Let the Music Play

Muppet Annie Hall via Muppet Wiki

This weekend, I visited the Museum of the Moving Image to see an exhibit called "Jim Henson's Fantastic World." It was lovely to learn about his wunderkind career (he had his own TV show at 19!), his early innovations in commercials, and his ultra-cool 60s design work. Seeing the actual muppets was a thrill in itself. Their nubby fuzzy fur was so close; apparently the first Kermit was made out of Henson's mother's old overcoat.

But the best part was the little screening room set up at the end of the exhibit. Colorful beanbag chairs were strewn around the floor. People lounged and sat, gazing up at clips of Henson's various projects: Sesame Street, The Muppet Show, Fraggle Rock, the muppet movies, and on and on. Children sat next to hipsters sat next to suburban moms sat next to urban professionals. The joy was palpable.

And I felt a little emotional tug when I saw the fraggles bouncing through their theme song, "Laugh your cares away, worries for another day . . ." I had watched this show during its original run when I was preschool-age. I hadn't really revisited it since, but that song stirred up some primal part of who I was. 

I can never address nostalgia as beautifully as Don Draper did in the Mad Men Season 1 finale, but to quote him, "it takes us to a place where we ache to go again." Of course, not really. We remember most clearly what was good and shed the old pains, which is admirable. But that goodness, though remembered, is locked away from us forever, never to be recaptured, only recalled.

And yet, Jim Henson's work is not just a nostalgia trip. His work was direct, and clear, and tapped into a very elemental level of joy that is infectious. Some gems, like this one, came to me much later in life, and I wonder how I could have missed out on such fun for so long.

Update: an interesting article on the origins of Mahna Mahna.