Miss Piggy, Camp, and the Death of the Movie Star 

Honestly, I don't think Miss Piggy ever needed a modern update. I think her movie star persona is even funnier in the modern era *because* it's so far removed from old Hollywood at this point

Jennifer Coolidge totally embodies the Miss Piggy spirit.

Someone I follow on Twitter once said that The Muppets aren't a cast of characters; they were a troupe of actors, and once those original actors died or moved on from the show, The Muppets can't be the same, because the troupe shone through each and every character and situation.

She’s beauty, she’s grace, she’s Miss United States.

All these decades and I still don’t get how Piggy never got a film of her own?! Her origin story is ripe for a parody to this day! Disney is leaving money on the table dammit!

I love how unapologetically assertive Miss Piggy is, she's a good role model for girls about how to find your voice

Love this. The one thing that only gets touched on briefly but I think deserves more attention is the way Miss Piggy was coded as being plus-sized and even fat while also being coded as a stunning sex symbol. There was truly no one else I can think of when I was growing up as a fat kid in the 1980s that could steal the man and the camera's eye away from thinner women. It was a joke, but within the joke there was something liberating, especially when body positivity was decades away from getting any kind of foothold in the mainstream. Even by the time The Muppets came out in 2011, there was power in Emily Blunt--whose character starved herself in The Devil Wears Prada--talking about Miss Piggy revolutionizing plus-sized fashion. Miss Piggy being glamorous, having access to fashion, being seen as desirable and karate-chopping anyone who told her she didn't have the right to all that was meaningful for a lot of fat people, and it's sad that the world she's in now doesn't know how to put her on her pedestal. She's still big, It's the puppet shows that got small.

BKR while gesturing to Miss Piggy: We used to be a country. A proper country.

56:41 “I miss the sense of play that comes from a company owned by a person.” I don’t know why, but that hit me right in the gut. Edit: (watches thirty more seconds) Oh. That’s why.

"Bette Davis never had to set up her own tripod." LOL Thank you for another interesting, thoughtful episode!

1,000% agree about the lack of glamor in the 21st century. It's impossible to project glamor, which requires mystique, in an age where we are encouraged by social media to verbally barf our every thought and perform our every action for the audience in our pocket.

Miss Piggy is an absolute icon!!! I remember being absolutely obsessed with her style and attitude in the show as a kid. I've always loved how the Muppets are treated like "actual" stars, it just makes life more fun :)

Miss.Piggy has an impeccable sense of style, Im sure designers enjoy styling her.

omg the shot to pearl "im not staying on this farm!" was amazing

I think Gene Siskel's comment about Piggy being flipped upside down and seeing "how big her thighs are," is his illustrating that when many puppets may hide the secrets of puppetry out of camera, The Muppet Movie displayed those things, making it seem even less like a puppet. He probably could have chosen to say that you see their whole bodies riding bikes to make that point. But as weird of an example that was, i think that was his point.

This video is sensational, breaking down the character, the performers behind her, hollywood, Disney, trend chasing. It does very well at being about Miss Piggy, but it’s also about the idea of an iconic character that no longer fits what she was parodying and how that informs how nostalgic cash grabs fail to launch. Love it

Miss Piggy has been such a camp icon, especially with her resurgence in Gen Z culture where people are comparing her to Chappel Roan Geez I didn't realize how controversial of a comment this would be. Everyone has an opinion I guess

Miss Piggy RAN and won’t let the gworls crawl. These new girls could never.

Frank Oz is such a BAMF for Piggy. I love how much work he put into his characterization.

I remember distinctly watching Blues Brothers as a little kid and my Mom going at the appearance of Frank Oz at the beginning "You know who that is?" "No." "That's Yoda." and my little kid brain not being able to comprehend and than she went on "Also Miss Piggy, and a pretty amazing guy." From than on I would make a not of his name, because what a name! Frank Oz is one of the most amazing creative voices we got out of Henson's little experiment, but all of Henson's work continually brings such joy. Sad we lost Henson so young.

