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Callaroga Shark Media.
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Hey there, I'm Johnny Mack with your daily comedy news
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and daily briefing on stand up comedy comedians in the
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comedy industry. A phraeze that apparently if you stop saying,
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your Spotify numbers go down. Apparently that phrase works, And
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I'm gonna try and keep it light today. I'm looking
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ahead to tomorrow's script. I'm gonna dive in tomorrow about
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Andrew Schultz a little bit. So tomorrow's gonna get a
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little political. I'll keep it silly today. I want to
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dive into this Kermit gait. Have you heard Kermit the
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Frog's current voice. We got a whole problem with that.
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We'll get to that in a second. Briefly political, you
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know this Epstein stuff is pretty serious when Jimmy Fallon
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is cracking jokes about it. Fallon said, well, guys. The
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fallout from the latest Epstein files release continues, and President
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Trump's Justice Department said that it's not a crime to
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party with Epstein. Falon said, did years to come up
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with an excuse, and that's what you went with. If
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someone said that to you, what a super Bowl party?
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And slowly back away and call the police fallent again
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in a Trump impression, said partying with Epstein doesn't make
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me a criminal. The thirty four criminal convictions do fallen
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s data, and this one's a little hacky, but on point. Yeah.
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They said it's not a crime to party with Jeffrey Epstein,
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which is pretty much like saying it's not a crime
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enough brunch with Jeffrey Dahmer. Jimmy Kimmel said, that's right.
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It's also not a crime to borrow a bottle of
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baby oil from Diddy. Our first story today, I'm doing cold.
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I came down to the studio right around noon and
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check my phone and I had a note from one
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of the listeners who told me I might want to
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check out Bill Burr's Facebook page, and I'm like, hmm,
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I'm intrigued. Well, it seems here that Bill Burr has
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announced some dates he'll be playing some shows, and I
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was told to check out the comments section. Let's see
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common number one, how many Saudi princesses will be there
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for the show bill Someone posted Bill Burrd did the math.
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I figured it would be worth losing ten million dollars
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to make one million dollars. Dennis posted, sure, hope they
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have a Chili's near these venues. That's very good, Dennis
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for the win there. Peter, after he did his free
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Luigi on a chat show, a call was made and
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he hasn't been the same since. Dave went with bonesaw
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Bill coming at you get your tickets. Ray wrote, I'll
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bring my Saudi funded nine to eleven shirt. Liam called
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him the Prince Harry of comedy. I like that one,
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and Matt went with Texas Are you sure? Bill Burr
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may have had the worst year of any of the
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comedians of twenty twenty five. Our big topic today is
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Kermit Gate. I can't decide if this is either going
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to be the thing that gets more downloads than any
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episode I've ever done, or if I'm making a total mistake.
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A lot of new listeners joining on this week as
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I'm running some advertising. Hello new listeners, I appreciate you,
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hope you stick around. But this Kermit thing is bothering me.
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Have you seen this. There's a new Muppet show and
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someone is doing the voice of Kermit the Frog. I
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brought some audio. Let's go all the way back to
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nineteen seventy one. The original voice of Kermit the Frog
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Jim Henson. This is very early in the Kermit the
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Frog universe. Jim Henson, here is a guest on Dick
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Havevitt's TV show. I just want to share this with
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you quickly, and I want you to remember this when
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we get around to Kermit the Frog on Jimmy Kimmel's
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show some forty five years later. But here's Jim Henson
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performing Kermit the Frog.
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Hell yeah, hi, oh yeah, well how do you do?
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It's nice to be here, you know, and hello out
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thereon you left. But he's his whole body has changed
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a great deal since you know, the early one. Why
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did it change? Is it a matter of diet or yeah,
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well it's not really diet. No, same matter of progressing,
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you know, in the direction of you know, better looking frogs.
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I suppose.
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Get a little bit more modern. This is the Kermit
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the Frog in your head if you were of a
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certain age, say fifty six years old, recording a podcast
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in your basement. This is what Kermit the Frog sounds like.
