Kanye West’s Puppet Show ‘Alligator Boots’ Never Aired But Was Incredible
Alligator Boots is not Kanye West’s crowning artistic achievement. It’s not even really a complete achievement, considering that the Rhymefest-affiliated puppet show was canceled before it would have aired on Comedy Central. But this is the Internet, where not everything is made available but a lot sure is, and Konee Rok has posted about 10 minutes of behind-the-scenes footages of what might have been.In this video discovered by The Vine, we take an extensive look behind the scenes at a 2008 pilot for “Alligator Boots,” a sketch/puppet show pilot created by rapper Rhymefest in collaboration with Kanye West and Daniel Ellison of Jackhole Productions, who also produced “Crank Yankers.”
The show had almost the exact same concept as “The Muppet Show” — the puppets, which interact with live action celebrities, even were created by Jim Henson’s Muppet Workshop — but with a decidedly hip-hop flavor. For instance, Rhymefest describes a sketch in which a literal pig is touted as the next big thing in rap, but nobody notices that he’s just a pig “except for smart people.”
Another sketch, shown in the video, features “Beary White” crooning an X-rated ballad to Kim Kardashian in Princess Leia’s metal bikini.
Yes, when the show’s production was first leaked in 2008, it got some pretty bad press. And we’re the first to admit that the promos made the show look terrible. And also, many of the sketches sound ridiculous and actually are ridiculous. But the show looks ridiculous in the best, most Kanye-rific, oblivious to its own silliness way possible. However, Comedy Central has a history of taking chances with some great programming and also some not-so-great programming, and we feel like “Alligator Boots” could have been an experiment worth exploring.
“I think it’s going to go amazing!” -Kim Kardashian as Princess Leia in the unaired pilot. Sorry, Kim.