The Muppets don’t get laughs at other people’s expense. It’s part of what I really loved about the Muppets. They don’t even want to destroy their villains. They want to reform their villains.

— Jason Segel, on what makes the Muppets special

Tomorrow we’re replaying our interviews with Jason Segel, Nick Stoller and Bret McKenzie.

Waldorf: Did you get us tickets?
Statler: You bet! They’re for a bus out of town!

I would have played piano and then [gotten] Jason Segel and Walter the Muppet up on stage. And then bring in a chorus of background singers with all the Muppets across the back of the stage. Maybe get Clooney and Pitt out there, as well, singing along.

— How Bret McKenzie would have staged his Oscar Performance of ‘Man or Muppet’

I think everyone has had that crisis at some point, trying to figure out whether they are a man or a Muppet.

— Are you a manly muppet or a muppet of a man? [Bret McKenzie interview]

On today’s Fresh Air, songwriter Bret McKenzie talks about writing the songs for the new Muppet movie: “They take it very seriously, and sometimes in the studio, they kind of ‘Method’ Muppets, where in between takes, they stay in character. So I’m in the studio, we do a take and then we’re like, ‘Can you do it again? Just a little more energy?’ and then they talk back to you as Fozzie the Bear. So it’s like I’m having a conversation with the Muppet in there. Pretty strange, very surreal job.”

Jason Segel: “The Muppets don’t get laughs at other people’s expense. It’s part of what I really loved about the Muppets. They don’t even want to destroy their villains. They want to reform their villains.” [complete interview here]

If a puppet is sitting on a couch talking, that means there’s a puppeteer scrunched into a hollowed-out couch. At the end of the day, you’re not supposed to think about the puppeteer. And they’re the true geniuses behind this movie.

— From Jason Segel and Nick Stoller: The Muppet Fans Who Made The Muppet Movie

Jason Segel and Nick Stoller are our guests today. They’ll be talking about making all of the musical numbers in The Muppets with Bret McKenzie from Flight of the Concords. They’ll also tell us about working with all of the veteran puppeteers on set.

Tomorrow: Jason Segel and Nick Stoller, on The Muppets, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and making family films, which shouldn’t be confused with children’s movies.