Have you ever wondered why no one else could see Snuffleupagus? Or why Oscar lived in a trash can? Or how many tricks Gordon had to turn to afford an apartment on the Street? Or why a frog wore a raincoat and went around “interviewing” people? Us neither. But Mr. Hooper did. Hooper was an observer of the human and muppet condition. And he used that knowledge. Sometimes to blackmail, most times to intoxicate. You see, you could get anything your wanted at Mr. Hooper’s store…for a price.
After fighting Nazis in WWII and Beatnicks in the Village, Mr. Hooper observed that trauma victims often tried to medicate their pain away. Liquor was profitable, but due to past associations his liquor license was never granted, and grass was a little too ethnic for the type of bodega Hooper intended to open. Settling on peyote, Hooper opened a pipeline with his western contacts to transport the stuff eastward. But recently, shipments have slowed and Hooper’s skim is being eaten into. Needing to get production back on track, Hooper dispatches the Money Vampire and Sugar Glutton to set things in order.
Follow Count von Count and Cookie Monster on the roadtrip of a lifetime as they careen wildly in the Countmobile, huff on gasoline, commit some lite larceny, and possible end up as pimps when the kill a local hustler over a payment dispute. By the time they’ve finally made it to the farm, they’ll discover that all of the injustices they’ve endured, by far the worst is working for a white man.
It’s Follow That Bird meets Pink Floyd’s The Final Cut in a film this writer would absolutely see theatrically.
