It seems unthinkable that a person as animated as Lilly Singh grew up without knowing much about the Muppets. But it's true – the former late-night host was unaware of how beloved they are until she let people know she was starring in "The Muppets Mayhem."
"The amount of times I've been talking to someone, whether I just met them or whether they're an old friend of mine, and I'd go 'Yeah, I'm in the new Muppet show,' [and] their face does. . . it's a switch," she remarked in a recent interview with Salon. "Suddenly, they're in the palm of my hand. They want to know every detail. And it's just so special."
Singh is in a particularly special situation as the human star of the Disney+ series "The Muppets Mayhem" in that she is both a witness to the giddy sway they hold over multiple generations and, now, a part of the Muppet lineage.
Lilly Singh and Animal in "The Muppets Mayhem" (Disney/Mitch Haaseth)
"The Muppets Mayhem" joins a universe that extends back to 1969, with the debut of "Sesame Street." In the 1970s, the late Jim Henson was determined to establish his creations' appeal to adults as well as their children, which he achieved by earning a slot in CBS primetime in 1976 with "The Muppet Show."
That vaudeville-style variety show is how America became familiar with the show's house band Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, consisting of the down-to-Earth Floyd Pepper on vocals and bass, hippie-chick Janice on vocals and lead guitar, the eternally sunglasses-wearing saxophonist Zoot, mumblebum trumpet player Lips and the band's breakout favorite drummer, Animal.
The Muppets have starred in theatrical releases and shows every decade since their introduction, but "The Muppet Show" is the show to inaugurate the difference between the educational, just-for-kids versions of the puppet characters and their ready-for-primetime versions. The 1975 "Muppet Show" pilot in which the Electric Mayhem debuted, for instance, is teasingly titled "Sex and Violence."
The episode's content is scandal-free, but the point was made – the band, like the show, is both family-friendly and adult-targeted. Dr. Teeth, inspired by the late New Orleans musician Dr. John, is equal parts sage and artist, George Clinton to the Electric Mayhem's funkadelic vibe.
"I promised myself after coming out of late night that I was really going to work on projects where I could be super proud of the outcome," said Singh.
In "The Muppets Mayhem" they're on a never-ending tour that draws loyal superfans like Moog (Tahj Mowry) and counts among their admirers Ryan Seacrest, Lil Nas X, Billy Corgan, and Tommy Lee. Enter Singh's Nora, a record executive at a small label – dying, really – who, like the actor playing her, knows little to nothing about them. Nora realizes that the Electric Mayhem owes her employer a studio album, and since they've never laid down a track, bets the sales from any official recording she can wrangle out of them would reverse her company's financial misfortunes.
To make that happen, she must spend time with the band, who coaxes Nora to reassess her life in the bargain.
Playing Nora taps into Singh's recent adventures with the Hollywood machine. American broadcast audiences were introduced to her as the host of "A Little Late with Lilly Singh," which replaced "Last Call with Carson Daly" in 2019.
Singh found fame as a YouTube star before drawing NBC's attention; she had been creating videos since 2010 in which she played an array of characters and appealed to a younger audience. But "A Little Late" only lasted for two seasons, after which Singh published her second book, "Be a Triangle," where she spoke about the lessons she took away from that experience and her overall career.
Lilly Singh and Tahj Mowry in "The Muppets Mayhem" (Disney/Mitch Haaseth)
"It taught me so much. And I'm so grateful for it," she stressed, before continuing, "I promised myself after coming out of late night that I was really going to work on projects where I could be super proud of the outcome, or I could be creative, and I could make something I was so happy to refer people to."
This, she says, is the primary reason she signed on to "The Muppets Mayhem." "I can say on this show, not a single corner was cut, whether it's with dialogue, whether it's with a set, whether it's with the Muppets wardrobe, whatever it may be . . . just the attention to quality and detail was such a breath of fresh air for me. And again, one isn't right and one isn't wrong. It's just me as an artist, I really gravitate towards the version where you're like, let's take our time and make this something that's just so meaningful."
