Blast off into the weekend with footage of Muppets blowing each other to smithereens
Congratulations: You’ve made it to the end of another work week in Omni Consumer Products’ America, a designation that presumes you managed to get any work done without being constantly distracted by current events, like 29 percent of respondents to a recent BetterWorks survey and 100 percent of Anthony Andersons in the best episode of Black-ish’s third season. And if you’re anything like the staff of The A.V. Club, you probably have some pent-up aggression left over from the New England Patriots’ impossible comeback, the Cabinet confirmations of an ursuphobic non-educator and a racist not-not-a-racist, or the news that thousands of dead bees mysteriously washed ashore in Florida. So why not take the edge off with 14 minutes of Muppet mayhem subsidized by a regional coffee manufacturer?
Beginning in 1957, Jim and Jane Henson made nearly 180 commercials for Washington, D.C.-based Wilkins Coffee, all based on a simple concept: Wilkins (the lanky Muppet) wants his buddy Wontkins (the triangular fellow with the drooping mouth) to try some of the brand’s wares. Wontkins turns him down, and Wilkins visits some sort of slapstick violence upon his scene partner—often involving some form of explosion. It’s a uniformly hilarious (and brazen) approach, and after witnessing the type of advertising that comes out of Washington these days, it’s as refreshing as a stiff cup of Wilkins Coffee itself.