Melissa McCarthy’s Critically Panned Comedy Exits Netflix

Netflix is constantly changing its movie catalog, and one of its less popular options is getting the boot at the end of November. The Happytime Murders, a 2017 Muppet-adjacent comedy starring Melissa McCarthy, is leaving the streaming service on Nov. 30, and Netflix might be the better for it. The movie was an absolute pan upon its release, and it is not a film that has improved with time.

The Happytime Murders is a murder mystery where the puppet cast of a ’90s children’s show (definitely NOT The Muppets), and a disgraced former LAPD cop-turned-private eye puppet takes on the case. Melissa McCarthy plays his human partner. The Happytime Murders has an all-star cast, including Joel McHale, Elizabeth Banks, and Maya Rudolph, leaving the streaming service and is directed by Brian Henson, the son of the late Jim Henson. 

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However, despite those promising elements, The Happytime Murders just did not create magic. Critics and audiences alike couldn’t get on board with the obscene gags and profane humor, putting The Happytime Murders at 23% for critics and 39% for audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie ended up making just $27 million at the worldwide box office, failing to make back its $40 million budget.

“It’s definitely a grown-up movie,” McCarthy said in an interview with Collider. “My kids are like, ‘We can’t wait to see this!’ And I’m like, ‘I can’t wait to show you when you’re 40! It will be so wonderful when you’re 110 and you can see this!’ I think it’s part of the fun of it. Somebody was saying that there’s always that thing when you watch something from The Muppets, one of the movies, or Sesame Street, that when the lights go off, somebody says cut, and they walk out the back door, you wonder if they go into the real world and have a life? This is really seeing behind the curtain. When the lights are off and they’re not having to perform for people, you see the real grind of their lives, and there’s something really cool about it. There’s a weird, edgy coolness, and it’s really funny. It manages to take all those things and shove them together, and weirdly the puppet thing dissolves, but it’s right there. That’s a terrible description of what it is. You don’t not see that they’re puppets, but you immediately think that they’re living, breathing, and real. It’s crazy!”