"Everyone turns into a four-year-old child and starts fangirling over the Muppets," Singh said.
As a YouTube creator who singlehandedly mounted her own video production for the better part of a decade, working on this Muppet show became part of Singh's continuing education in the business. "We are on stages that are four feet in the air, that have holes in them," she marveled. "The technicalities of how to shoot the show, whether it's how the camera has to move, how the Muppets have to move, how we have to interact with each other– it's just phenomenal. It is a science."
Nora's character development also drew her to the "Mayhem," Singh said, citing what she refers to as "a journey of unlearning" that's sure to be relatable in this age of existential reassessment.
"This is the first time where she's putting herself in the center of the spotlight. And she has to unlearn all these instincts she's had to survive," the performer explained. "That really, honestly relates to me as a person. I feel like I have some of those survival instincts."
Singh also points to the common lesson of learning "that you can let go and kind of follow the universe whenever it's gonna take you. And so that's what The Electric Mayhem kind of does for [Nora]. They teach you to let go and to just go with the flow and just trust your instincts and show her a different way of doing things."
The performer touches on a central magnet hidden at the heart of "The Muppets Mayhem" that harkens back to the spirit of "The Muppet Show," in the way it hooks into everyone's inner child without being childish. Part of this is the series' appreciation of musical artistry; if old songs like "Can You Picture That?" weren't expertly crafted pop pieces they wouldn't have held up for decades.
Having the participation of artists such as Kesha, Zedd, and Deadmaus further burnishes its music cred and dangles other lures for viewers to grab onto, even those who aren't kids and don't have them.
"No matter how big of a Muppets fan you are, you're still going to be brand new in this show," she said. And I think that's what is so special, because . . . it's the first time everyone is going to genuinely meet the Electric Mayhem."
She's not overstating that. An entire episode covers Dr. Teeth's origin story and the nascency of his relationship with Floyd Pepper while amusingly delving into the ways his parental drama informs his creative source. (You have to watch.) In another, a sisterly fight between Nora and her sister Hannah (Saara Chaudry) necessitates some healthy, new-age personal time with Janice.
Lilly Singh and Saara Chaudry in "The Muppets Mayhem" (Disney/Mitch Haaseth)
Hanging with "The Muppets Mayhem" may also inspire a person to look back at those old episodes of "The Muppets Show." In doing so you may notice that Singh and Chaudry are the first South Asian Canadian actors to co-star with the Mayhem. What guest lists can be found don't list any Asian guest stars on the original '70s primetime show. The Muppets welcomed its first Asian-American character, seven-year-old Ji-Young, in 2021.
The fact that they and Maury are the main humans featured in the series expands the inclusive world of the Muppets, Singh points out. "It's exciting to me, it means a lot to me, but it's also just so much more than that," she said. "The thing about the show is that me and Saara just happened to be two brown girls, but it's not the fabric of the show. It's just who we are, and then there's the show."
Singh continues, "I think there are moments where it's really important to dissect culture, and then there are moments where it's just like, we exist, and we're taking up space. And that's what I love about this show, that it just happened to be we're brown and we're both from Toronto, but we're just playing these sisters."
The part she no longer has to act her way through, however, is the legitimacy of her Muppet fandom. She'll joyfully nerd out over the production details too, but from what she calls "a spiritual point of view," she has a new level of understanding. "So look, there's a lot of famous people in the show – you got Morgan Freeman, you got Kesha, you got so many people. And everybody has the same reaction to seeing the Muppets. Everyone turns into a four-year-old child and starts fangirling over the Muppets. And it's so special to see that no matter where you are in life, they mean so much to you. That is just across the board."
She includes herself in that crowd too. "Growing up, my parents never really introduced me to the Muppets," Singh said. "But now I can say that I will fight someone for them."
All episodes of "The Muppets Mayhem" stream Wednesday, May 10 on Disney+.
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