We got another great one! “Got Silk” keeps up the continuing streak of great episodes! Since The Muppets got back from its winter break, it seems to just keep getting better! And, while this episode is yet another that focuses on Miss Piggy, it’s another step forward in humanizing her even more.
Recap
We open with Bobo, Fozzie, and Lew Zealand practicing a new bit for the show when Miss Piggy shows up. She is disappointed to learn that she’s not in the bit, and laments the fact that since the show was restructured she’s not in it as much as she was. She tries to play off her disappointment by pretending she has so many other things to do instead, but she is obviously scrambling to think of any. Just then Uncle Deadly shows up, pretending that she needs to call Beyoncé.
As they leave, Deadly suggests that she call a friend to keep her busy until she’s needed on set. They cycle through a list of potential people before Miss Piggy comes to the realization that she may not actually have any friends. Deadly quickly distracts her by offering her the new chocolate pretzels. This cheers her up, and she runs away declaring that today they will find her a friend!
Elsewhere, Kermit is in his office trying to call Denise. He gets her voicemail instead though, so he leaves a message wondering how much more thinking she needs to do. He’s all thunk out. Kermit tells us that he hasn’t even spoken to Denise since they decided to take a break, but he’s sure this silence is only temporary.
Just then Kermit is interrupted by Paché (Pizza), who is there to tell him that he got them a brand deal and that the writers need to come up with a sketch incorporating “Delicious, gluten-free frozen yogurt, made with live and active cultures from Pinkberry.” Kermit tries to tell him that there’s nothing funny about this idea, and a brand deal like this will compromise the artistic integrity of the show. Paché tells him that he’ll just approach the writers himself. But, when Kermit tells him not to, he gets angry and leaves, telling him that they’re basically equals.
In her dressing room, Piggy tries to figure out how to make a new best friend quickly. Since she doesn’t have to rehearse as much for the show, her days are just too free. Deadly suggests she come to the play he’s directing, but she brushes that suggestion off as Janice enters mistaking the dressing room for a copy room.
Piggy decides to pick Janice’s brain for ideas, and Janice mentions that she takes an aerial silk contortion class on Tuesdays (which is what today is). Miss Piggy promptly invites herself along and the two leave immediately, with Miss Piggy yelling for Deadly to follow them.
In the writers room Gonzo, Rizzo, and Pepé all discuss where to order lunch from, when Paché enters and tells them that he’s taking them all out to lunch at a fancy restaurant. First, however, they need new clothes, so he takes them all out to get specially tailored suits at an upscale men’s clothing shop. They try to protest, but when the tailor drapes the silk fabric over them they just go with it. As Paché sweet-talks them, telling them that he’s taking care of everything, Kermit tries to call, but they ignore it.
At Janice’s class, Piggy meets a young woman named Gwynne. When she finds out that Gwynne is recently dumped like she is, she instantly decides she will be her new best friend.
Back at the studio, Kermit is now looking for Gonzo, Rizzo, and Pepé. As he fends off various Muppets with random sketch ideas, Scooter tells him the writers all left with Paché.
At the silks class, Deadly tries to cheer Piggy on as she dangles from the ceiling. He tells her she needs to “turtle” – to stick her head up and out like a proud turtle out of her shell. She basically ignores him, and tells Gwynne that she’s going to take her to Ibiza for 15 days. Gwynne doesn’t seem to be taking to all the sudden attention, and tries to make a subtle getaway.
When the instructor tells everyone to pair up, Gwynne pairs up with Janice and Miss Piggy is left to find someone else. As she’s the newest member, everyone else has already paired up and she’s alone. Sensing her discomfort Deadly tries to come to her rescue once more, this time pretending that work is calling and they need her back immediately. As he tries to make a huge scene to prove how indispensable she is, Piggy tries to quietly lead him out.
Back at the offices, the writers have all returned from lunch, and they have a brand new sketch to pitch to Kermit. It involves, you guessed it, “Delicious, gluten-free frozen yogurt, made with live and active cultures from Pinkberry.” Kermit tells them that the show has a policy against bribery and they have to give the suits back; they’re not doing Paché’s sketch. They are all upset, especially Rizzo, as Yolanda seems to be a lot more attracted to him while he’s wearing the suit.
