Gonzo from the Muppets is now Nonbinary

[quote] Nonbinary characters like 'Gonzo-rella' are lighting up children's TV

I don't think so.

[quote] Nonbinary characters like 'Gonzo-rella' encourage self-acceptance

I don't believe you. Prove it!

Wasn't Gonzo a chicken fucker?

Ah, the new tradition of ruining everything marches on.

You can bamboozle a child with color and movement.

But this video has nothing but color and movement.

Children must learn to be a warrior and fight with sticks and destroy each other to win power!

I always new Gonzo was a freak.

Muppet Babies was my jam when I was a kid. This actually makes sense. Of course, there's no reason to label him NB.

Gonzo just has a healthy amount of freak in him.

Gonzo was always weird, but because he is now Nonbinary, that means he is no longer weird, because that would be offensive.

Gonzo is now supposedly Nonbinary but how he demonstrate that?

R10 did you read the article?

Aren’t most non-binary? Bugs Buggy kissed men and crossed dressed. These people think they’re doing something new.

But do these creatures actually DO anything?

Like have sex?

[quote] characters like 'Gonzo-rella' encourage self-acceptance

Can 3-year-olds articulate how they 'accept' themselves? How do 3-year-olds articulate their thought processes?

I support the message, but the delivery is very heavy-handed. Why does Gonzo have to be labeled nonbinary, based on one episode? Very messagey. Kids sometimes take a while to affirm their identity and feel comfortable coming out. I think shows like Steven Universe deliver a message of self-acceptance and the journey of self-discovery 10x better.

Gonzo wore a tutu as part of a fairy outfit in the animated Muppet Babies show decades ago.

Stop being such whiny fucking babies. Christ, everyone around here is a delicate flower scandalized by the dullest, most banal things.

Well, R16 you might think it's dull and banal but the OP thinks it's 'delightful, 'widely-celebrated' and 'lighting up TV'.

Now that’s a brave trans woman of color!

Waaaah the world is changing and I don't like it! Where is the nurse? I pissed myself again.

The kids don't have to label themselves at three r14 but this gives them a basic understanding for later, so they can eventually start to articulate themselves. 3 year olds don't pick jobs at 3 either but we tell them what firemen and police officers and nannies are so they have language and comprehension skills -- all this does is inject further possibility into their futures, ways to express themselves -- when did this site become so close-minded and conservative, eesh

Indoctrination plain and simple.

I'm 3 years old and I want to wear a blue dress to the ball!

But I don't want a nose which looks like a penis hanging down in the middle of my face.

Aren’t they conflating gender nonconformity with nonbinarism?

I'm just a child trying to be me.

But every year my parents force this scary red monster at me shouting 'Ho, Ho, Ho'.

And now they're forcing this ugly, goggle-eyed purple monster on to me!

Gonzo’s blue hair should have been a dead giveaway, it practically screams “don’t assume my pronouns”.

The episode is on YouTube

R20 Maybe it became close minded and conservative when trans people started erasing gay men and women?

Policemen and fireman and nannies aren’t ideology. Non-binary is an ideology. It’s a belief not based in history or biology or even psychology for that matter. Unless teaching children about body dysmorphia is progressive, I don’t see the point besides the fact that it’s a novelty social scene and this is just the Muppets attempt at publicity stunt on social media.

This is bullshit, Gonzo was ALLL about Camilla, his chicken. I'm not taking this revisionist history anymore.

Seriously can't new characters be invented for this fuckery?

There go the midterms.

Guys who like to play with dolls and girls who like to play with trucks are gender non-conforming, not "non-binary," because that isn't an option for humans. Our sex is indeed binary. That's objective reality.

The Muppets are a generic looking cartoon rather than puppets now?

Then how do you explain Janice?

