I Have To Be High To Truly Enjoy ‘The Muppets Take Manhattan’

I have the same opinion of The Muppets Take Manhattan as I do about marijuana. Namely, I understand that most of my friends and colleagues enjoy these things immensely. I see the charm in both. However, I would never categorize either of them as being “my favorites.” My favorite muppet movie is The Great Muppet Caper and my three favorite vices are drinking wine, eating potato chips, and gossiping. Pot isn’t really on my radar.

The irony of all this is I did once think The Muppets Take Manhattan was the best film I’d ever seen — and it was the one night that I got truly, wonderfully, blissfully stoned.

About six years ago, my friends and I took turns taking hits from a pipe, and then we chilled out and watched The Muppets Take Manhattan. I was reticent to watch the film because it had, as I’ve said, never been my favorite, and I was reluctant to get high because I’m a naturally anxious person and marijuana usually just amplifies my neuroses. But I went along with it, and about 38 minutes into the film, I erupted into one of the most insane laughing fits of my life.

Let me set the scene: all of the dispersed muppets are sending Kermit dispatches from where they’ve scattered. When we get to Fozzie’s letter, we learn that he’s been trying to “return to nature.” He hooks up with a pack of hibernating bears and finds that he doesn’t know how to hibernate. A female bear stirs and reveals she also “can’t sleep” and proposes they snuggle up together. It’s one of those situations that can be construed in an innocent kid-friendly way, but there’s also a suggestion that this lady bear wants to mate with Fozzie. This is how he reacts:

I’ve always assumed that the reason this scene was so funny to me was because I was high. While, I’m sure that’s true, that doesn’t explain why it’s still the only scene in the entire film that can still make me disintegrate into giggles. I think it’s just a hilarious scene. Fozzie’s social awkwardness with the female bear coupled with the silliness of a talking bear holding a teddy bear while being surrounded by a sea of hibernating bears is just…funny. Also, the opening line? “Dear Kermit, Wokka wokka wokka! But seriously, I’m in Maine,” is absurd comedy at its finest. I believe that, but as I write this out, I still don’t know how much of my opinion of this scene (and this film) is inexorably linked to my experience watching it high.

There’s no doubt that certain films benefit from the comforting haze of marijuana, but can a film benefit too much? I think that there are specific comedies that are only popular because of their association with weed. If you watch Goodburger or Dude, Where’s My Car? sober, you’re probably going to be annoyed by the inane dialogue and frustrated by the lack of pot. If you’re watching these stoned, you’re partaking in the films’ magic.

I can enjoy The Muppets Take Manhattan just fine sober. I still will argue that the Fozzie Bear scene is tightly constructed and truly nuanced comedy. However, I can’t shake the fact that I liked the film a million times more when I was high than I ever will enjoy it sober. As marijuana laws become more lax, and as being stoned becomes a less taboo aspect to our culture, will film criticism own up to the fact that being under the influence of a controlled substance can alter our appreciation of a film? There are shows that I only like if I’m drinking a glass of wine while watching and there are films I couldn’t tackle unless I was stone cold sober. How does that change a film’s ranking in our esteem? And does it matter?

Anyway, as far as I’m concerned, The Muppets Take Manhattan is a great family film, but it only works to its fullest if you watch it while you are high as a kite. [Watch The Muppets Take Manhattan]

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[Gifs made by Meghan O’Keefe, copyright Jim Henson Company; Photo: Everett Collection]