There, on the television screen was someone dressed up like Stalin talking with a group of puppets that were a cross between animals and old men. An owl old man. A turtle old man. A lion old man. And then the scene would end and two very 80s Eastern European looking men would be telling weird jokes with crazy eyes and then the whole thing would splice back to old man vultures in the forest. So so surreal. I have no idea what they were saying, but I got the jist of the concept: political satire via muppets. Amazing!
I went home and did some research only to discover that this show is called Polish Zoo. It was created in 1992, right after the fall of Communism, and it was the most popular show on television -- a mix of Polish cabaret and, well, yeah, puppets. You can read all about in this NYTimes article.
Or you can just see it for yourself here:
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Some really amazing, and amazingly eastern European looking puppets. I'm kind of glad I don;t understand what they;re saying. Probably makes for a far less mundane experience. No room for bad writing. xo
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