As much as I love Miss Piggy as a great comic character, it does bother me that the Muppets team never really bothered to create other female characters for the group. In the whole ensemble, the ladies consist of Miss Piggy, Janice (who mostly is wrapped up in stories with the rest of The Electric Mayhem), and Camilla the chicken who never talks. That's it. It almost feels like an example of the Smurfette trope where a large group of male characters includes exactly one woman who's personality boils down to being "the girl." I know that this annoyance of mine isn't super related to the topics in this video essay, but it just seems odd to be able to create any sort of character imaginable out of felt and foam and somehow more than two women characters is too difficult a task.

She's the greatest drag performance of all time.

Omg the comparison to Jenna from 30 Rock - I can’t believe I never picked up on that. Brilliant.

I love The Muppets so much. They were such an important part of my childhood and helped develop my sense of humor. I will never forgive Netflix for cancelling the Dark Crystal....

I was given Miss Piggy's guide to life as a child and I can't even tell you how formative it was for me. You just unlocked some super core memories for me!! She was a boss woman before the term girlboss was even a twinkle as a concept!

I recently watched the original Muppet Movie for the first time, and I was struck by the exact same thing: the ending made me cry, because it was this fictional troupe of weird artists MADE BY a real troupe of weird artists, all singing about the joy of getting together to create something bizarre and wonderful together. The story of the puppets is the story of the puppeteers. It's easy to see why the performers and their bonds with each other are so essential to the characters and the franchise.

Yep, you nailed everything about what I thought was wrong with that The Muppets series on ABC. But seeing it through the lens of it being a PARODY of that style makes me wish they’d leaned HARDER into that particular type of parody, rather than try to fit the structures of the mockumentary format.

It’s incredibly uncommon for me to comment on things online, but I had to say how much I loved and appreciated this video. When I was a very little undiagnosed-autistic girl Miss Piggy was my hero. I wanted to be just like her-beautiful, glamorous, feminine, a movie star (lol). As I grew older and got better at play-acting a normal person and understood how outlandish her behavior was (and mine at times, though I never karate chopped anyone of course) I still had a huge amount of love for her as my first model for how to be a woman. Now I want to go back and rewatch all the Muppet Show episodes and the old movies. You’ve given me so much to think about, wonderful video as always.

Really enjoyed the comparison with Jenna Maroney. There's a quick joke in S1 where a magazine asks "Who wore it best?" between Jenna and Miss Piggy, and guess who wins by a landslide? Miss Piggy, of course. God, I love 30 Rock.

The pictures have gotten too small for Miss Piggy’s star power

Man, between this, Patrick Willem's recent vid, and the Defunctland series on Jim Henson, it makes my heart heavy on the current state of the Muppets. I hope someone can breathe new life into them. The original movie was so special to me as a kid. I'd hate to see them fade away

🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉 BE KIND REWIND UPLOADED, AND IT'S ABOUT THE ICON MISS PIGGY

The Muppets are multigenerational. I remember when my mum took me and my brother to see The Muppets (2011) it was a year after my great-grandfather past away and he loved The Muppet Show. My mum also told us how the family would come together to watch it whenever it was on, new episode and even reruns. When Rainbow Connection was performed in the film I held my mum's hand while she cried. My mum passed away 3 years ago now and I recently watch the original Muppet Movie and when kermit sang Rainbow connection I started crying much like my mum did 13 years ago. This is the power those puppeteers bring.

ToughPigs, a Muppet fan site, recently launched a podcast all about the history of Miss Piggy, which explores a lot of these ideas. Highly recommended!

Chappell Roan is showing how much we still love Missy Piggy (I miss the Muppets being everywhere)

I'm 48 and Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie and company *are* real to me, DAMMIT! They've made me laugh, cry, feel confused, feel happy... perhaps just feel.

