          |
  |
|
 |
A TV producer friend of mine recently had an idea that I found funny and very odd: he wanted to make a kind of avant garde late-night music-and-comedy show starring a dancing hand puppet. At least one network executive was interested, but my friend has, for now, abandoned the project in favor of non-puppet entertainment projects. Then around Thanksgiving, as I was reading about the big international free trade conference in Miami, I was intrigued that the biggest news was that the Miami City Commission actually considered ordinances that would have banned the giant puppets used by anti-globalization protesters. In the end, the Miami officials let the protest puppets alone - wisely - and not just for free speech reasons. Because there is obviously some kind of puppet-mania in the culture right now. You really don't want to get in the way of this puppet juggernaut. Which is strange, because for most of my adult life puppetry has not been boffo in this country outside of little agitprop theaters. In its early years, Saturday Night Live tried sketches featuring Muppets, but it never really caught on. The satirical show "Spitting Image," featuring puppet caricatures of political figures and celebrities, was a terrifically funny hit show -- in Britain. When ABC tried to import "Spitting Image" to America, it failed quickly. But then the culture shifted. Maybe it was because the first Sesame Street generations reached their 20s and 30s. Maybe also because for a decade animated shows like "The Simpsons" had proven that a stylized, "kiddy" form could, in the hands of smart, ambitious creators, achieve real greatness. In 1997 Julie Taymor's splendid, imaginative broadway adaptation of "The Lion King" opened on Broadway -- featuring giant puppets. The "Lion King" puppets are all about spectacle, but spectacle of a refrehsingly hand-made, non-computer-generated kind. The most successful new show on Comedy Central is called "Crank Yankers." Its stars are all puppets, mainly voiced by well-known comedians. The puppets are shown making actual prank telephone calls to unseen and unsuspecting regular people. One of the voices on "Crank Yankers" is the comedy writer Rob Smigel, whose brilliant and extremely short-lived Comedy Central show "TV Funhouse" featured rude animal puppets. Smigel is also the man behind Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, a puppet character who has become a pretty big star these days. Earlier this year, in fact, on a TV interview show called "Face Time" that I hosted, Triumph was one of my guests.
CLIP: Triumph the Insult Comic Dog/Rob Smigel on Face Time Now, I'll take that from Triumph but only because he's just a little plastic dog with somebody's hand up his rear end. As audience members we can accept puppets being rude and ridiculous in ways we wouldn't accept live actors, not unlike kings and their court jesters 700 years ago. No venue today is more chockablock with puppets than the theater. In addition to "Lion King" on Broadway is the comedy "Avenue Q." And off Broadway, puppets are featured in three current shows, including, of all things, a production of Ibsen's "A Doll's House." Puppets are ubiquitous...except, alas, here on this medium. Back in the 1930s and 40s Edgar Bergen and his puppets were big stars on the radio, but could that possibly work today? If I had my own sock puppet right now, on my hand, and I called him...Robbie, say, and I gave him a little role in this show, would you buy it? (puppet voice )I think they might. Kurt. Really? OK, then -- this has been Kurt Andersen... (puppet voice) ...in Studio 360. |
|
| HOME | THIS WEEK | AMERICAN ICONS | KURT ANDERSEN | SHOW ARCHIVE | STATION LISTINGS | ABOUT STUDIO 360 | CONTACT US |
|
About Kurt Andersen
