Advertising / A Very Muppet Portal Campaign

"Hey Portal, call Kermit!"

Kermit: I sent everyone a Portal so we can be together no matter where we are!
Fozzie: And now we're video calling?
Kermit: We're video calling!

A series of commercials aired in November/December 2019, A Very Muppet Portal Campaign advertises the Facebook Portal brand as a holiday gift with The Muppets, using the devices to keep communications with friends and family during the winter season despite distance between them. The ads run the gauntlet from side-splitting to heart-melting with all the Muppet flair you'd expect.

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Hey Portal, call the tropes!

• The Bus Came Back: Among the characters featured in the commercials is Fozzie's mother Emily Bear, who had not been seen since The Muppet Christmas Carol.
  Emily: How's Chicago?
  Fozzie: Great city, but the winters are un-bear-able!
  Both: Ahhhhhh!
• Caustic Critics: Statler and Waldorf appear in rank and file. One ad has Statler telling Robin a story with the Portal's AR function.
  Robin: I can't wait to see how it ends!
  Waldorf: (entering) What a coincidence! I can't wait for it to end, too!
  Statler & Waldorf: Doh-ho-ho-ho-hoh!
• Cool Mask: AR Masks, specifically. Miss Piggy uses a wolf one to scare her nephews Andy & Randy into screaming.
• Dark Reprise: The first ad of the campaign has Rowlf, Piggy, and Gonzo singing the opening lines of The Muppet Show's theme, all of them lonely during the holiday season. Then Kermit's gift Portals show up.
• Does This Make Me Look Fat?: Also in the first ad, Gonzo calls Kermit to ask one of these.
  Gonzo: Does this fruit hat make my nose look big?
  Kermit: Yes, it does!
  Gonzo: Sweet!
• Fun with Homophones: While teaching Beaker a soup recipe, the Swedish Chef tells him to add pepper, which he pronounces "pepe". Beaker pulls out Pepe the King Prawn.
• Homemade Sweater from Hell: Gonzo gets Kermit one of these, to Kermit's dismay.
  Kermit: It's a really great, ugly sweater.
  Gonzo: Yeah! Wait, what kind of sweater?
  Kermit: I... said it's a really great sweater.
• Lethal Chef: Beaker might be one of these. One ad has the Swedish Chef start a call so that he can give Beaker a recipe. It's unclear if the Chef's accent is at fault, but when Beaker finally understands an instruction to add pepper, just doing so causes his pot to boil over. Copiously. Another ad has Bunsen describing the Smart Camera interspersed with Beaker's microwave filling the kitchen with smoke.
• Ludicrous Precision: According to Bunsen, the odds of being Snowed-In in LA are 1,555,000:1.
  Kermit: Ah. That seems right.
• Narcissist: Miss Piggy, of course. She demonstrates the Portal's album feature while not making video calls by swiping through an album of photos of herself.
• Offscreen Teleportation: During a video call with the rest of the Electric Mayhem, Animal is goofing off by moving around his living room. At one point he tries to catch the camera by surprise by ducking behind his couch and then popping up from behind his coffee table.
• No, You Hang Up First: Gonzo and Camilla get into one of these.
  Gonzo: It's getting late, Camilla, we should go.
  Camilla: Bawk bawk bawk.
  Gonzo: No, you hang up.
  Camilla: Bawk, bawk bawk bawk.
• Short-Distance Phone Call: Bunsen uses one of these to demonstrate that the Portal's call function works for non-Portal devices; Fozzie is in the lab with him when he makes the call. Fozzie then proceeds to tell Bunsen to hold on while he answers the phone and tells Bunsen that he can't talk right now, he's in the middle of something.
• Snowed-In: One ad features a party where almost every Muppet available for the campaign is gathered together for a party... except for Kermit, who's trapped in LA from the snow. The others cheer him up by starting a rendition of "Rainbow Connection".
  Kermit: Thanks, guys. I needed that.

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Statler: Kermit got everyone Portals, and Gonzo made him a sweater?
Waldorf: What a rip-off! Poor Gonzo did all that work!
Statler and Waldorf: Doh-ho-ho-ho-hoh!

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