Miss Piggy, Camp, and the Death of the Movie Star

Miss Piggy may be a puppet, but she is one of the most recognizable pop culture icons on the planet. In this video, I take a look at how she evolved, the persona that Frank Oz developed, her relationship with Kermit, and why it's so challenging keeping her up to date in the contemporary entertainment landscape.

Music by Epidemic Sound

Find me on social at:
TikTok: bkrewind
IG: bk_rewind
Twitter: bkrewind

[retrogradepink]

Jennifer Coolidge totally embodies the Miss Piggy spirit.

[xingcat]

Someone I follow on Twitter once said that The Muppets aren't a cast of characters; they were a troupe of actors, and once those original actors died or moved on from the show, The Muppets can't be the same, because the troupe shone through each and every character and situation.

[FishareFriendsNotFood]

I love how unapologetically assertive Miss Piggy is, she's a good role model for girls about how to find your voice

[disinfectingwipes]

She’s beauty, she’s grace, she’s Miss United States.

[notoriousrrz]

Love this. The one thing that only gets touched on briefly but I think deserves more attention is the way Miss Piggy was coded as being plus-sized and even fat while also being coded as a stunning sex symbol. There was truly no one else I can think of when I was growing up as a fat kid in the 1980s that could steal the man and the camera's eye away from thinner women. It was a joke, but within the joke there was something liberating, especially when body positivity was decades away from getting any kind of foothold in the mainstream. Even by the time The Muppets came out in 2011, there was power in Emily Blunt--whose character starved herself in The Devil Wears Prada--talking about Miss Piggy revolutionizing plus-sized fashion. Miss Piggy being glamorous, having access to fashion, being seen as desirable and karate-chopping anyone who told her she didn't have the right to all that was meaningful for a lot of fat people, and it's sad that the world she's in now doesn't know how to put her on her pedestal. She's still big, It's the puppet shows that got small.

[Cutieapplepie]

Honestly, I don't think Miss Piggy ever needed a modern update. I think her movie star persona is even funnier in the modern era *because* it's so far removed from old Hollywood at this point

[langleymneely]

All these decades and I still don’t get how Piggy never got a film of her own?! Her origin story is ripe for a parody to this day! Disney is leaving money on the table dammit!

[kleerude]

56:41 “I miss the sense of play that comes from a company owned by a person.” I don’t know why, but that hit me right in the gut.
Edit: (watches thirty more seconds) Oh. That’s why.

[EyebrowCinema]

BKR while gesturing to Miss Piggy: We used to be a country. A proper country.

[themorticians]

"Bette Davis never had to set up her own tripod." LOL

Thank you for another interesting, thoughtful episode!

[LilyHandmaiden]

I recently watched the original Muppet Movie for the first time, and I was struck by the exact same thing: the ending made me cry, because it was this fictional troupe of weird artists MADE BY a real troupe of weird artists, all singing about the joy of getting together to create something bizarre and wonderful together. The story of the puppets is the story of the puppeteers. It's easy to see why the performers and their bonds with each other are so essential to the characters and the franchise.

[tiio]

Miss Piggy is an absolute icon!!! I remember being absolutely obsessed with her style and attitude in the show as a kid.

I've always loved how the Muppets are treated like "actual" stars, it just makes life more fun :)

[MasseurDavis]

Miss.Piggy has an impeccable sense of style, Im sure designers enjoy styling her.

[hannahgrayy]

omg the shot to pearl "im not staying on this farm!" was amazing

[colinneagle]

As much as I love Miss Piggy as a great comic character, it does bother me that the Muppets team never really bothered to create other female characters for the group. In the whole ensemble, the ladies consist of Miss Piggy, Janice (who mostly is wrapped up in stories with the rest of The Electric Mayhem), and Camilla the chicken who never talks. That's it. It almost feels like an example of the Smurfette trope where a large group of male characters includes exactly one woman who's personality boils down to being "the girl." I know that this annoyance of mine isn't super related to the topics in this video essay, but it just seems odd to be able to create any sort of character imaginable out of felt and foam and somehow more than two women characters is too difficult a task.

[Bunny-chul]

To me, one of the most interesting things about Miss Piggy is the way she highlights the absurdity of the way women were (are) expected to behave in a post-feminism world. The attitude towards feminism in the late seventies and eighties was more or less, "That's nice dear. You can break all of the glass ceilings you like, so long as you still have dinner on the table at 6:30." Sure, be a CEO, but you still have to be June Cleaver too. While Miss Piggy isn't remotely domestic, she's definitely a glamour girl, which is really the other side of the domestic coin, it's basically the same idea. She's tough as nails, but still giggles demurely after throwing someone across the room. I feel like like Miss Piggy does a really good job highlighting the absurdity of expecting women to be both very capable, but also damsels in distress at the same time. Every time she's strong and successful she has to downplay it as an accident or risk appearing threatening or less desirable. Even though everyone should be thanking her for saving the day.

I'm not a woman, but I know enough women to know that having to be supremely capable to be taken seriously, while simultaneously downplaying that same capability so as not to appear a shrew is a nearly universal experience.

[elizabethbassett]

This video is sensational, breaking down the character, the performers behind her, hollywood, Disney, trend chasing. It does very well at being about Miss Piggy, but it’s also about the idea of an iconic character that no longer fits what she was parodying and how that informs how nostalgic cash grabs fail to launch. Love it

[rhonnichan]

my grandma was called Miss Piggy in our hood because she dressed like her

She took pride in being called Miss Piggy, that was her all time favorite character

[finchcarvingadiamond]

Frank Oz is such a BAMF for Piggy. I love how much work he put into his characterization.

[ididthisonpulpous]

I remember distinctly watching Blues Brothers as a little kid and my Mom going at the appearance of Frank Oz at the beginning "You know who that is?" "No." "That's Yoda." and my little kid brain not being able to comprehend and than she went on "Also Miss Piggy, and a pretty amazing guy." From than on I would make a not of his name, because what a name! Frank Oz is one of the most amazing creative voices we got out of Henson's little experiment, but all of Henson's work continually brings such joy. Sad we lost Henson so young.