Miss Piggy is kind of a spin on that John Berger quote that goes "You painted a naked woman because you enjoyed looking at her, put a mirror in her hand and you called the painting 'Vanity'..."

She was created by a man to be a burlesque of a woman. https://twitter.com/spooloflies/status/1289270103851307008

Piggy's original character was largely improvisational. She was one of many unnamed background characters (her name still reflects this?), performed by Richard Hunt or Frank Oz depending on where Frank Oz's hands needed to be at the moment.

Her sometimes-reciprocated feelings for Kermit grew out of the punchline for a pretty weak Muppet Glee Club sketch. Her diva personality came about because once she was a name/face character she needed something to do backstage to cause problems for Kermit.

And the fact that her personality was largely defined by the obstacle she would pose to Kermit putting on the show is *not* unique to her! That was the format of The Muppet Show, where these personas were all codified!

The canonical fact of her athleticism and martial arts expertise spun out of these personality features because it was more funny and dramatic for her to karate chop Kermit across the room than slap him when she was jealous or fed up.

And, yes. She is glamorous and famous and eats what she wants, wears what she wants, and does what she wants. Men intended this to be a joke but the joke's on them because this is awesome. https://twitter.com/effjayem/status/1290676763044065281

I am learning from @spooloflies that male reviewers singled her out for critique in the Muppets Now premiere and... her sketch was the most polished? It was funny? The Swedish Chef one was, objectively, I think, the worst. Not very funny, not very technically well done.

Walter's segment with Kermit was uneven but had some great visual gags, great classic Sam the Eagle character work, the bit at the beginning with Walter setting up the camera and nerding out reminded me of old school Sesame Street Muppetry in the best way.

The whole "photobomby" conceit was less funny than I think they thought it was, though it led to some good visuals. I'd call it the second weakest segment but they were *trying* something.

(And I guess, in fairness, the Chef was, too.)

Like, I'm not excoriating the Swedish Chef sketch for not working very well. I said just days before I watched it that the essence of Jim Henson's work was experimentation. Sometimes experiments don't work!

I'm just analyzing the results.

The thing that make Muppets *Muppets* is the character work. The thing that makes The Muppets *The Muppets* is experimentation. Muppets Now didn't succeed at everything it tried but it succeeded at being Muppets being The Muppets.

Highest marks for Miss Piggy.

...between @spooloflies's tweets and @catvalente's Patreon post I just realized Kermit is on some level Randall from Clerks:

"Putting on this show would be a great job if it wasn't for all these performers."

Here's my pitch for a Muppet movie: they're doing the Muppet Show. As Cat mentions, that doesn't really need to be updated. Sketch comedy is still a thing even if vaudeville and variety shows really aren't.

The inciting incident: Kermit blows up and the cast goes on strike.

Because at the end of the day, they are *all* trying to put on the show. The stuff they drive him up the wall with? Fozzie the comedian trying out material. Gonzo and Piggy trying to get support and stage time for their personal passion acts.

So it would be like this, as Kermit learns/remembers that his co-stars *aren't* obstacles to putting on a show, they are the show, and they all just want it to be as good as it can be. Rediscovering the joy of the Magic Store. https://twitter.com/spooloflies/status/1290679311570276353

The thing about Gonzo is, he's not that much different from Piggy. He wears what he wants. He does what he wants. He doesn't care what you think. He's convinced he's a star, and he's quick to blame the audience if they don't get it.

But, like. Billy Joel can sing a song about how he's too good for a joint and everybody knows it, and nobody calls him a diva for it?

It's the "ambition" thing, where you can use the same word to describe a man or a woman *in the same context* and it's good for him, bad for her.

Part of the joke with Gonzo is that the audience looks at him and thinks what he's doing is ridiculous, but they don't think he's arrogant for thinking it's great (I mean, he literally bills himself as The Great), they think he's endearingly weird.

For a lot of male viewers, the joke and/or the thing they hate about Piggy I guess is that she thinks it's okay to look that way and act that way and be that way? But that is literally Gonzo's schtick.

There is a point of view - which I neither agree nor disagree with but regard as being worth regarding - that Piggy's double act with Deadly isn't much better than the classic treatment of the character, because it's still based around put-downs, but for me, the key is...

...that both Deadly and Piggy remain undiminished by each other. Two strong personalities, hot and cold running jabs, working around each other.

And Deadly is the one who retreats, because she's the boss.

Muppets Now is not perfect. I regard the first episode as a decent pilot. I said last night I think I agree with the review aggregate sites - it's about 70% there. The missed 30% can be jarring. I won't think it's a good show if it stays at 70%.

But as with @spooloflies, I don't trust male critics who laugh at Piggy because they think she's a joke, not because they realize she's funny.

(Is this circling back to "Women can't be funny."? It might be.)