109 Fun Facts About The Muppets

Which nonsense song, a Muppet favourite since 1969, began life in an Italian film about Sweden?

Mahna Mahna was written by Piero Umiliani for a racy 1968 pseudo-documentary; the Muppets sang it on The Ed Sullivan Show a year later and made it the opening number of their own series.

In which country was The Muppet Show actually produced?

England got the show once the American networks had passed: British mogul Lew Grade offered the money and a studio near London, so Hollywood guest stars had to fly over to tape.

In the 1980s cartoon Muppet Babies, which character is seen only from the neck down?

Nanny is drawn from the babies' eye level, so viewers see little more than her green-striped stockings; her voice was Barbara Billingsley, the mother from Leave It to Beaver.

On The Muppet Show, whose rich uncle owns the theatre?

Scooter got the gofer job because his uncle J.P. Grosse owns the theatre, and he holds on to it through efficiency as much as nepotism.

Which Muppet drummer is so wild that he is kept on a chain?

Animal once faced jazz great Buddy Rich in a drum battle on The Muppet Show; the playing was really big-band drummer Ronnie Verrell, for whom Rich was a hero.

The Muppet Theater, home of The Muppet Show, is what kind of venue?

An old vaudeville house suited the format: Jim Henson framed the series as a little vaudeville show on a small stage with a backstage, so the chaos behind the curtain became part of the act.

Which stern Muppet appoints himself The Muppet Show's censor and guardian of decency?

Sam Eagle championed the singing duo Wayne and Wanda as wholesome entertainment, yet their numbers always ended in disaster and they never finished a song.

In The Muppet Show's Pigs in Space, the crew's ship takes its punning name from which series?

Star Trek lent its name to the USS Swinetrek, while the sketch's booming title voice-over spoofs Lost in Space; Miss Piggy serves as First Mate under Captain Link Hogthrob.

What does the Muppets' Swedish Chef actually speak?

Mock Swedish gibberish it is, and the Chef took two performers: Jim Henson worked the head and voice while a second puppeteer's bare hands did the cooking.

What is the name of the house band on The Muppet Show?

Dr Teeth and the Electric Mayhem finally got a series of their own in 2023: The Muppets Mayhem follows the band as they set out to record their first studio album.

Across The Muppet Show's five seasons, what was true of its celebrity guest stars?

None ever appeared twice, though at first guests were so hard to book that producers begged personal friends; after ballet star Rudolf Nureyev's appearance, celebrities were asking to come on.

What relation is little Robin the Frog to Kermit?

His nephew Robin had a pop hit of his own: his version of the A.A. Milne poem 'Halfway Down the Stairs' reached the UK top ten in 1977 and put a small felt frog on Top of the Pops.

Which honour did The Muppet Show receive in 1978, alongside its Emmy win?

A Peabody Award crowned a turnaround: the series the American networks had turned down was by then selling to more than 100 countries.

Which guest star won a Primetime Emmy in 1977 for her appearance on The Muppet Show?

Rita Moreno's Emmy completed a rare set: already holding an Oscar, a Grammy and a Tony, she became only the third person to win all four of America's major entertainment awards.

Jim Henson at first explained the word 'Muppet' as a blend of which two words?

Marionette and puppet was the tidy story Henson told early on; he later denied it, saying the word had no real origin and that he had simply coined it.

Which puppet show did Jim Henson launch on a Washington television station in 1955?

Sam and Friends was made with Jane Nebel, whom Henson later married; its puppets began by lip-syncing to records, and one of them was an early Kermit who was not yet a frog.

The first version of Kermit was built out of what?

A coat and a table tennis ball: Henson cut up one of his mother's old coats and used the ball for eyes, and at first the result was more abstract lizard than frog.

On Sesame Street, Kermit often wore a trench coat for which job?

News reporter was Kermit's beat on Sesame Street News Flash: he turned up wherever a fairy tale or nursery rhyme was unfolding to interview its characters on the spot.

Which song did Kermit record for Sesame Street in 1970?

Bein' Green starts as a lament that green blends in with so many ordinary things and ends with Kermit deciding it is what he wants to be; Frank Sinatra and Ray Charles both covered it.

Which song does Kermit sing to open The Muppet Movie?

Rainbow Connection was inspired by Pinocchio's 'When You Wish Upon a Star', an opening song that sets a whole film's mood; Kermit's version reached the US top 30 and earned an Oscar nomination.

Who took over performing Kermit after Jim Henson's death?

