The Muppets Take Manhattan: Deep Thoughts About the Meaning of Art, Assumptions About Women in the 80s, and Business Frogs in Marketing

The Muppets Take Manhattan: Deep Thoughts About the Meaning of Art, Assumptions About Women in the 80s, and Business Frogs in Marketing

50:18 Mar 31, 2026
About this episode
Send us a message! Include how to reach you if you want a response. Hey, I tell you what is. Big city, hmm? Live, work, huh? But not city only. Only peoples. Peoples is peoples. No is buildings. Is tomatoes, huh? Is peoples, is dancing, is music, is potatoes. So, peoples is peoples. Okay?Deep Thoughts About Stupid Shit returns this week with Emily's take on The Muppets Take Manhattan. Although this 1984 film, directed by Frank Oz, still offers plenty of comedy, music, and whimsy, its treatment of women is a little less charming than the Guy Girls remembered.Kermit, Miss Piggy, and the rest of the gang have just graduated from college and bring their senior musical Manhattan Melodies to New York to try to make it on Broadway. Of course, it's not so easy to find a willing producer, and Oz's storytelling scatters the Muppets across the country while Kermit stays behind. Unfortunately, the screenplay also seems to think that misogyny is just a fact of nature that women must deal with, so the audience must watch Miss Piggy become a badass in the face of catcalling construction workers and purse-snatching scumbags.And all women in the film are similarly treated, with Janice remarking that she won't take off her clothes no matter how artistic the shoot is, Yolanda the rat constantly getting hit on by Rizzo, Brooke Shields also getting hit on by rats, and the Muppets' college audience laughing off Animal chasing a co-ed. So much for Gen X nostalgia if this was the pop culture written for children.Still, as Pete might say, Muppets is Muppets. So please, join us!Tagsdeep thoughts about stupid sh*t, women, gen x nostalgia, pop culture, film, comedy, storytelling, cultural commentary, feminism, movies, movie reviews, muppets, kermit the frog, miss piggy, misogyny, romance, 80s and 90s movies, analyzing film tropes, classic moviesThis episode was edited by Resonate Recordings.Our theme musPlease give us a review and/or a rating! It really does help. In fact, email a screenshot of your review and your address to guygirlsmedia@gmail.com, and we'll send you a Deep Thoughts About Stupid Sh*t sticker to say thanks. ~Tracie & Emily Meet the sisters behind the microphones! Sunday, April 26 at 5 pm EDT /  4 pm CDT, we'll open our zoom room for you. We'll play movie-themed games, learn about one another, and take a break from the news (without abdicating our minds). It's just what you need to recharge before the week ahead. RSVP here guygirlsmedia.com/hangoutWe are the sister podcasters Tracie Guy-Decker and Emily Guy Birken, known to our extended family as the Guy Girls.We're hella smart and completely unashamed of our overthinking prowess. We love 80s and 90s m
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