Friday, November 19, 2010

"?" with Jarrod Fairclough - Why does Pepe say "okay"? ANSWER!


Jarrod Fairclough Presents "?"
"Because Asking Questions Is a Good Way to Find out Things"
ANSWER: "Why does Pepe say 'okay' at the end of most sentences?"

Jarrod Fairclough - Hello my little Muppet minions, and welcome to the answer to the last post I did...  Well, actually, the last post I did was my Muppet Fan Testimonial. By the way, fun fact, that was around 2100 words, which is 100 words more than my average university essay has to be, and they usually end up at 1500 before I get fed up. I need to write more essays on Muppets...

Anyway, this is the answer to my Pepe question.  The one that’s “Why does Pepe say ‘Okay’ at the end of most sentences?”

And didn’t a lot of you enjoy telling me that the answer was already well documented? But its okay, that’s why I love my little Muppety Mindset reader friends. I did get an answer from my friend Beau, who informed me of a weird tick he has, adding “You know what I mean” to the end of his sentences. He then theorised that Pepe says “okay” as a self defense mechanism, so he can say anything offensive, and by adding ‘Okay?” they can speak up if they’re offended, otherwise forever hold their peace.

I’m not going to copy and paste people’s responses, because they’re more or less the same as that of Jim Lewis, Muppet writer extraordinaire, who Ryan was kind enough to approach for an answer. Truth be told, I also went looking for an answer from Bill Barretta, and Pepe himself, but with the new Muppet movie underway, they understandably have no time. So, here is Jim’s answer, copied and pasted in all its glory:

"This is really a question for Bill Barretta, but here’s how I understand it. Pepe was inspired by his wife’s aunt, who always spoke in declarative sentences, never in questions. She ended those questions with “okay”, which implies that whatever she said is something you will agree with. It’s a way of getting to “yes” without waiting for the other person to answer. And that’s how Pepe operates – constantly in pursuit of his goals: womens, moneys and free stuffs, okay."

I loved that the answer was chock-full of Muppety goodness at the end.
So there we go. If you didn’t know the answer before, you know it now. Truth be told, you could have gone on Pepe’s Muppet Wiki page and seen that answer, as I did the day after the question appeared on the website. So there we have it. Pepe says okay so that people will agree with him, and he can get moneys and womens and free stuffs, okay.  And because Mrs. Barretta’s aunt is awesome. PS – I knew all along Rosita doesn’t say ‘okay’.

Well, that’s it for now, and you won’t be seeing me for a little while, I’m off in a few days to New York City and Los Angeles, where, with any luck, I’ll have a Muppety experience or two to inform you of. But no promises. And hello to Artie Esposito, who told me the other day he reads this website all the time!

Well, I’m off to pack my stuff. Here’s hoping my plane doesn’t get grounded after take off (I’m flying Qantas, which, to those who have no idea, has had like 10 grounded planes in the last 2 weeks). I’ll be seeing you in about a month, Muppet fans. Until then, dance your cares away. Or work them away if you’re a Doozer. But they don’t have computers. Do they? No... Anyway, until then...

Cheers!
Jarrod











The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier