The Muppets bring the party back with the help form Ed Helms and Miss Piggy.
What The Muppets have been historically known for is the characters’ banter, one-liners and good ole fashioned slapstick. The Muppets on ABC just happened to add drinking and Ed Helms into the equation.
Fozzie fends off some hecklers — the famous Statler and Waldorf — in the audience when introducing Miss Piggy.
To get the crowd pumped, Fozzie takes a T-shirt cannon to the crowd, but he has a technical difficulty and accidentally shoots the T-shirt at Statler, who is then taken away in a stretcher.
It was a literal comical hit.
Sam the Eagle speaks with Kermit about banning the idea of Piggy jumping in a pool of pudding. Janice walks up to Sam and asks how he is, which is how we find out that Sam has an unusually creepy crush on Janice. She says one word to Sam, and he translates that she told him, “I’ve loved you for a million lifetimes.”
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Back on stage, Fozzie tries to think of ways to win back the crowd, but Waldorf keeps nailing him with jokes, and Fozzie chokes even though he says that heckling is just a part of being a comedian.
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Before Piggy goes on stage, she talks with the Swedish Chef when she overhears Beaker and Dr. Bunsen Honeydew ask Bobo the Bear if the crew is coming out for drinks after the show because his Ph.D. stands for “pretty hard drinking.” Such a win for Honeydew. The jokes are on point.
Piggy asks Chef if everyone usually goes out after the show, and he slowly sinks under the table to avoid her question. Piggy tries to complain to Kermit that she’s never invited, but he tries to make her feel better by saying that he isn’t invited either and that the crew is just going out to blow off steam from work.
"Blowing off steam" means making fun of Piggy and doing impressions of her drunk at a bar.
Piggy just wants to be asked just so she can say no. When the crew reluctantly asks Piggy to go out with them after the show, she says yes.
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After this happens, Piggy reasons to Kermit that when she was a chorus girl and the star would join them for a drink, those were her most memorable moments.
At the bar, Piggy tells unrelatable stories about how rich she is to the crew, and it looks like the drinks aren’t flowing as fast as the Muppets crew want. Never thought I would ever say that.
Ed Helms, who is friends with Miss Piggy, is at the bar and they all invite him to sit with them. Floyd Pepper asks where he’s seen Helms from and Helms says “Maybe The Office?” Pepper says, "Oh yeah, I’ve seen you around the office," not understanding. Janice walks up to him and says she’s with the band and there goes Helms’ cue to hit on her while Sam is watching.
Statler is in the hospital and the nurse asks him what he’s allergic to, and he says chocolate. He recounts the story of when he ate it once and got really sick and they had to put him down. “Oh wait, that was my dog,” he says.
Feeling terrible about what he did to Statler, Fozzie comes in with flowers, and Statler says if the role was reversed, Fozzie would have been shot and lying down in front of Statler’s fireplace.
Fozzie gets mad and then Statler recoils and says Fozzie was the only one who came to visit him.
Waldorf wasn’t there because he fell asleep in the waiting room and people were waiting to take him to the morgue. Again, the one-liners killed it in this episode. He then convinces Fozzie to go to the store and buy him new glasses, memory foam pillows and an oscillating fan.
Fozzie returns and Statler is gone with a note on his pillow that says “sucker.”
Back at the bar, the crew and Helms are on stage for karaoke singing the Spice Girls, “Love Shack,” and the Swedish Chef sings “Rapper’s Delight” by The Sugarhill Gang, and it’s the greatest moment in the entire season so far. He slays, and so much so that they showed it twice in the episode.
That part of the episode was so happy and fun, and maybe it’s because the Muppets indirectly had a chance to sing and dance even if it was in a drunken stupor.
Beaker and Honeydew sang Sonny and Cher. While Sam the Eagle sings, Janice isn’t listening because she’s flirting with Helms instead, and it’s just so sad and creepy. That was a backstory I had no interest in. His crush resembles something like what one would have in high school, and he even alludes later to following Janice home.
The karaoke ends with a bang by Helms, Bobo and Sweetums singing Journey's “Don’t Stop Believin'," and it was pretty much perfect.
By this time, Scooter says everyone should be going home soon in order to make it to work by 9 a.m. Piggy convinces Scooter to stay and go into work late. He agrees and keeps partying. I finally enjoyed this aspect of the episode and how they’re doing modern day shenanigans in a bar and how the Muppets are still one big party. The Muppet Movie from 1979, a children’s movie, showed the Muppets frequenting bars. Only thing was Steve Martin was a waiter and there was no Spice Girls.
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Kermit shows up to work the next day and there isn’t anyone there. Piggy said the crew could come in at 2 p.m., so Kermit scrambles to call everyone in for the morning meeting. Everyone is incredibly hungover and disheveled. Beaker and Honeydew are wearing each other’s clothes.
When Piggy comes in, everyone laughs at Piggy’s jokes, and Kermit gets no respect. She also lined up a party with Usher after the show that evening.
Kermit takes action and explains to Piggy what’s really going on is that Piggy is too special to hang out with the crew. He reasons that she is an ideal they should be reaching for, therefore she should be unapproachable. Piggy feels bad for the crew about their lack of status and announces they can’t hang out with her and Usher. Everyone’s disappointed.
Muppet MVP: Miss Piggy, for being friends with Usher. Honorable mention goes to the Swedish Chef for rapper gibberish.
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The Muppets airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on ABC.
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