R23 yes! It's no longer enough to just be gender non-conforming. Now you're "nonbinary", and the whole religious implications of that ideaology, with different pronouns, chest binders (nonbinaries don't have tits), confusion at which bathroom to use, an "ejaculating person" or "person with a cervix" etc., all of which is caused by the conflation of sex (a biological scientific label) and gender (a social and unscientific theory).

R31 they've been both for awhile. There's a Muppet Haunted Mansion movie (mixing Disney properties) coming up that's using puppets.

R32 I always assumed Janice was a beatnik and probably a Lesbian.

OP article for when this thread inevitably gets greyed out:

Janice was Dr. Teeth's girlfriend.

R37 Dr Teeth was trans! So Janice was actually an asexual Lesbian slut!

"Gonzo wore a tutu as part of a fairy outfit in the animated Muppet Babies show decades ago."

Yes, and that was actually a progressive message because the message was, "A boy can wear a tutu and still be as much of a boy as he was before the tutu." Now the message is, "Boys who wear tutus must be banished from the category of Male because heterosexual beardy bros might feel uncomfortable if they use the same locker room."

Keep pretending you don't see it. We know you do. And you know we know you do.

Only idiots complain about stuff like this. You sound like Jerry Falwell, bitching about the "gay" teletubby

R39, you're making shit up to bash trans people. More people identify as gay than ever, despite your insistence that gay people are being forced to be trans. You bigots want it both ways - you'll say that trans people are "really gay" but then say they're all straight men who want to rape women in the locker room

Datalounge is the only place I ever hear about gender stuff. Maybe someone on here gets hourly alerts from the various gender communities and then fervently rushes here to post every single development.

[quote] Datalounge is the only place I ever hear about gender stuff.

Sure, Jan.

I guess you don't watch the Muppets.

R42, that's cool and all. But where exactly do you live and where exactly do you hang out?

Gender/trans stuff is everywhere. Especially if you're gay and live in a world populated by other gays.

Get off the internet every once in a while.

I despise when they do this.

If you want a "non-binary" character, create one. Don't retrofit an existing character. Same for gay or anything else.

If people want to see characters like themselves, create them, don't steal them. It's as simple as that.

R41, I didn't say anything about the sexual orientation of the boy. I said he was a boy wearing a tutu, and that that makes some heterosexual men uncomfortable. Which, um... too bad?

r41 isn't interested in listening, he's just here to bash anyone who doesn't agree with his militant, authoritarian worldview.

[quote]This is bullshit, Gonzo was ALLL about Camilla, his chicken. I'm not taking this revisionist history anymore.

Gonzo being nonbinary doesn't mean he's gay, you moron.

[quote] Gonzo being nonbinary doesn't mean he's gay, you moron

What does it mean?

So. This Gonzo has worn a dress once.

What now?

What's next for this purple-dress-wearer with a penis-instead-of-a-nose?

R51 teaching children biological sex doesn't exist and they need chest binders and mustaches, apparently.

Why does everything today have to be bolded, underlined, highlighted and circled? When I was a kid it was clear Peppermint Patty was a lesbian and Schroeder and Vanity Smurf were gay. Bugs Bunny and Pepe LePew never adhered to traditional gender norms. Nermal, Garfield's nemisis, was non-binary. Roger Rabbit was bisexual.

None of this is new and the Muppets aren't being courageous or ground-breaking. They're pandering in a desperate attempt to revive a tired franchise.

Wonder what Richard Hunt would say? Being an openly gay man who voiced several classic Muppet Show stalwarts, including the very obviously gay-coded Scooter.

R53 great comment.

What I really love in terms of unspoken but understood Muppet sexuality is the heavy hint that The Electric Mayhem are essentially one big fucked-up drugged-out polycule. Like they fuck, all of them.

I never read Scooter as gay.

Skeeter, on the other hand, was the biggest cartoon babydyke until D.W. Reed.

I mean, she's basically Baby Velma.

You don't have to be nonbinary to be gender non-conforming, this is such a retarded and sexist line of thinking that just enforces strict gender roles.