Steve Whitmire, a Muppet performer since 1978, was sent a Kermit puppet by Jim Henson's daughter Heather and could not bring himself to work with it for weeks; he went on to play the frog until 2016.

Kermit the Frog sat in for which talk show host in April 1979?

Johnny Carson took the night off and left The Tonight Show to Kermit, whose guests included Vincent Price and Bernadette Peters; the stunt plugged the coming Muppet Movie.

Which singer was Miss Piggy originally named after?

Peggy Lee gave her name to 'Miss Piggy Lee', designer Bonnie Erickson's joke and homage to an independent woman; the 'Lee' was dropped as the pig's fame grew, so as not to upset the singer.

What is Miss Piggy's trademark move when she is insulted?

A karate chop, delivered with a cry of 'hi-yah!', lands most often on Kermit: when Miss Piggy is not smothering him in kisses, she is sending him flying through the air.

Which French word is Miss Piggy's best-known verbal trademark?

Moi is so bound up with Miss Piggy that a real perfume launched in her name in 1998 was simply called Moi, and her celebrity cookbook was credited 'by Moi'.

The puppeteer who originated Miss Piggy and Fozzie Bear also performed which Star Wars character?

Yoda came his way after George Lucas asked Jim Henson to take the part; too busy to do it himself, Henson recommended his closest Muppet collaborator, who worked the puppet and gave it its voice.

Kermit loses what in The Muppets Take Manhattan?

His memory goes when he is knocked down in traffic, and the amnesiac Kermit writes advertising slogans with other frogs until his friends find him; the film ends with his on-stage wedding to Miss Piggy.

Where is Kermit living when a talent agent finds him at the start of The Muppet Movie?

In a swamp, strumming a banjo on a log: Jim Henson performed the scene sealed in a metal container under the water, working Kermit through a rubber sleeve in its top.

Which songwriter co-wrote The Muppet Movie's songs after guest-starring on The Muppet Show?

Paul Williams wrote them with Kenny Ascher, slipped into the film himself as the El Sleezo Cafe's piano player, and returned in 1992 to write the songs for The Muppet Christmas Carol.

In The Muppet Movie, what does the villain Doc Hopper want Kermit to advertise?

A frog legs restaurant chain is the grim joke: Doc Hopper's French-fried frog legs franchise is struggling, so he wants a frog as its mascot and hounds Kermit across the country when he refuses.

Which film legend plays the Hollywood studio boss who signs the Muppets in The Muppet Movie?

Orson Welles plays mogul Lew Lord, who hands them a 'standard rich and famous contract'; the name is a nod to Lew Grade, the real mogul who bankrolled The Muppet Show.

In The Great Muppet Caper, which Muppet plays Kermit's identical twin brother?

Fozzie Bear and Kermit play twin brothers, newspaper reporters so short of funds that they fly to London in a plane's cargo hold and are thrown out of it on arrival.

Which fantasy film did Jim Henson direct on his own in 1986?

Labyrinth had Henson hire a Monty Python member to write the script and David Bowie to write the songs and play Jareth the Goblin King, opposite Jennifer Connelly.

Who co-directed The Dark Crystal with Jim Henson in 1982?

Frank Oz co-directed and, like Henson, performed several of the film's creatures himself; its whole world grew out of the drawings of fantasy artist Brian Froud, whom Henson sought out.

In 1989 Jim Henson began talks to sell the Muppets to which buyer, which finally acquired them in 2004?

The Walt Disney Company had a deal worth about $150 million close to completion when Henson died in May 1990; within months the two sides had called the merger off.

Besides Kermit, which Sesame Street character did Jim Henson himself perform for two decades?

Ernie was Henson's half of a lasting double act, played against his closest colleague's Bert; after Henson died in 1990, Ernie and Kermit were inherited by the same younger puppeteer.

In Muppets Most Wanted, what marks out the criminal frog Constantine from his double, Kermit?

A mole is the giveaway, so Constantine slaps a fake one on Kermit, hides his own under green make-up and lets the real frog be hauled off to a Siberian gulag.

Which Muppet, introduced in the 1990s, bristles at being called a shrimp?

Pepe began in 1996 as the smaller half of a double act with Seymour the elephant on Muppets Tonight, running the lift and then the canteen, before graduating to the Muppet films.

Which television producer recruited Jim Henson's Muppets for a new children's series in 1969?

Joan Ganz Cooney had to win over a reluctant Henson, who feared being typecast as a children's entertainer; he joined anyway, and Sesame Street made his Muppets household names.

