Melissa McCarthy has made some underwhelming films in the past (Tammy, Life of the Party) but none of them can compare to the obscene and doltish The Happytime Murders. This is the worst film she has starred in yet. After the lacklustre Life of the Party and now this trainwreck, McCarthy has hit a career-low. It is going to take a hilarious performance in a fantastic film for McCarthy to erase her tarnished reputation. Admittedly, McCarthy is far from the worst thing about The Happytime Murders but she is a producer and her face was plastered on every poster. If I've learnt anything about McCarthy from The Happytime Murders and Life of the Party, it is that she has lost the charisma, energy and enthusiasm that used to make her performances reliably hilarious. In this film, it is the physical humour where McCarthy shines...but it would be funny if anyone dived into a hot tub or fought gangster puppets; either the script failed to give McCarthy some cracking lines or her comedic timing isn't as good as it once was. McCarthy's mediocre performance is stuck in a terrible film.

Elizabeth Banks and Maya Rudolph also star. Banks should be glad her role wasn't any bigger because she comes very close to killing her career. To her credit, Banks delivers what her role demands but somebody of her calibre and stardom shouldn't have to stoop so low. Maya Rudolph seems to appear in a supporting role in almost every comedy role. She is basically a staple of the genre at this point. Rudolph is the funniest out of all the human characters and unlike McCarthy, her comedic moments are effective because Rudolph has great delivery and timing. Maya Rudolph may be the only person to come out of The Happytime Murders unscathed. 

Relying solely on lazy humour, The Happytime Murders is guaranteed to make you laugh. It doesn't actually earn any of those laughs because the jokes constantly involve sex, drugs, violence and more sex. Todd Berger wrote a comedic script that appeals to teen boys. Everybody else will cringe, awkwardly giggle or be left speechless by the film's explicitness and stupidity. When I laughed, it was mostly because I couldn't believe what I was actually watching. The crass and racy humour ranges from a cow puppet enjoying (a little too much) being milked to two puppets having overt sexual intercourse (if they were humans, it would be classed as porn). If the sexual jokes were diluted with more witty and intelligent humour, they would have been more effective. Less is more; even after the short 80-minutes, the frisky jibes became grating and overdone. Brian Henson and Todd Berger should have taken inspiration from Sausage Party, a similarly explicit and rather erotic film that also incorporates jokes with a little more substance. It's easy to tell a sex joke. Writer Todd Berger tells a hundred of them.

Berger doesn't make up for his juvenile jokes with a smart plot. In fact, Berger must have put more effort into the 'comedy' because the plot is incredibly simple. The cast members from 'The Happytime Gang' are being murdered and Phil Phillips (Barretta) and Detective Connie Edwards (McCarthy) are tasked with finding the killer. There really is no mystery; the script doesn't allow time for the audience to suspect any character because they each give believable alibis and are killed shortly after. When the killer is eventually revealed, it is surprising but also blatant; the killer is the only character linked to Phillips and Edwards's traumatic past. I guess I expected a smarter twist rather than the obvious one (Berger also ties a loose end with a 'carpet matches the drapes' line). The Happytime Murders had a good setup. However, it never tries to smart (it should) and fails to create any sense of mystery and suspense because it moves at such a fast pace. Not only is Todd Berger's comedic ability weak, he tells an uninspired story with minimal effort.

Brian Henson missed the mark. Henson has directed a slew of Muppets movies; he is the perfect choice to direct a 'muppets gone wild' type of film. Sadly, Henson's idea of 'wild' puppets seems to be puppets having sex. This film was the one opportunity for Henson to rebel and not having to care about being family friendly. Clearly, after all those years of making family films, Henson just wanted to see puppets have sex. The puppetry is impressive and it is unfortunate that these talented people wasted their time on an awful film. Brian Henson and STX Entertainment wanted to make a film that "honour[ed] the heritage of The Jim Henson Company". The Happytime Murders is a disgrace and will be remembered as nothing but puppet porn.