When an email landed in my inbox earlier this month asking if I was interested in interviewing The Muppets, my reply to the PR consisted of two words - "hell yeah!" Now, I've done some pretty cool things in my career as an entertainment journalist, from fighting CGI dinosaurs on the rooftops of Malta to getting lost on the way to a film premiere with Succession's very own Brian Cox. However, interviewing The Muppets themselves - now, that is cool.
Animal and Floyd Pepper were in town promoting their latest show The Muppets Mayhem, which is now out on Disney Plus and follows beloved band The Electric Mayhem as they record their first ever studio album. The charming show provided plenty of talking points for my chat with the stars however, with The Muppets you should always expect the unexpected.
Read our full interview with Animal and Floyd Pepper here.
And no, I'm not talking about the fact that Animal spontaneously decided to crowdsurf over Floyd, crushing his fellow band member in the process (thankfully Floyd only slipped a disc and is okay now). Instead I'm referring to the fact that I am pretty much convinced that The Muppets Googled me ahead of my interview... trust me, this can't be a coincidence.
A few days ahead of my interview, I had to send my questions over to the PR so Animal and Floyd could prepare their answers - yes, this is unusual but hey, they are Muppets! Of course, I didn't think much of this until the day of our interview arrived.
Having worked with plenty of famous musicians both in the past and in their recent show, I was curious as to who The Muppets would next like to collaborate with. Animal and Floyd told me it was an "incredibly illustrious list... about five miles long" but one band was definitely at the top of it - U2. Yes, none other than the Irish rock band fronted by Bono who made all of you angry when their album Songs Of Innocence was released for free onto iTunes libraries worldwide in 2014.
I say "all of you" as there was one exception to the rule: me. Yes, I may be 28 years old but U2 are my favourite band (which is mostly thanks to my dad who even ensured I was born to their music). So, as you can imagine, I was pretty shocked that out of all the musicians The Muppets could have chosen, they mentioned my favourite one. In fact, I was speechless, not even really realising what had happened until after my interview had ended.
Moments after I hit the 'leave meeting' button on the Zoom it hit me - did The Muppets know that U2 were my favourite band? Why else would they bring up a band that haven't been super relevant for many years now? Especially with me, somebody who should probably be listening to Doja Cat instead of weeping to The Unforgettable Fire.
Some quick work from my excellent colleagues led to the discovery that if you Google the words "Emily Murray favourite band" the first link is an article I wrote as a student that does indeed talk about U2. Therefore there was only one conclusion - The Muppets must have looked me up, come across this, and decided to mess with me. And hey, I only respect them even more for doing so.
Of course, maybe Animal and Floyd Pepper's musical tastes really do line up with my own or perhaps they too had someone who would wake them up on a sunny morning by blasting A Beautiful Day around the house. However, given the spooky coincidence - as well as their other cheeky antics when we spoke - I have a sneaky feeling my new Muppet friends were up to their old tricks. Now, Disney if you are reading this please give us more time with the gang so we can ask them all about this. Thanks in advance!
The Muppets Mayhem is available to stream now on Disney Plus with the accompanying soundtrack with classic tunes and original songs also available to stream and download.
If you are looking for another great show to watch after finishing The Muppets Mayhem, check out our guide to the best shows on Disney Plus.
