D W Read Crying Bert and Ernie

[ The below commodity was posted on the original Muppet Freak on March 29, 2009]

Pain is a staple of comedy. A lot of comedy (especially slapstick) is congenital around the pain of other people. But it doesn't always work out that mode. Sometimes for whatever reason, what should be a comedic moment has the contrary effect and makes one experience sorry for the character on screen.

One reason this may happen is when someone is given way more than than they can obviously handle. Bugs Bunny could humiliate and play tricks on Elmer Fudd non-stop but once the moment comes when Elmer actually breaks down and cries, information technology's time to permit upwards. When you lot're watching someone standing to get kicked when they're downwards, the jokes take gone as well far.

Another reason might be in the execution. I could laugh endlessly at the Three Stooges bashing each other over the head with shovels. They could become away with that kind of stuff because they knew how to pull it off so it was funny. If yous took away the "coconut" sound effects, the comic reactions, and added more realism where they'd drain or cry out in anguish, information technology would exist horrifying.

At that place's a lot of slapstick cartoony violence in Muppet sense of humor. The Classic Muppets just wouldn't exist themselves without characters being blown up or eaten. Back in 1958, the commercials for Wilkins Coffee nigh e'er concluded upwards with Wontkins being shot, stabbed, run over by a steamroller, thrown out of planes, etc.

They exercise this kind of stuff well - like the all-time slapstick comics, the Muppet performers are masters of the arts and crafts. But at that place were those rare moments when i was supposed to exist laughing just felt similar crying. When i merely felt oddly horribly sorry for the character.

(1) MUPPET TREASURE ISLAND - Blackness DOG

Then, it'due south towards the beginning of the moving-picture show, and it's off to a wonderfully slapsticky start. Jennifer Saunders is there (and of course one can never get wrong with Jennifer Saunders) and at that place's lots of great concrete comedy going on. It's all starting to climax with a gag involving a leaking barrel of gunpowder which a flame is following. The Muppets are running around in hyper fast motion. Then the large boom happens. And what do we see? Black Canis familiaris being blown through the roof letting out this anguished scream of "OWWWW!" Information technology didn't come across equally comedic at all. That scream he let out wasn't in whatever mode funny; information technology truly sounded like he was in massive pain. Equally a viewer, it pulled me out of the moment. Perhaps this was director Brian Henson'south intent - to pull the viewer away from laughing and into realizing the horror of the Benbow Inn in flames and the reality of Jim Hawkins, Gonzo, and Rizzo losing a home. Merely that's giving him an atrocious lot of credit and leeway. More probable, information technology was just a bad pick of shot and vocal delivery.

(2) THE MUPPET Testify - FOZZIE Acquit

Information technology took awhile for the character of Fozzie to really gel. Which was not a good sign, since he was originally supposed to exist the second main character later on Kermit. Jim Henson loved the idea of a behave comedian who told bad jokes, but when the idea went from off the page on to tape, it initially wasn't working. He seemed really quite pathetic. It took a while to finetune the character and develop his other traits to make him redeemable.

Eventually the character was fleshed out and the audition was able to find him a lovable sweet character that they could root for. A viewer could want him to succeed only besides laugh when he goofed up.

But there was a moment in the show's fourth season that merely seemed similar it was just a chip as well much. It was the episode guest starring Phyllis George where the episode is turned into an awards bear witness. Fozzie hears that the next award to be presented is All-time Comedy Operation By a Bear. Equally the show's resident comedian and one of the few bears featured on the bear witness, he'south all set to accept the laurels. He's right upwardly there by Scooter who's reading the winner, "Billy THE BEAR!" Fozzie grabs the card from Scooter and reads information technology over in disbelief. Baton enters. He'southward ane of the more realistic bear puppets that debuted in the third season that would show up in wood animal group scenes and he's dressed in a gawdy suit chuckling and hamming it upwardly for the cameras as he grabs his prize.

In the concurrently, Fozzie is walking slowly off stage totally deflated. As is typical, we can't see his anxiety but it's easy to imagine them shuffling. His balloon is totally burst. But up comes Billy who bumps into him and makes a few jokes at his expense. I tin just imagine Fozzie just wanting to get off this stage and exist by himself but this other bear is badgering him. Then to evidence "no hard feelings" he offers Fozzie a cigar...well not exactly offers - he forcefully shoves information technology in his oral cavity as Fozzie'due south protesting "No thank you, I don't..." Of course it turns out to be an exploding cigar. Then as if all that wasn't enough, Billy finishes things off by smashing a pie in Fozzie's face.

I watched this and i really felt like crying for him. This was 1 of those examples of just continuing to kick someone when they're down that i mentioned earlier. Simply overkill. Fozzie is left there blown upwards, pied face up, blindsided past what only happened after already being completely publicly shown upwardly as the prove fades to black into commercial. My centre just bled.

