June 10, 2012

"Zelda Fitzgerald was a Chaos Muppet. So, I must tell you, is Justice Stephen Breyer."

Dahlia Lithwick is doing Muppet Theory.

Via Throwing Things.

8 comments:

Mark O said...

This is what comes from the need for content in today's media world. I prefer the characters from the Land of Gorch. The author could be compared favorably to Queen Peuta, which is, of course, “puta.” Not all the Muppets were politically correct.

edutcher said...

So is she saying Breyer voted to kill ZeroCare?

Paddy O said...

I find this a very unnuanced perception of Muppet identity.

Miss Piggy, for instance, has elements of both order and chaos. Fozzie Bear is the same way. Snuffleupagus, in a classical sense, is an Order Muppet in himself but tends to provoke chaotic Muppet responses from others (this is changed inasmuch as characters in the Muppetsverse are aware of and acknowledge Snuffleupagus's reality).

Elmo is the quintessential unformed Muppet, is he chaotic or ordered? Only time will tell and different sides compete to win his affections--likely leading to a third or fourth path through Muppet maturity.

Oscar the Grouch is also mislabeled a Chaos Muppet. He is clearly an Order Muppet, albeit on adhering to an alternate Muppet culture and moral system.

Gahrie said...

Thanks for linking that. It was the first time I actually enjoyed reading something she had written.

It has changed my perception of ms. lithwick.

traditionalguy said...

Paddy O falls for Lithwick's spin of Muppet innocense. But Lithwick and Paddy can't fool us.


Notice that Paddy did not mention the central character who is Kermit The Frog, that long legged amphibian psycho with a lust for EATING pigs wearing liptick.

Children who sense evil know that Kermie only wants to eat Miss Piggy like a Wisconsin Brat with mustard, and then for desert he lusts to devour Camilla the Chicken fried up.

Sure the other muppets are interesting, but Paddy ignores that it is Kermie who lurks on Sesame Street like Al Qaeda lurked in Abbottabad as the Ultimate Muppett Cannibal.

wyo sis said...

We have to get those chaos Muppets out of the White House they're messing up the system.

Paddy O said...

Tradguy, you assume that I ignore the "Kermit is Evil" proposal and suggest the Muppetibalism model as the most apt for understanding Muppetism in general. Which would, I admit, lead to the grotesque, yet strangely appealing, theory that Chief Justice Roberts really intends to cook and eat the other justices at some point in time.

I don't ignore this model as much as dismiss it as the postcolonialistic, muppetism that it is, complete with Sesamian fearmongering.

Unknown said...

Finally, something worthwhile from the vacant space that is Dahlia Lithwick,, However, as with all her good ideas, it originated with another mind.