The Muppets Take On Mount Rushmore

In writing yesterday about the pop culture displays in the Lincoln Borglum Museum at Mount Rushmore National Memorial, I mentioned the Muppets and linked to the Rushmore page on the Muppet Wiki. Having been a die-hard fan of The Muppet Show since I was two, I couldn’t leave that alone.

According to the normal ho-hum Wikipedia, Rushmore has been spoofed or referenced by the Muppets at least half a dozen times. The Muppet Wiki cites 11 instances, including one played on a video screen at an exhibit at Rushmore. The skit, featuring a puppet Rushmore with the presidents telling jokes to each other (”What’s black and white and read all over? The Federalist Papers!” “Uh… I don’t get it.”), appeared in the 1975 pilot of The Muppet Show: “Sex and Violence.” The accompanying song (”Let’s now listen to the wisdom of our forefathers… hummmmmm!”) makes it one of my favorite Muppet sketches.

The gallery on Rushmore’s Muppet Wiki page has images for 10 of the references, but they’ve neglected to post the 11th: a 2004 Pizza Hut commercial in which Miss Piggy climbs around the memorial to settle a toppings dispute between the presidents by producing four separate pizzas in one box. If only all political squabbles were so easy to fix.

It doesn’t seem to have been left off the list intentionally - I notice that the Muppet Wiki is requesting a still image from the commercial for its archives. And, interestingly, just a couple months ago someone left a comment on YouTube asking someone to upload the video. Is it a popular commercial, or just one that everyone neglected to record? Maybe the guy that sculpted the presidents has it.