Nether regions is a term used euphemistically for someone's genitals and/or buttocks. The Muppets have made several jokes about their nether regions over the years, often stemmed from the fact that they generally don't have them. While many Muppet characters appear naked (fully or partially), references to unmentionables are often sexual in nature, or refer to this area in a sexualized context.
The majority of these types of jokes in popular culture are geared toward the male anatomy; one famous example coined by Mae West, "Is that a gun in your pocket or are you just excited to see me?" Most instances of the Muppets making these types of jokes fall into a similar indirect delivery.
Male anatomy
- When Kermit appeared on her show in November 1975, Cher asks him if he has a belly button. Kermit looks down and says, "there's a lot of stuff I don't have, actually."
- Gonzo embarrassingly covers his eyes in The Great Muppet Caper as Kermit pulls up his pants and zippers his fly during the Steppin' Out with a Star musical number (although he also sneaks a peek).
- An officially licensed magnet was produced featured Animal removing his pants with the caption "Wanna see why they call him Animal?," thus implying he is well endowed.
- In Muppet Treasure Island, Benjamina Gunn greets Long John Silver with an innuendo-laden inflection on his name that reveals to Captain Smollett that she and Long John were ex-lovers (and perhaps there is a reason he is called "Long" John).
- Later in the movie, while fighting pirates in an epic battle, Benjamina delivers a swift kick to the crotch of one pirate as the camera centers on the area.
- In a parody of The Emperor's New Clothes, Clifford and Bobo arrest the emperor in the Fairyland PD sketch of episode 203 of Muppets Tonight. The cops immediately notice that he is naked and point out that they can see his "cute little doublet."
- In Muppets from Space, Miss Piggy delivers a crippling punch to the crotch in order to escape Agent Barker's noogie-ing.
- Zoot signs Sweetums' birthday card in The Muppets episode "Hostile Makeover," but Yolanda warns him not to make any dirty drawings. Having already started, Zoot says he might be able to turn it into a saxophone.
- During Elmo's appearance on German show TV Total on October 5, 2015, the character was asked whether he was a boy or a girl, to which the monster looked between his legs and answered, puzzled: "There's so much fur... but... generally... well... I think I'm a boy. Right?" then asking host Stefan Raab "What would you say? What are you?" Raab responds "Yeah, I'd say a boy. 'Cause women aren't that hairy in general..." Elmo agrees, saying "Not the ones that I know. Not that I know the circles you're in..."
Female anatomy
- Don Rickles tells Ernst Stavros Grouper in Muppets Tonight episode 205 that he's so ugly, "You must have come out of your mother and hit the wall."
- After discussing her plot to foreclose on The Muppet Theatre with her "Handsome Executive" (Dan Payne) in It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie, CEO Rachel Bitterman leads her subordinate away to "decorate my tree". The executive understands the implied sexual servicing and takes Bitterman's instruction to "oil your chair" as another innuendo.
- Jack Black's face is comically muffled by Piggy's crotch during a kung-fu fight in The Muppets.
- The plot of The Muppets episode "A Tail of Two Piggies" largely revolves around Miss Piggy's tail popping out of her dress in front of the press. Initially played for laughs, the situation becomes an opportunity for body positivity, turning what was once branded as a shameful experience into a moment of empowerment. The device draws similarities to modern culture's struggle with what parts of a person's body (overwhelmingly applied to women) are appropriate to bare in public. In this case, Piggy's species provides the twist of applying the controversy to a unique part of her posterior nether regions.
- See also: Boob jokes
Buttocks
- Seymour is disappointed that has decided to change his look in Muppets Tonight episode 201 because he ruined an expensive pair of leather pants by cutting holes in them. "Assless chaps" were a known sexualized garb worn by the artist for his concert performances. In a blooper during the episode's credits, Pepe kisses Seymour's bare buttocks through the pant's holes.
- K. Edgar Singer straps a rubber glove on his hand in Muppets from Space and asks Gonzo, "May I?" Rizzo the Rat replies, "I think, before you answer that question, you'd better be real clear on the final destination of that finger."
- Howard Tubman gooses Kermit in It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie and comments on his "tushie".
- Blotch insults Kermit, Croaker and Goggles in Kermit's Swamp Years, calling them the "Soggy Pants Brothers." Goggles asserts that they don't even wear pants and flashes his bare bottom, which only infuriates Blotch further.
- Super Grover crashes on top of Stiller the Elf during Elmo's Christmas Countdown, causing pain in Stiller's "little elfin buttocks."
- Miss Piggy checks out Nathan Fillion's butt in an ABC promo for The Muppets.
See also
External links
- Tough Pigs Commentary: Characters Whose Names Sound a Bit Rude