YMMV / Muppets Tonight

• Awesome Music:
  • Gonzo's cover of Billy Idol's "Dancin' With Myself" in the Dennis Quaid episode.
  • Kermit's cover of Talking Heads' "Once in a Lifetime" in the Whoopi Goldberg episode.
  • Coolio and the Muppets' version of "1, 2, 3, 4" at the end of the Coolio episode.
  • Bobo performing "I'm a Believer" with Micky Dolenz in the Cindy Crawford episode.
  • Kermit and Tony Bennett singing Firefly.
• Base-Breaking Character: Andy and Randy Pig, Miss Piggy's dim-witted nephews, performed by Steve Whitmire and Dave Goelz. While many fans find their stupidity to be hilarious, others were as irritated as their fellow Muppets.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Pepe the King Prawn, who appeared in over half the episodes and has wound up playing a major role in most major Muppet works released afterward because of how popular he ended up becoming. Also Bobo the Bear, who would play henchman roles in Muppets from Space and The Muppets (2011). It doesn't hurt that they're both played by Bill Barretta.
• Growing the Beard: Ironically, the final episode is when Steve Whitmire figured this happened, since it focused on one of the characters' personal lives outside of the studio. This would later become the premise for the 2015 series.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Or Hilarious in Hindsight depending on how you look at it. Everyone being upset over Garth Brooks trying to break away from country music mirrors people's reaction when he released a rock album under the persona, Chris Gaines.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: In the third episode of the second season (guest-starring Heather Locklear), Kermit (in his Godzilla-like outfit) notes that he never good at playing a bad guy (Godzilla). 4 years later, a truly evil incarnation of Godzilla is made in 2001.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Despite a divided stance on the show's quality, the episodes guest starring Garth Brooks and Prince (back when he changed his name to the unpronounceable symbol) are considered very good, the Prince one even moreso following his death.
• Memetic Mutation: "Nice job, Kermit!" "Thank you!"^ExplanationFrom the episode featuring Whoopi Goldberg, Clifford has this conversation with multiple Kermits after they do a cover of "Once In a Lifetime". Mutated by a friend of Vinesauce, who made videos further multiplying the number of Kermits saying "Thank you!"
• Moral Event Horizon: Although his normal sketches don’t cross it at all, Big Mean Carl crosses it on every Swift Wits segment where he eats an innocent animal as punishment for the contestant failing (even if it is the contestants’ fault.) Special mention goes to the sketch on the Pierce Brosnan episode where, even though the contestant got the answer right, he still eats the animal and then eats the contestant just to spite the host.
• No Yay: Johnny Fiama assures the audience this as he watches Bunsen try various outfits.
  Johnny: (singing) Pretty Bunsen, not that I'm into that, Pretty Bunsen.
• Replacement Scrappy: A major criticism of the series was that it largely sidelined the classic cast for new characters, most of whom were rarely, if ever, seen again after the show ended. Easily the biggest victim of this was Clifford, performed by Kevin Clash, who replaced the iconic Kermit the Frog as the host and was previously featured as a supporting character on The Jim Henson Hour. The only major new characters to survive after the show's end were Pepe the King Prawn, Bobo the Bear, and probably Johnny Fiama and Sal.
• The Scrappy:
  • You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who likes the ditzy and clownish Mr. Poodlepants. Reasons for disliking him usually have something to do with his ugly design. Least that can be said, not one of Steve Whitmire's better characters.
  • Spamela Hamderson is this due to how she has no personality outside of being a ditzy airhead who's hot. At least Annie Sue was genuinely talented. Probably helping matters (or not) is that her puppeteer, Leslie Carrara-Rudolph, would later perform Abby Cadabby on Sesame Street.
• Signature Scene: Kermit's Stop Making Sense-esque performance of Talking Heads' "Once in a Lifetime" seems to be the most likely candidate.
• Vindicated by History: During its original run, the show was a pretty large flop - lasting six episodes in its original timeslot before a handful of remaining episodes got burned off during the summer. A contractually-obligated second season was Screwed by the Network and moved to Disney Channel. The show's cancellation is generally seen as the start of the Muppets' Audience-Alienating Era that they wouldn't recover from until the 2010s. Nowadays, the Muppet fandom LOVES this show and will easily go to bat for it - some considering a better show than The Muppet Show.

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