You know how sometimes you discover something that completely blows your mind? Maybe it’s a melody or a lyric; perhaps it’s a cover of one of your favorite band’s songs that makes you hear the original in a completely new way.
Well, I had my mind blown this week by a parody of a Muppet. Sad Kermit is the thing on which I’m currently fixating.
Now, as someone who grew up in the ’80s, Muppets were a fixture in my life. Sesame Street was the place I wanted to visit, while The Muppet Show seemed like the most awesome place on the planet. And when I got the chance to see it, Fraggle Rock looked pretty cool as well. Needless to say, my interest in Muppets has pretty much been hardwired into my brain.
And I get a kick out of Muppet parodies. As such, I enjoyed the Bert Is Evil craze of the late ’90s, and more recently, I find Orange Oscar sort of amusing on Twitter.
But Sad Kermit is the next level. I don’t know how I completely missed out on Sad Kermit when he made his debut in 2007, but I’m absolutely slayed by him.
Sure, part of it has to do with my Muppet fixation. But it’s deeper than that. I think that deep down I always felt that Kermit exhibited some sort of exasperation with life in his appearances on Sesame Street and his full-time gig on The Muppet Show. There was always chaos swirling around him and he was trying to be the steady constant to little avail.
So, on some level I found it completely in his character to be singing somber covers of melancholy songs.
And that’s the other thing—he’s singing songs that I know and love. I love Elliott Smith covers and Sad Kermit does them justice. And his rendition of “Hallelujah” is both hilarious and heartbreaking. In all seriousness, Sad Kermit really puts some pathos into those songs.
Equally hilarious are the links at the bottom of Sadkermit.com. There’s nothing inherently funny about alcoholics-anonymous.org, suicide.org or heroinaddiction.com, but the fact that they’re linked on a site devoted to a despondent Muppet is highly amusing.
Chances are that you’re net-savvy enough to have already found Sad Kermit, but if by chance you haven’t, do yourself a favor and check out the site. What it lacks in length it more than makes up for in thoughtfulness.
