Why Is My Muppet Babies Blog the Most Popular Thing I’ve Ever Written?

They’re so cute!

I’ve been writing blogs on this here website for almost 3 years, and one thing is for certain: People really love my blog about the series finale of the new Muppet Babies show, titled How the Series Finale of the New Muppet Babies Almost Destroyed Me. In fact, it’s the most popular thing I’ve ever written. To be clear, I’m talking about my writing on this website; I’m not counting my books. If I was, I’d have much bigger things to worry about.

Not a day goes by without at least one or two people reading my Muppet Babies blog (if WordPress metrics are to be believed). That might not seem like a big deal, but cards on the table, this website doesn’t get a lot of traffic. Also, that particular blog is years old, and I never promote it. In fact, this is the first time I’m mentioning it since I wrote and posted it. Its popularity could be attributed to the fact that the executive producer of the show “Liked” my post about the blog on Twitter (back when it was still called that), but again, that was years ago. That wouldn’t explain why people keep reading it. Maybe it’s because the Muppets are a relatively big part of pop culture (at least as far as my generation is concerned), but I’ve written plenty of times about pop culture before: Indiana Jones, Batman, The Wonder Years (see below), The Twilight Zone (again, see below), etc., and those blogs don’t get a fraction of the hits my Muppet Babies blog gets.

Perhaps it’s because my Muppets blog is also about the fall of innocence (something almost everyone can relate to), but again, I’ve written about that very topic many times before. Hell, I even wrote an entire novel about it—Déjà View—but the other blogs weren’t as popular. Or maybe it’s because the title of the blog is so provocative: the idea that a CGI cartoon show based on an old Saturday morning cartoon show from the ’80s that itself was based on a dream sequence Miss Piggy had in the 1984 movie The Muppets Take Manhattan would actually “destroy” me. Of course, I was exaggerating for comedic effect. Maybe people approaching the blog after reading that clickbaity title thought I was serious? Or finally, is it because I used multiple pictures throughout the blog, as opposed to my typical lone header image? Well, I’ve written blogs with many pictures before (see my Déjà View photo essay below), so that can’t be it. Still, those Muppet Babies pics are adorable. Am I underestimating their appeal?

I suppose I’ll never really understand the draw of my Muppet Babies post. If nothing else, I suppose I should use more clickbaity blog titles in the future. Stay tuned for “Why the Dinosaurs Finale Is the Most Gruesome T.V. Show Ending of All Time!!!” (Spoiler alert: They all die.)

In my humble opinion, or IMHO (as the acronym goes), I’ve written much better blogs than my Muppet Babies one, and I’d like to share five of them here. (You’ll note that only one has anything to do with my books.) I realize I’m a little late for end-of-the-year listicles of past entries (the holidays were crazy), but here they are anyway, in no order, followed by a brief explanation of why I chose them:

The Last Day of Elementary School

I realize this blog was deeply personal and therefore harder to relate to, but I thought it was one of my more poignant entries. Also, it helped explain a key pivot point in my life. I found it healing—at least for me.

The Twilight Zone of Nostalgia

This is the deepest dive I ever took into nostalgia, which is a subject that powers not only many blogs on this site but at least two of my books: Danger Peak and Déjà View. Also, I liked the coincidences to my life of the Twilight Zone episode that’s highlighted here. Talk about spookular!

The First (and Last) Déjà View Photo Essay

I’m including this one because of how much time it took to write, mostly because of the background work involved. I was jetting across my small town snapping candid photos with my cellphone of the stationery store and my old elementary school, among other locations, that were key inspirations behind Déjà View, all the while hoping people didn’t think I was insane. Also, I thought showing readers a little behind-the-scenes info of my writing process, complete with pics, would be a welcome delight. Judging by the number of people (or lack thereof) who read this blog, I was wrong.

The Top 5 Episodes of The Wonder Years

Again, like the above blog, this took a lot of time to write. Not only did it involve watching the first three seasons of The Wonder Years (my favorite ones) but then selecting the five best episodes. On top of that, I threw in an extra five Honorable Mention episodes. I honestly thought I’d get a lot more feedback on this one, particularly from people like me who are diehard fans of the show. I even mentioned this blog on the Instagram page of Danica McKellar (Winnie Cooper herself), but no one took the bait, least of all Danica. Ah well.

“You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” vs. “Snoopy the Musical”

Speaking of work, this blog was a TON of work. Even though I had to only listen to two albums to do a writeup, I really wanted to get into the nitty-gritty details of just why exactly “Snoopy” is the superior musical, despite everyone fanning over “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.” In fact, I’m sure most people have never even heard of “Snoopy the Musical,” though they might know a few songs from it, like “Just One Person,” which was sung by the Muppets after Jim Henson died (noted in my blog). I go song by song and explain the weaknesses inherent in the lyrics and melodies—or lack thereof (looking in your direction, “Glee Club Rehearsal”)—of the Charlie Brown musical and illustrate the highlights, which are many, of the Snoopy musical. I even come to the conclusion that they should just delete a few duds from “Snoopy” and add the three standouts from “Charlie Brown” to create the Peanuts super musical. One consolation: I received a glowing comment about this blog, which is rare for this site.

Let’s change that this year, kids!

***

In other MTP news, the Goodreads giveaway of The Electric God and Other Shorts is now officially over! In the end, over 4,000 people entered to win 1 of 10 signed copies of The Electric God and Other Shorts. That’s almost twice as many people who requested Déjà View for my last Goodreads giveaway. Congrats to those who entered! Your books are on their way. To those who entered but didn’t win, fear not! Just smash that Amazon or Barnes & Noble button at the bottom of this blog to get your sci-fi/horror-stories-with-twists fix!

***

In other, other MTP news, this Monday, I will be recording an all-new interview with the podcast P. English Literature, an international book podcast and YouTube show based out of Africa. Peter Okonkwo, the host and creator of the show, was kind enough to get in touch with me via my Contact page to request the interview. (Incidentally, if you have a podcast and are interested in talking to me about The Electric God and Other Shorts or any of my other books—or even argue about what the best episode of The Simpsons is—feel free to contact me at my Contact page above.) The interview won’t be published until a week or so after the recording, but I’ll make sure to update this blog when it gets uploaded. P. English Literature is dedicated to the promotion of English literature and is the first international BookTube show in Africa that features authors from around the world. For more info, please check out their YouTube page here:

P. English Literature YouTube page

***

Also this Monday, I’ll be traveling to a local junior high to sign 50 of my books (25 of Danger Peak and 25 of Déjà View) that the school purchased to raffle off at their annual Book Fest event on Valentine’s Day. (For those wondering why I’m not signing copies of The Electric God and Other Shorts, I figured many of those stories weren’t appropriate for junior high kids, though I consider them age appropriate for high schoolers and up.) Along with other authors, librarians, and teachers, I’ll be attending Book Fest with a little presentation and literary activity for the kids.

There’s actually more news I could share, but I don’t want to bombard you guys. I’ll save it for another blog. Looks like I’ll be quite busy this year. I hope all of you stay busy, positive, and happy this year as well. (That’s the best we can hope for, right?)

MTP

P.S.: Next week’s blog: More Reviews of The Electric God and Other Shorts

P.P.S.: The Electric God and Other Shorts is now available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble:

The Electric God on AmazonBarnes & Noble