As the show opens, Clifford is talking to his girl on his cell phone when he is approached by Seymour the Elephant and Pepe the Prawn. Seymour is decked out in black satin and a Zorro mask, and Pepe is wearing a little number usually seen on someone whose first name is "the lovely assistant." They want to pitch an act to Clifford, but he tries to blow them off. Pepe keeps on mistaking what Clifford is saying on the phone as being meant for him, and when Clifford tries to tell the two to shut up his girl thinks he's talking to her. She hangs up on him, so he has to listen to Seymour and Pepe's idea. They are the Amazing Whippersnappers: Pepe will hold a cigar in his mouth and Seymour will whip it away, one inch at a time, with his whip. Pepe cues the music, and four Devo Muppets pop up and start singing "Whip It." Pepe and Seymour get into position, and then Seymour cracks the whip at Pepe. The whip catches Pepe instead of the cigar, and the prawn is flung through the window. Seymour remarks, "I think I whipped the wrong end." The elevator doors then open and Pepe steps out. He looks pretty bad. He says that maybe they have a few things to fix.
Kermit's opening: "very special guest star Rick Moranis"
To open the show, Clifford shows an old show from the '70s, "The Muppet Odd Squad." It's a parody of "The Mod Squad," starring Kermit the Frog, Clifford, and Spamela Hamderson. Little Ricky Moranis is the guest star, playing Little Ricky Cool. Andy and Randy Pig are his two cohorts in crime. They have just robbed a bank and are counting the bread (Andy and Randy: "One loaf, two loaves..."). The Muppet Odd Squad bursts in to arrest him, but not before they boogie in the black light and have a huge fight. A very groovy sketch.
Back in Rick Moranis' dressing room, Bunsen Honeydew and his assistant Beaker are dancing to the music on the TV. Clifford walks in to deliver a fruit basket and asks them why they're there. Bunsen replies that they are looking for Rick, since they need some advice on their new invention, the Micro Shrink-a-matic machine. There seems to be something inconsistent with it, as Bunsen demonstrates. He fires the shrinking ray at Beaker, shrinking only his head.
In the control room, Nigel the director cues the cow announcer, who introduces another exciting adventure of "Lash Holstein, Space Cowdet". It is episode 26, "How Now, Space Cow?" Moo-Ing the Merciless, evil ruler of the planet Lactosia, has kidnapped the beautiful Dorothy Bovine at her ranch house. He is trying to get the deed to her Plutonium ranch from her safe. His henchman, Bart, tries to blow up the safe a couple of times. The first time goes wrong because Bart forgot the dynamite in the car. The second time, the safe goes flying into the air and lands on Moo-Ing's head. He finally gets the deed, but just then Lash Holstein, Space Cowdet, bursts through the wall. So Moo-Ing sics Bart on him.
Bart: "You're dead meat, Holstein." Lash: "Actually I'm red meat." Bart: "Well, better dead than red."
Bart and Lash begin fighting as Moo-Ing drags Dorothy out of the house, and that ends the episode.
Statler and Waldorf are poolside, watching the show as they eat.
Statler: "You know what's sad?" Waldorf: "What's that?" Statler: "I can't think of anything I'd rather do than watch this dumb show." Waldorf: "Heh. Neither can I." Two lovely young ladies walk up. Young ladies: "Hi guys. Mind if we join you?" Statler and Waldorf: "I just thought of something!" Statler sweeps the TV off the table.
Down in the studio commissary, Rick Moranis walks in and asks Seymour and Pepe which sweater he should wear for his Salute to Late '50s Crooners, Obscure British Bands, and Bill Withers he is doing later. Pepe says, "The cardigan has a Perry Como feel, but the pullover just screams Johny Mathis." The pullover then starts screaming, "Johny Mathis! Johny Mathis!" and runs away. Rick decides on the cardigan. Seymour and Pepe remark as how they'll never be famous like him, since no one would give a show to a couple of cooks. So Rick suggests they do a cooking show, and volunteers to be their first celebrity guest. Seymour is worried they don't have what it takes, but Rick says all they need is a positive attitude and "high hopes." That's a musical cue if ever I heard one.
Rick: "Let me tell you a little story." Pepe: "Do you have to?" Rick: "I'm afraid so."
Rick leans down to the table and starts singing "High Hopes." As he starts singing about the little old ant, an ant walks out onto the table. But Rick only gets about halfway through the second line of the song before Seymour squishes the ant. Rick says, "He was a musical ant. He was there for the song," and Seymour apologizes.
Just then a little ant ambulance drives out onto the table. A couple of ants get out, place the smashed ant on a stretcher, put him in the ambulance, and drive away (Rick: "Okay."). Rick then jumps to the song's chorus, and Seymour and Pepe finish with a rousing "Whoops, there goes another ambulance ant." After the song, Seymour and Pepe are raring to do the cooking show.
Pepe: "And as God is my witness, we will never have to cook again!" Rick: "Well, except on the cooking show." Seymour: "Why's that?" Rick: "Oh, skip it." The Devo Muppets pop up and start singing "Skip It." Rick: "Oh this is a weird place." Seymour: "Thank you."
Next is a movie trailer. "July 2nd, they arrive. July 3rd, they attack. July 4th, they begin therapy." The scene opens in a psychiatrist's office, where an alien (named Meep-Zorp) and the President are sitting on the couch. The psychiatrist asks Meep-Zorp why he felt the need to destroy the Earth, and Meep-Zorp replies that the stupid humans never understand their needs.
