In the timeless glow of the Muppet Theatre, the curtain rises once more on a whirlwind of song, silliness, and chaos. Kermit the Frog rallies his eclectic crew—Miss Piggy’s fierce glamour, Fozzie’s hopeful puns, Gonzo’s daring stunts, and the whole riotous gang—as they chase the magic of live variety with a guest star in tow.

The Muppet Show (2026) S1:E1

Pilot episodes rarely represent the best that a series will have to offer. Still, the 2026 reboot of The Muppet Show, executive-produced by renowned pothead and man-child, Seth Rogen, displays some fairly fundamental flaws that can’t be overcome simply with more rehearsals. Not that they couldn’t use those as well.

From a technical standpoint, the puppetry and other visuals do a fine job of respectfully updating the groundbreaking original without losing the aesthetic that helped make it such an iconic property. Unfortunately, the rot begins immediately below this glossy candy shell.

The original Muppet Show relied on strong, relatable characters that connected with the audience, despite being exaggerated, larger-than-life, and usually pretty silly. Henson’s trailblazing use of monitors and cutaway floors gave The Muppets a free-roaming, cinematic “real-world” look that, when combined with some of the world’s best voice talent, excellent writing, and perfect timing, all wrought from one of the most brilliant creative minds in modern history, brought the felt and foam puppets to life and made them feel utterly real.

The 2026 Muppet Show feels like it was made by someone who grew up watching the original while their perception of reality was… altered.

The Muppet Show has the shape and texture of the groundbreaking original, but its core is rotten with modernity. The timing is off, the skits are off, the writing is off. What’s worse is that it’s not remotely funny. Everything is filtered through irony, looseness, and the assumption that caring too much is embarrassing. The jokes don’t escalate; they drift. Scenes don’t build; they meander. Punchlines arrive late or not at all, as if the show is more concerned with projecting a vibe than delivering a laugh, and it’s all set to one of the most obnoxiously artificial laugh tracks, sucking the life out of every bit and gag.

Comedy, especially character-driven comedy, lives and dies by rhythm. The original Muppet Show understood this instinctively. Jokes landed because the characters believed in what they were doing, no matter how absurd the situation. Fozzie wasn’t ironic. Gonzo wasn’t self-aware. Kermit wasn’t smirking at the audience. They were sincere, and the world bent around that sincerity.

The 2026 reboot rejects that foundation entirely. It opts instead for winking detachment, looseness masquerading as authenticity, and a tone that feels less like confident silliness and more like an extended rehearsal that accidentally went to air.

The tragedy of the 2026 Muppet Show isn’t that it simply misunderstands the original—it clearly reveres it. The tragedy is that it doesn’t understand why it worked. The Muppets were never about chaos for its own sake. They were about structure, discipline, and impeccable timing hidden beneath the comedic veneer of chaos.

This reboot has the look of The Muppet Show, a bigger budget than The Muppet Show, but none of its soul. It is a version of the franchise that feels less like a revival and more like a sketch by people who vaguely remember loving it.

Pilot episodes can improve. Creative teams can find their footing. But comedy without timing, characters without sincerity, and sketches without punchlines don’t need more rehearsals—they need a different philosophy. And unless that philosophy changes, no amount of polish will bring this show to life.

PARENTAL NOTES

Who Else?

• I mean, no one is expecting them to book Michael Knowles as the special guest, but surely Seth Rogen and his crew could have found a single, solitary performer to host this family show whose whole schtick isn’t sexual vulgarity. Then again, probably not. So, as a parent, you’ve got to ask yourself, if Sabrina Carpenter, a performer known for being overtly sexual and whose music cannot be played uncensored at a school dance (even then), is the kind of person you want your kids Googling after watching her on this children’s program.

Noweh

• God’s name is taken in vain a couple of times. Once, it’s spoken and again in a song.

Friends in Low Places

• The opening skit places Carpenter in a rundown honkytonk bar with beer bottles and spirits everywhere. A rowdy and slovenly muppet in a trucker cap drunkenly throws an empty beer bottle at the bartender.

Come Dancing

• There is a significant number of inappropriate and sexually suggestive “jokes/gags” throughout the episode.
  • In the first backstage bit featuring only Kermit and Carpenter, Kermit apologizes for a “kink” earlier in the program. Sabrina tells him that she “likes a little kink.” Do you get it? The joke is that she’s a slut. Funny, and family appropriate, wouldn’t you agree?
    • Later in the same bit, Carpenter lists to Kermit all of the things that she had to turn down to make time to guest-host. One of them was a second date with someone whose name she whispers to Kermit. Surprised, he asks her if the man in question is single. She says no. Do you get it? She’s a whore and a homewrecker. Hilarious and age-appropriate.
• The second skit features Miss Piggy at a classic French ball. When her husband leaves to get her something to drink, she scurries off to find the man with whom she is having an extramarital affair, repeatedly referred to as her “lover.”
  • The joke is that her “lover” has been recast with a Muppet who she finds distasteful, but wait, there’s more. Her “public lover” and “private lover” meet, and we discover that her husband has “met someone” while getting Piggy champagne.

WOKE REPORT

Toxic Muppulinity

• The opening skit features male puppets acting poorly while Carpenter sings a song that calls men “slow,” “stupid,” and “useless.”
  • All five feet of Sabrina then proceeds to beat up the men in the bar. It’s obviously meant to be funny, but not that she’s small yet still able to handle them. Instead, it’s meant to be funny because they are idiotic men and have it coming to them.

Kids Schmids

• The sexual innuendos, drunken bar fights, etc. in a kid’s show is rote leftistism 101. Why protect them when we can groom them to debauchery?
  • This is the key reason for the low Woke-O-Meter score.