The Great Muppet Caper - Plot

Plot

Kermit the Frog, Fozzie Bear, and Gonzo the Great play newspaper reporters for the Daily Chronicle. Kermit and Fozzie, specifically, are playing identical twin reporters, which becomes the source of a running gag - supposedly, nobody can tell they are twins unless Fozzie wears his hat. While Gonzo is too busy taking pictures of a chicken, the biggest fashion designer of London named Lady Holiday (Diana Rigg) gets robbed of her necklace. The trio are eventually assigned to investigate the theft of the valuable jewels from Lady Holiday, which they have to beg for after their boss Mike Tarkenian (Jack Warden) dismisses them following the Daily Chronicle's headline about the twins joining the staff (while the other papers report on the jewel heist).

They travel to London to interview her, but with only $12 for the trip, they are forced to fly in the airplane's baggage hold and are thrown out of the plane as they arrive over Britain while it continues on to Italy. They stay at the dilapidated (but free) Happiness Hotel, run and populated by Pops, Scooter, Rowlf, Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem, Sam the Eagle, Swedish Chef, Rizzo the Rat, and Lubbuck Lou and his Jughuggers. When Kermit seeks out Lady Holiday in her office however, he instead finds the love of his life Miss Piggy and fails to recognize her, mistaking her for the fashion designer. Piggy (who was interviewing for a job) masquerades as Lady Holliday, even going so far as to sneak into a ritzy townhouse (located at 17 Highbrow Street) to impress Kermit with her dwellings much to the surprise of the true British residents Neville (John Cleese) and Dorcas (Joan Sanderson).

At a night club restaurant, Lady Holiday's necklace is stolen by her jealous brother Nicky (Charles Grodin) and his assistants Carla (Kate Howard), Marla (Erica Creer), and Darla (Della Finch), three of her put-upon fashion models. Despite Nicky's instant attraction to Miss Piggy, they successfully frame her for the theft and plan to steal an even more valuable prize....the coveted Baseball Diamond which is on display at a local gallery, the Mallory Gallery. Unfortunately for them, Gonzo is under a nearby table and overhears them. Kermit's crew, along with their friends from the Happiness Hotel, have no choice but to intercept and catch the thieves themselves in order to exonerate Miss Piggy.

The Muppets get to the Mallory Gallery, and get to the Baseball Diamond at the same time as the thieves, use the Baseball Diamond in a game of Keep Away and later baseball, complete with Louis Kazagher commentating. Piggy, meanwhile, has escaped from prison and, in a bout of serendipity, finds a motorcycle which she uses to crash into the Gallery's window, knocking Nicky, who is holding Kermit hostage, out in the process. Carla, Marla and Darla confront Piggy, only to be quickly dispatched by a flurry of furious karate chops. As the police arrive, Piggy is cleared from all charges, Nicky and his fashion model-accomplices are arrested, and the Muppets get their deserved credit for foiling the heist. The Muppets then return to America the same way they departed, being thrown out of the cargo hold and parachuting back to Earth, over the end credits which concludes with Gonzo taking a photo of the audience with his overly powerful flashbulb causing the screen to go black as if he blinded his subjects again.