Over the Thanksgiving break I took a trip to the movie theater to see the new Muppets movie with my niece and nephew. It was brilliant, funny, touching and everything a Muppet movie should be. But that’s not why I’m posting about it here - it’s the hammocks that caught my attention.
Hammocks were featured in the movie not once but twice that I recall. The first was early on in the movie when Kermit was rounding up the old gang, they pay a visit to Rowlf’s house and find him peacefully relaxed on his hammock:
“Cool, I’ll have to post something about that on Facebook” the social media voice in my head thought. But I had no idea what I was in for later on in the movie.
About halfway through, there’s a part in the movie where the Muppets have been working hard to restore their old theater to get ready for their big show. After lots of singing and dancing and cleaning we’re shown a scene where all the Muppets are sleeping peacefully – and they’re all in hammocks!
Unfortunately I can’t find an image of the scene from the movie to share with you so you’ll just have to see it for yourself if you haven’t already (if anyone comes across an image of the scene let me know so I can post it).
As the owner of a hammock company I’ll always notice now when hammocks appear in movies, TV and pop culture. They’re almost always used as a symbol of relaxation (and often laziness) and have also been used in comedy bits everywhere from The Simpsons to Family Guy. But as you all know, I’m a big proponent of encouraging people to sleep in hammocks whether while camping, traveling or full-time at home. And even though there are millions of people around the world who sleep in a hammock as a full-time bed, it’s almost always only the backyard, lazy image of a hammock that we see in American pop culture.
But, even though it’s rare to see, The Muppets isn’t the only recent movie to feature a scene with all of its stars sleeping in hammocks. In fact, the other two movies that have recently featured a large group of people sleeping in hammocks have been two of the biggest movies you can imagine: Avatar, in which we saw that the entire Na’vi alien race sleeps in hammocks, and Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, where we’re treated to a scene in the castle with floating hammocks everywhere. (By the way, if anyone from Hollywood is reading this, drop me a line so we can talk about some incredible branded marketing opportunities – what kid wouldn’t want a Muppet or Avatar Hammock for their room?)
Is this the start of a new trend in Hollywood? Is it a sign that the idea of a hammock as a bed is finally starting to catch on a bit more in the U.S.? It’s interesting to note that all of these scenes are in films that rely on fantasy. It’s as if the message is that if we had our way - whether in the future, with magic or if we lived the life of a Muppet - we’d all live the dream and sleep in hammocks. Based on search traffic alone, our How To Sleep in A Hammock guide is easily the most popular blog post I've ever written with the traffic increasing significantly every day. Hopefully it won’t be long before we see a movie that doesn’t rely on fantasy which features people camping with hammocks instead of tents or sleeping in hammocks at home. After all, living the hammock lifestyle may be a dream, but it’s one you can start living right now.
Now, go see The Muppets, it was great!