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Jada Poe's avatar

Besides Animal, I never knew about the Muppets having an era of more violence. That’s pretty interesting, but I’m glad they were encouraged to tone it down. I can't imagine the glamorous Miss Piggy in that light.

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Ivan Webster's avatar

Thanks very much for reading my review. Yes, the early violence is interesting but, though this issue was a bit too complicated for me to get into in what I wrote, Henson didn't entirely eliminate violence from his toolkit. Post Sesame Street there was some strenuous physicality. Miss Piggy figured into that a bit. In the documentary there's a shot of her in one of the Muppet Movies throwing a deft karate chop. On Sesame Street such an action wouldn't have been allowed.

This is a grey area. A lot of Henson's humor pre-, during and post-Sesame Street relied on slapstick. And, as I'm sure you know, slapstick sometimes -- though certainly not always -- traffics in comic violence. The hurts aren't really supposed to sting, so we're free to laugh. Somehow audiences are able to grasp the distinction. I haven't seen all of Henson's work, but I imagine he knew how to work with, and sometimes carefully adjust, that fine line.

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Jada Poe's avatar

Yeah, it’s good he was able to find a balance that accommodated a diverse range of ages. A little “violence” (depending) usually doesn’t hurt 🤷🏾‍♀️

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Ivan Webster's avatar

Precisely.

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