Locked down with my Ukulele 39

These are strange times and I’ve been watching the Muppets. There seems to have been a series of Muppet movies on TV. I’m thinking about the movie just called “The Muppets”. It was made from 2010-2011. Seventh of the feature films! I hadn’t seen it before. There’s something about the humour in these films that is so innocent but then again so clever. Most of it only works because they are puppets. Yet you forget they are. Kermit, Piggy and Fozzie become so real.

Two of the main actors (apart from the usual fabric cast) Amy Adams and Jason Segel perform the song at the finale (it is performed earlier in the movie) of the film and features a big Hollywood style dance number. They closed Hollywood Boulevard for two evenings to film the sequence. To my mind it was worth it.

Amy appears in another of my recent watches that just made me feel good. “Enchanted”. It’s a spoof of the Disney princess films. It’s really silly but done so well. Watch it and take it as you find it. Don’t have any expectations.

But, back to the Muppets My favourite characters from the show and the ones I think of first when I remember the show the two old guys on the balcony, Statler and Waldorf.

I found a few of their quips on the internet. They made me smile.

Statler: Boy, he's really good, that Rudolf Nur-i, Nure... You know, I really should learn how to pronounce his name. Waldorf: Don't bother. After this show, he'll probably change it. Waldorf: You know, the opening is catchy. Statler: So is smallpox. (After Fozzie recieves an electric shock) Waldorf: What did you think? Statler: Shocking. Waldorf: But was it funny? Statler: No. That would really be shocking!

Statler: "You think this show constitutes cruelty to animals?" Waldorf: "Not unless they're watching it"

End of the Paul Simon episode: Statler: Hey you old fool, you slept through the show! Waldorf: Who's the fool? You watched it!

Apparently they were named after two New York hotels.

Life’s a happy song

It’s an original song written for the movie by Bret McKenzie, who won an Oscar for another song in the film (Man or Muppet, something I occasionally ask myself), and was originally called “Everything is great”.

Everything might not be great! But, if you get lost in it, it might be for between two and a half and three and a half minutes. That depends on which version you look at.

Stay safe