When Kermit gets back to his office he finds a box full of his stuff. Denise is cleaning out everything that’s his, and it seems obvious that she has no intension of getting back together with him. He decides right there that he wants to do something nice for the writers (they all do look good in the suits) and, after what he just found on his desk, it would be nice if someone else could have some romantic luck. He goes back to the writers room and tells them not to get rid of the clothes yet – he has an idea.
That night Miss Piggy introduces a new sketch to be hosted by RuPaul; a fashion challenge where two members of the staff will design suits from garbage bags. Paché is steaming. This is where his Pinkberry sketch was supposed to be.
RuPaul introduces the first designer: the Swedish Chef! He put together a suit for Sweetums, who comes on stage and works it. The second designer is Bobo. But, when his models Gonzo, Rizzo, and Pepé walk out they are not wearing garbage bags. They are wearing their suits! When RuPaul asks Bobo why he didn’t use the bags, Bobo tells him that the suits where in the bags and he used the bags to get the suits to the show. RuPaul is quite amused by his answer and, as Gonzo, Rizzo, and Pepé look far better than Sweetums, they win!
Paché is now furious, and tells Kermit that the writers are paying for the suits. Kermit replies that because the suits were used as part of a sketch they are covered by the show’s wardrobe budget. Paché tells him that he doesn’t want his money, but he takes it anyway.
As the show goes to commercials Miss Piggy watches all the other Muppets talk and laugh, but she’s alone at her desk. From behind the curtain, Deadly sees her looking very sad and asks her what’s wrong. She asks him if she’s really that hard to like, but he tells her that, while she can be hard to deal with, any friend worth having would want her to be herself.
He tries to suggest that maybe she already has the friend that she is looking for, but doesn’t know it. Maybe he’s been right in front of her, caring for her the whole time, and she hasn’t noticed. Piggy doesn’t get it at all and tells him to clear the stage; the commercial break is almost over.
When they come back from break, Piggy has a duet with Ingrid Michaelson. As the two sing Ingrid’s song, “The Way I Am,” she is very distracted. Offstage, Uncle Deadly keeps giving her directions, telling her to “turtle” and pointing to the correct lyrics on her cue card. As she sings and takes his direction, Miss Piggy suddenly has an epiphany! Deadly was right! She does have a friend already! It’s him! She wonders how on earth he didn’t think of that himself.
That night at Deadly’s play, he is forced to take on the lead role, as his star quit on him. When he gets out on stage he is astonished to see that the whole theater is full! Miss Piggy came to see him, and brought all the Muppets with her! Now it’s Miss Piggy’s turn to cheer on her friend. As he recites his monologue, she whispers up to him, “Turtle!”
Review
“Got Silk” was a great episode. While it would be nice to get an episode focused on someone besides Miss Piggy, what we got was great and it was focused, almost equally, on Uncle Deadly. Any episode that gives more screen time to Uncle Deadly is an automatic win for me.
I love that they are having Miss Piggy wake up to the fact that she’s not that nice to a lot of people, and I love that it’s Uncle Deadly who’s showing her. Miss Piggy’s character arc this season has been so great to watch. She’s almost back to being the Piggy we know and love from the old movies. Now I don’t think it’s necessary that she revert completely, I do like her to have a bit of a diva attitude, but the Miss Piggy at the beginning of the season did, at times, seem almost like a different character. The new direction the show is taking is great.
Uncle Deadly continues to be the best part of this show for me. And I would love this show even without him, that’s how much I love him. If you had told me a year ago that the weird, kind of off-putting, creepy blue dragon man that we rarely ever saw would someday rival Gonzo for the title of my favorite Muppet, I would not have believed you. Uncle Deadly, like the show itself, just keeps getting better the more we see of him.
Part of this episode revolved around Paché trying to get the Muppets to accept a brand deal with Pinkberry and, even though they ultimately did not accept the deal, it made me wonder: Even though the show within a show, Up Late With Miss Piggy, did not accept the brand deal, did the show itself, The Muppets, have one? Pinkberry got like five mentions and, as it is an actual company and not a made up one, I have to wonder if they were actually sponsored by them for the bit. Not that I mind. It was integrated rather naturally, they never went out of their way to praise it, and the closest thing they got to praise was actually very funny.
