- "Hi, I'm Neil. I sleep a lot, and when I dream, I dream in puppet." snore
Neil's Puppet Dreams is a web series starring Neil Patrick Harris and his husband David Burtka, created by The Jim Henson Company under its Henson Alternative banner, and aired on The Nerdist Channel. The series details Neil's bizarre medical affliction that causes him to randomly fall asleep and dream in puppet. Each episode begins with a Cold Open into some situation of Neil's life, at which point he explains the premise of the show and promptly falls asleep. Each dream is a puppet sketch in some way related to the Cold Open.
Guest stars have included Nathan Fillion and Joe Manganiello.
Not to be confused with the other Neil's puppets.
This show provides examples of:
- Anal Probing: In Alien Abduction, Neil is abducted by aliens. He is very excited about everything but once the aliens discover his identity they refuse to probe him as they are not allowed to probe famous people so Neil starts to beg them to probe him. In the end they probe him with some spinning device.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Neil's Puppet Dreams is about Neil Patrick Harris, and his dreams starring puppets.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: The credits, in a more literal example. It appears for a split second and contains many joke credits.
- Innocent Innuendo: "Doctor's Office". There's something under Neil's gown that shocks all the doctors. Something hairy that David call's Neil's "Trouser Weasel". It's literally a weasel, that lives in Neil's trousers. At the end of the episode, it decides to leave his trousers, because it's very crowded due to Neil's giant cock - as in the rooster that also lives in there.
- Musical Episode: Bollywood, which features Neil singing about being in love with a puppet cow, in the style of a Bollywood musical.
- Once an Episode: Every episode's Cold Open finishes with the line, "Hi, I'm Neil. I sleep a lot, and when I dream, I dream in puppet."
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Prop Recycling: Or, Puppet Recycling if you want to get technical. In the episode "Dream Bump" alone, during David Burtka's Carmen Miranda-inspired dream, one can spot Cashmere Ramada and Shelley Oceans from Late Night Liars (the latter performed by Allan Trautman and portrayed as a drag performer), and DJ 3 from Jim Henson's Animal Jam. - Shout-Out: In "Doctor's Office" the doctor asks Neil if he can show his "Problem" to his colleagues and a warthog. This warthog (its puppet was recycled from Jim Henson's Animal Show) sounds suspiciously like Pumbaa. And it says "Hakuna Matata".
- Starring Special Effects: In one behind the scenes vid, they said the show was at least party made to show just what Henson Alternative was capable of.
- Waking Non Sequitur: In Bollywood, Neil wakes up suddenly from his puppet dream and exclaims, "I'm in love with a cow!". David is not amused.
- Whole-Plot Reference: The episode To Catch A Puppeteer, which is a parody of To Catch a Predator, starring Neil as a pervert who is desperate to put his hands in puppets; specifically, a monkey puppet performed by Colleen Smith (recycled from Waffle from Animal Jam) who has invited Neil over for puppet cookies (which Neil eats in a manner similar to Cookie Monster) and pretend milk.
