As a child, I was a big fan of The Muppet Show. I’m going to go ahead and revise that statement, as that’s not entirely true: I am still a very big fan of The Muppet Show. There were so many things I loved about it: Fozzie’s “I Got Rhythm” song, “Pigs in Space,” the guest artists (Rita Morena singing “Fever” with Animal? Paul Simon singing “Scarborough Fair” with Miss Piggie? What could possibly be better?). Perhaps my favorite part of The Muppet Show, however, is Statler and Waldorf’s heckling. For example:
Waldorf: That seemed like something very different.
Statler: Did you like it?
Waldorf: No.
Statler: Then it wasn’t different.
The problem, though, is that sometimes, when it comes to my thoughts about my writing, I feel as though I’ve internalized Statler and Waldorf. Every poem seems flat, every idea seems tired, every word sounds like the word before it — I find myself as cranky and irritated with my own work as those two Muppets, heckling from the stage left balcony.
I’m usually very frustrated with my Statler/Waldorf periods, but I wonder if there isn’t a worth to them, after all. I mean, after all, it’s in these times of deepest frustration, when I’m sick to death of the sound of my own voice, that I tend to take leaps and risks and jump as far outside of my box as possible, just to quiet Statler’s complaining.
Perhaps the most relevant Statler and Waldorf quote, then, doesn’t begin and end with a Boo! after all:
Waldorf: Well, you gotta give them credit.
Statler: Why’s that?
Waldorf: Well, they’re gonna keep on doing it till they get it right.
Emma Bolden is the author of How To Recognize A Lady, a chapbook of poems published as part of Edge by Edge, the third in Toadlily Press' Quartet Series, and The Mariner's Wife, a chapbook published by Finishing Line Press. Her third chapbook, The Sad Epistles, is forthcoming from Dancing Girl Press. She was the recipient of a Tennessee Williams Scholarship to the Sewanee Writers' Conference and was named a Finalist for a Ruth Lilly Fellowship by the Poetry Foundation/Poetry magazine. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in such journals as Prairie Schooner, the Indiana Review, Feminist Studies, The Journal, Redivider, The Greensboro Review, and Verse. Her manuscript was a semi-finalist for the Perugia Press Prize. She is a Visiting Assistant Professor of English at Georgetown College, where she also serves as the poetry editor of the Georgetown Review.
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June 9, 2008 at 10:55 pm
Jessie Carty
I have a Muppet Show PC video game
Haven’t played it in a really long time (like it came out with Windows 95).
My favorite from Muppets? When Kenny Rogers did The Gambler. Total Awesomeness.
You know where to email me if you do want some other readers
June 12, 2008 at 2:13 am
mariegauthier
How funny! We just watched “The Muppets Treasure Island” — with Billy Connolly & Tim Curry! Very very funny!
You are the true Muppets fan, however. I never knew they had names beyond “grumpy old men from the balcony.”
I’m a HUGE Gene Kelly fan, so naturally my favorite Muppets episode is the one he guest-starred in.
May your inner Statler/Waldorf only inspire you, never hinder you…