I wish Annie Sue existed, I loved her on the muppet show. She was a youthful niave pig who's bit was that everything she did was perfect (as opposed to the mess of the rest of the show) miss piggy was jealous of her, but annie sue looked up to miss piggy

When people ask who would be your top 5 guests at your dinner party dead or alive. Miss piggy would be on that list. You have made me so happy that you've done a video on her. God I love this channel. Thank you so much xx❤

Miss Piggy still has one of my favourite forth-wall breaking lines ever from "The Great Muppet Caper": You're a phony. You're a phony! Yes, you are! And you know what, you can't even sing! Your voice was dubbed!

"There's definitely a lot of wealth but glamour? I'm not so sure." I think you pretty much nailed it. This is just my opinion. As a Muppet/Miss Piggy fan, I always wondered why I don't like Miss Piggy now as much as I used to. At first, I thought the current writers were just ruining her character, but I don't think that's the case. Back in the time when we idolized movie stars (up until the late 90s I suppose) her antics were fresh, hilarious and even endearing. Since the boom in reality TV (which I always hated, the Kardashians, blech) Miss Piggy just comes off as an unlikeable b*tch. She was always the caricature of the Hollywood celebrity, but the celebrity brand has become more than tarnished. I always thought the 90s Muppet movies were the best ones because I was a 90s kid. But now, I think it's because the Muppets were acting as characters (Christmas Carol, Treasure Island, Muppets from Space) instead of "themselves", Miss Piggy included. I've always loved MOVIES, but have never really cared for the MOVIE STARS. I now realize I don't like Miss Piggy as much anymore because I don't like celebrity culture. 😮‍💨

“Bette Davis never had to set up her own tripod.” Let’s all take a moment to appreciate appreciate that line 😂🩵🎞️

The Muppet Christmas Carol was really good.

The jolt of pure electricity I felt seeing not just a new BKR video - but the topic being The One and Only Miss Piggy! I honestly did a muppet flail! I love Miss Piggy because she is a sort of wishfullfilment for any girl - unapologetically ambitious, always claiming the center stage - and not afraid to go after the man she wants. She is Mae West, Bette Davis and Elizabeth Taylor rolled into one. And she has a heart of gold underneath it all, that balances the violence and ego. She will go to the ends of the Earth and pulverise anyone who tries to hurt the crew. That's what they may not quite have gotten in the last series.

Go head. It's about time you got to Miss Piggy. This is a channel for all the big actresses.

One of my all time favorite singers is MISS PEGGY LEE!!! Peggy Lee was so mesmerizing, enchanting, gorgeous, relaxing, and soothing. I heard that Miss Piggy was inspired by Miss Peggy Lee and I thought it was awesome!

Miss Piggy is kind of the perfect gay icon, a combination of like, Hollywood glamour, and the tragedy of her constantly thwarted ambition. She's a character who is famous and successful because she's never managed to become famous and successful. She has two layers, the inner layer where her creators are fully aware of her camp appeal and are able to harness that to the best possibly effect, and the outer layer of Miss Piggy herself who is completely oblivious to it.

“It’s not part of most people’s visual vocabulary anymore- except probably people who watch this channel” 😊🥰

I truly love Mark Jacobson's version of the character. Frank Oz portrayed her with a certain melancholy that Mark doesn't. I think her evolution as a character fits perfectly with someone who has been in the entertainment industry for decades. She still has her insecurities, but has matured into knowing she has something in herself fans want. Disney unfortunately has gobbled up so many IPs it tends to leave out the Muppets.

Quote of the Day: “Bette Davis never had to set up her own tripod.”

