History Film / MuppetClassicTheater

* LaserGuidedKarma: The sheep are the reason in "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" that Gonzo keeps overreacting. When Gonzo gives up trying to get help from the villages to deal with the wolf, they realize they're going to be eaten. The sheep quickly call for the story to end. Rizzo, who's narrating, refuses, so they have to save themselves. They end up calling for help from Cousin Norman.

* '''[[Literature/{{Rumpelstiltskin}} Rumplestiltskin]]''', with Gonzo as the title character, Miss Piggy as the miller's daughter, and Kermit as the king.

* GondorCallsForAid: The king and queen in "Rumplestiltskin" call on the whole kingdom to guess the funny little man's name. It's a good effort, but no one figures it out.

* IgnoredAesop: At the end of ''The Emperors New Clothes'', after [[spoiler:Rizzo and his friends are arrested, Rizzo clearly does not learn his lesson, telling them about his plans to con a very gullible king he's heard of, which the other two rats clearly do not approve.]]
* InsaneTrollLogic: In "Rumplestilskin", the royal adviser locks Miss Piggy in the dungeon overnight to turn straw into gold, under threat of spending the rest of her life locked up if she doesn't, and Rumplestilskin shows up and works his magic. When the adviser suspects that the gold is a trick, he orders her to turn more straw into gold while he keeps an eye on that gold.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Kermit, as the mayor in "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" and as the king in "Rumplestiltskin".

* SpoilerTitle: "Rumplestilskin", as with the original story. However, for those who saw the video before being familiar with the story, this is the one story in the video where the title is NOT announced in the introduction. Of course, [[TrailersAlwaysSpoil the video promos and the back of the box do refer to it by title]], not to mention that the title does appear on the marquee with the other fairy tale titles at the beginning.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: At the end of ''The Emperor's New Clothes'', after [[spoiler:the experience of being scammed makes the emperor decide that they should all start thinking for themselves, Rizzo and his friends still get arrested.]]

* DecompositeCharacter: Due to Kermit being too much of a NiceGuy to play a greedy king, King Midas is split into two characters, King and Queen Midas. Queen Midas, played by Miss Piggy, inherits all of King Midas' worst attributes to the point it's clear she's the real Midas of the story despite Kermit's Midas inheriting the Golden Touch.

* CompositeCharacter: Kmerit's King Midas's role in the story is a combination of Midas and his daughter, being the person who inherited the Golden Touch and accidentally becoming a golden statue when the Golden Touch is misused.

** "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" learns not to overreact. Also, prepare to solve a problem when no one else will help.

* ElvishPresley: The titular Elves.

* GrievousHarmWithABody: When the royal jester’s attempt at helping the solid gold King Midas turns out to be a bad joke about his favorite food (“24 karats!”), Queen Midas let’s him have it by using her solid gold husband as a cudgel.

* AesopAmnesia: In "The Boy Who Cried Wolf", Gonzo tells Rizzo that he's learned his lesson and will not over-react again... Only to immediately overreact when he hears that it's time for an intermission.

* CryingWolf: Played with in this videos version of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf", as Gonzo never tells an intentional lie, instead overreacting to false assumptions by his sheep.

* VillainHasAPoint: The funny little man in "Rumpelstiltskin" seems evil for wanting to take the maiden's newborn child from her. He points out, however, that they made a bargain and he honored his part of the deal and he's giving her a fair way out of it by letting her guess his name.

* VillainProtagonist: In "The Emperor's New Clothes", the focus is mostly on how Rizzo scams the Emperor.

* '''The Three Little Pigs''', with Miss Piggy as Sandy Pig, builder of the brick house.

* '''The Boy Who Cried Wolf''', with Gonzo as the titular boy and Kermit as the town's mayor.
* '''Rumplestilskin''', with Gonzo as the title character, Miss Piggy as the miller's daughter, and Kermit as the king.
* '''The Emperor's New Clothes''', with Fozzie as the emperor and Rizzo as a con man who "makes" the emperor's new clothes.
* '''The Elves and the Shoe Maker''', with Kermit as the shoe maker and Robin as the shoe maker's nephew.

* AdultFear: The maiden and her husband are frantic when the little man threatens to take her newborn baby away as part of their deal. While there's no hint that the little man would hurt their child, they don't know what would happen.

* ReedRichardsIsUseless: Averted in "King Midas", sort of. The Satyr is able to grant wishes, and King Midas wants to wish for peace in the world. However, both times he's given a wish, Queen Midas interrupts his wish to make her own wishes.

* VillainProtagonist: Arguably Rizzo in "The Emperor's New Clothes".

** In his role as the mayor, he acknowledges that Gonzo overreacts (as opposed to intentionally lying) so much, causing the town to panic. Though when the town won't believe Gonzo about a wolf being around, Kermit (along with the rest of the town people) refers to him as having lied many times. When they find out he was telling the truth and cousin Norman had to step in, Kermit gives him a medal as an apology for not believing him.

'''Muppet Classic Theater''' is a DirectToVideo [[Franchise/TheMuppets Muppet]] special from 1994. Much like ''Film/TheMuppetChristmasCarol'' before it, this one has the Muppets acting out classic stories, (mainly fables and fairy tales by Aesop, Hans Christian Andersen, and the Brothers Grimm) with Gonzo and Rizzo acting as hosts.

* AdaptationalKarma: The conmen in the "Emperor's New Clothes" absconded with all the gold and silver thread before the Emperor found them out. Here, Fozzie puts them in a dungeon immediately for lying to him.

** "The Emperors New Clothes" delivers the Aesop that people should think for themselves and not do things just because others do.
* AffablyEvil: The wolf, especially in "The Boy Who Cried Wolf", where he knows that the townspeople won't believe Gonzo, but allows him 24 hours to get help.

* CantGetAwayWithNothing: Rizzo and a few of his rat buddies play con men in "The Emperors New Clothes", where they get arrested and sent to the emperor (Fozzie), after some flattering convince him that his wardrobe is shabby and that Rizzo is the best tailor, convinces the Emperor that his new clothes are made from a special material that can only be seen by people of the highest culture and eleagance, making him and most of the town play along, and when the truth is found out, [[spoiler: Rizzo and the rats get sentenced to ten years in the dungeon, though [[IgnoredAesop Rizzo already announces plans to con a very gullible sultan when they get out.]]]]
* CheatersNeverProsper: The rats in "The Emperor's New Clothes" have been trying to scam various people. They get caught in the beginning for lying about curing a man's baldness. Later, the Empror puts them in the dungeon for claiming to make magic clothes.
* CurbStompBattle: Norman vs the wolf is over in less than a second.

** In "The Three Little Pigs", Sandy snarking to the viewer about how she can possibly be related to Andy and Randy.

* StrawMisogynist: Sandy Pig gets no respect from her father or brothers because she's a girl, even though she's clearly more intelligent and stronger than they are.