Gonzo: “I feel as foolish as somebody who passed up the cool refreshing taste of Pinkberry frozen yogurt!”
Pepé (Slapping him once): “Snap out of it!”
Gonzo: “Well just because we’ve been brainwashed doesn’t mean it’s not delicious!”
Pepé (Slapping him all over): “Why you have to say so many crazy things!?”
The guests continue to be stellar as well. I feel like the guest appearances work so much better this way than they did at the beginning of the series when they wrote the whole script around the guest. This way the guest is there for a bit or a song, and then we move on. I’m not against the show completely revolving around a guest once in awhile, as long as it doesn’t happen all the time.
There were some great puppeteering things going on in this episode. The most noticeable one was Miss Piggy climbing the silks, still animated, and then rolling back down. Similar to the scene in “Going, Going, Gonzo,” in which Gonzo is hoisted through the rafters by a rope on his leg, I have no idea how they pulled this off! Another thing, and this was very subtle, was that when Kermit calls Denise he had a pen in his hand that he nervously clicked open and closed with his thumb. I didn’t even notice it the first time, but after that I couldn’t not see it. Did they have to build a mechanical hand for him just for that extremely subtle bit of puppetry? I am constantly impressed by all the tiny, almost unnoticeable, touches they add to this show.
Favorite Quotes
Miss Piggy: “So, ever since we changed the show so that everybody else is in it more, something funny’s happened. I’m in it less!”
Uncle Deadly: “A large part of my days are spent trying not to answer questions in ways that will make Piggy look too deeply into the abyss of her own loneliness. I usually bring up snacks!”
Deadly: “I’m directing an adaptation of ‘Clueless’ at a black box theater in Reseda. It’s very edgy, we reversed the genders on all the roles, which was a disaster when we did ‘Knocked Up,’ but this one’s pretty good.”
Piggy: “Oh, Janice, perfect. You seem like you have a lot of friends, how did you make them?”
Janice: “Well there’s the people in my candle ceremonies, and my friends who are helping me build the wicker man, and the wicker man…”Gonzo: “Island themed just means there’s a pineapple on your burger! You can take it off!”
Rizzo: “Yeah but you can’t get rid of the juice.”
Gonzo: “You’re a rat! I’ve seen you eat garbage!”
Rizzo: “Not with a pineapple on it!”Pepé: “Look at me, look at me! I am the Al Capones! Heeeey… Oooooh…. Chicagooo… eh- I, don’t know much about the guy.”
Janice: “Ooh! Butterfly!”
Gwynne: “Don’t bother looking. There’s never any butterfly.”Big Mean Carl: “If ya need some sketches, let’s see here… How ‘bout this one. I play a hypnotist! Okay, close your eyes, you’re getting’ very SLEEPY!!!”
Yolanda: “How ‘bout we get a celebrity designer to judge crew fashion choices. Some of ‘em dress ridiculous! I mean Sweetums looks like he’s part of a car wash.”
Deadly: “Your show is calling!” (Pretending to talk on a cell phone) “What’s that!? You need Miss Piggy to come back because she’s indispensable!? But this is her personal time!! What is your name!? Jeremy, what!? Mmmm, well, Jeremy, Rosen… Stein! You’ve made a very powerful enemy! What’s that!? Fisticuffs!?!?”
Kermit: “Please, could you always wear your pants in the office?”
Rizzo: “Okay, Mister Naked!”RuPaul: “I can tell you were inspired by Kanye’s drop crotch leather sweatpants!”
Swedish Chef (Gasps): “Yeezus, Yeezus, Yeezus!”
Final Thoughts
“Got Silk” was a great episode. It wasn’t quite as funny as the previous two were, but I didn’t mind at all. It was full of heartfelt moments, character growth, witty dialogue, and even some music! I loved it just the way it was!
What did you think of this episode? Do you like the direction the show has been taking?
Edited by: Hannah Wilkes