March has come in like a lion, and it’s brought with it an amorous dog, a French koala, and some talking hot dogs. After unleashing Jim Henson’s Puppet Up! Uncensored in a TV special last fall, TBS is premiering new episodes of puppet improv on TBS.com, and you can check it out right here. New episodes are scheduled to be posted on Wednesdays.
Puppet Up is one of the Jim Henson Company’s first attempts to launch a new, non-fantasy-movie project since they sold the Muppets, so the important question is, is it any good? Perhaps just as important: is it funny? Like most improv comedy, Puppet Up tends to be uneven. From where I was sitting, the TV special had about three sketches that only induced mild chuckles for every one sketch that invoked genuine guffaws. The two new clips that are available on the website right now are pretty solid, perhaps because it’s easier to single out the good stuff when they only have to fill three minutes rather than an hour. And if you don’t think a sketch is funny, you can always play a game of Spot the Puppeteer’s Head.
It’s good to see the Henson Company moving forward with a project that takes puppetry into relatively new territory. (Which reminds me -- whatever happened to that Late Night Buffet show?) As long as the performers don’t get lazy and fall back on the cheap and easy laughs afforded by crude-talking puppets, it will be fun to see where this venture goes. Even if it is a little weird seeing the DJ 2 puppet from Animal Jam talking about sperm banks.
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