President: "Ask him why the aliens never told us what they wanted, they just came and blew up the White House." Meep-Zorp: "Hey, people cheered." President: "Huh, just the Republicans." Psychiatrist: "And the Perot people." Meep-Zorp: "Leave Perot out of this. He's one of us."
The movie title finally appears: Co-dependence Day: CD4 "This time it's interpersonal."
Out in the hall, Kermit is walking along when Rick Moranis comes out of his dressing room. He wants to thank Kermit for the big fruit basket. And it is big! The strawberry Rick is holding is bigger than his head. As Kermit walks away, a bit confused, Bunsen and Beaker pop their heads out of another dressing room. Bunsen remarks that they still have a few problems with the shrinking ray.
In the control room, Nigel is getting ready to cue the announcer for the conclusion of "Space Cowdet." He asks Eugene the Mink to get him an apple, and Eugene returns with a giant apple from Rick's basket. Nigel then cues the announcer.
As the episode opens, Lash and Bart are still fighting, as Moo-Ing drags Dorothy out to his rocketship. But Moo-Ing is having trouble getting the engine to turn over.
Dorothy: "Nice going, Moo-Ing, you've flooded it." Moo-Ing: "Silence! Where are those intergalactic jumper cables?"
Bart and Lash continue to fight as Moo-Ing tries to start the rocket. He finally gets it started and flies off. As they're flying off to Lactosia, the door of the rocketship opens and Lash climbs in! Moo-Ing pulls out a ray gun, which he and Lash fight over. Dorothy then screams that they're going to crash. As the announcer pipes up again, reminding us to tune in next week "for another pasteurized adventure of Lash Holstein, Space Cowdet," a model rocketship crashes into a model planet.
Statler: "Boy, that show was bad." Waldorf: "I wonder what ever happened to those cows." Waiter: "Here are your steaks." Statler: Looking at steaks "No, it couldn't be." Waldorf: "Why not?" Statler: "Because these are well done."
Back in his dressing room, Rick is warming up his voice for his big number. Kermit shows up, and Rick thanks him for the chance to do the medley. But Kermit tells him it's been canceled so that Rick can be the guest on Seymour and Pepe's cooking show. Rick is pretty mad, and tells Kermit he's going to call his agent. After Kermit leaves, Rick gets out a mortar and pestle and starts chanting over it as he crushes some sacred herbs. His incantation causes his agent, a devil, to appear. The agent apologizes about the medley, and brings in Rick's lawyer to help. The lawyer is another devil, who says that he'll handle the frog. Kermit returns, and the devils start threatening him with a rain of frogs ("Oh good, a family reunion") and a plague of locusts ("Yummy"). Rick walks out, saying he'll take care of it himself.
Onstage, Seymour and Pepe are beginning their cooking show with a little song.
Seymour: "I'm Seymour." Pepe: "I'm Pepe." Both: "Our guest is Rick Moranis." Pepe: "We hope you like our cooking show." Seymour: "So Kermit does not can us."
Tonight they are going to be making that gourmet treat, bread. They introduce their guest cook, Rick Moranis. He comes out wearing the cardigan, and says he's glad to be on their show. He notices the sign behind them says, "Hey What Smells," which he thinks is a strange name for a cooking show, but Seymour explains the show is really called, "Hey What Smells So Good? It's Time To Cook With Seymour and Pepe," but that was too long to fit on the sign.
Rick says that they need plenty of yeast to make good bread, and while they're waiting for the dough to rise he'd like to sing a song. As Rick starts singing his Salute to Late '50s Crooners, Obscure British Bands, and Bill Withers, Seymour and Pepe add too much yeast to the dough. Rick continues singing, while the dough starts to rise up into a bread monster. Seymour throws things at it, hits it with a broom, shoots it a couple of times, but nothing can stop the bread monster -- or Rick's medley, apparently, since he is completely oblivious to the scene behind him. Finally Bunsen and Beaker rush in with the shrinking ray and try to shrink the monster, who now has Pepe in his mouth and Seymour in his clutches. But the ray hits Pepe instead of the bread, and instead of shrinking him it enlarges him.
Zippety-Zap: "Man, what I wouldn't give for a tanker truck full of cocktail sauce."
Rick finally finishes his song and notices what's been going on behind him. He says, "That's not how you work a shrinking machine, Bunsen. You've got to set it to maximum bandfield width." "What does that mean?" asks Bunsen. Rick replies, "Turn this sucker up!" He fires the shrinking ray at the entire group. Bunsen, Beaker, Seymour, Pepe, and the bread monster all shrink down out of view. So Rick turns to the camera and says, "Well, I guess I might as well sing the medley again." Which he proceeds to do while saying goodnight to everybody.
In the control room, Clifford is talking to his girl on the cell phone again. Rick Moranis walks in, thanks him for the wonderful time, gives him a little gift, and tells him he's keeping the cardigan. Rick leaves, with Clifford thanking him for the gift. Clifford looks in the box, however, and Bunsen and Beaker, Seymour and Pepe pop out. They are all very tiny. Clifford says to his girl, "I got a small problem here, baby. But it's a big small problem."
The first one is from between takes during the CD4 sketch. The president is complaining that Meep-Zorp is always leaving just when they've made progress, and Meep-Zorp announces that he seems to have melded with the Naugahyde, making it impossible for him to get off the couch. The next few are Moo-Ing screwing up one of his lines several times. He finally turns to the camera and says, "Drat!"
Go to the "Best of Muppets Tonight" episode