The Jim Henson Company

The Jim Henson Company (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If I can digress from our usual programming for a moment, I need to correct something that is driving me INSANE.

On July 20th, The Jim Henson Company released a statement severing their partnership with a fast food chain called Chick-fil-a. I have never even driven past this restaurant, let alone eaten in one so I’m assuming it’s a regional thing. I’m also going to go out on a limb and assume they serve chicken.

This has prompted all sorts of people who are rabid fans of said fast food chain (Can we take a pause to wonder what is wrong with us as a culture that a FAST FOOD CHAIN has rabid fans? OK, let’s continue.) to proclaim in outrage that they will boycott The Muppets and Sesame Street.

This makes no sense at all.

The Jim Henson Company severed their ties with Chick-fil-a.

THE JIM HENSON COMPANY.

Not The Walt Disney Company which has owned The Muppets since 2004.

Not Sesame Workshop (formerly Children’s Television Workshop) which has owned Sesame Street since 2000.  

Maybe there’s some amazing leap of logic here that I’m not making but, if you are mad at The Jim Henson Company, what good would it possibly do to boycott two properties they neither own nor have anything whatsoever to do with?

Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Big Bird, Cookie Monster… just about any Muppet that you are thinking of right now isn’t owned by The Jim Henson Company. (Yes, that does mean every news article out there with a Muppet or Sesame Street character’s picture in it is completely wrong. Isn’t that depressing? Can we also take a moment of silence for what has happened to journalism in this country?) The Jim Henson Company owns Fraggle Rock, Dark Crystal, The Creature Shop, The Storyteller, The Labyrinth etc. (Maybe people should be boycotting 80s hair David Bowie. Just a thought.)

Now, that said, while neither Disney or Sesame Workshop has partnered with Chick-fil-a or issued any statements about said restaurant, both companies are known for being anti-discrimination so I guess you could boycott them just in case they randomly decide to someday make a statement about your precious random grease trap of choice. Stay ever vigilant, you guys! Any company could, at any time, say something mean about where you get your french fries. And GOD FORBID someone say something nasty about our fried foods.

In case you were wondering, for many people, the scale goes like this: Human rights < fast food.

Anyway, while I realize this is a losing battle, can we just be clear on this much: Kermit the Frog and the rest of The Muppets and Bird Bird and the Sesame Street gang have NOTHING WHATSOEVER do to with The Jim Henson Company’s decision to sever ties with Chick-fil-a.

You people make me weep.