Jim Henson’s Old Wilkins coffee ads appear again, Boy Are They Dark

Jim HensonThe sense of humor gets a shout out on his beloved series hitting Disney + – but if we look back, it’s clear that his dolls are not always made just for kids.

The creator of ‘Muppets’ previously worked on the TV commercials for Wilkins Coffee (from the late ’50s to the early’ 60s) in which he used early versions of dolls that he had to hawk for the food brand java. Millennials are just discovering them … and are terrifying.

One man wrote, “Can’t stop laughing at these early Jim Henson commercials where one guy just kills another because he does not like Wilkins coffee.” Yep, that’s the crux of this backlash – it’s basically one Henson puppet murmuring another puppet who refuses to drink the Wilkins.

Some jokes are harmless, like kicking the puppet out of a tree on which they both rest – but if you look … you see that some of the sketches become increasingly violent.

In some of the commercials, gunshots are fired at the more coveted puppet, punched over the head, cut with a razor, shocked, boiled alive, buildings and hot air balloons dropped … and more. It’s all nice, but many point out how graphic it looks. Someone has uploaded a full 14-minute snippet of all the Henson Wilkins ads, and this is striking.

Henson also did some commercials with Claussen’s Bread – in which Kermit himself appeared – and they too are quite dark … albeit slightly watered down.

Of course, ‘The Muppets’ was also captivated with a lot of adult humor – so it’s no surprise that some of Henson’s material with its prized creations printed the envelope. Just look at this early ‘Muppets’ toy ad, where the dolls violently threaten the viewers if they do not buy them.

Many of these things were broadcast in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s (‘Muppets’ have been around for a long time) … something like that tells us Henson and co. can get away with edgy scripts at the time. But by the time the ’90s rolled around,’ Muppets’ had undergone a major branding … to be kid-friendly.

Either way, most episodes of ‘The Muppet Show’ are now available to stream – and people remember the genius that brought it all to life. Henson died of pneumonia in 1990.

He was 53.