Man or Muppet
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"Man or Muppet" is a song from
Walt Disney Pictures Walt Disney Pictures is an American film Film production company, production company and subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios (division), the Walt Disney Studios, a division of Disney Entertainment, which is owned by the Walt Disney Company. The st ...
' 2011 musical comedy film ''
The Muppets The Muppets are an American ensemble cast of puppet characters known for an surreal humor, absurdist, slapstick, burlesque, and self-referential humor, self-referential style of Musical theatre, musical Variety show, variety-sketch comedy. Cre ...
'', written by singer-songwriter
Bret McKenzie Bret Peter Tarrant McKenzie (born 29 June 1976) is a New Zealand musician, comedian, music supervisor, and actor. He is best known as one half of musical comedy duo Flight of the Conchords along with Jemaine Clement. In the 2000s, the duo's com ...
. Performed by the film's main characters, Gary (
Jason Segel Jason Jordan Segel ( ; born January 18, 1980) is an American actor and writer. He is best known for his role as Marshall Eriksen in the CBS sitcom ''How I Met Your Mother'' from 2005 to 2014. He began his career with director and producer Judd ...
) and
Walter Walter may refer to: People and fictional characters * Walter (name), including a list of people and fictional and mythical characters with the given name or surname * Little Walter, American blues harmonica player Marion Walter Jacobs (1930–19 ...
(
Peter Linz Peter Linz (born June 28, 1967) is an American puppeteer and actor. Known for his work with the Muppets, Linz's most prominent role is performing for the character Walter who was introduced in the 2011 feature film ''The Muppets''. Since 1991, L ...
), the song also features
Bill Barretta William Barretta is an American puppeteer, producer, writer, director, and actor, best known for his involvement with the Muppets. Barretta performs the Muppet characters Pepe the King Prawn, Bobo the Bear and Johnny Fiama, he also inherited t ...
and
Jim Parsons James Joseph Parsons (born March 24, 1973) is an American actor. From 2007 to 2019, Parsons played Sheldon Cooper in the CBS sitcom ''The Big Bang Theory''. He has received various awards, including four Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstandin ...
portraying the contrasting identities of Gary and Walter, respectively. The song was released by
Walt Disney Records Walt Disney Records is an American record label owned by the Disney Music Group. The label releases soundtrack albums from the Walt Disney Company's Walt Disney Studios (division), motion picture studios, television shows, Disney Experiences, them ...
on November 22, 2011, as part of the film's original soundtrack. "Man or Muppet" won Best Original Song at the
84th Academy Awards The 84th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2011 in the United States and took place on February 26, 2012, at the Hollywood and Highland Center Theatre in H ...
and the Sierra Award for Best Song. It was also nominated for Best Song Written for Visual Media at the
55th Annual Grammy Awards The 55th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 10, 2013, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles honoring the best in music for the recording year beginning October 1, 2011 through September 30, 2012. The show was broadcast on CBS at 8 p.m. ...
, Best Original Song at the 16th Satellite Awards and Best Song at the
17th Critics' Choice Awards The 17th Critics' Choice Awards were presented on January 12, 2012 at the Hollywood Palladium, honoring the finest achievements of 2011 filmmaking. The ceremony was broadcast on VH1, and hosted by Rob Huebel and Paul Scheer. The nominees were ...
, in which two other songs from the film, "Life's a Happy Song" and "Pictures in My Head", were also nominated, with the former winning.


Context

In the film, the song is performed by Gary (
Jason Segel Jason Jordan Segel ( ; born January 18, 1980) is an American actor and writer. He is best known for his role as Marshall Eriksen in the CBS sitcom ''How I Met Your Mother'' from 2005 to 2014. He began his career with director and producer Judd ...
), Walter (
Peter Linz Peter Linz (born June 28, 1967) is an American puppeteer and actor. Known for his work with the Muppets, Linz's most prominent role is performing for the character Walter who was introduced in the 2011 feature film ''The Muppets''. Since 1991, L ...
), a Muppet form of Gary (
Bill Barretta William Barretta is an American puppeteer, producer, writer, director, and actor, best known for his involvement with the Muppets. Barretta performs the Muppet characters Pepe the King Prawn, Bobo the Bear and Johnny Fiama, he also inherited t ...
), and Walter's human form (
Jim Parsons James Joseph Parsons (born March 24, 1973) is an American actor. From 2007 to 2019, Parsons played Sheldon Cooper in the CBS sitcom ''The Big Bang Theory''. He has received various awards, including four Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstandin ...
). The song is a piece that reflects Gary and Walter questioning what their true identities are. Through the course of the film, Gary is oblivious to the desires of his longtime girlfriend, Mary (
Amy Adams Amy Lou Adams (born August 20, 1974) is an American actress. Known for both her comedic and dramatic roles, she has been featured three times in annual rankings of the world's highest-paid actresses. She has received List of awards and nom ...
), and instead offers to sacrifice his time to assist the rest of the Muppets return to fame. This leads to a conflict between him and a distraught Mary, who returns to her home in Smalltown without him. Meanwhile, his younger brother, Walter, despite his respect and admiration for the Muppets, experiences an
identity crisis In psychology, identity crisis is a stage in Erik Erikson's theory of personality development. This stage happens during adolescence. It is a period of deep reflection and examination of various perspectives on oneself. The Erikson's stages of ps ...
as he comes to terms with the dilemma of having to choose between becoming part of the Muppets—which has been his lifelong dream—or continuing his ordinary life alongside Gary and Mary. During this song, Gary and Walter see alternate versions of themselves—while wandering the streets, Gary sees himself as a Muppet in a shop window and trolley, and Walter sees himself as a human (Parsons) in a circle of mirrors inside the Muppet Theatre. At one point, Gary and Walter (each with their respective counterpart) come together in an abstract, recondite musical setting, dressed in white
tuxedo Black tie is a semi-formal Western dress code for evening events, originating in British and North American conventions for attire in the 19th century. In British English, the dress code is often referred to synecdochically by its principal ...
s and playing pianos facing each other. At the song's conclusion, both characters ultimately accept who they really are; Gary declares himself a "Man" (but "a Muppet of a man") and Walter a "Muppet" (but "a very manly Muppet"). Gary and Mary are later seen reconciling after Gary goes back to Smalltown and apologizes to her.