Now let me take a moment to say, not only was this unusual for me to not laugh at Muppet slapstick, merely likewise for me to find a pie in the face gag really unfunny. I'chiliad every bit big a fan there is of pie in the face humour. I've always institute pie throwing funny to the bespeak where i'll tune into a show i might not normally otherwise watch if i know a pie fight's going to be included. There's a reason the pie has get the very symbol of comedy - it inappreciably ever fails. Information technology's a way a grapheme can strike another without it being violent or painful. It's most well-nigh incommunicable to keep a straight face when watching it happen. Nada says "slapstick humor" more than a good pie splat. I've even engaged in a few pie fights myself with friends. So i actually tin can't stress how hard it is to present me with a pie joke that makes me want to cry instead of smile.

In fact to digress simply a moment further, there'due south only one other time i can even think of where i was really unnerved by a pie in the confront joke...and it wasn't a cream pie but rather a pizza pie. At that place was an episode of Diff'rent Strokes where Willis' girlfriend is mad at him, and as she's leaving his place, at that place's a pizza delivery guy at the door. She takes the pizza and lets him accept it in the face. Now because it's the magic of television set, information technology'southward all done in comedic fun. There'southward the player holding his pose for the express joy runway to die downwardly. Merely i'm sitting in front of my screen not laughing, but rather picking my jaw up off the flooring since all i can think was that if that was real life, that (freshly delivered) pizza would have been hot and he would have nearly likely been badly burned. I just couldn't suspend disbelief plenty to discover it anything other than horrifying and couldn't believe that no one else in that studio audience felt the same way. At present of course since that was a pizza and not actually a pie in the traditional sense, that means that somehow the Muppets of all people are the only comedy troupe that then far has ruined a pie gag for me. Dang, that just seems so wrong!

(3) CHRISTMAS EVE ON SESAME STREET - BERT

I always loved when Ernie would play jokes on Bert. It was considering of this that Ernie was 1 of my favorite characters.

Christmas Eve on Sesame Street began with a really bully ice skating sequence featuring the human bandage in the roller rink with Ice Capades skaters in full bodied Muppet costumes. There had previously been quite a few Sesame segments showing these special roller skating Muppets. And if i'g not mistaken, these Ice Capades costumes were pretty much the beginning attempt at taking any of the paw boob characters and representing them as costumed full-bodied versions. They were actually very well done even if they were never going to fool anyone into thinking they weren't people in suits. Equally a child, i was more turned off that their mouths didn't move when they spoke more than the actual look of the costumes.

At any rate, it'southward a great opening. Lots of fun and even some sweetness as a lilliputian girl helps Big Bird to skate. So we get to some wonderfully comic prankster Ernie fun. He's enlisted some friends to assist him carry out his latest joke. As the Count declares "Here comes Bert", Bert chases Ernie and his friends around the rink. The gag is that Ernie's friends are pushing him around the rink as Ernie is supposedly sitting on peak of the edge of a barrel. Ernie'southward actually safely fully inside the butt with a pair of simulated legs hanging over the barrel's edge. It's a funny idea and fix-up.

But hither's the thing. Bert is running (skating really) all over the place after Ernie yelling out "Ernie, you're going to go injure! That's dangerous! Yous're going to get hurt! You're going to get Hurt!"

Bert somewhen ends upwards losing control of his skating and slides off screen equally Ernie reveals his fake legs and lets out his Ernie laugh. If the scene concluded in that location, it would have been great. But then the photographic camera cuts to Bert crashed against the wall entangled in the Christmas wreath decorations. Ernie asks "Hey, Bert, are you okay?" to which Bert just groans.

Watching as a child and even now as an adult, i just notice that scene horrible. Bert keeps making a large deal about how Ernie is going to end up getting hurt. He was very worried near Ernie's condom. However he'due south the ane who ends up crashing into a wall. Now given how Bert was repeating over and over about how Ernie would get Injure and so to see Bert stop up not only in a crash landing but as well unable and/or unwilling to respond when Ernie was asking if he was okay, the seemingly obvious determination was that Bert was indeed hurt himself and probably quite badly.

During this sequence, we also run into a gag where the Muppets play Fissure the Whip which ends up with Oscar (skating in his can with his feet sticking out the bottom) ending up flying out of the rink, down stairs and through a wall. But this sequence is directed in such a comedic style, that it's funny. You don't worry about Oscar being harmed in any fashion even though he was probably put through a worse ordeal than Bert (though protected by his trash tin). But Bert's reaction to his crash was merely a helpless groan not giving Ernie any reassurance that he was okay and "non hurt". Bert ended upward coming across every bit not just in physical pain but too traumatized. Just wrong on and so many levels. And all they had to do was cutting the whole routine a shot short and it would have been one of many classic Ernie and Bert moments, not the stuff that nightmares were made of.

[I don't really have anything new to add except that it's fun to talk in red.  I should do that more ofttimes.  Actually reposting this article did remind me of something else and it will be the subject of my next new post.]

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Source: http://muppetfreak.blogspot.com/2012/03/three-times-i-felt-horribly-sorry-for.html

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