R53, you're reverting to stereotypes. Why do you assume Patty is a lesbian? Why is that any more acceptable than the trans idiocy of stereotyping - though admittedly not as extreme as trans medical & surgical interventions.

We are obsessed with sexualizing and labeling everyone - including children - and everything I think we are forgetting how to just be.

Woke propaganda with a cartoon smiley face for the little kiddies.

They can then replace the Boy/Girl Scouts and other kiddie organizations with a 'Little Comrades Club.'

So, if you're tired of the weird pronouns and confused about what is a safe way to address someone nowadays, take heart. A simple solution is to address everyone as 'comrade.'

And, of course (to paraphrase Orwell), all comrades are equal; just some are more equal than others.

Gonzo-rella's shorter, stubbier purple nose is different from Gonzo's longer, flesh-colored Peyronie's Diseased nose.

Tell them to get fucked.

Though I’m a young Millennial—I.e. a kid of the MOPATOP’S SHOP/BEAR IN THE BIG BLUE HOUSE generation—my Henson-fan Mom screened me the original MUPPET SHOW and SESAME STREET (and LABYRINTH, being that I’m a girl) at a young age, and I really loved and responded to the dark streetwise humour. I had a major crush on Zoot (and Janice, but ofc I didn’t vocalise that back then).

Other kids’ shows I grew up with were often so sanitised by comparison, and that was the case 20 years ago, so I can’t imagine how lame and boring and moralistic the viewing fare is for little kids of today. Guess that’s why most of them just play video-games or watch TikTok instead.

FWIW in the rebooted 2010s MUPPET SHOW, Gonzo is shown to be webdating Liam Hemsworth (though it’s possible Gonzo has been catfished).

Sidebar: kind of annoying that the T/Enby crowd can have a beloved main character convert to their identity camp, while as an Aspergic the only Muppet representation me and mine have is the annoying minor character (Chip the IT Guy).

That's why it's silly to look for representation in entertainment shows. Be happy with your puppets!

[quote] Gonzo from the Muppets is now Non-binary.

Well, that was last week's news. What is he now?

R66 his name is Beverly

Being an alien, would Gonzo even have an intrinsic earthly concept of male/female? Obviously he gets the basics intellectually, having been on our planet for a while, but that doesn’t mean he’s internalised the binary.

Remember kids, never accept yourself as you are. Take a knife to your face and body and then you'll be happy.

So stupid. I can’t wait for the day when all of this crap is looked back on in bewilderment. I’m counting down the days til Muppets in the haunted mansion, though! I hope it’s good.

R69 it's the culmination of years of quick-fix pop psychology. No one wants to do the work, everyone wants the easy solution. Unfortunately in this case the easy solution comes with a pricetag a lot of people aren't seeing.

R70 as gross as I find the concept of "Brand" crossover, I kinda want to see it too.

Personally, I'm looking forward to Miss Piggy's gastric bypass. Her new look will be two ping pong balls on a bacon strip.

R70 it reminds me of The Muppets Show with their guest stars and themed skits like the Mark Hamill episode. I read that it wasn’t filmed at the actual attraction, though. They used green screens for the scenery apparently. That’s too bad but, yeah, I’m still hoping it’s funny.

fellas is it weird that as a kid i kind of shipped Gonzo with Rizzo? i mean dude was willingly fucking a chicken how different is a rat?

and in my defence the idea was mostly based off their close friendship in the Christmas Carol movie and on their professional partnership on Muppets Tonight (which was not as terrible a show as people said it was—Clifford is as good a host as Kermit imo)

Ot but Clifford really is chill and likeable. Not always hysterically funny (though he does get a few ice-cold zingers in from time to time) and not hugely wild or dynamic, but a really nice laidback foil. It’s too bad he’s been retired, along with other classic characters like Rizzo.

^ This show is directed at 3 year olds.

Muppets Tonight is definitely not for 3 year olds. They don't show infant television during prime time.