Spike and The Muppets
WARNING This article contains negative depictions and/ or mistreatment of people or cultures.
Many moons ago, Spike Milligan wrapped our interview by saying he would fetch some poetry from his hotel bedroom. And with that, he disappeared into the adjoining chamber. I haven’t seen him since. I got the same MIA feeling last week when searching Disney+ for the late, great comic’s appearance on e Muppet Show. Episode 317 was the slot, recorded at Elstree Studios London in 1979, when things were very di erent and comedy dined out on racial stereotypes and negative caricatures. Now Disney+ have got woke and it’s Milligan’s wake. Recently, for the rst time ever, e Muppet Show was made available in its entirety on any platform (Disney+). Well, nearly its entirety. ere were a few exceptions, including Milligan’s controversial (is that a Nazi salute?) contribution, Chris Langham’s surprise hosting in season ve (Langham, a sta writer on the show, is a convicted sex o ender) and Brooke Shields (due to the di culty of securing music rights). ere are other cuts and omissions but for the most part, we get most of the 120 episodes (over ve seasons) of Jim Henson’s groundbreaking show.
Disney, as they have done elsewhere with such lms as Lady and the Tramp, Dumbo and Swiss Family Robinson, were making up for past sins. With e Muppet Show, certain episodes were prefaced with a content advisory message. It begins: ‘ is programme includes negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures. ese stereotypes were wrong then and are wrong now.’ But rather than removing the contentious episodes entirely, the House of Mouse wants to “acknowledge (their) harmful impact, learn from it and spark conversation to create a more inclusive future.”
Curiously, while Milligan’s Muppet Show future is non-existent on Disney+ in Europe, you can still watch him (with warning) in the US. Ostensibly a tribute to the 108 countries in which e Muppet Show was then reportedly broadcast, Milligan’s typically manic appearance concludes with the Disneyland-styled musical tribute It’s A Small World A er All. roughout this, Milligan attempts to bust into the action dressed as racial stereotypes (Chinese, Russian and making that split second salute, in a tartan headpiece).very odd, very Milligan and yes, very racist: but why is it spiked in Europe and not in the US?
On that day in a Dublin hotel in 1990-something, Milligan was also stoking controversy as the publicist repeatedly tried to extract from him what poem he planned to recite later that evening on e Late Late Show (the show’s producers, knowing the comic’s unpredictable ways and his sympathies for a united Ireland, were wary). e publicist valiantly persisted until eventually Milligan blew a head gasket and told him where to go. Shortly a er that, he disappeared. And while Spike Milligan did appear on that evening’s Late Late Show, I cannot nd a recording anywhere. I wonder what he did?