Big Bird Sings at Jim Henson's Memorial

EDIT: More Paragraphs explaining self!



This is Big Bird singing "It's Not Easy Being Green" at Jim Henson's memorial.

Personally, this is one of the sweetest, saddest videos I've ever seen. I was moved to tears. I'd like to say it's not often that I cry, but that's not completely true. It is true, however, that I don't often cry like this.

I think part of that - the tears, that is - is because I hold Jim Henson in extremely high regard. He did a wonderful thing with both The Muppets and Sesame Street. There's some ineffable quality to them that makes them both child-likable-yet-adult-relatable. He created something that doesn't talk down to children but does cater to them.

If I lived my whole life and created something half as wonderful as The Muppets, I would die a happy man. And Big Bird's ode is perfect. Just perfect.

This video is a really good sort of cry, you know? One that truly honors the memory of the mourned. Like John Cleese's eulogy at Graham Chapman's funeral. It doesn't reek of over sentimentality. It just is. And that you can hear Big Bird's voice breaking up a bit just makes it all that much more perfect, more honest and more true.

This is the sort of thing you'd like for your own funeral. And I don't mean Big Bird singing, I mean the emotion, heart and honesty. The devotion. The truth. It's not easy being green. But it does have moments of wonder and awe and sometimes people really do recognize that being green is awesome. Jim Henson was green, you know? People loved him but they didn't Get him.

I don't know. I'm still getting weepy eyed just thinking about the video ten or fifteen minutes later. Maybe I'm biased. But when I think of the gods of humanism, Jim Henson is at the top of the totem pole.