YMMV / The Muppets (2011)

• Accidental Innuendo: The song "Me Party" could be taken to be about masturbation.
  No one’s gonna stop this girl from having fun
  I throw my hands up high and have a party for one
  —
  I'm not gonna sit around by myself and wait for you
  Haven't you heard one is the new two?
  —
  And what happens at the "me party"
  Stays at the "me party"
• Alternative Joke Interpretation: Did Fozzie fix the money counter after the telethon, or did he break it?
• And You Thought It Would Fail: The announcement of a new Muppets film that would reintroduce the franchise to a new generation with met with excitement that was also shrouded with lots of skepticism. The past decade or so of Muppets content post-Muppets Tonight struggled to find an audience, which, when combined with fans not receiving most works well, was considered an Audience-Alienating Era for the franchise. A new film seemed like it would fall to the below-average quality of their most recent efforts. Jason Segel being closely involved also raised brows because he seemed like a pick meant for name recognition alone. Initial trailers had some good gags in the context of the trailer, but the actual material seemed light and unimpressive to many fans. Walter, a sort of Muppet fan stand-in created for the movie, was also seen as lame at first. However, both the film and Segel's credibility as a Muppet fan eventually proved themselves. The film ended up not only with high acclaim from critics, but also with audiences, who turned out strongly enough to make the film a modest box office success. Walter also ended up becoming one of the more beloved modern Muppets among fans, with many expressing disappointment if he doesn't show up a Muppet project.
• Awesome Music: Bret McKenzie wrote the new musical numbers for the film. They're a ton of fun and even include some very Conchords-esque lyrics.
  • "Man or Muppet". It won an Oscar.
    Am I a man
    Or am I a muppet?
    If I'm a muppet
    Then I'm a very manly muppet.
  • "Smells Like Teen Spirit" as a barbershop quartet.
  • Walter's number, The Whistling Caruso.
  • Camilla and Friends' take on "Forget You".
  • Both versions of "Life's A Happy Song", especially the Triumphant Reprise led by the Muppets themselves. The entire crowd joins in too, which is definitely what would happen in real life if the Muppets suddenly broke into song after being cheered on by their fans!
  • "Let's Talk About Me". The Corrupt Corporate Executive Big Bad breaks into rap for no good reason, to predictable (and hilarious) ends.
  • While not written specifically for this movie, "Rainbow Connection" and "Mahna Mahna" are as awesome as ever.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Pepe's prior status as one divided fans into two camps: the "thank God Pepe didn't have more screentime in this movie" camp, and the "Pepe should have had more screentime" camp.
  • Gary and Mary. Critics adore them and lament their absence from Muppets Most Wanted, claiming it as one of the movie's biggest shortcomings, while fans wish they'd have lent a bit more screen time to the Muppets themselves. Nobody hates them outright, though.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
  • Oscar-winner Chris Cooper... rapping?
  • Amy Adams singing and dancing alone in a diner, surrounded by a border of LEDs, and making bread do the can-can. Amy Adams does her own puppetting!
• Broken Base: Fozzie's fart shoes. The DVD commentary says that the only reason they introduced the fart shoes was to have the farting noise as Fozzie walked out of the theater. Fans either feel they fit perfectly with Fozzie having always been a bad, So Unfunny, It's Funny comedian, or feel that fart jokes, in general, are pretty low-brow even by his standards. Frank Oz fell into the latter category, refusing to work on the film due to this joke, seeing it as emblematic of the writers not getting what made the Muppets work.
• Crazy Is Cool: Gonzo. Okay, it's really no surprise coming from him, but he takes it to new heights when it's revealed that he's not only been expecting a reunion and thus had been wearing his stage outfit under his suit for years, but he also had an automatic Self-Destruct Mechanism for the big business he's been in charge of.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: '80s Robot. He only has a minor role in the movie, but fans love him for being a hilariously outdated Disco Dan who looks like Nintendo's R.O.B..
• Evil Is Cool: Uncle Deadly, although you can't help but feel that he's even more awesome after his Heel–Face Turn.
• Fridge Horror: Jack Black is still trapped as the King of the Hobos!
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The purpose of the film is essentially to remind us why the Muppets are such beloved characters in the first place as well as being a reintroduction. Given how fast the franchise fell apart soon after this film's release, with its Contested Sequel Muppets Most Wanted and the polarizing ABC series The Muppets (2015) polarizing peoples' views of the franchise, it's sad that the franchise fell again so quickly after such a successful reintroduction that was supposed to reinvigorate it.
  • Tex Richman claims at one point that the "hard, cynical world" doesn't care about "goody-goody" characters like the Muppets anymore. Muppets Most Wanted and the ABC series have most of the Muppets Taking A Level In Jerkass^note  although, in defense of the former, this was mainly due to the negative influence of the villains Constantine and Dominic Badguy .
