The Muppets as hosts for the February 2012 Academy Awards looks probable after the sensational exit of Eddie Muprhy and producer Brett Ratner. Murphy stepped down following the controversy surrounding Ratner’s mistaken use of a gay slur.
As Hollywood continues its march into cheesy absurdity we hear that ‘The Muppets’ have been backed to host the Oscars. Is this they way that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will choose to distribute its highest honors? Do they feel this is appropriate? If so, then at least we can take this as the final admission that they have become irrelevant as a serious art form.
Now, a fan campaign has been set on Facebook for Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy and friends to helm the Academy Awards, where Steven Spielberg, Alexander Payne, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Tom Hanks and Leonardo Dicaprio are in the running for the top awards. The campaign has got the backing of one particularly important individual – The Muppets screenwriter Nick Stoller, who told Hit Fix, “I’d totally be on board. You could have The Electric Mayhem as the house band! As long and you’re not doing crazy, high production stuff.”
On the potential difficulties of puppeteers taking on a role that has in the past been perfected by the likes of Billy Crystal and Jon Stewart, Stoller said, “The Muppets are a guy under a chair. You need a chair with a hole in it. If you try to do a big musical number, that’s where things start to get tricky. And the puppeteers are really good at improvising things if they need to do that.”
A Muppet is a guy under a chair – somehow this seems appropriate for Hollywood today.
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