POPSCREEN: Kanye West

Who knew that puppets could have issues? Sure, Kermit and Miss Piggy had their tiffs; but when I was growing up, the Muppets mostly just searched for buried treasure or traveled to outer space. Now, however, a group of Muppet-esque puppets (spawned by Crank Yanker’s creators, Jackhole) are gaining center stage in a new Kayne West-produced TV show, tentatively titled “Alligator Boots,” in which they tackle such pressing contemporary issues as teen pregnancy and—more importantly—what the heck to do with your precious little one when all you want to do is go out and rage.

In a one-minute promo for the show, an underage puppet mother brings her year-old baby out to a club for a night of good old-fashioned fun. The episode shows that young mothers don’t have to miss out on the glories of youth while bonding with their children. After all, mother and child gain entrance because their combined age is twenty-one (goodbye fake ID’s), share a lovely moment while downing bottles of their respective beverages of choice, and get the VIP lounge all to themselves when it’s baby-feeding time. Now why didn’t I think of that? (Note to those thinking of improving your social life by trying this: while dancing, be sure not to drop your baby on the flo’.)

Not to be outdone by these facetious puppets, Kanye himself putters around in the background of the video, occasionally offering up some back-up to the Puppet Master-Flex. But his presence only leads one to wonder why he would follow up his glow-out extravaganza playing background rapper number one in a puppets-gone-wild video—not to mention why he might think that people would be interested in watching a full half-hour show dedicated to hip-hop puppets. Now I’m not saying I’m a gold digger, but there certainly isn’t much hidden treasure in this video.

—Anna E. Sakellariadis