I alway loved miss Piggy, but I DID NOT expect how many clips genuinly made me laugh! Like holy shit, everything is still so funny to me, none of it even feels that dated

OMG I just realized Piggy and Kermit's relationship went from early season Niles/Daphne to later season Niles/Daphne

"The Magic Store" & the reprise of "Rainbow Connection" as analogy for Henson & Co vibing and bringing joy to each other and into the world -- such a great way to cap off this delightful look at Miss Piggy! Thanks for another great video ❤

My Man Godfrey mentioned! everyone cheered

Best "The Muppet Show" line ever: "Bib and napkin, knife and fork Is the only way I'll touch pork" - Kermit the Frog, "Pig Calypso"

Also near me in Atlanta is the Center for Puppetry Arts with a whole Jim Henson section featuring Dark Crystal, Fraggle Rock, Sesame St and the Muppet Show items.

it can't be a channel thats talk about great actresses without the Greatest one of all!!! Miss Piggy!!!

its the way she say 'oh kermy' that just gets me every time

PfE (posting for the engagement) Piggy's violence asquealed to the rough kids and her glamour felt the soft lighting kids. Muppets is America's Monty Python. Its old but every generation finds it.

I never would’ve imagined that we be talking about Miss Piggy on this channel and it’s a delight! ❤

What everyone seems to miss about the muppets overall is their imperfections. There was something to watching them and seeing the intentional screw ups, messy backstage, hecklers and out of control mad bombers or science experiments as well as seeing the unintentional hand wire or a cheap effect and being aware there was a madcap group of people just out of sight trying desperately to put on a show and not trying to hide that but playing in to it. So when a little money got put into the productions and they pulled off Kermit on a bike or Miss Piggy driving a motorcycle (with even that having terrible scale issues with her being puppet sized to clearly a grown person in a Piggy suit) we LOVED it cause we were not only rooting for the muppets in the storyline but also the puppeteers putting it on. Once they started treating the muppets like real people and it felt like the puppeteers weren’t wildly expressing their creativity but instead desperately trying to imitate the characters voices afraid to do anything that might give away it’s not the original puppeteers it just left audiences with incredibly high hopes willing to forgive so much just for some of that zaniness again and given what felt like scared, nervous, subdued performances by people unwilling to just take the character and go but we’re just too conscious that they weren’t Jim Henson or Frank Oz or any of the other performers. And as a side note on that: another thing that really makes the muppets hard to love is when they quit making them out of carved foam and felt so they were soft and loveable but apparently made master casts of the characters and made a mold of them and now just pump the mold full of foam and I mold them and done. It leaves the characters made up of what looks like a dense stippling make up foam piece and they aren’t soft at all. Stapler and Waldorf are horrible now. Last thing and I’ll shut up- people forget in the original Muppet Movie Kermit had a crush on Piggy not the other way around and yes she rescues him from Doc Hoppers brain sucker machine but when she gets a call from her agent for a commercial she goes from soft and demure to “Yeah Bernie…whatta ya got? Commercial? How much? Take it.” She then hangs up the phone, turns back to a still tied up Kermit and delivers one of the greatest punchlines in film history. “Ummmmmm…….bye.” and exits. So it hasn’t always been Piggy obsessed with Kermie.

since we're at it, watching those clips from past Oscars, i still can't believe The Muppets haven't hosted an Oscar ceremony yet

perfect combination of subject and essayist

Another recommendation: If you're in Atlanta, Georgia, visit the Center for Puppetry Arts. They have a museum space dedicated to Jim Henson's works and a rotating display of pieces from The Muppets, Sesame Street, The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth and more. Also, the shows performed at the Center are amazing (though I'm biased -- my sister is a puppeteer there).

I love this video! It's wonderfully refreshing to see a Muppet video essay that feels like genuine media analysis and not just lecturous fanboying. I especially like this video's focus on how The Muppets are supposed to be caricatures of humanity, not just nice people in pigskin. The non-Sesame critters should always be funny first and nice second!

the jenna maroney comparison is INCREDIBLE. a 30 rock style behind-the-scenes of an snl-style sketch show would be such an amazing vehicle for the muppets. kermit as liz lemon, fozzie as tracy, piggy as jenna, alec baldwin as jack. perfection.

