Yesterday, on the Las Culturistas podcast, Jennifer Lawrence acknowledged that she and Emma Stone have been producing a Miss Piggy solo film, with Broadway favourite Cole Escola writing. And naturally, because you’re a Muppet fan on the Web, you in all probability heard this already 100 occasions on each one in every of your groupchats or proper right here on ToughPigs.com. And should you, like me, are a queer Muppet fan, you’ve heard it a thousand occasions as each single fellow queer particular person you understand loses their minds about this risk. Do you know what number of Discord servers I’m on the place this was posted instantly???
As is customary, we right here at ToughPigs are taking this information with a number of grains of salt. Usually, Disney doesn’t announce its movies as a passing comment on Bowen Yang’s podcast. The TP employees chatted yesterday, and we’re at the moment questioning if possibly it is a spec script Lawrence, Stone, and Escola are planning on pitching to Disney. It’s robust to say something for sure till we hear from a Disney consultant particularly.
However let’s have some enjoyable right here for a second and say this film goes to be actual. I spent plenty of time yesterday speaking about this with my pretty partner, Eli Lee, author and occasional ToughPigs particular visitor. Like Cole Escola, Eli is nonbinary, they usually’re a giant fan of Escola’s. In case you ask Eli and me, this film is an outstanding concept, for 2 large causes: Miss Piggy and Cole Escola.
Firstly, Miss Piggy. You’re right here at ToughPigs, you understand who Miss Piggy is. She’s on prime of our web site!
If any Muppet can deal with a solo challenge, it’s Miss Piggy. Through the heyday of The Muppet Present, Miss Piggy was unquestionably the breakout star, and for years after there have been Miss Piggy calendars and solo books and even some Piggy-focused TV specials. Not all of these have been nice, after all, however there was unquestionably a marketplace for Miss Piggy-led materials and the Muppet staff acknowledged that risk.
Not like plenty of the opposite Muppets, who exist to facilitate single jokes, Miss Piggy is an extremely deep and well-rounded character. The factor that makes Piggy so totally different from the opposite Muppets is how a lot thought Frank Oz put into her historical past, current, and future each time he carried out her. Oz has mentioned a lot concerning the nuances of Piggy. As cited in Muppets from House: The Making of Film Magic, Oz mentioned “What makes Piggy tick is her multi-layered neuroses. She is a single pig, she will be able to’t sing, she will be able to’t dance, she will be able to’t act, she will be able to’t inform jokes, however she has great bravado. This stuff additionally trigger her ache, which she covers, and that’s the coronary heart of her comedy, the overlaying up of her ache.” Isn’t that such a splendidly intricate character? She’s fantastically advanced, a large number of neuroses nobody ever sees due to how constructed and performative her character is.
As Danny Horn and I mentioned on his podcast The Fabulous Miss Piggy Podcast, Piggy encourages everybody round her to say “sure, and” and associate with the very act that’s her complete existence. Miss Piggy is the idea of the Muppets writ massive, in a approach that no different Muppet on their very own could be. Everyone knows the Muppets are faux, however we consider in them each time they seem on our screens. Likewise, all of us consciously know that Piggy can’t sing, can’t dance, is a pig puppet carried out by a person. However when Miss Piggy tells us she’s a star, we need to consider her. At her greatest, we need to be on Piggy’s aspect, it doesn’t matter what she’s doing. That’s such a compelling hook for a personality, and we expect audiences have grown to miss it in recent times.
Eli jogged my memory that latest Miss Piggy is usually a extra easy, mean-spirited parody of girls. For example, take into consideration the Lifesty(le) segments on Muppets Now. She’s unhealthy at being a glamorous girl, and that makes her mad, and we snicker at her frustrations. We’re laughing at the difficulties individuals can have with being a girl. However talking for Eli and me, we don’t need to snicker at Miss Piggy. We need to snicker with her. We need to consider {that a} pig could be the most effective actress on this planet, even when she isn’t. We need to be inspired to droop our disbelief about Miss Piggy, somewhat than hate her. A film may get different individuals again on board with that premise, it doesn’t matter what story it tells, and we expect that completely needs to be its objective.
