Muppets return online, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew more creepy than ever

Not sure how I missed this, but it seems the Muppets have returned in a new series of online shorts. Most of the original Muppet puppeteers (Muppeteers?) have died or retired, so now you have a new crew handling Kermit and company. While the clips don't compare to the best of the original Muppets, they come closer than most of the Muppet stuff I've seen in recent years. There are some real laughs in there, even if they don't always seem to have the characters down quite right.

The clip below features Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and his perpetually alarmed lab assistant, Beaker. It's great to see them again, although somebody needs to tell the guy doing Beaker's voice that Beaker communicates entirely in "meeps". He comes close to saying actual words a few times here, and that simply won't do.

Fair warning: the ending is freaking disturbing. Sure, Beaker was subjected to all sorts of nasty things on the original show, but this is genuinely nightmarish. Show this clip to a child, and that child will grow up to have a disabling phobia of pumpkin carving. Seriously, he'll be afraid to leave the house, for fear of somebody coming after him with a candle to stick in his head.



Self-indulgent aside: I get a little tired of that meme about how Bert and Ernie are gay, because Bert and Ernie are such innocent characters - a lot like little kids, in a way - that reading anything sexual into their relationship just seems wrong. But the good Dr. Honeydew? So gay. While his attitude toward Beaker's various sufferings is often alarmingly callous, there's something rather, er, unprofessional about the way that Honeydew refers to his subordinate by little pet names like "Beaky" or "Beaky-Poo". And then there's this clip from the original show. I mean, there's really no ambiguity about it, there: Honeydew is horny for Beaker. I don't enjoy typing it and you probably didn't enjoy reading it, but it's the truth.

So, when Beaker finally files that inevitable lawsuit against Muppet Labs - for being cloned against his will, shrunken, having his head carved into a pumpkin, et al - hopefully he'll also throw in a sexual harassment charge against Honeydew. Wipe the smug smirk off of that jerk's big, bald, foam rubber head, Beaky!


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