Stunning! Your analysis of how the evolution/devolution of the Muppets from the initial days of local television to today's utterly corporatized megaplatforms was so perceptive and thought-provoking. And the fact that, as these "characters" become more and more removed from the source of creation, the possibilities of character "development" become less and less.

The Muppets have taken over my life for the past few months. We started watching The Muppet Show with our son 10 months ago. We've watched through the whole show at least 10 times by now. The Muppets have sat with me through several all-nighters with him. We had a solid 2 weeks where my husband refused to watch anything except The Muppet Movie. They've defined my entire experience of motherhood.

Just started the video, and how did I not know about The Fantastic Miss Piggy Show!?!? Definitely watching that with the three year old tomorrow. She adores Miss Piggy! Can't wait to watch the rest of this video as well. I love Piggy and The Muppets. ❤

I've been watching the Muppet Show again, and as big as she got in the 80s, I love her 70s aggression, especially in moments like her duet with Raquel Welch (or Rudolf Nureyev lol). Her status as a feminist icon of that era really was something special, and important.

Thank you for verbalizing what I love most about Miss Piggy - her resilience.

YES A VIDEO ON THE QUEEN HERSELF

“Sex and Violence” was also the name of the second Monty Python episode. MP ended its run on the BBC in… 1974, the same year The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence was filmed. Was that intentional? I have no clue (if you do, let me know!) but it’s always struck me as a fascinating trivia nugget.

To me, one of the most interesting things about Miss Piggy is the way she highlights the absurdity of the way women were (are) expected to behave in a post-feminism world. The attitude towards feminism in the late seventies and eighties was more or less, "That's nice dear. You can break all of the glass ceilings you like, so long as you still have dinner on the table at 6:30." Sure, be a CEO, but you still have to be June Cleaver too. While Miss Piggy isn't remotely domestic, she's definitely a glamour girl, which is really the other side of the domestic coin, it's basically the same idea. She's tough as nails, but still giggles demurely after throwing someone across the room. I feel like like Miss Piggy does a really good job highlighting the absurdity of expecting women to be both very capable, but also damsels in distress at the same time. Every time she's strong and successful she has to downplay it as an accident or risk appearing threatening or less desirable. Even though everyone should be thanking her for saving the day. I'm not a woman, but I know enough women to know that having to be supremely capable to be taken seriously, while simultaneously downplaying that same capability so as not to appear a shrew is a nearly universal experience.

My friend Susan said it best, Disney doesn’t know what to do with them (the Muppets characters). She actually knew Jim Henson and the writers, and to make a long story short, the MOUSE brand gets in the way. I actually don’t think it’s that hard to bring Miss Piggy into the modern era - whatever that means. You just have to stay true to the character. Big hints: the Muppets would never have broken up and were never cloying or sentimental. They could be sad and happy and zany and worked when they reflected pop culture.

You are right - 100%. Even with all the inequality of wealth, we are definitely not living in an age of glamour. In times of glamour - they sold expensive hats, bags, dresses, all different types of jewelry, scarves, etc. But you never saw expensive sweats - sweats were always affordable. But today, because wealthier people are buying less of those other items - there are now high-end sweats.

Absolutely love to see this overview of her history as a character- she's such a delight and I feel like I've only come to appreciate her more as I've aged.

I haven't stopped grinning since this video began, thank you for making this

The Pearl clip got me. You always make the perfect quick references.

