Last week, we got the surprise of our lives with the triumphant return of the Fraggles. I mean, who saw that coming?? Traveling Matt, Red, and Wembley appeared at the Carnegie Hall event, so we knew that the puppets had been rebuilt. We only assumed that a Boober, Mokey, and Gobo would soon follow. And not only were we right, but they debuted in something as awesome as a music video.
As I sat watching Ben Folds Five’s “Do It Anyway”, it reminded me of something else. Back in 2002, Weezer enlisted the Muppets to appear in their music video for “Keep Fishin'”. Both videos featured rock groups active in the mid-1990s, both included the natural environments of the characters involved, and of course, they both starred Jim Henson creations that were not exactly in the spotlight at the time.
We don’t really need to figure out which video is better or which one does a better job at including the Muppets/Fraggles, but we’re just gonna go ahead and do that anyway. We don’t have to have a good reason, we just love expounding on this nonsense. So let’s take a deeper look into “Do It Anyway” and “Keep Fishin'” and we’ll crown a winner. The prize is nothing, because that’s exactly what’s at stake here.
But first, go ahead and refamiliarize yourself with both videos:
OMG Factor
Probably the first thing any of us did when seeing these videos was stare wide-eyed and slack-jawed in amazement. I think that’s a fair assessment for my own reaction, your own mileage may vary. But I think we were amazed for two different reasons. In “Keep Fishin'”, it was awe-inspiring to see the Muppet Show Theater, to see the Muppets actually acting like themselves, and a general aura of pure fun. In “Do It Anyway”, we got to see Fraggles again for the first time in decades. It’s hard to choose which one was more profound, but I’m leaning toward the Fraggles. While the Muppet Show Theater holds a more special place in my heart than my boyhood home, there’s something inherently magical about seeing a Fraggle, as if we have our own little Fraggle hole in our computer screens. And I think I just stumbled on the most perfect metaphor for the internet.
Advantage: “Do It Anyway”
Use of Characters
I’m sure it was difficult to portray the Fraggles closely to their original characterizations since only two of the five original performers were able to participate in the video, and as far as we know, no one else from the original crew. That means that anything you saw in the video (aside from Red, Boober, and Matt) came from puppeteers trying to mimic what they saw in the old Fraggle Rock episodes. All considering, they did an admirable job highlighting each Fraggle’s special brand of playfulness without expecting them to have any dialog.
Meanwhile, the Muppets had a distinct advantage. Not just because all of the current performers were on-hand (though that definitely helped a tad), but because they never really disappeared from the public eye like the Fraggles did. Sure, they weren’t starring in a Jason Segel movie or performing at Carnegie Hall in 2002, but they were visible enough that they wouldn’t have to stop everything to explain to their audience who Miss Piggy is or why all these animals are hosting a variety show. And because of that, they were able to cut loose a little more and add their own brand of craziness to the video.
Advantage: “Keep Fishin'”
Use of Environment
How do you compare the Muppet Show Theater to a Fraggle cave?? Neither one had been seen in decades, and both had to be rebuilt and reimagined. The Fraggles didn’t really spend much time in the cave before being yanked into outer space, but I still got a thrill from seeing them in their natural habitat. The Muppet Theater is definitely the more elaborate construction, but “Keep Fishin'” was filmed in the same year as It’s a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie, causing me to think that the Weezer video didn’t have as much to do with the reconstruction as we thought. Still, the Muppet Theater takes the cake, as it’s not only more nostalgic, but the entire video actually takes place there. That’s some set design money well spent!
Advantage: “Keep Fishin'”
Music Video’s Plot
I was originally going to compare the songs, but then I realized that there are no Muppets or Fraggles in the actual music. Also, I only listen to bluegrass these days, so all those electric guitar playing, thick-framed glasses wearing bands sound the same to me. Instead, let’s look at the plot of each video, because what’s left?
