The Muppet Show: A reminder to be joyful

As The Muppet Show returns to Disney+, Ivan Radford celebrates the joy we find in God and each other.

‘It’s time to play the music! It’s time to light the lights!’ If you’ve started to sing along already, then you, too, are probably a fan of the Muppets. The fuzzy ensemble of oddball puppets has returned to household screens this week, with an anniversary special on Disney+ to mark 70 years since Jim Henson created them. The one-off reunion promised, as the theme song declares, to be ‘the most sensational, inspirational, celebrational, Muppetational’ show – but however you describe it, there’s no denying there’s nothing else quite like it.

The Muppet Show special once again gathers the ragtag bunch to put on a musical variety performance with a celebrity guest – this time, Sabrina Carpenter. It’s a formula that has worked for the Muppets for decades: an unwavering blend of musical creativity, unflinching slapstick, self-aware jokes and sheer, unhinged chaos. The result is funny, anarchic and very, very silly.

Whether you’ve grown up with the Muppets or not, there’s a joy to be found in that silliness, because it gives us permission to be joyful too. To be playful. To have fun.

Galatians 5:22 and 23 remind us that the fruit of the Spirit includes joy, as well as ‘love … peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control’. It’s important to approach our discipleship with a serious commitment, but the outcome of that is a joy – deep-rooted, sometimes quiet – that’s even better than an insecure bear with a hat and necktie sharing a terrible pun.

Sometimes, you need a blue, furry outsider with a peculiar fondness for chickens to remind you that God created us with the ability to laugh. Have you ever thought about that? Not the chickens, but the fact that you are made in God’s own image (see Genesis 1:27), with the in-built capability of laughter – something that releases anti-stress hormones in your brain and boosts your mood.

It’s surely no coincidence that laughter is also a social cue. Laughing can help us connect more closely with each other. In Genesis 21:6, Sarah becomes pregnant with Isaac and, as she realises God has fulfilled his promise to her, she testifies: ‘God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.’ Paul’s description of the body of Christ notes that we are called to share together in our highs as well as our lows: ‘If one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it’ (1 Corinthians 12:26).

Our joy comes from the Lord, but it’s so often experienced and expressed through our interactions with each other – an encouraging word of assurance, humorous observation, surreal flight of imagination or shared recognition of a shortcoming. It’s perhaps fitting, then, that the Muppets are such a joyful bunch: they are a tightly knit, intergenerational team passionate about welcoming and supporting each other, whether they’re a self-centred pig or a redheaded lab assistant prone to accidentally setting his hair on fire.

The Muppets remind me that we are created to be in joyful relationship with one another as well as God, and that those relationships are richer, better and happier when we celebrate and value our unique differences and talents. As their song ‘We Got Us’ puts it, ‘Why sing a melody as a soliloquy/ When it’s more fun to be harmonising?’

We might not have a dancing prawn or banjo-playing frog among our number, but it’s only together as ‘fellow … members of his household’ (Ephesians 2:19) that we can begin to reflect the multifaceted beauty, and joy, of our Creator God. So whether you play the music, light the lights or beat the drums – DRUMS! – take a moment to treasure the shared joy you find in your church fellowship. There’s nothing else quite like it.

Reflect and respond

• Reflect on Psalm 16. How do you make time to experience the joy found in God’s presence?
• Grab a copy of Kids Alive! or visit salvationist.org.uk/kidsalive and turn to Giggle in the Middle. Tell a joke to someone.
• What song or hymn brings you joy? Share it with someone else this week.