I *can* picture that: On my Muppet obsession

We need to talk about this:

If you can’t watch the video for some reason, it’s The Electric Mayhem (the most awesome Muppet rock band since The Riverbottom Nightmare Band and props to you if you know who they are) as the musical guest on Jimmy Kimmel last night. The non-Muppet is from Blink 182. I think his name is Travis or something. He is a very good sport.

Jimmy Kimmel: Friend to the Muppets. I approve of him.

Anyway, I need to talk to you about this little video for a moment. And, yes, I’m aware before I even start writing this that this will make me sound like a crazy person. I’m OK with that. I AM a crazy person and if you people don’t know that yet, well, I don’t know what to tell you.

I watched this video this morning. I laughed. I cried. No, seriously. I literally did. I sat here in front of my computer and laughed and sobbed at the same time and was just so happy even I figured I’d finally crossed the line to crazy town.

See, I have always been a big Muppet fan, even as a very little kid, but there was a very specific moment when it went from “Hillary likes the Muppets” to insane obsession. I don’t remember the exact year but we were on a family vacation at Disney and I was very sick. So sick, my family left me in the hotel (I was middle school aged, I think) and went to do fun stuff without me.

I’d watched The Great Muppet Caper and Muppets Take Manhattan a million times each by that point in my life but I had somehow never seen The Muppet Movie, which is basically Jim Henson’s thesis statement. The soundtrack (on cassette tape) was at the MuppetVision 3D giftshop and I had just purchased it. So, without having even seen the movie, I sat there, alone in a Disney hotel room, and listed to the soundtrack of the movie over and over again on my little tape player in a fevered delirium and emerged on the other side the Muppet crazed lunatic that you people know today. This is a 100% true story.

If you’ve seen the newest Muppet movie, there’s a scene where the main character, crazed Muppet fan Walter, has a very similar experience where the Muppets call to him through a television set. There are many moments of the newest Muppet movie that feel like they are about me (especially since I own most of the items in Walter’s collection) but that one was so weird to see in theatres because it so closely mirrored what happened to me I was left with this feeling that all of us crazed Muppet fans had some kind of visitation experience that brought us into the fold. We’ve all been brainwashed into some cult, I think.

Anyway, my insanity none withstanding, one of my favorite songs on that soundtrack is Can You Picture That? performed by the Electric Mayhem. It contains such awesome lines as:

Fact is there’s nothing out there you can’t do
Yeah, even Santa Claus believes in you.
Beat down the walls, begin, believe, behold, begat.
Be a better drummer, be an up and comer. Can you picture that?

How can you not love this song? It’s trippy and inspirational and features all five of the main Muppetteers and is just generally a Muppet classic.

Anyway, back to the present. When I heard that The Electric Mayhem was going to be on Jimmy Kimmel last night, I was floored. The Muppets! As the freaking actual musical guest! On a major late night television program! What magical world am I living in where they are suddenly this mainstream again?

I had no idea what song they were going to perform. I also had no idea *how* they were going to perform since puppets don’t actually play instruments but, hey, they must have ways of working around these things. But there are a few big reasons why this video emotionally wrecked me.

First of all, they actually played Can You Picture That? I already had such a connection to this song that’s tied to my very Muppet obsession itself that alone was enough to make me get goodbumps before they even started.

Secondly, every Muppet on that stage has been recast. Dr. Teeth was Jim Henson and Janice was Richard Hunt and they are both dead. Floyd’s been recast since Jerry Nelson is battling cancer. Frank Oz gave Animal over to Eric Jacobson a long time ago. (Maybe Dave Goelz was playing Zoot but, since he didn’t speak, I’m thinking not.) There was a certain emotional impact just to realizing that at first and then? The new performers freaking KILLED IT. They were fantastic and I’m sure most normal people had no idea those parts were different which is the highest compliment you can give the new Muppeteers. Sexy Muppet Mans himself, Bill Barretta’s Dr. Teeth was so amazing I think that’s really what pushed me off the edge and made me cry. The whole production was just so good, funny and rocking and true to the original with it’s own spin that it was just this emotional meeting of the past and future for a Muppet maniac like me.

The final thing that did me in was how many people shared this video this morning. Everyone loved it, not just crazy people like me. It made me realize that the Muppets are back and bigger then they’ve been for years and that just makes me so freaking happy that a whole new generation gets to discover them.

I’m always a little wary of letting people know just how crazy actually am which is why I don’t do things like blog rant about why casual TMNT fans need to STFU about the whole Michael Bay movie because they don’t know jack about the comics and how I really feel about bronies and the current My Little Pony domination. I prefer to have you people think of me as a professional and put together person and not someone who’s crying about the Muppets because I appreciate them on a deeper level than you.

But if there’s one thing I’ve learned about this whole social networking thing it’s that people like when you’re yourself, no matter how weird your real self is. [Example] So, here’s yet another glimpse into the depraved mind of the real Hillary. Perhaps not surprisingly, it contains Muppets.

Can you picture that?