A mountie gazes at the departing bear in his natural habitat
The RCMP help a pig make an entrance in Just for Laughs
A Muppet mountie on Sesame Park
Kermit as the Nelson Eddy mountie in The Miss Piggy Calendar 1982
Canadian bacon: Pigs as mounties on The Muppet Show
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) is the national police force of Canada. The name dates to the founding of the service in the 19th century, when due to the frontier nature of the northwest, horses (or sled dogs in snowy regions) were essential. The officers became colloquially known as the mounties, although equine usage is now limited to ceremonial occasions.
In popular culture, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police became a symbol of adventure or even romance, featuring in pulp novels and magazines and as heroic figures in plays and movies. The operetta Rose-Marie featured a stalwart singing mountie (played in the film version by Nelson Eddy) and the Renfrew of the Royal Mounted books served a similar function (and in film versions, Renfrew serenaded as well as fighting crime). Stock melodramas would have a mountie rescue the heroine, the old-time radio series Challenge of the Yukon (later renamed Sgt. Preston of the Yukon for TV) had a mountie (or more often his husky) capturing criminals, and the Jay Ward Dudley Do-Right cartoons parodied them all.
References[]
- For the operatic medley in The Muppet Show episode 224, Link Hogthrob and male pigs back Cloris Leachman costumed as mounties (alluding to Rose-Marie).
- While singing "Movin' Right Along" in The Muppet Movie and realizing he's in Saskatchewan, Fozzie Bear drives past a mounted policeman on his horse.
- Kermit played a mountie, in another Rose-Marie spoof, in The Miss Piggy Calendar 1982.
- Kermit again played a mountie while visiting Canada in the coloring book 'Round the World with the Muppets.
- Sesame Street featured operatic mounties, again spoofing Rose-Marie, in the songs "I'm in Love with U" (Nelson) and "When I'm Calling Baa" (portrayed by Placido Flamingo).
- The RCMP is among the law enforcement agencies with planted undercover dogs in the Dog City episode "Disobedience School."
- In the Canadian Just for Laughs show, Miss Piggy makes her entrance on a litter carried by mounties.
- Gund made a set of Sesame Street plush dressed as mounties in 2012.
- A 2017 Sesame Street clothing line from Drake General Store included shirts with characters in mountie outfits.