Bonnie, Henson & Oz are forever my inspirations. Human creativity at its finest ❤

44:50 AMY ADAMS WITH THE MUPPETS? Wow what a crossover

I have told anyone who would listen as a kid I always wanted to be a combination of Miss Piggy and Carol Burnett ❤❤❤

I didn't need too much convincing in the Muppet Movie on Piggy's instant attraction/obsession with Kermit, on account of comedy. But with Oz's backstory it makes sense for Piggy, at a time in her life where she's experienced and is grappling with deep feelings of desperation and belonging, to latch on so quickly and profoundly to feelings of love at first sight and the prospect of finding a soulmate in the wild. It gives such genuine retrospective depth and mental continuity even to a scene where, on the surface, the entire point is to derive comedy from the extremity of her feelings clashing with the inconspicuous simplicity and immediacy of their meeting. Even having long since developed her mask, she's lost and latches on to a sign from the universe of real love, purpose, and finally finding her own actualization. Furthermore, the pain informing her past takes her away from the image of being naturally camp (if possibly being naturally gifted at it) and into the realm that motivates many people into embracing camp in the first place.

God, Miss Piggy as a tribute to the Old Hollywood diva is so deeper than I ever considered. Amazing work as always!

Amazing video as always! I think another testament to how beloved Miss Piggy is is that Peggy Lee loved the fact that Piggy was named after her. Peggy’s granddaughter said that Peggy thought it was “fabulous” because they were both divas.

When I was in middle school, and start really acting like the theater kid that I still kinda am, one of my friends mockingly started calling me Miss Piggy. For a few years I was really annoyed by that cuz I had image issues, and anythig implying that I was fat, just hurt me deeply. But after a while and a rewatch of most of the Muppet movies on collage, my whole relationship with that name changed. Now I love her merchandize, and she's one of the figures and characters that trully inspire me and gives me confidence and strength. Tank you for this documentary on her, you made my week.

my grandma was called Miss Piggy in our hood because she dressed like her She took pride in being called Miss Piggy, that was her all time favorite character

It’s great hearing BKR wax rhapsodic about the end of The Muppet Movie, because it is one of my favorite movie scenes and I genuinely think it’s one of the greatest films ever made. As to Miss Piggy, I do think they have struggled often with how to treat the character. Muppets from Space is a great example of how a Piggy who isn’t as famous as she thinks she is can be hard to watch. She comes off there as delusional and the butt of the joke. I think a superstar Piggy who has to deal with inconveniences and things “beneath” her is one of my favorite versions; see A Muppet Family Christmas for a great example.

ive always thought of miss piggy as muppet version of Barbra Streisand. She was charming and had perks

I also argue that Ashley Tisdale's Sharpay Evans from the HSM series picks up Miss Piggy's baton, too

There's absolutely nothing cheesy about creativity. It's our guiding human force, inner fire, and supreme expression of self. Terrific video. Brava!

Piggy's trademark Karate chops is a very 70's-specific cultural touchstone. In the wake of Bruce Lee and "Kung Fu" films of the early 70's, Asian martial arts and particularly karate were a huge craze all through the decade. She wasn't alone in using martial arts (anyone else remember "Hong Kong Fooey"?). Even the "hi-YA!" exclamation wasn't even original to her, but adapted from stereotypes of Karate experts in movies. But as time moved on and pop culture mostly forgot about Karate, Piggy's karate chop stuck and became unique to her. (And does anyone else think Piggy's use of martial arts is a pun? Piggy's "chop" - pork chop?)

Miss Piggy was my first kung-fu idol

I’m always astounded at the creativity of the muppets. Another incredible video Isabel!

I never knew what went into Miss Piggy. And I was surprised that the clips you showed are still funny today. Timeless character

I had no idea that my life needed an hour long documentary about Miss Piggy. Once again, BKR changed the chemistry of my brain. Absolutely sensational.

oh hell yeah, we’re so back 😎

This could not have dropped at a better time! THANK YOU!🙏🏾 ❤

Annie Sue is actually Miss Piggy’s sister. It was addressed in an episode where Annie had a brief backstage affair with Kermit. Not too many people remember that but if you google it, the information is there.

What a great way to start off my Sunday, with a new vid from BKR 😍

Cleopatra? I think that was more Eartha Kitt's Timbuktu entrance!