The New York Times reports that the Jim Henson Company is attempting to re-establish its comedy cred with some surprising new material. They worked the comedy club circuit this summer with an improv act that regularly broke blue, and tomorrow they will tape an improv performance for TBS at the Comedy Festival in Las Vegas. The show will air on November 20 as an hour-long special, “Puppet Up! Uncensored.” TBS has already ordered 30 episodes of the program.
Another project in the works is “Tinseltown” a show about a gay (puppet) couple in Hollywood. According to the Times, “Bobby is a margarita-swilling pig with a raspy lisp, and his partner is a bull named Samson.” One of the bits includes a scene in which their 12-year old son steals a beer from the fridge, and Bobby minimizes the incident with, “Oh, it was a light beer.”
This wouldn’t be AfterEllen if we didn’t make a comment about lesbian visibility, so I’ll do it. Where are the lesbian muppets? I am outraged!
I nominate Miss Piggy (pictured here) for her own Henson special, “Harley Hog”. In it, Miss P. could play a newly single lesbian pig about town in West Hollywood. Imagine the possibilities. Miss Piggy goes lesbian speed dating! Miss Piggy gets an ill-advised tattoo on her first date with a lanky butch meerkat! Miss Piggy gets trashed on dollar beers at Gay Pride and wipes out on her ride with the Dykes on Bikes!
TBS, are you listening?
