“Pig Out” is another hit out of the park for The Muppets! This episode sees the Muppets at their most Muppet-y. There were hilarious jokes, sight gags, comedic violence, and-  best of all – more songs than you could shake a stick – er – arm rod at!

Recap

We open during a taping of Up Late With Miss Piggy. Fozzie bombs badly and Statler and Waldorf heckle him just as bad as they always do.

Backstage Gonzo is having a disagreement with Sam the Eagle about a sketch, when Janice walks by to talk to Kermit. As she leaves, she says in passing, “Hey, Sam.” From Sam’s open-mouthed reaction, and his interview right after, we learn Sam has a thing for Janice.

On stage, in an attempt to win over the crowd, Fozzie brings out a t-shirt gun. And he immediately shoots Statler in the face.

During the resulting chaos, Piggy goes backstage to see if the chef has any food. While she’s there, she overhears Bunsen and Bobo discussing plans to go out after the show. Apparently a bunch of the crew goes out to Rowlf’s Tavern after the show every night. Piggy is incensed that she’s never been invited, so she confronts Kermit about it.

Kermit tries to explain that he isn’t invited either; they’re the bosses, and the crew need some time away from them to blow off steam. Besides, he knows she doesn’t even want to go. Piggy admits that this is true, but she still wants an invitation. She just doesn’t actually plan to go. She tells Kermit to make it happen.

On stage Fozzie tries to re-film the intro to the show and he’s still bombing, but for an entirely different reason. He’s so upset about what he did to Statler that he can’t even continue the show.

After the show Kermit tells the crew about Piggy’s latest demands. They are initially against it, but they decide that if she’s not actually going to go, then they’ll do it. Pepé steps up and invites her and to everyone’s horror she accepts.

Kermit follows her to her dressing room and demands an explanation. Piggy tells him that when she was a young chorus girl, every once in awhile the star would join her and the rest of the chorus after the show and it was such a thrill. She’s simply trying to do the same thing for her crew.

At the hospital Fozzie brings Statler some flowers, but Statler immediately starts making fun of him like always. Fozzie is upset and tells Statler he just came to say sorry. He throws the flowers on the bed and turns to leave.

As he walks out the door Statler quietly tells him he’s the only one who’s come to visit him. Not even Waldorf, who’s scared of hospitals, came. Fozzie feels bad for him again and asks if there’s anything he can do. Statler tells him that his reading glasses broke when Fozzie shot him, so he asks for a new pair. Fozzie brightens up and tells him, “No problem!” But Statler’s neck also hurts, so could Fozzie go get him a memory foam pillow? And an oscillating fan! Fozzie goes to get a pen to make a list.

At Rowlf’s, Piggy complains to the crew about her life. They are having an awful time, when suddenly Ed Helms shows up and Miss Piggy is momentarily distracted. She invites him to join them and the crew is suddenly thrilled, so everyone insists he stay. When he sits down, Janice approaches him to introduce herself while Sam watches in disbelief.

Later that night, Fozzie goes back to the hospital with an armload of stuff. He was all over town all night getting things for Statler, but he doesn’t care because it feels really good to do something nice for someone you shot in the face. When he goes back inside, all he finds is a note on the bed that reads “Sucker!”

Back at Rowlf’s the crew moves on to karaoke. Gonzo, Rizzo, and Pepé sing “Love Shack,” the Swedish Chef performs “Rapper’s Delight,” and Janice sings Lisa Loeb’s “Stay,” while Sam, again, stares at her from afar, open-mouthed. He later tries to impress her by (very shyly) singing “Wind Beneath My Wings,” but Janice has no idea that he’s singing to her and spends the whole song looking at her phone and laughing with Ed Helms.

Later that night Scooter goes to thank Miss Piggy and tell her what a great time they had. When she asks why he’s leaving he tells her they all need to leave because Kermit wants them there early in the morning to set up for the next day’s show. Miss Piggy, obviously oblivious to how much work it takes to get her show going, tells everyone not to worry about it. Who cares what Kermit said.

The next day Kermit gets in to work and no one is there except Yolanda, who has apparently slept there all night. She tells him what a great time they all had last night and how great Miss Piggy was. Kermit, who feared the worst, is relieved but still wonders where everyone else is. Yolanda tells him that Piggy told them that they didn’t have to come in until two. Kermit tells her to call everyone immediately. If they came in at two, there would not be enough time to get the show together.

At the meeting Kermit is furious and everyone is miserable. They all got barely any sleep, and are presumably hung over. Kermit tells them that they’re behind and they need to focus in order to catch up. Just then Miss Piggy waltzes in, fresh as a daisy and starts palling around with the crew. They all love her attention and are disgusted with Kermit for being so angry. He tells them he never wants this to happen again, but Miss Piggy follows up with an invite to a party with Usher.

