What: The first trailer for The Happytime Murders, a film exploring the dark side of puppet life.
Who: Director Brian Henson, Melissa McCarthy, a bunch of muppet-like puppets.
Why we care: It’s not every day one sees a puppet prostitute offer a potential john some “rotten cotton.” In the warped world of The Happytime Murders, however, it’s apparently just Friday. Brian Henson, scion of Jim and director of films such as Muppet Treasure Island, has gone the Who Framed Roger Rabbit? route by revealing the extremely seedy underbelly of children’s entertainment. From the looks of his new film’s debut red-band trailer, Henson has actually gone way further. The forthcoming Happytime Murders features some unspeakably NSFW moments that hew way closer to Seth Rogen’s Sausage Party than anything that ever featured Jim Henson’s beloved creations. (Hat tip to Wonder Showzen, the twisted, mid-aughts Sesame Street parody.)
Melissa McCarthy stars in the R-rated noir as a hardboiled detective trying to track down a puppet murderer. (It’s puppets being murdered, but the murderer may or may not be a puppet.) During the two-minute trailer, McCarthy is sexually propositioned by puppets at least three times, and we get an uncomfortably in-depth look at what felt-on-felt action looks like. Check out the full trailer below, if your childhood memories can withstand it.
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