Review: The Muppets – “Going, Going, Gonzo”

Spoilers Below

The episode opens with the amazingly talented Joseph Gordon-Levitt singing “Fly Me To The Moon” with Piggy. Toward the end of the song, a prop moon was supposed to appear. However, Sweetums missed his cue. Kermit sends Gonzo to find out that happened. It turns out that Sweetums is suffering from an allergy attack, which broke his headset. Gonzo tries to help, but Sweetums sneezes again. The huge monster lets go of the rope holding the prop moon and it wraps around Gonzo, sending him soaring into the air. On-stage, the prop moon swings about wildly, barely missing Joe and Piggy.

Once Gonzo is back on the ground, he confesses that he misses his stunt days. He desperately wants to get shot out of a canon. Kermit promises to make it happen.

While Gonzo is unharmed by the moon accident, Scooter has been emotionally scarred. Since he did not get wrapped up in the rope, Scooter thinks that he has to reconsider his life. He goes to the Electric Mayhem to find out how he can live more like them. Hippie Janice offers to pierce his ear. Scooter excitedly agrees but is ultimately unable to go through the procedure. Instead, he impresses the band with his martial arts skills when Janice goes near him with a needle. Who knew Scooter was a ninja?

Back to Gonzo, Kermit has arranged a whole show around shooting him out of a canon. He even got Dave Grohl to appear to sing “Learn To Fly.” When Gonzo heads out to the roof to talk to Bunson Honeydew and Beaker about the stunt, he finds out just how dangerous the stunt is. He gets cold feet and allows Kermit to talk him out of performing the stunt.

During Piggy’s show, Dave Grohl and the Electric Mayhem perform the song, even though Gonzo isn’t getting shot out of the canon. But, somehow, the song gives Gonzo the courage to run onto the roof and do it even though it won’t be televised. Kermit rushes to the roof to stop Gonzo but the weirdo has already started the canon. Miraculously, he makes it across the street, into a waiting pool of water on a nearby rooftop. Success!

Once Piggy’s show has wrapped, Dave and Animal have a drum off. Which of the two is the better drummer? It turns out to be a tie. They are both awesome.

While this was a nice episode with a lot of celebrity cameos, it felt like something was lacking. There were the obvious jokes about Gonzo gaining weight and some weird thing about Piggy trying to sell water that seemed tacked on. I think maybe I would have liked it better if Gonzo spent more time doing small stunts instead of sweating over a huge one. I understand that this is supposed to show him growing up and becoming more responsible but that just isn’t Gonzo. It was pretty cool to see Scooter break out of his Mama’s Boy personality, even if it was only for a few minutes. I think someone needs to tell the writers that “grown up” doesn’t have to equal “boring.” Let the Muppets cut loose a little! I mean, we haven’t even SEEN Camilla! Adults can be responsible and fun. The Muppets can do it too.