Kermit takes Piggy to her dressing room and tells her that, while he didn’t want to say it before, what is really going on is that Piggy is too special. She’s a glamorous icon, an ideal the crew should reach for her. She’s like the stars in the sky: meant to be admired from a distance. Piggy eats this up and decides that Kermit’s right. She goes back out and rescinds the invitation. Kermit acts disappointed for the crew, and tells them he’s sorry, but they’ll never know how Piggy’s mind works. As the crew mills off feeling disappointed, Kermit chuckles to himself.

That night at the show Fozzie confronts Statler who is back in his regular seat laughing with Waldorf over his prank. Statler apologizes and tells Fozzie to meet them that night at Musso and Frank’s, where they’ll buy him dinner. When Fozzie excitedly accepts and leaves, Waldorf turns to him and asks if they’re still going to Dan Tana’s. Statler says they are, but he just needs to stop by Musso and Frank’s to drop off another “Sucker!” sign.

Review

This was probably my favorite episode of The Muppets yet. I’ve said since day one that they needed more music and they delivered in a big way in this episode. And the quotable lines were everywhere! There was so much great stuff in this episode I don’t even know where to start.

Let’s get what I didn’t like so much out of the way first, then we can move on to the good stuff. Namely, Kermit’s attitude was back. And while I COMPLETELY understood it, I did not like the way he sabotaged the crew’s relationship with Miss Piggy to get them to listen to him. Miss Piggy is far more of a stuck-up diva in this show than she ever was before and a lot of people have wanted her to be nicer to the crew. It finally happens in this episode and Kermit goes and ruins it.Okay, on to the good stuff! I loved, loved, LOVED the t-shirt cannon scene! It was so satisfying to see some good, old-fashioned, Muppet-y violence again! As soon as I saw the canon I knew one of the old guys was going to get it, and it was even better than I imagined! Statler went flying over backwards behind his seat! It was hilarious! The whole B-Plot with Fozzie and Statler was great. The way they twisted things made me feel sorry for Statler, only to have things twist again and find out he played Fozzie the whole time! Genius! Are there any other Doctor Who fans that saw the parallels between this scene and the end of the recent Doctor Who episode, “The Witch’s Familiar”? I’m not going to spoil it, but – if you’ve seen it – you’ll know what I’m talking about. I did kind of wish they would make Statler a more sympathetic character, as I wished they would do in Doctor Who, but, alas, it was not to be. Oh well. The t-shirt scene was still priceless, so I can’t complain.

One of the best things about this episode was the music. I’ve said since episode one that I wanted more music, and they made up for it all at once in this episode! None of the songs were full-length, but we didn’t need them to be. They all worked perfectly well as short little bits (and that way there could be so many of them)! Hands down the best act was the Swedish Chef’s rapping! It was amazing! If it weren’t for all the hilarious lines, this probably would have been my favorite part of the episode. Speaking of which, I have a LOT of them this time!

Favorite Quotes

Gonzo: “Broadcast Standards over here won’t let us do the bit where Piggy jumps into a vat of chocolate pudding.”
Sam the Eagle: “The network has concerns that a child might jump into a vat of pudding at home and drown!”
Kermit: “Who has a vat of pudding at home?”
Sam: “You know America struggles with portion size!”

Janice: “Hey, Kermit? There’s a lecture on astral projection next Friday…“
Kermit: “Oh, so you need the day off?
Janice: “No, I’ll be here. I just wanted you to know that I’ll be there too.”

Waldorf: “Hey, Statler! Make sure they take you to County Medical! They’re pretty loosey-goosey with the meds over there!”

Bunsen: “Hey everybody! Beaker does the best ‘Piggy’! Watch this! Oh Miss Piggy! Can I get you anything?”
Beaker: “Me me me moi, me me, me me me me ME ME ME!”
(Uproarious laughter)
Floyd: “It’s like she’s in the room!”

Kermit: “Piggy, be rational.”
Piggy: “Oh Kermit, that doesn’t sound like me at all.”

Nurse: “Any known allergies?”
Statler: “Oh, just chocolate. Yeah, I got into my cupboard once, ate a lot of it. Got real sick and there was talk of puttin’ me down! Oh, wait, no. That was my dog.”

Scooter: Kermit gets kinda cranky if we don’t get in by nine. I was late once and he said ‘Good grief,” like ten times in a row. I never wanna live through that again.
Miss Piggy: “Oh who cares what that little green buzz kill wants. We’re havin’ fun!”
Scooter: “Good grief, you’re right! >Gasp!< Listen to me, I’m swearin’ like a sailor!”

Final Thoughts

This episode was high on Muppet-y jokes, which were peppered liberally throughout the whole thing. The writers really outdid themselves this week. Everything felt so much more Muppet-ier than ever before! I’ve loved the show so far, but I think this episode outdid them all and is probably my favorite of the four that already aired. With so few episodes released, there are bound to be even better ones coming and I can’t wait to see how they top this one!

What did you think of this episode of The Muppets? Who was your favorite Muppet karaoke singer?

Edited by: Hannah Wilkes