Muppets Episode 9

If there is one thing about The Muppets I’ve been disappointed with, it’s been the treatment of the Great Gonzo.

This episode gave Gonzo a bit of a spotlight, and it still didn’t seem right to me.

I really don’t know what this show is trying to do with Gonzo.  He’s gotten a decent amount of screen time all told, but aside from his dating woes in one episode, seems to be mostly used for side comments on the action.

Gonzo was always the Muppet most likely to be really weird and really enthusiastic.  In the earliest episodes of The Muppet Show, Gonzo portrayed himself as a performance artist.  On this show, they refer to him as a former stuntman.  That’s not quite the same thing, but for the purposes of the narrative here, it sort of works.  It’s not like Rowlf owned a bar before.

At any rate, this episode finally got around to dealing with Gonzo, suggesting he retired from crazy stunts after one involving shooting himself out of a canon caused him to have a flash of common sense, he got scared, and more or less retired.  Feeling the urge to try again after an accident involving some ropes during Miss Piggy’s show, the Gonzo that proclaims the crazy swinging that ended with him falling onto the Swedish Chef’s food table was, in fact, “Awesome!” is the old Gonzo.

The Gonzo that then chickens out and decides not to do whatever?  I don’t know that Gonzo.  The Gonzo that does the stunt anyway seems to be more of something that would happen on any number of mediocre sitcoms.

What the hell?

Anyway, my disappointment in the Gonzo plot means that even better stuff, like Big Mean Carl playing poker with the guys, or Scooter trying to live a little by hanging with the band, doesn’t really make up for the lackluster A plot.  I’m just going to give this one  six out of ten fruit Gonzos.

And where the hell’s Camilla?