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This from the nineteen eighty six oscars I Got I
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Got You?
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Yes, Unless or not. Animated short films weave their magic
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unrestrained by the limitations of human actors.
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True, an animated character can defy the laws of gravity.
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Mmmm, move from place to place without regard to space
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or time.
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Woo, and continue to amuse generation after generation without growing
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older or asking for a raise.
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Yeah. In short, and we are animated characters, and these
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short films, they appear and can do absolutely anything the
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imagination can conjure.
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Sadly, Jim Henson passed away in nineteen ninety, Kermit the
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Frog did not. Kermit was voiced by others. And I'll
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get back to that. Here is two thousand and two.
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S it's a very very Muppet Christmas movie. And this
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still kind of sounds like Kermit the Frog. Jay, I
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could sure do with a little star power around your triumph.
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Here's any way you can help me out. Muppet movies
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are always debased.
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You mean, not for me to pop on.
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Right right? You got me again? Uh huh, bye bye.
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And now here's Kermit the Frog in twenty twenty six.
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Listen to this disaster, and I will say to you,
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as a master of half ass impressions, most people's half
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asked Kermit is better than what you're about to hear.
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If I walked up to you right now, and said,
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do Kermit the frog. Your kermit would be better than
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this one. I don't have a kermit. I know I
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have all my half assed impressions, but I don't do
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a kermit. I'm not attempting a kermit. You cannot bully
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me into doing a kermit. Unless you want to come
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to the brewery and buy me a couple beverages. Then maybe,
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but I'm not doing a half ass kermit for you now.
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If you want to hear a half asked kermit, here
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is official Kermit twenty twenty six, speaking with Jimmy Kimmel.
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Thanks for having me.
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It's great to have you, and I'm excited about the
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new project. Wondering how this happened or like you, was
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it difficult to get the other muppets together to come back?
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No, no, not at all, okay, I knowing you know what.
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They couldn't wait to do them up at you again.
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But then again, there's not a big demand for a
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pig who sings, ain't bear who tells jokes, and a
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bunch of dancing raps soue.
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Okay that's there now. What were they doing though? During
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all this time? What were the other muppets up to.
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Oh, well, not much involving a bait check. But you know,
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I was trying to get the special off the ground,
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which you know, it took a while. Jimmy. You know,
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it turns out that a lot of people in Hollywood
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say yes when they actually mean no.
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I have experienced that myself, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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But you know, as far as the others go, Miss Piggy,
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she was on vocal rest, which actually we were all
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kind of okay with.
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That is unacceptable. They need to do something about that.
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The New Muppet Show is out. The Guardian watched it.
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They gave it three stores out of five. Their subheadlines says,
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this story half hour anniversary special captures the spirit of
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the original TV show at points, but Kermit's voice takes
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him getting used to. It's the fiftieth anniversary of the
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Muppet Show. Disney, which now controls of the Muppet Show,
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got the old gang back together and added guest appearances
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from Suprise a Carpenter, Seth Rogan, who happens to be
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the executive producer, and Maya Roodolph for a one off
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half hour special. The Guardian writes, God bless everyone involved.
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They've tried. You can feel it. They want to make
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it good for us. They know we deserve it, They
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know everybody at the moment desperately needs a brief, shining
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moment out of the darkness. But as Thomas Wolf so
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rightly said, you can't go home again. Look, it's fine
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if you've never seen the original. It's probably even good
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if you have. There are still moments that tease it
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taste and memory. But the bits in between their drab
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the script, including and most obviously Statler and Waldorf's heckles,
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is begging for a polish Is this despite the half
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centuries notice they had a rush job, Or has the
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show's time simply passed and no one can carry off
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exuberant silliness anymore. Well, let's get to the point of
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today's podcast. There does remain the nagging problem of Kermit's
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voice Your Mind is Henson played until nineteen ninety. Veteran
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muppeteer at Steve Whitmyer inherited the role and played it
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until he was dismissed by Disney for what they can
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called quote unacceptable business conduct. Matt Vogel now plays the character,
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and our dearest Frog sounds jurrently different to anyone born
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before Vogel's tenure. It puts the magic even further out
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of reach, but maybe only to us and we've had
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our time. You'll find all this on Disney Plus now.
