Ah! Kermie! The Oscars!

Eddie Murphy announced this week that he would not host the Academy Awards in February after his creative partner and would-be producer of Hollywood’s biggest event, Brett Ratner, quit amidst criticism resulting from his use of a gay slur at a screening of the pair’s recent release, Tower Heist.

The Washington Post notes that “Don Mischer, who co-produced last year’s Oscars — remains on board for the show,” and it was just announced today that Oscar-winning producer Brian Grazer will fill Ratner’s role. As far as finding a new host goes, the Post says, “There’s no great rush …. The academy did not announce Hathaway and Franco as hosts until the end of November last year, while the announcement on Jackman three years ago did not come until mid-December.”

But fans are anxious to see a new host named, or make that hosts, plural. There’s a campaign on Facebook and a convincing plea on Gizmodo urging the academy to choose The Muppets to helm the ceremony. Continue reading »

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A school closing and a bomb squad visit due to a mysterious package is not funny. Even when you learn that what was in the package was not a bomb but a stuffed Kermit the Frog doll, it’s still only a little humorous.  It really isn’t until you get a look at the photographic evidence of the false alarm at a school in Lafayette, Colorado that the situation becomes truly hilarious.  Continue reading »

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Google has replaced their logo with a series of Sesame Street-inspired images in honor of the big birthday.

1969 was certainly a banner year.  Neil Armstrong touched down on the moon.  Woodstock took place in upstate New York.  The Beatles released Abbey Road.  The Boeing 747 is first placed into service.  The television shows The Brady Bunch and Monty Python’s Flying Circus debuted.  While those shows, for better or for worse (not necessarily in that order), eventually went off the air, another show that got its start in 1969 is still going strong: the venerable children’s show Sesame Street.

It would be difficult to be a part of American society and not be familiar with the show — everyone, it seems, knows Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, and the ubiquitous Elmo.  The show was meant to depict the sort of world kids in the big city themselves lived in and the idea worked.  It worked so well that now, forty years later, the show is as popular as ever.  As of 2006, Sesame Street was the most watched children’s show in the world — there are 20 international independent versions and it is shown in over 120 countries.
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There are a whole lot of talented people in the U.S. of A. School teachers doing a great soft shoe, the checkout clerk who kills on the electric guitar and the chicken farmer who wows listeners with his heartfelt ballad.  You know who else has talent? Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog. Yes these two have a long – and I mean long – history of entertaining the masses and somehow they don’t age a day. It’s that good old Muppet magic. Continue reading »

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