If there is one thing that fascinates me about improv and that is how it is portrayed in Television, books and Film. This is becoming more and more apparent in recent years because the comedy art form is sort of in fashion. There are some interesting topics that we can gain from these ways they are displayed so every so often we are going to look at different scenes from different shows and films.

If there is one thing that I adore then it is the Muppets. It was only recently that I came across the show that they made in 2015 that was sort of a take on The Office and a behind the scenes look of making the Miss Piggy Late Night Talk Show. It is such a clever show and so well written I am really gutted that they only made one season of it.

When I was watching it, there was something that made me excited! It mentioned improv! Which in some ways should not of surprised me as it is around the time when improv was starting to be mentioned in American media more. Today we are going to look at how they represent it and keep tracking improv in the media.

In season 1, episode 10 there is a quick mention of improv in the pre-titles. Scooter comes into Miss Piggy’s dressing room as an ’emergency’ with bad news and interrupts an important conversation that Kermit is having with Miss Piggy about work. When Kermit leaves, Uncle Deadly states sarcastically that he has perfect timing coming into a room and Scooter states that he has been ‘practising comedic entries in his improv classes over the summer.’ They stand there staring at each other for ages until Uncle Deadly asks if he has worked on exits and then Scooter finally leaves the room.

Whilst it is a really small hint of improv it is still really important to track, it highlights the comedy art trend but it also I think slightly hints at the way American media is starting to see improv at the time. Whilst it is very subtle the way that Uncle Deadly reacts to the fact that Scooter has been doing improv shows this and you only need to read between the lines and see the reaction.

It is only something really simple but it is really effective.