Jackson tells Feebles’ secret
Sir Peter Jackson has broken his silence on one of New Zealand cinema’s great mysteries.
Making a surprise cameo late in episode 7 of Disney+’s The Muppets Mayhem series, Sir Peter revealed just what happened to his own hard-living felty friends – the stars of his 1989 movie Meet the Feebles.
Visiting the basement of The Muppet Show’s house band Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem’s Los Angeles base The Shack, Sir Peter is greeted warmly by the gang, with bassist Sgt. Floyd Pepper noting that it has ‘‘been a while’’.
‘‘Haven’t seen you since that night in Wellington . . . when we met the Feebles.’’
‘‘Yeah, that was a bad night,’’ Sir Peter replies. ‘‘You know, two of the Feebles are in witness protection and the rest are in prison.’’
It’s a moment that will raise a smile among Kiwi viewers of a certain age.
Released long before his Tolkien
adventures, Sir Peter’s second film revolved around the Muppet-like puppets getting into scrapes involving drugs, pornography and prostitution, as they prepared for their biggest performance ever. After Heidi the Hippo went on a shooting spree at the end of the movie, there were apparently only seven survivors from the original Feeble Variety Hour theatre troupe.
Despite a disappointing initial box-office run, Feebles has gained a cult following over the years.
Of course, since then, the Kiwi film-maker has been lauded and rewarded at plenty of ceremonies, including the 2022 Emmys for his work on three-part documentary series The Beatles: Get Back.
And it’s that fellow Disney+ show that provides the excuse for Sir Peter to appear on Muppets Mayhem. Pitching to helm a doco on the Dr. Teeth-led band, he boasts that Get Back won a few awards and ‘‘actually my documentary helped put The Beatles on the map’’.
‘‘And Lips [the Mayhem’s trumpet player] tells me you guys are going to be bigger than The Beatles.’’
Even the news that he’s been beaten to the punch by Clerks trilogy and Chasing Amy director Kevin Smith doesn’t deter the Kiwi.
‘‘I don’t make movies . . . I make trilogies. So all you guys need to do is: be natural, don’t look at the camera – and give me your talent.’’
1. Stop signs are traditionally white and what other colour? Red; orange; or blue.
2. A banana is a type of what? Inu; kai; or kakano.
3. What is the maximum number of players in a game of Monopoly?
6; 10; or 8.
4. Order these units of mass from smallest to largest. Kilogram/gram/milligram; milligram/gram/kilogram; or gram/kilogram/milligram?
5. Complete the sentence with the correctly spelt word. The natural pasture was made up of clover and . . . Lucerne; loucern; or loucerne.
6. Beginning with F, what has a numerator and a denominator? Formula; fraction; or factor.
7. Who is the younger brother of Prince William?
Harry; George; or Charles.
8. (47+108)÷5 = ?
23; 29; or 31.
9. A pneumatic drill is powered by compressed what?
Air; water; or springs.
10. Arrange these space objects by size, from smallest to largest:
The Sun/the Moon/the International Space Station; International Space Station/ the Sun/the Moon; or International Space Station/ the Moon/the Sun.