It’s time to play the music! It’s time to light the lights! It’s time to investigate Chappell Roan on the Muppets Show tonight.
At least, that’s the theory put forward by one TikTok sleuth, who recently pieced together a string of visual and lyrical references Chappell seems to have made over the course of her career, gathering the evidence in a two-plus minute video on the social media platform.
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In the video, user @rachleahx (a.k.a. "Thneed Girl”) builds on a viral tweet comparing several of Roan’s recent looks — including the cover art for her new single “Good Luck, Babe!” — to looks worn by iconic Muppet Miss Piggy.
Roan dressed as the Statue of Liberty for her performance at New York’s Governors Ball this past weekend, prompting some people to compare her outfit to the famous statue of Miss Piggy in the same outfit at Disney’s MGM Studios in Orlando, Florida.
After her performance, Roan was spotted in the crowd with her green Lady Liberty makeup and wearing a black sweatshirt, the hood pulled over her head, which some people — @rachleahx included — said bore a striking resemblance to what is known as the “Evil Kermit” meme. (However, the Evil Kermit is not actually Kermit; this Muppet’s name is Constantine and he’s the villain of the 2014 film Muppets Most Wanted. Constantine looks exactly like Kermit, except he has a birthmark near his mouth. This is important, I swear!)
Building on the visual comparisons, @rachleahx went on to talk about the song, “Subway,” which Roan played live for the first time during her Gov Ball set. Thneed Girl pointed out that several of the lyrics seem to reference Constantine and the viral meme.
“I saw her green hair / beauty mark next to her mouth,” Roan sings in the song’s opening lines, in lyrics that eerily reference Constantine’s froggy color and notorious birthmark. Later, Roan sings, “Made you the villain / evil just for moving on.”
Sure, you might be thinking this is all just a coincidence. But the lore goes deeper.
In “Subway,” Roan sings that she’s “moving to Saskatchewan,” — a Canadian province — which @rachleahx connects to a lyric from “Movin’ Right Along,” a song from 1979’s The Muppet Movie, in which Fozzie Bear sings, “Send someone to fetch us, we’re in Saskatchewan.”
To add a final layer of icing to the Muppet cake, @rachleahx points out that, after being spotted in her hoodie, Roan briefly changed her Instagram icon to the Constantine/ Evil Kermit meme.
Easter eggs aside, Roan’s performance went viral earlier this week after she told the crowd that she turned down an invitation to perform at the White House for LGBTQ+ Pride Month.
“As a response to the White House, who asked me to perform for Pride, we want liberty, justice, and freedom for all,” she said. “When you do that, that’s when I’ll come.”
Given her theatricality, soaring pop vocals, and huge gay fandom, Roan has invited a couple of comparisons to pop megastar Lady Gaga. Now, they have one more thing in common: they both really love the Muppets.
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