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In The Muppet Christmas Carol the ghost of Christmas future shows Scrooge all these bad things that'll happen if he doesn't change his ways. One of the things Scrooge is shown is the Cratchit family mourning the death of Tiny Tim, someone who we saw was sick and crippled before that.

Seeing this possible future helps Scrooge have a change of heart and he uses his wealth to show charity and kindness to people, including the Cratchit family. Then Gonzo/Charles Dickens says

and Tiny Tim, who did not die...

How does Scrooge's charity change whether someone dies, especially someone who was already sick?

The same question applies to the non-Muppet version(s).

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  • Probably because nobody dies in Muppet movies/shows.
    – phantom42
    Commented Dec 22, 2015 at 5:43
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    @phantom42 what about Marley? and Marley?
    – Ryan Veeder
    Commented Dec 22, 2015 at 6:28
  • I'm pretty sure that you don't need to hide the end of A Christmas Carol in spoilers, since its 150 years old.
    – DJClayworth
    Commented Dec 22, 2015 at 18:12
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    @RyanVeeder They died before the start of the movie. Big difference.
    – DJClayworth
    Commented Dec 22, 2015 at 18:13
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    I'm glad to see questions like this, and, by that, I mean questions that apply to well known and older works, including ones that people might not think of immediately when one mentions SF or fantasy. By the way, if you read the book, which only takes an hour or two, it's amazing how many lines in the original make it into almost every adaptation filmed.
    – Tango
    Commented Jan 16, 2016 at 6:51

2 Answers 2

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Scrooge's financial support undoubtedly allowed the Cratchits to provide Tiny Tim with more and higher-quality food, better living conditions (even if they lived in the same house, Scrooge could buy them extra blankets etc.) and the best doctors that dingy Victorian England had to offer.

Scrooge was also "a second father" to Tiny Tim, and it's not impossible that his emotional support allowed Tim to better combat whatever illness was racking his tiny felt body.

Of course, I don't think we're meant to infer from the words "did NOT die" that Tiny Tim went on to live forever. Like all frogs, he undoubtedly died eventually, and it's not unlikely that his illness did take him before he could live the rich, full life that Bob and Miss Piggy wanted for him. We have to assume that Dickens meant that Tiny Tim did not die as soon as he would have/did in the future that the Ghost of Christmas Future showed Scrooge.

You may be interested to know that this bit of Dickens's speech in the movie (and a lot of the script) is original to the book.

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    "Like all frogs" one of whose parents is a pig... :-D
    – Matt Gutting
    Commented Dec 22, 2015 at 14:36
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Because, by improving Bob Cratchit's wages, he enables the Cratchits to get better health care for Tim.

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