"Lady Gaga & the Muppets' Holiday Spectacular" (2013)

SPOILER ALERT  (but then, it's a music special, so what do you expect):
Okay, let me say from the beginning I have no opinion--positive or negative--about Lady Gaga.  This is the first I've likely even knowingly heard her singing.  And the songs were largely a promo for one of her albums/CDs.  I watched this for the Muppets part of the show.  And I a smidge curious to see how they were doing with 2nd generation Kermit (Jim Henson sure was something else).

So, the first number is a joint number between Lady Gaga and the Muppets.  I am a huge Animal fan, and he is playing the drums in the background.  So, I watched the number all the way through.

Then I discovered that pretty much most of the rest of the numbers were Muppet-less (with one exception) until the finale.  Well, that just kinda misses the point.  So, admittedly, I took to fast-forwarding through the Muppet-less parts, so I could get to the "good" stuff.  When they finally did another number together, it was the finale--complete with credits right over the whole thing.  Way to show case it.  The inserted Muppet "bloopers" which were wonderful.

What does make it worth watching for the Muppet/music fan?  Two musical numbers...Ready for this?  Audio-visualize this singing trio:  Beaker (meep, meep), the Swedish chef, and Animal.  At two different times these 3 sing a "well-known Christmas carol"--Do you think it's possible to recognize it?  Lyric-less Beaker, Swedish Pig-Latin lyrics (just as unintelligible), and then the only thing possible to understand is Animal--except the 1st time he speeds things up too fast, and the 2nd time he only does follow-up/echo licks to the unintelligible stuff--so, he's the only one you can understand.  You don't understand the first part, but you understand the echo.  I was grinning ear to ear.  How musically funny is that?

That leaves me stuck with how to rate this.  It has great Muppet moments, but the Muppets aren't threaded all the way through like I remember from my childhood The Muppet Show.  But that mismatched singing trio?  That is just tops.  That's great!