In “Keep Fishin'”, the Weezer guys seem to be the latest guests on The Muppet Show, and the drummer has been kidnapped to be Miss Piggy’s love slave. There’s a lot that works and a lot that doesn’t in this scenario. There’s a great Muppet Show vibe to a few of the scenes, including Kermit and Fozzie’s freak out at the beginning, Miss Piggy falling in love with a guest star, and Muppet backup singers (and penguins). But looking past the colorful characters, it’s pretty important for it to be funny (there are a couple good gags, but it’s mostly just cool to look at), it’s too reliant on character cameos, and the Piggy sub-plot ends with a thud.
“Do It Anyway” has a pretty simple plot. Ben Folds Five is playing their song, the Fraggles hear it down in Fraggle Rock (clap clap), and they find themselves in the studio rocking out. There’s an easily ignorable B-plot involving Anna Kendrick hooking up with Chris Hardwick, but I’m tempted to let it slide for the fact that two grown-ass adults end up together because of their love of Fraggle Rock. If that’s not a success story for all of us, I don’t know what is. The Fraggles are a lot less reliant on getting laughs than the Muppets. In fact, the only thing they really need is music, and that’s exactly what they get. Mokey gets to jam on the piano, Gobo plays his guitar, and they all dance their cares away while lip syncing. The simplicity of it all makes it seem so effortless, especially compared to the big production of “Keep Fishin'”.
Advantage: “Do It Anyway”
Continuity
As a comic book nerd, continuity is very important to me. I’m constantly concerned about silly things like how Batman is able to stop the Mad Hatter and hang out with the Justice League on the same Thanksgiving, or why the Green Lantern doesn’t travel at light speed all the time when we know he can go that fast when flying to Oa. As a Muppet fan, it’s not quite as important. Did the Muppets meet as babies or in college? Are they actors appearing in classic book adaptations or are they struggling stage performers? Not only does it not matter, but it’s a lot more fun when they’re not encumbered by too much backstory.
However, none of that stops me from thinking about it anyway. In “Keep Fishin'”, it seems that the Muppets are still putting on The Muppet Show every week. That makes a part of me sad for not having been able to watch those non-existent episodes over the past 20 years, and it makes the rest of me sad for knowing that the Muppets (of that timeline, I guess) have been struggling to put on a cheap, ragtag show all this time.
The stuff with the Fraggles actually fits in really well with the show’s continuity. Traveling Matt is still wandering around aimlessly, and as we learned at the end of the series, Fraggle holes can appear anywhere. So it makes a modicum of sense that the Fraggles could be passing by a hole that leads to outer space, and then they’d crawl through and join in for a song. I’m sure that’s all they’ve been doing for the past few decades anyway, just wandering around the caves, waiting to stumble upon something resembling music.
Advantage: “Do It Anyway”
Behind-the-Scenes Video
It 
seems that the producers of both videos decided that neither one was enough to satisfy demanding fans like us, because they both came out with behind-the-scenes looks. (You can view the first half of the making of “Keep Fishin'” here, and the making of “Do It Anyway” here.) According to the Muppet Wiki, only six shots in the entirety of the half-hour “Keep Fishin'” special don’t feature Muppets. And frankly, that’s how I prefer it. On the flip side, the behind-the-scenes video for “Do It Anyway” is much more of a love letter to Bed Folds Five, who are reuniting after a few years apart. We don’t get to see anything about where the Fraggles have been, who the mystery performers are, or the difficulties of producing the first Fraggle content in years. Although the “Keep Fishin'” video loses points for not being available in its entirety online, it still has more Muppets, so it ekes ahead.
Advantage: “Keep Fishin'”
Conclusion
So, tallying up the votes, let’s see… carry the eleven… oh, they’re tied. And I know you all had your heart set on learning which music video will reign supreme over the other in this no holds barred bare knuckle deathmatch! In a way, we can consider them both winners, as they gave us new looks at old Muppet and Fraggle material, brought them a little closer to the mainstream, and proved to be loads of fun. In a different way, we can award the win to Sesamstrasse’s “Bert, oh Bert”, in which the German versions of Bert and Ernie join pop sensation Lena Meyer-Landrut for an incomprehensible (unless you happen to speak German) jam.
Click here to keep fishin’ anyway on the ToughPigs forum!
by Joe Hennes – Joe@ToughPigs.com
