10 Hilariously Meta Moments From The Muppets Franchise

It's time to light the lights for the most fourth wall breaking franchise in history. A series that completely blurs the line between fiction and reality, despite its protagonists being made of felt. 

Yes, in the Muppets franchise, the Muppets are actors who put on a variety show, but they're also actors in movies where they play actors. Confused? You should be. So many Muppets properties appear to show you the real Muppets' lives, but then get meta when they talk about being in a film, or reveal that they're still acting and following a script. Only with the new ABC series will audiences supposedly see what the Muppets are actually like without any fourth wall to break.

From all throughout the franchise, the Muppets have made every meta gag you could imagine, referencing the franchise's tone, the songs, the cameos, and even the damn script itself. 

From 1976 all the way up until 2014, here are the 10 greatest, most hilarious meta jokes in Muppets history.

The Muppets sequels are always welcome because they give everyone more of their favorite felt creatures, but in practical terms, they obviously only exist to make money. If the 2011 reboot was a bomb, Muppets Most Wanted wouldn't exist, so in typical Muppets fashion, they decide to open this film by singing a song about that exact situation. 

This underrated sequel picks up right after the last one ended. Seriously, right after; it literally opens with the same exact shot The Muppets concluded on, "The End" written in the sky. When everyone's ready to go home, they discover the cameras are still running because the studio has ordered a sequel! The Muppets continue to sing about how the studio considers them a viable franchise now, and that this movie is only being made because Disney needs something to release before Toy Story 4. They have a point.

The song also pokes fun at the audience's worry that a sequel to 2011's The Muppets would be a disappointment, and Kermit notes that the sequel's never quite as good. 

The creative team of Muppets Most Wanted had real pressure on them to prove that the Muppets could continue on and that the success of the reboot wasn't just a fluke, and so naturally, Kermit and the gang feel that same pressure in an extremely meta way.