿ Døkęÿ Køøkïñ challenges. In particular, the episode with Danny Trejo was memorable for bringing the heat in several ways.
5. Joe the Legal Weasel
Kept busy by The Muppets’ many antics, Joe is their exasperated in-house counsel, ensuring that any contests, segments, and other appearances in Muppets Now protect The Muppets from assuming any liability, though he is sadly oft ignored. Thankfully, this hasn’t yet been exploited by anyone, despite America’s reputation for litigiousness. He has since become a valuable skit addition.
Who is your must-watch Muppet? Do you have a favourite Muppet memory?