déjà vu is usually a glitch in the Matrix. It happens when they change something.

September 12, 2009 9:23 AM

The Muppets and Gnosticism

In gnosticism some people have that "spark" of god in them and these are your people -- you have to find them, especially because as part of the fall into the mortal world they have forgotten where they come from and may not recognize themselves as chosen (think of how Morpheus finds Neo in the Matrix). A wonderful unspoken joke in the Muppet world is that while we the audience can see that that one is a muppet while that one is Eliot Gould, the characters in the movie cannot break the world into such categories. When Miss Piggy runs off with Charles Grodin in The Great Muppet Caper no one says to Charles Grodin "why would you want to date a muppet rather than a human woman." As far as anyone in the world of the films are concerned muppets are no more different from humans than humans are from each other.

posted by KokuRyu (25 comments total)

FINALLY
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 9:31 AM on September 12 [1 favorite]

Kermit -- the origin, the gnostic muppet messiah

What?!?!?







Oh, wait...nevermind.
posted by Sova at 9:34 AM on September 12

I always thought Kermit was more of a Taoist.
posted by SassHat at 9:37 AM on September 12 [1 favorite]

So Greg the Bunny is what? Methodist?
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 9:38 AM on September 12

Greg the Bunny is clearly a Trickster.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 9:43 AM on September 12

That's actually pretty great. As a paradigm clash, the long distances between the concepts are firmly in the "incredibly stoned" class, but the writing is much better.
posted by krilli at 9:46 AM on September 12 [3 favorites]

External physical fasting is observed even among our followers, for it can be of some benefit to the soul if it is engaged on with reason (logos), whenever it is done neither by way of limiting others, nor out of habit, nor because of the day, as if it had been specially appointed for that purpose.
– Kermit, Letter to Miss Piggy
posted by geoff. at 9:54 AM on September 12 [1 favorite]

This guy must be on Metafilter, right? If not, someone needs to send him a gift membership. I mean, anyone who's capable of that sort of totally gratuitous beanplating belongs here.
posted by dersins at 10:12 AM on September 12 [2 favorites]

Since nobody else bothered to do it.

I appreciate the Muppets on a much deeper level than you.
posted by QUHZK at 10:17 AM on September 12 [1 favorite]

Absolutely excellent.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 10:18 AM on September 12

Pretty cool!

(And replace "gnostic" with "gay" and the essay works pretty well, too.
posted by darkstar at 10:23 AM on September 12

When Miss Piggy runs off with Charles Grodin in The Great Muppet Caper no one says to Charles Grodin "why would you want to date a muppet rather than a human woman."

This is where his thesis falls short, in that it was common knowledge that most had asked Miss Piggy why she wanted to date Grodin. It betrays the author's biases that he fails to acknowledge this fact.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:23 AM on September 12 [1 favorite]

I ALWAYS thought the concept of Muppets and humans having romantic relations was rather creepy. On The Muppet Show it was played for comedic effect to the max as an absurd concept. In The Great Muppet Caper it is just downright fucking creepy.
posted by GavinR at 11:02 AM on September 12 [1 favorite]

I ALWAYS thought the concept of Muppets and humans having romantic relations was rather creepy. On The Muppet Show it was played for comedic effect to the max as an absurd concept. In The Great Muppet Caper it is just downright fucking creepy.

The Muppet Show had its share of creepy moments. For example, there's always Miss Piggy and Rudolph Nureyev in a sauna.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 11:07 AM on September 12 [2 favorites]

Kermit said: I have cast fire upon the world, and behold: I guard it until it is ablaze.

Kermit said: Blessed is the lion which the Muppet shall eat, and the lion become Muppet; and cursed is the Muppet whom the lion shall eat, and the lion become Muppet.

Kermit said to his disciples: Make a comparison to me, and tell me whom I am like. Fozzie Bear said to him: Thou art like a righteous angel. Gonzo said to him: Thou art like a wise man of understanding. Skeeter said to him: Master, my mouth will no wise suffer that I say whom thou art like. Kermit said: I am not thy master, because thou hast drunk, thou hast become drunk from the bubbling spring which I have measured out. And he took him, went aside, and spoke to him three words. Now when Skeeter came to his companions, they asked him: What did Kermit say unto thee? Skeeter said to them: If I tell you one of the words which he said to me, you will take up stones and cast them at me; and a fire will come out of the stones and burn you up.

-The Gospel of Skeeter
posted by Iridic at 11:22 AM on September 12

I ALWAYS thought the concept of Muppets and humans having romantic relations was rather creepy

Someone really needs to splice that into Six Feet Under.

Nate: This is Miss Piggy, my, uh... my girlfriend.
Miss Piggy: I prefer the term "fuckpuppet".
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 11:41 AM on September 12

But that would mean Skeeter would have to be kidnapped, tortured and forced to smoke crack and gunpoint by a crazed hitchiker, and I'm just not ready for that.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 11:48 AM on September 12

I enjoyed that a lot.

Here's the finale, btw.
posted by empath at 12:03 PM on September 12 [1 favorite]

Although, if you read the actual comments on the blog post, most of his readers picked his observations to shreds. Maybe that was the point of highlighting this "great insight" though?

Hey, it's reminded me that I need to watch those funny movies again.
posted by KMH at 12:52 PM on September 12

Thanks for that, empath. It's been a long, long times since I've seen that movie. That ending strikes me as so much more personally evocative nowadays.
posted by darkstar at 1:07 PM on September 12

Ah of course, the Covenant of the Flood. I hadn't made the rainbow connection.

By coincidence I watched the Muppet Movie just last night. Netflix, yo.
posted by rlk at 1:21 PM on September 12

I ALWAYS thought the concept of Muppets and humans having romantic relations was rather creepy.


Racist.
posted by The Whelk at 2:05 PM on September 12 [1 favorite]

Blazecock - if memory serves people were wondering why Piggy would date Grodin because he was a smarmy loser, not because he was a human. If anything that further ads to the thesis.
posted by Sandor Clegane at 2:59 PM on September 12

Thank you, internet.
I used to think I was crazy for over-thinking like this.
I still am, but now I know I'm not alone.
posted by Green Eyed Monster at 3:15 PM on September 12 [2 favorites]

- No dualist cosmology between hyle and spirt.

- No inferior creator demiurge.

- No Sophia trapped within Creation.

- No Gnosticism.



Fail.

/Don't steal fancy words unless you know how to use them

This is Gnosticism.
posted by WC_Helmets at 2:41 PM on September 13 [1 favorite]