Episode 211: The Muppet Museum of Art

	Muppet Babies
Air Date	November 23, 1985
Written by	Jeffrey Scott

Nanny plans on taking the Babies to the art museum, but when Skeeter slips on a roller skate and hurts her ankle, Nanny has to cancel their trip. The Babies decide that since they can't go to the museum, they can make their own art and open a museum in the nursery.

Plot[]

The babies are playing hockey on roller skates in the nursery with Animal eating the puck as the goalie. When Piggy's hockey stick breaks, she uses Gonzo's nose to score the final point.

At 10:00, Rowlf remembers that Nanny is supposed to take them to the art museum today. On her way to remind Nanny, Skeeter trips on a roller skate and hurts her ankle. Scolded by Nanny that they're always supposed to clean up their toys, Piggy notices it was her skate that Skeeter tripped on and quietly puts it away. Instead, she swaps out Gonzo's skate, letting him take the blame for Nanny cancelling the trip to the museum.

To make up for Nanny having to stay home and take care of Skeeter, Kermit suggests bringing the art museum to Nanny by painting their own pictures and hanging them in the nursery. Rowlf suggests copying the pictures from the art book he saw on the living room table, so the babies venture out to procure it.

Lobbying to paint Piggy's portrait, Kermit is imagined as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec composing his Avril masterpiece. Turned off by his rather oily oil painting, Piggy treks on to Animal as Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and then on to Gonzo as Vincent van Gogh. Piggy is alarmed however, when his painting reveals a pink roller skate that Gonzo claims has persistently appeared in all his paintings. Piggy proclaims herself Director of the Muppet Museum and hangs the painting in a closet, hidden from sight.

Following Fozzie's tomato-laden rendition of Paul Cézanne's Still Life with Cherries and Peaches, Kermit comes across Cowpunchers Lullaby by Frederic Remington in the art book and rides a rocking horse into the old west. Kermit saunters up to the bar and orders ice cream from Fozzie for he and Piggy when Gonzo enters, kicking off a showdown Rowlf calls the Paintout at the OK Corral between Butch Kermit and the Sundance Weirdo. Piggy is horrified to see the Sundance Weirdo wearing a single roller skate, and even more so when Gonzo reveals his painting of a horse wearing only one roller skate. This time, she hides his art behind the TV (to save it from fading in the sunlight).

Rowlf comes across a photo of Auguste Rodin's The Thinker, which prompts Scooter to ask what the subject of the sculpture is thinking. The babies sing "Art Is in Your Heart" in response to a good song The Thinker may have been thinking about. The song inspires a sculpture of Gonzo's own: a larger-than-life likeness of Piggy sprawled across a giant roller skate. Consistent with her pattern, Piggy jams the still-malleable clay into a bookshelf.

Scooter comes across a Pablo Picasso in the art book, inspiring Cubist version of the babies, while Animal throws himself into the abstract style of Jackson Pollock. The babies take turns cleaning up the "mess", each of whom reveal a different artwork: Piggy exposes a Joan Miró, while Kermit uncovers Piet Mondrian.

Finally, the babies escort Skeeter and Nanny to their showroom. Gonzo has kept his artwork a secret, and unveils a portrait of Piggy which he painted he says because he likes her the best. Ultimately unable to live with the guilt, Piggy fesses up to being the one to have left her roller skate out and apologizes to Skeeter. Gonzo says he can forgive her if he gets a kiss on the nose.