Puppets have a long history. From the medieval Punch and Judy shows of the English marketplace to modern times as cute fluffy teaching aids on Sesame Street, marionette shows with their complicated string-articulated puppet participants have long been things of amazement for people of all cultures. In recent years puppets' very innocence has been used against us and them in a series of cheesy horror movies, where the puppets have become demonic creatures set on destroying humanity. Usually their emotionless, painted-on features have worked against them in these situations to increase the sense of evil; smiles and brightly painted red cheeks in contrast to the slashing knife and the hacking axe.
But these movies haven't been able to really change people's image of puppets and stuffed animals as cuddly and cute. Walt Disney and Jim Henson, with Pinocchio and Kermit, have shaped the almost indelible impressions we all have of puppets. While Henson's Muppets may have been invested with some of humanity's less admirable characteristics, they were still presented in a manner that made them seem cute and harmless.
It's that belief in the general innocence of all things fuzzy, cute, and puppet-like the creators of Puppets Who Kill have exploited to make their venture so successful. The juxtaposition of harmless, cute and fluffy innocence and foul-mouthed, sexually depraved, murderous characteristics is the key to the comedic success of the show. Cuddles the Comfort Doll (sort of like a Cabbage Patch Doll), Buttons the Bear, Rocco the Dog, and Bill the ventriloquist dummy are down to their last chances for social redemption. They have been placed in the care of social worker Dan Barlow (Dan Redican) at a half-way home for one final shot at being reformed.
The DVD of their complete second season not only shows just how unsuccessful Dan has been at his attempts to rehabilitate the boys, but how they have begun to weaken his own, already suspect, grasp on right and wrong. It also reveals how side-splittingly funny this show can be. No cow is too sacred to be messed with, as everything from necrophilia to victims' rights is fair game for the foul-mouthed miscreants to fold, stab, mutilate, and dismember. Bill's attempts to sue the family of one of his murder victims for damages due to the emotional duress he undergoes reliving the crime, while his victim is safely dead, is merely the tip of the nefarious iceberg.
Article comments