When the puppet cast of an ’80s children’s TV show begins to get murdered one by one, a former cop, who has since become a private eye, takes on the case.
No Sesame. All Street. THE HAPPYTIME MURDERS is a filthy comedy set in the underbelly of Los Angeles where puppets and humans coexist. Two clashing detectives with a shared secret, one human (Melissa McCarthy) and one puppet, are forced to work together again to solve the brutal murders of the former cast of a beloved classic puppet television show.
If you feel that the contemporary cinema isn’t serving up enough dirty-talking puppets to suit your proclivities “The Happytime Murders,” directed by Brian Henson cuss and smoke and have sex to ostensibly comedic effect.
Dirty-talking puppets are nothing new; a history of Vegas entertainments would turn up dozens if not hundreds, and the recent Broadway hit “Avenue Q” has proven that they WORK, or can work. “The Happytime Murders” is an indirect outgrowth of Henson’s “Puppet Up!”…
an improv show that had a prosperous run in, Las Vegas and New York a couple years back. In that show, puppeteers and their puppets presided over a traditional audience-suggestion set, the more outrageous the suggestions the better. So we’ll have to see how this new Muppet movie does at the box offices.