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Steve Whittmeyer, who was the second voice of Kermit the Frog,
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has a blog. Steve wrote, Kermit as Jim created him
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contains years of depth and growth without default attention to that.
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Do you really believe it's Kermit just because it looks
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like him? Kermit is at the top of the Muppet pyramid,
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the spoke in the middle of the Muppet wheel around
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which all things Muppet revolve, and without Kermit being fully intact,
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there is no future for the Muppets, no new directions,
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no exploitative reboots, nothing that nurtures the historical connection to you,
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the audience. That connection as it was originally established, is vital.
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Whitmeyer continues viewing the Muppets primarily as rolls began as
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soon as Jim was gone and altered the perception from
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seeing them as individual entered who exist on our own
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world to being a corporate owned puppet character franchise with
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people hired to play them skipping ahead. Corporate thinking goes
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that all the years of interior development done by an
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originator can be replaced by simply auditioning someone who could
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lip sync approximated voice and focus the eyes, even if
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that person has no true understanding of the reasons behind
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why the world has a solid and loving connection with
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the character. But I want you to know, from day
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one throughout nearly three decades, not once did I ever
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have the notion to make Kermit my own. On the contrary,
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was absolutely vital to my process to make certain that
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any egotistical notion of marking territory never happen, so that
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Kermit remained based solely upon Jim's foundational original Kermit Gate Everybody,
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I love it. Dave Chappelle and John Stewart will appear
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together at a benefit for Yellow Springs Radio Station WYSO.
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This benefit February thirteenth, that's like a week from now.
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The general manager of the radio station says, we see
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them as aligned, even though they're very different. They're two
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of the most important voices calling out how dangerous it
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is that First Amendment rights are being trampled, that we're
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seeing censorship of important voices and legacy media capitulating to
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the Trump administration. We are told the evening with Chappelle
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and Stewart will have a talk show Vibe. The GM
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said Chappelle has a list of friends he likes to
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collaborate with, and John Stewart is on the list. In
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John said yes immediately. Jimmy Kimmel told his viewers during
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one of his monologues this week that he will demand
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to host the Oscars in twenty twenty seven if Milania
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ends up nominated in Best Documentary category. He said, mark
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my words right now, if Malania gets nominated for an Oscar,
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I will host that show. Whether they asked me to
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or not, I will insist on it. We'll let Conan know.
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Bobby Slayton is in the Epstein files. This from Syracuse
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dot Com, who report Bobby Slayton was regularly sending messages
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with Jeffrey Epstein. According to screenshots of text messages and emails,
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Bobby Slayton's name appears in more than two thousand documents.
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I've done two thousand episodes of this podcast. I think
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I've mentioned Bobby Slayton twice, including dis mention some of
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the correspondents. Thanks Jeffrey Epstein for letting Bobby Slayton stay
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at a New York City apartment while on tour. Now
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this caught the attention of Syracuse dot com, not for
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the reasons you're thinking. Apparently upstate New York sticks up
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for itself. They are focused on September twenty fourteen correspondence
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in which Slayton wrote, wish I was in NYC having
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dinner with you and Woody in Rochester in the depths
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of comedy hell send Woodman my best. We are getting
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along here, but I left myself a note here that says,
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don't bump these next two stories. So okay, Johnny Mack
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from the past, I won't. Craig Ferguson was talking about
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his podcast and says he'll still do interviews, but only
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if they're in person. Ferguson explains, I think I'm probably
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as good as anyone who does zoom call interviews, but
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in person, I think maybe I'm a little better than
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most people who do it. So I kind of feel
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like played your strength. I enjoy it much more when
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you're in a room talking with someone. So what I
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do now with the podcast is if I'm away on work,
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I'll just record a half hour of me answering questions
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from people who watch the podcast, and then that's the podcast.