Shorts Review: Puppet High

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Spoilers Below

Let me start by placing the topic of puppets and puppetry within the context of my own life. I basically grew up on “Sesame Street.” (The show, not the street.) I have always adored The Muppets. I am entertained by marionettes, specifically in “Team America: World Police.” Truthfully, I find ventriloquist dummies quite off-putting, and for some reason all of my dreams and nightmares are presented in puppet form; most likely stemming from an incident when Jim Henson shoved me in an airport when I was three.

Anyway, this isn’t about me, it’s about “Puppet High,” a YouTube show from Above Average Network, which has released six episodes at this point. Each one runs only a few minutes long. The premise of the show, as the intro states, is that “six months ago, a virus spread across the Earth, turning 20 percent of humans into puppets.” It goes on to introduce Matt, the show’s protagonist, a young puppet who happens to be entering his freshman year of high school.

The first thing I noticed about “Puppet High” (other than the puppets) was the production value – quite high. Kind of like the state of mind you should be in to watch this show. Seriously though, it looks like it could easily pass as a TV sitcom; which goes to show that not all YouTube shows are cheap pieces of crap shot on some dude’s flip phone.

The show, which mixes puppets with live actors, features some familiar names and faces, like Michael Naughton, who may not sound familiar, but has had bit parts on shows like “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “The Office,” and “Arrested Development.” He was also in “Superbad” and those old David Blaine YouTube spoof videos. Mikey Day, another David Blaine spoof actor (but perhaps more famous as a regular cast member of MTV’s “Wild’N’Out”) also appears semi-regularly as a dim-witted Spanish teacher. Steve Little (Kenny Powers’s even dumber other half, Stevie, in “Eastbound & Down”) also guest stars in one installment.

The show’s humor is generally light and PG-13-ish, meaning it might not be appropriate for the little ones, but it doesn’t just go for obscenities and crude dialogue as humor. In fact, the show has a sweet innocence for the most part, genuinely aiming for plotlines that high schoolers can relate to, while also playing off the absurdities that will inevitably occur when 20 percent of the Earth’s population suddenly become puppets.

This includes plot lines involving puppets having bullies that are also puppets, and families – like Matt’s – where all but one person has been puppet-ized. Also, the episode where Matt tries out for the basketball team is priceless.

So overall the jokes are witty, the puppet humor is entertaining, and for being only six episodes in, the show has an awful lot of potential. As one would expect, the turnaround time for each episode is quite long, but if you’re looking for a good laugh – at something other than the usual mix of garbage out there – then it’s well worth the wait.

(8/10)

About Gonzo Green

@Gonzo_Green is a chronic sufferer of Pre-life Crisis Syndrome. He drinks frequently, and wears hats sometimes, with these events occasionally occurring concurrently. Gonzo also likes watching baseball, and putting ketchup on foods that ketchup has no business being on. He enjoys rock’n’roll from the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s, when rock was rock, and meaningless repetitive phrases were frowned upon. But it is what it is.