So I’ve gotten super into The Muppets over the past year, and my interest has increased to the point where I’m actively attempting to teach myself puppetry and sewing, so that I can start my own projects. Here are some silly/fun things I’ve learned: 1. The skeletal hooping that stabilizes full-body puppets is called “boning”. Nothing could have prepared me for watching a buncha adults talking about “boning” with straight faces...
2. Many muppet eyes are ping pong balls, and in some muppets like Elmo those eyes have a dowel on the inside of the head that the puppeteer can tug on with their pinky for a little added expression and movement.
3. When making The Muppet Show, Jim Henson et al wanted to separate themselves from the clean, kid-friendly image of Sesame Street, and titled the pilot episode “Sex and Violence”. There was also a muppet in the pilot named Lust, which was puppeted by Richard Hunt.
4. Speaking of Richard Hunt, he is the man we can thank for Beaker and Bunson’s gay relationship. He was the resident out gay man on set, and poured a lot of queerness into the show and the company. I highly recommend Matt Baum’s video on Richard Hunt over on YouTube.
5. If you’ve ever wondered how muppets ride bikes in films like The Muppet movie, it works kinda different depending on the film you’re watching, but it’s surprisingly simple. In The Muppet Movie, Kermit’s legs are mechanized, and the bike is held up by 2 string filaments, one on either end of the vehicle, which are then marrionetted from above for the duration of the scene. In later iterations of biking scenes, they would film from the side and have the bikes attached to one another. The “leading” bike would have the back wheel attached via a rod to the front wheels of the bike at the back. You can see the connecting rod if you pay close attention. The bikes are then pulled along by a single filament string attached to a human on a bike that is out of shot.
6. The Jim Henson Company has had its finger in many pies UP TO AND INCLUDING producing Sid the Science Kid, Dinosaur Train, Word Party, AND THE HIGH FRUCTOSE ADVENTURES OF ANNOYING ORANGE???
