The Muppets Mayhem has scored a Rotten Tomatoes rating higher than any Muppets project in over a decade. The streaming series, which launched on Disney+ on May 10, follows the adventures of the Muppet band Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, whose lineup includes the beatific Dr. Teeth, the far-out hippie Janis, the Beatles-esque Floyd Pepper, the spacy Zoot, and the excitable Animal. The Muppets Mayhem is jam-packed with cameos from within and without the music world, including Kesha, Kevin Smith, Lil Nas X, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Morgan Freeman, and deadmau5.
Rotten Tomatoes has revealed the show’s score for The Muppets Mayhem is a Certified Fresh 82 percent approval rating from critics. While only one major Muppet project has ever received a Rotten score (2005’s The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz), this is the best score for the franchise in over a decade. The most recent Muppet outing that beats it is the 2011 film The Muppets, which boasts a Certified Fresh 95 percent.
The Muppets’ Confusing Modern Era Explained
The Muppets began their modern resurgence in 2011 with the movie The Muppets. That theatrical outing was a success, making $165 million off a budget of $45 million and spawning a sequel, the aforementioned Muppets Most Wanted. However, what came next was a period of experimentation that didn’t always work out for the franchise.
In 2015, ABC launched a workplace sitcom mockumentary titled The Muppets that followed the professional and romantic lives of The Muppets as they staff a late night show starring Miss Piggy. The show, which felt like a blend between The Office and 30 Rock, failed to find its audience and went off the air after only 16 episodes. After that, the Muppets retreated from the limelight for a period to regroup, but their return was complicated by the firing of Jim Henson’s Kermit replacement Steve Whitmire, who had played the role since the creator’s death in 1990.
The live-action Muppets wouldn’t return until the 2020 Disney+ series Muppets Now, which featured Floyd Pepper puppeteer Matt Vogel as Kermit. The unusual improvisational series presented a series of themed segments featuring Muppets interacting with celebrity guests and only ran for six episodes. Disney+ has continued to take The Muppets in new directions since then, first in a Haunted Mansion-inspired special and now in the Muppets Mayhem series, which largely isolates the Electric Mayhem from the rest of the group but finally seems to have connected with audiences in a more meaningful way.