All of it will depend on if the film is well-written and the author understands Miss Piggy deeply. Which takes me to the second factor I’m enthusiastic about: Cole Escola.
For individuals who don’t know Escola (for instance, many cisgender individuals), they’re a nonbinary actor and author greatest recognized for Broadway’s latest comedy Oh, Mary!. Oh, Mary! is a darkish comedy about Mary Todd Lincoln within the days earlier than Lincoln’s assassination. Nevertheless, Mary is contextualized as annoyed former cabaret star who longs to interrupt freed from Abe’s shadow and relive her glory. Escola originated the function of Mary as a campy, drag efficiency. Of their private life, they’ve additionally been recognized to play with gender presentation in attention-grabbing and inventive methods.
Now hear, I’ve not seen Oh, Mary!. However I do know this: anybody who does drag, or actually has experimented with gender in any approach, already understands Miss Piggy on a deep stage. As a result of right here’s the factor: Miss Piggy is a drag character, unquestionably.
So let’s deal with drag for now, as a result of drag is totally different from being transgender. I’m a trans girl, which implies I do fairly regular girl issues like “go to work” and “vacuum the home” and “podcast extensively about forgotten Nineteen Seventies Muppet Rodeo Rosie.” Drag is totally different. Whereas transgender individuals can (and sometimes do!) carry out drag, it’s totally different. Drag is heightened. Drag is an exaggerated type of femininity, a figuring out parody of womanhood (or manhood, should you’re performing as a drag king somewhat than a drag queen!). Clearly, we often affiliate drag with performing as a unique gender than one is, however that’s not even essential. It’s about that dissection and comedic utility of what gender means.
The factor about drag queens is that they invite the identical sort of “being in on the joke” that Piggy does. They’re clearly ludicrous–that’s the purpose of the efficiency! However while you’re watching the queen carry out, the purpose is that they carry you into the fold. They make you consider you might be seeing probably the most stunning, charming girl who exists, as a result of it’s extra enjoyable to consider that. And that’s what I need from Piggy, proper? That’s how Piggy was round visitor stars on The Muppet Present, proper?
As Eli harassed to me yesterday, drag queens will not be “making enjoyable of girls.” It’s a loving exaggeration of femininity, not a focused assault. The loving exaggeration of gender is, as Eli says “the MSG within the Miss Piggy Sauce.” (And hear, my partner loves MSG.)
Eli added that when Miss Piggy is conceptualized by the lens of drag, her existence turns into funnier. They mentioned, “Like, Miss Piggy is clearly imagined to be a cartoon character like the remainder of the Muppets are. And once more, while you take away [drag], she’s simply The Lady Puppet, which is antithetical to what she was.”
“All of us carry out gender,” Eli texted me, referencing a standard time period in queer circles referring to the best way all individuals assemble the best way others understand them. “However Piggy is bodily performing it. It will be good to have a author who understands that Miss Piggy is performing gender the best way Gonzo performs no matter dumb s*** he’s doing re: cannons.”
So so far as Eli and I are involved, this film feels prefer it might be the proper method to inject power and keenness again into the Miss Piggy character. Clearly, our lens could be very linked to gender and drag, since that’s how we navigate our world so deeply. However I’d prefer to suppose everybody can see that loving exaggeration is totally different from mean-spirited parody, and we want these vibes again with Miss Piggy.
Escola has walked that line earlier than. As talked about, in Oh, Mary!, Mary Todd is a annoyed girl who is usually egocentric and onerous to like. However Escola made audiences and critics alike fall in love with Mary and with themselves. Miss Piggy has at all times been egocentric and, pun meant, pig-headed. However there was a time when audiences cherished her and rooted for her anyway. That’s what the Muppets want again, and Eli and I believe Cole Escola is a superb option to deliver us there.
However what do you suppose? Tell us on social media or on the ToughPigs Discord!
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