USA TODAY International Edition
‘Happytime’ is shocking, in a good way
Spoiler alert! If you haven’t seen “The Happytime Murders” yet (and don’t want to know), stop reading.
The prolonged office sex scene in the red-band trailer makes it very clear that the puppet stars of “The Happytime Murders” aren’t Muppets and aren’t for children.
“This movie is meant to be a guilty pleasure – we let the puppets go there,” says director Brian Henson, son of legendary Muppets creator Jim Henson. “I certainly do hope the wrong audience does not accidentally see this movie.”
Even adults will be surprised throughout the R-rated ride featuring Melissa McCarthy as Detective Connie Edwards, who investigates a murder with her puppet ex-partner Phil. Here are the film’s most shocking moments:
That puppet sex scene culminates in Silly String.
The encounter between private detective Phil and his femme fatale client Sandra gets over the top from the first extended makeout. This progresses to graphic desk frolicking before Phil’s prolonged expulsion of Silly String.
Puppeteer Drew Massey’s sole task was to shoot cans of the party staple from Phil’s midsection. “The trick was having the next can ready while still aiming the first, and switching superquick so it was continuous,” he says.
Distributor STX Entertainment called for the scene to be prolonged after test audiences loved it. After shooting, the cast and crew watched the footage and cracked up. “It was like, ‘We are surely deserving of an Oscar for this,’ ” Massey says.
A cow is milked by an octopus in a massage parlor.
When Phil walks into a seedy massage-parlor sex shop, he finds a bizarre puppet porn scene in progress: an octopus using its many tentacles to obsessively milk a spraying cow.
Henson insists it’s a scene played out in dairy farms everywhere.
“We’re just milking a cow!” he says. “The reason that seems funny is that we think it’s a very sexual image, because it’s with an octopus and because we play it like a pornography scene.”
There’s a ‘Basic Instinct’-like police interrogation.
As puppet suspect Sandra is questioned by FBI Agent Campbell (Joel McHale), she reveals herself in a way that parodies the infamous Sharon Stone interrogation in “Basic Instinct.” “It can be seen as an homage, but it also has a major clue to the film’s final mystery,” Henson says.
Shotguns, unleashed dogs lead to blown puppet heads, spilled fluff.
The comedy’s mystery centers on the mysterious, brutal deaths of “The Happytime Gang,” the stars of a once-popular puppet TV show. The result is spilled stuffing.
“I was adamant, I don’t want to do blood,” Henson says. “So when you shoot a puppet, it just blows up into a bunch of fluff . ... It looks like we shot up a down pillow.”
The puppets become addicted to sugar.
Puppets, including lovable “Happytime Gang” star Goofer, become addicted to high-grade sugar.
Technicians developed a rig allowing McCarthy to appear to inhale. “She never snorted any sugar in the movie,” Henson says.