Ashley and I saw The Muppets a couple of weeks ago and absolutely loved it. The music, the comedy, the references to the original Muppet Movie, it was all great. If you liked the old Muppet Show I highly recommend going to see The Muppets. After seeing the movie we started watching all the older Muppet movies we could find. Since it is almost Christmas we of course got Muppet Christmas Carol which is great, but we also bought a DVD called A Very Merry Muppet Christmas which I hadn’t seen before.

A Very Merry Muppet Christmas (AVMMC) was a made for TV movie that aired on NBC in 2002, and is terrible. When you read this article don’t misunderstand and think I am recommending watching AVMMC or not watching The Muppets. I really feel quite the opposite. However when watching this I found a surprising number of similarities between it and the new movie. I am not accusing Jason Segel of ripping off this horrible TV movie. He would be better off never watching this unless using it as an example of what not to do. Spoilers ahead if you haven’t seen either movie.

1. The main story is about losing the theater if they don’t put on a show.
   In both these movies there is a greedy evil corporate CEO that wants to take over the Muppet Theater if they cannot raise enough money by a certain time. The only way for the Muppets to raise the money is to put on a show!

2. Kermit doubting if they are going to make it.
   In both of these movies Kermit doubts himself and whether they are going to be able to make it. In AVMMC he takes it to a ridiculous extreme. When it seems like all is lost Kermit wanders out into a snowstorm and sits down to wait to die.

3. Both comment on the meanness of current television
   In The Muppets no one wants to put them on air because they aren’t as edgy as newer shows that are just downright mean. And I have to agree, there isn’t a lot of feel good comedy on TV right now. However, on AVMMC during an “It’s a Wonderful Life” sequence Kermit sees that if he was never born Rizzo would have to be on a negative show like Fear Factor. On a sidenote I think that it is great that on NBC when they show how bad the world is, they use their own show as an example.

4. In the end Kermit realizes it’s not the theater that is important, as long as they have each other.
   In both movies they don’t get the money in time and lose the theater. But then they realize that it’s not the place that is important as long as they have each other.

5. Both use a goofy human guy as a framing device.
   Both movies have a human who gets the story going and helps out the Muppets. In the new movie it is Jason Segel and in AVMMC it is David Arquette.

6. Both have chickens singing a popular song.
   In AVMMC a group of chickens cluck to one of the songs from Moulin Rouge and in the new one they do Cee-Lo Green’s “Forget You”.

7. Whoopi Goldburg.