Muppet fans should prepare to forget what they thought they understood about the balance of power in the relationship between Miss Piggy and Kermit The Frog. The video mashup specialists at Darth Blender have created a profoundly not-right little concoction entitled “Fifty Shades Of Muppets” that is everything its title implies.
Yes, this is a parody of the trailer for the 2015 film version of Fifty Shades Of Grey starring Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan, only with Kermit and Piggy in the lead roles. Clips from various Muppet movies, especially Muppets Most Wanted and The Muppets Take Manhattan, are employed to create the illusion that Kermit is portraying mysterious businessman Christian Grey and that Piggy is naïve college student Anastasia Steele. Here, it is kinky Kermit who indoctrinates prudish Piggy into the world of sadomasochism. This stands as a direct rebuke of decades of films and TV shows that have clearly established that Miss Piggy easily dominates the submissive Kermit. Has the frog been topping from the bottom this whole time?
To put it mildly, the Muppets are not acting like themselves in this Fifty Shades crossover. In Kermit’s case, that may be because many of the clips actually depict the character of Constantine, his scheming criminal lookalike from Most Wanted. The sneer and the facial mole give him away. Nevertheless, it’s disconcerting to hear the normally confident Miss Piggy say things like, “There’s really not much to know about me. I mean, look at me.” The actual Piggy would never say anything like that. First, she’d use the word “moi” instead of “me.” But she’s never been the shy or self-deprecating type. Just hearing Johnson’s flat, affectless voice emerging from this normally vivacious Muppet is disconcerting. “Fifty Shades Of Muppets” may offer insight into one of the most famously stormy pop-culture couples of all time, but perhaps this is more than the public needs to know.