Background

The film's writers,
Nicholas Stoller Nicholas Stoller (born March 19, 1976) is a British-American filmmaker. He is best known for directing the comedy films ''Forgetting Sarah Marshall'' (2008), its spin-off/sequel ''Get Him to the Greek'' (2010), ''The Five-Year Engagement'' (2012) ...
and Segel, informed McKenzie that he had to avoid alluding to the term "
puppet A puppet is an object, often resembling a human, animal or Legendary creature, mythical figure, that is animated or manipulated by a person called a puppeteer. Puppetry is an ancient form of theatre which dates back to the 5th century BC in anci ...
", stating that the Muppet characters view themselves as actual people, and never as sentient puppet figures. McKenzie cited
power ballad A sentimental ballad is an emotional style of music that often deals with romantic and intimate relationships, and to a lesser extent, loneliness, death, war, drug abuse, politics and religion, usually in a poignant but solemn manner. Balla ...
s written by artists such as
Eric Carmen Eric Howard Carmen (August 11, 1949 – March 2024) was an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He was the lead vocalist of the Raspberries, with whom he recorded the hit " Go All the Way" and four albums. He embarked on a so ...
and
Harry Nilsson Harry Edward Nilsson III (June 15, 1941 – January 15, 1994), sometimes credited as Nilsson, was an American singer-songwriter who reached the peak of his success in the early 1970s. His work is characterized by pioneering vocal overdub experi ...
as inspiration for the song's tone. He also stated that the main reason for the song's inclusion in the film was to have the characters resolve the problem of coming to accept their true selves.
Michael Cera Michael Austin Cera ( ; ; born June 7, 1988) is a Canadian actor. Over his career he has received nominations for a British Academy Film Award, three Critics' Choice Movie Awards, four Screen Actors Guild Awards, and a Tony Award. Cera beca ...
and Paul Rudd were considered for the role of Walter's alter-ego. The part was eventually given to Jim Parsons, who described it as "the role of a lifetime".


Reception

After receiving the Oscar nomination, McKenzie admitted that he never expected it to be nominated and described his experience in writing the lyrics, stating that he "really wanted it to be hilarious and beautiful" and that the song itself is "sincere but ridiculous". "Man or Muppet" was the third song from a Muppet film to be nominated for an
Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...
but the first to win, the previous nominations being "
Rainbow Connection "Rainbow Connection" is a song from the 1979 film '' The Muppet Movie'', with music and lyrics written by Paul Williams and Kenneth Ascher. The song was performed by Jim Henson as Kermit the Frog during the film's opening number, where it o ...
" (from ''
The Muppet Movie ''The Muppet Movie'' is a 1979 musical road comedy film directed by James Frawley and produced by Jim Henson, and the first theatrical film to feature the Muppets. A co-production between the United Kingdom and the United States, the film was wr ...
'') and "The First Time It Happens" (from ''
The Great Muppet Caper ''The Great Muppet Caper'' is a 1981 musical heist comedy film directed by Jim Henson (in his feature directorial debut) and the second theatrical film featuring the Muppets. The film stars Muppet performers Henson, Frank Oz, Dave Goelz, Jerr ...
''). It is also the twelfth song from a Disney film to win for Best Original Song; Since then two more songs from Disney films also won for Best Original Song.


Accolades


Chart performance


Music video

On December 20, 2011,
Walt Disney Records Walt Disney Records is an American record label owned by the Disney Music Group. The label releases soundtrack albums from the Walt Disney Company's Walt Disney Studios (division), motion picture studios, television shows, Disney Experiences, them ...
produced a music video for the song on their
Disney Music The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...
YouTube channel. The video is similar to that of what is seen in the film during the song's duration, however there are a few other scenes from the film spliced in throughout the video. The video has been aired on
Disney Channel Disney Channel is an American pay television television channel, channel that serves as the flagship (broadcasting), flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney Entertainment business segment of the Walt Disney Company ...
and
Disney XD Disney XD is an American pay television television channel, channel owned by the Disney Branded Television and Disney Entertainment units of The Walt Disney Company. The channel is aimed primarily at older children ages six to eleven years old ...
. On February 24, 2012, Walt Disney Records re-published the music video in high-definition on
The Muppets Studio The Muppets Studio, LLC is an American entertainment production company and subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, that owns and produces media content for The Muppets franchise. The division was previously formed as The Muppets Holding Company, ...
' official YouTube channel.


Notes


See also

* '' The Muppets: Original Soundtrack''


References


External links

* {{authority control 2011 songs 2010s ballads American songs Best Original Song Academy Award–winning songs The Muppets songs Songs about fictional male characters Walt Disney Records singles Vocal collaborations