• Heartwarming in Hindsight:
  • The DVD commentary has an ongoing joke about Future Movies Magazine, talking about how great the unreleased movies they are working on will be. When "Man or a Muppet?" starts, they joke about it winning an Academy Award - one even says "Yeah, in Future Movies Magazine." "Man or Muppet?" won the Academy Award shortly before the DVD was released.
  • In the film, the Electric Mayhem member to give Animal his drumsticks back and convince him to start drumming again is none other than Floyd. Fast forward to The Muppets Mayhem, where it is revealed that Floyd took in Animal as a Doorstep Baby, meaning that he is basically getting encouraged to go back to his passion of drumming again by his dad.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In the actual movie, during the "Man or Muppet?" song, Walter looks in the mirror and sees what he would look like as a human: Jim Parsons. This got funnier when Jim Parsons came out as gay, considering Walter and his brother Gary are definitely Heterosexual Life-Partners.
  • Rowlf complains that they didn't show his scene in the montage during the film. In some broadcast TV versions of the film, this scene is cut out completely.
  • The line "Are you a man or a Muppet?" got this for Mexican audiences since the term "Muppet" is a term used usually against politicians that do nothing that they promised or are seemingly obeying another groups or people's interests.
  • Rico Rodriquez's question to Kermit asking if he's "one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" is now even more hilarious two years later, with the introduction of Pokémon X & Y's Greninja - a ninja frog who is often compared to Kermit.
  • Walter is a puppet who's the brother of a human being. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?. Crash even LOOKS like a purple version of Walter.
  • The first French Dub of Miss Piggy was made by Micheline Dax, a famous French actress. The other talent she is famous for? Whistling (she made several whistle albums).
• Hype Aversion: A lot of people were dubious about the film because of how supersaturated the trailers and promos were.
• Like You Would Really Do It: The Hail Mary telethon fails, the magic fix at the end falls through, and Kermit's ready to start the group again from the ground up with whatever fans they have left, no studio and no Muppet name. The audience knows there will be a last-minute victory.
• Memetic Mutation: The song "Man Or Muppet" as a whole for how much Narm Charm it gives off, and for how much it slaps. There's also the apparent absurdity over it winning an Oscar for Best Original Song.
• Narm Charm:
  • The Swedish Chef's gibberish during the movie's more sentimental moments, like "Pictures In My Head" and after the telethon ends and the Muppets failed to raise the $10,000,000.
    Swedish Chef: (sadly, while cuddling the chickens) ... Chickee.
  • Mary emotionally asks Gary for a decision:
    Mary: Gary, I love you, but you have to decide: Are you a man, or a Muppet?"
• Older Than They Think: Toilet Humor like the infamous Fart Shoes was definitely rare for the Muppets, but one sketch from The Muppet Show had a man mentioning that he used real poo, as opposed to sham poo.
• One-Scene Wonder:
  • The human version of Walter, as played by Jim Parsons in one of the best unexpected cameos in any Muppet film.
  • Emily Blunt, parodying her role in The Devil Wears Prada, manages to steal the show from the Muppets themselves in every second she's in.
• Spoiled by the Format: Lampshaded about half an hour in.
  Mary: This is going to be a really short movie.
• Win Back the Crowd: Both in-universe and in real life. Before this, it had been over a decade since the last theatrical film, and Muppets material in the 2000s struggled to appeal to fans and newcomers alike. This film's success made its meta-narrative of a Muppets comeback come true. While none of the Muppets material since then hasn't been as successful as this film, the franchise is at least in a far better spot now than during the 2000s, which can be largely thanked to the goodwill and new fans this film created.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: The staff of a Fox News Channel show accused the Muppets of promoting class warfare for children by making the movie's villain an oil CEO. The film makes it clear that Tex Richman isn't evil because he is a CEO, rich, or wants oil, but because he is unable to laugh and laughter, aka the third greatest gift ever, is necessary for happiness. He decides to turn the Muppet name into a cynical, depressing act For the Evulz, which doesn't have much to do with oil. Any five-year-old would know he's a caricature just by the name and Large Ham tendencies. A few Muppets are upper-class as well. Kermit is CEO of The Muppets and is wealthy enough to live in a swanky house. Gonzo had enough money to buy out the theater until he blew it up in his enthusiasm to return. Piggy is portrayed as rich. The Muppets themselves got the last laugh on this; during a press conference, Kermit pointed out how hypocritical they'd be if they spent the majority of an alleged anti-oil movie driving around in a gas-guzzling Rolls Royce, and Miss Piggy said the accusation was as absurd as accusing Fox News of being news. Fox News' accusation makes the brief gag of Sam the Eagle working for Fox News even funnier than intended.
• The Woobie:
  • Walter is trying to save the Muppet name and finding his special talent under so much pressure. It's sad to see the poor guy struggling.
  • Kermit has to jump through hoops to get the gang back together, raise enough money to save Muppet Studios, and gather the courage to admit to Miss Piggy his feelings. It's so much pressure for a little green frog.