Kermit Culture: Critical Perspectives on Jim Henson's Muppets
By the end of its five-year run on television, The Muppet Show had transformed its motley cast from fistfuls of felt to multi-media celebrities. Sophisticated and highly individuated, each of the Muppets embodied a conventional character type from classic television comedy. Kermit functioned as straight man to the majority of the show's jokes. Miss Piggy, the resident diva, evolved from first season chorus girl to full-fledged megastar. A Costello to Kermit's Abbot, Fozzie peddled his vaudevillian shtick to a tough audience, but his genuine sweetness made him lovable even when his jokes were lame.

These essays represent the work and ideas of a global community of scholars and Muppet enthusiasts, providing a unique perspective on just how Kermit and the rest of the frogs, dogs, bears, and chickens became cultural icons with influences reaching far beyond the world of 1970s television comedy.

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Kermit Culture: Critical Perspectives on Jim Henson's Muppets
By the end of its five-year run on television, The Muppet Show had transformed its motley cast from fistfuls of felt to multi-media celebrities. Sophisticated and highly individuated, each of the Muppets embodied a conventional character type from classic television comedy. Kermit functioned as straight man to the majority of the show's jokes. Miss Piggy, the resident diva, evolved from first season chorus girl to full-fledged megastar. A Costello to Kermit's Abbot, Fozzie peddled his vaudevillian shtick to a tough audience, but his genuine sweetness made him lovable even when his jokes were lame.

These essays represent the work and ideas of a global community of scholars and Muppet enthusiasts, providing a unique perspective on just how Kermit and the rest of the frogs, dogs, bears, and chickens became cultural icons with influences reaching far beyond the world of 1970s television comedy.

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Kermit Culture: Critical Perspectives on Jim Henson's Muppets

Kermit Culture: Critical Perspectives on Jim Henson's Muppets

Kermit Culture: Critical Perspectives on Jim Henson's Muppets

Kermit Culture: Critical Perspectives on Jim Henson's Muppets

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Overview

By the end of its five-year run on television, The Muppet Show had transformed its motley cast from fistfuls of felt to multi-media celebrities. Sophisticated and highly individuated, each of the Muppets embodied a conventional character type from classic television comedy. Kermit functioned as straight man to the majority of the show's jokes. Miss Piggy, the resident diva, evolved from first season chorus girl to full-fledged megastar. A Costello to Kermit's Abbot, Fozzie peddled his vaudevillian shtick to a tough audience, but his genuine sweetness made him lovable even when his jokes were lame.

These essays represent the work and ideas of a global community of scholars and Muppet enthusiasts, providing a unique perspective on just how Kermit and the rest of the frogs, dogs, bears, and chickens became cultural icons with influences reaching far beyond the world of 1970s television comedy.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780786442591
Publisher: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Publication date: 05/29/2009
Edition description: New Edition
Pages: 235
Product dimensions: 5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Jennifer C. Garlen is an independent scholar in Huntsville, Alabama, where she teaches courses on literature, film, and popular culture for lifetime learning programs. Anissa M. Graham is a senior lecturer in the English department at the University of North Alabama where she teaches courses in writing and literature.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Preface     

Part One : Audience Participation
How to Become a Muppet; or, The Great Muppet Paper
BEN UNDERWOOD     
The Muppets as a Metaphor for the Self
GIDEON HABERKORN     
Stuffed Suits and Hog-Wild Desire
LYNNE D. SCHNEIDER     
The Muppet Show Re-Forms the Fringe
ANISSA M. GRAHAM     

Part Two : Adaptation and Performance
From Muppetry to Puppetry
JENNIFER STOESSNER     
The Muppets and Shakespeare
HUGH H. DAVIS     
“Starring Kermit the Frog as Bob Cratchit”: Muppets as Actors
GINGER STELLE     
A Rainbow for the 21st Century: The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz and the Reimagination of the American Myth
ALISSA BURGER     
Gonzo, (the Great) Cultural Critic
JENNIFER C. GARLEN     

Part Three : Theories and Strategies
The American Journey Narrative in the Muppets Movies
TARA K. PARMITER     
It’s Time to Get Together for Some Sex and Violence on The Muppet Show?
KATHLEEN E. KENNEDY     
“British to a Fang, British to a Whisker”: Reconsidering The Muppet Show’s National Identity
RAYNA DENISON     
The Muppet Show as Educational Critique
JULIE G. MAUDLIN     
The Uniquely Strong but Feminine Miss Piggy
MARYANNE FISHER and ANTHONY COX     
Muppets and Money
ANDREW LEAL     

Appendix: The Muppet Show     
About the Contributors     
Index     
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