Last week, some Fox News anchors mustered up the courage to stop standing idly by as The Muppets brainwashed children with their anti-Capitalist agenda. The new film's director, James Bobin, finally answered nagging questions around the movie's purported liberal bias, and refused to acknowledge the well-known fact that Fozzy Bear was always meant to be a stand-in for Trotsky. "It's a very strange turn of events to hear a question like that. Cable news is 24 hours long so you have to fill it up with something. No, the Muppets are not communist," Bobin told The Hollywood Reporter. But isn't that EXACTLY what a communist would say?
Bobin responded to Fox Business host Eric Bolling's complaints about the movie's rapping villain (Chris Cooper) named Tex Richman, who Boiling claimed was part of the left's plan "to manipulate your kids and give them the anti-corporate message." Bobin argued, "the character of Tex Richman is not an allegory for capitalism in any way. The character is called Tex Richman. It's a joke. Clearly he is a classic, old school bad guy. He's bad not because he works for an oil company but because he's evil. No, it's not a communist movie in any way." Oh yeah, and next you're going to tell us the fact that Kermit is green isn't part of a sinister environmental agenda.
Elsewhere in the interview, Bobin discussed the enduring popularity of The Muppets in decidedly Marxist terms:
I think it's because they are all fundamentally flawed. Fozzy can't tell jokes, Miss Piggy can't really act or sing, but they all try their best and I think that's a very authentic idea. It doesn't matter if you're good at anything, just try your best. Then there's the idea that individually they're flawed but together they can do amazing things. I think that's a very nice message and it's not something you hit people over the head with. It just comes with The Muppets; it's what they're about. It's that kind of innocent try, try, try quality. And it also makes them underdogs. You can't help but support the underdog.
Underdogs? Individually flawed but communally strong? Try your best? Read between the lines people. The only thing Fox can do to stem the liberal tide is to continue hiring the best reporters and thinkers of our time.
