Cursing Muppets

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The use of profanity, foul language, vulgarities and swearing is not commonplace in the generally family-friendly productions of the Muppets, however the characters have used expletives on occasion.

Swearing

• Frank cries out, "What the hell!," during The Country Trio's performance of "Mama Don't Allow" on The Dick Cavett Show.

• In The Muppet Musicians of Bremen, when Kermit suggests to Leroy the Donkey that he trying blowing into his tuba, he replies "alright, but I feel like a jackass".

• Kermit the Frog comes on screen and comments "What the hell was that all about?" at the conclusion of The Muppet Show Pitch Reel.

• In The Great Muppet Caper, during the song "Happiness Hotel" song, Janice sings the line "Still the management is cheerful though the whole joint's gone to hell".

• In Labyrinth, the Hat asks "would you listen to this crap?"

• In An Evening with Jim Henson and Frank Oz, Grover responds "I do not know what the hell that means" after hearing a marionette question.

• When Rowlf the Dog was a guest on The Arsenio Hall Show he pointed to Arsenio and remarked, "Son of a bitch!" After the audience's hysterics died down, Rowlf added, "That's the nicest thing a dog can say about anybody."

• In the series Dinosaurs, Earl Sinclair occasionally used the words "damn" and "hell" — such as in the pilot when he tells Fran "I mean this with all love and everything, but... I don't give a damn about your day" (the line was cut from syndication airings). In that same episode, after Fran tells the kids that she and Earl feel the same way about their upcoming child as they did them, Earl remarks "How in the hell could this have happened?"

• The film Muppet Treasure Island features several pirates using the exclamation "bloody." In the UK, where the phase is considered a more harsh profanity, the lines were redubbed and the word "bloody" being replaced with "blooming'" or "blasted."

• Additionally, in Muppet Treasure Island, Long John Silvers says "hell" a few times, when reacting to getting the black spot torn from a page of the bible, and later when he decides not to shoot Jim Hawkins.

• In Jerry Nelson: A 65th Birthday Celebration, Sam the Eagle says "I do not understand what the hell is going on here."

• In the pitch reel for The Muppets Present, Pepe the King Prawn boasts that the new show will be hip and edgy, and they will swear. Kermit protests, but not before exclaiming that the Muppets don't say "ass".

• In an outtake of It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie, Howard Tubman says "What the hell is that?" after seeing Animal's skinny leg.

• In an interview on The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn, Kermit says truck-dodging is "one of those Jackass things."

• In the pilot for From the Balcony, Statler and Waldorf discuss the movie Constantine and how the main character travels to hell. Waldorf asks if they're allowed to say "hell", to which Statler says "Hell yes, it's the Internet." The word "hell" was used a few more times in the series. In one episode, a Detective says to an Oscar Envelope, "I'll tear out your insides and leave you in the damn letter office!"

• In an interview on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Pepe says Deadliest Catch "looks scary as hell".

• Miss Piggy sang the song "Dance with Me Tonight" with Olly Murs, which has the lyric, "We'll be dancing the whole damn night."

• In an interview on Empire, when the question is asked if Elmo would win a fight with Kermit, Pepe says "Kermit would kick his ass."

• In an outtake from OK!, Kermit accidentally says "We wanna say a very special ho," to which Pepe says "Don't say ho."

• In the presentation pilot for The Muppets, Kermit says about Piggy "I've made my life a bacon-wrapped hell on Earth." 

Euphemisms and implied expletives

• Throughout the years many Muppets, including Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy on multiple occasions, have used the "softer" euphemisms of "what the heck," "what the hey," or simply "what the..." in place of actually saying "what the hell."
• During his monologue on The Tonight Show in 1979, Kermit claims he can say things on late night that he couldn't ordinarily say on Sesame Street (such as "curb feeler" and "bust line").
• The Dinosaurs episode Baby Talk is all about "dirty words", most prominently "smoo" (which the Baby constantly repeats after hearing on TV, and later lends itself to the title of "The Smoo Show"), but the alternate terms "flark" and "glick" are also mentioned.
• In The Muppets' Wizard of Oz, Rizzo the Rat (as the Mayor of Munchkinland) exclaims "looks like somebody's about to get witch-slapped!" (a play on the phrase "bitch-slapped").
• In episode 7 of From the Balcony, the Balconism is "Lucky BLAST-ard: The main character of an action movie who can run, jump, swim or drive just one step faster than the fireball of a huge explosion."

Honorable mentions

• During a 2005 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live guest Ozzy Osbourne was sitting next to Fozzie, and complained "What am I doing, talking to a fucking glove puppet for?" Fozzie appeared quite insulted - somewhat by Osbourne's foul language, but more so for being called a "puppet".

• Camilla and the Chickens perform "Fuck You!" in The Muppets, but as they only squawk to the music, the lyrics are censored. The soundtrack lists the song as "Forget You".

See also

• Naked Muppets
• Boob jokes
• Hell
• Hubba-wha?
• Drinking and Smoking

External links

• Wiktionary's list of English swear words
• Wiktionary's list of English vulgarities