“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of puppets.”

I’m pretty sure H. P. Lovecraft said that, or something very like it. And if he didn’t say exactly that, maybe it’s because he hadn’t seen Cthulhu: The Musical! by Puppeteers for Fears.

Of course, that’s a joke. Because while Cthulhu: The Musical! is many things, “scary” isn’t one of them, nor is it ever trying to be. [One of the jokes in this R-rated puppet show is about how one character’s suicide from the story might be “too dark” because they don’t want to get “demonetized.”]

Cthulhu: The Musical! is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: a musical, performed entirely by Muppet-like puppets, adapting H. P. Lovecraft’s 1928 short story “The Call of Cthulhu.” Early on, the show’s narrator, Bert the Shoggoth, chastises the crowd for being “lazy Americans” who aren’t familiar enough with the source material.

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The jokes in Cthulhu: The Musical! mostly follow one particular vein: what you might call “Deadpool humor.” Lots of breaking of the 4th wall to address the audience directly, lots of meta jokes, lots of anachronistic references to modern pop culture, and lots and lots of sexual innuendo. A partial list of joke subjects includes Tinder, Japanese tentacle porn, Justin Timberlake’s DUI, Duolingo, and an extensive gag about Sonic the Hedgehog.

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Whether you liked the jokes or songs, the puppeteering is probably always going to be the biggest draw for a puppet show, and the crew at Puppeteers for Fears really gave it their all, despite being shackled with the unenviable task of crawling around, often on their knees, to work the puppets.

In fact, some of the show’s best gags involved the inventiveness of the puppeteers, such as a scene in which the Inspector Legrasse puppet answers the telephone, achieved by one puppeteer simply sticking their arm up above the stage partition and making the “banana phone” gesture.

Puppeteers for Fears (top marks for the name) are touring the show around the States and some venues appear to still have tickets available. Report back if you go.