In the mid-1970s, Jim Henson's Muppets were regulars in the first season of which sketch comedy show?

Saturday Night Live gave Henson's adult-oriented Land of Gorch sketches to its own writers, who disliked writing for puppets so much that they drew straws for the job; the Muppets soon left for a show of their own.

Who plays Ebenezer Scrooge in The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)?

Michael Caine told the director at their first meeting that he would play Scrooge as if acting with the Royal Shakespeare Company, never winking at the camera or adjusting his performance for the puppets.

Which two Muppets narrate The Muppet Christmas Carol, one of them playing Charles Dickens?

Gonzo and Rizzo the Rat are there for Dickens's prose: the film-makers wanted his narration spoken on screen, cast Gonzo as the least likely Dickens they could think of and gave him Rizzo as a sidekick.

Who made his feature directing debut with The Muppet Christmas Carol in 1992?

Brian Henson, Jim's son, first planned a broad parody with Miss Piggy among the three ghosts, then decided to play Dickens straight and had new, eerier spirits built instead.

Which Dickens character does Kermit the Frog play in The Muppet Christmas Carol?

Bob Cratchit wins his fellow bookkeepers Christmas Day off by pointing out that Scrooge would have no customers anyway; at home, with Miss Piggy as his wife, the daughters are pigs and the sons are frogs.

Who play the ghosts of Jacob and Robert Marley in The Muppet Christmas Carol?

Statler and Waldorf needed a ghost apiece, so the film gave Dickens's lone Jacob Marley an invented brother, Robert, whose name may be a wink at reggae star Bob Marley.

In The Muppet Christmas Carol, what does Fozziwig's business make?

Rubber chickens suit the boss: Dickens's Mr Fezziwig was renamed Fozziwig for the Muppet comedian who plays him, and it is at his factory's Christmas party that young Scrooge first meets Belle.

In The Muppet Christmas Carol, which two Muppets play the charity collectors Scrooge turns away?

Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker leave startled after Scrooge's angry rant about the poor; a song written and recorded for the pair, 'Room in Your Heart', was dropped from the film but kept on its soundtrack album.

Which Muppet Christmas Carol song was cut from the theatrical release and later restored?

'When Love Is Gone' was cut after studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg judged Belle's ballad too much for restless young children; it survived on video, but the film elements went missing for years before a 2022 restoration.

In The Muppets (2011), what does tycoon Tex Richman plan to do with the Muppet Theater?

Drill for oil beneath it is the plan a visiting fan overhears, and the only way to stop it is to raise $10 million, so Kermit reunites the long-scattered Muppets for a telethon.

Which singer joined the Muppets for the 1979 album and television special A Christmas Together?

John Denver guest-starred on The Muppet Show the same year; after the Christmas album and special, he took the Muppets camping in the Rockies for a second special in 1983.

Which Muppet became a national star in the 1960s as country singer Jimmy Dean's television sidekick?

Rowlf the Dog began in dog food commercials and, by Jimmy Dean's count, drew 2,000 fan letters a week on his show; Dean was offered about 40% of Henson's company and turned it down, saying he had not earned it.

Which 1980s Jim Henson series is set in caves where tiny Doozers build structures that their neighbours eat?

Fraggle Rock's Doozers want their work eaten: when the Fraggles once stopped out of kindness, the tiny builders ran out of room and got ready to move away.

Who paid a German group just $84 million for the Muppets' parent company in 2003?

The Henson family got it back at a bargain: the German buyer had paid $680 million in 2000, saw its own shares collapse, and sold to Jim Henson's children for about an eighth of that.

Which other Henson property was sold alongside the Muppets in 2004?

Bear in the Big Blue House was the only non-Muppet property in the deal: the preschool show had been airing on its buyer's own cable channel since 1997.

Which Muppets cover of a Queen song went viral and won two Webby Awards?

Bohemian Rhapsody needed no cover band: Queen handed over their original 1975 backing tracks, so the Muppets sing over the band's own playing, Freddie Mercury's piano included.

Which Bret McKenzie song from The Muppets (2011) won the Academy Award for Best Original Song?

Man or Muppet is a mock power ballad in which Jason Segel's Gary pictures himself as a Muppet while Walter pictures himself as a human, played in a cameo by Jim Parsons.

Which actor plays the pirate Long John Silver opposite Kermit's Captain Smollett in Muppet Treasure Island (1996)?

Tim Curry's Silver meets a reworked castaway: Miss Piggy plays Benjamina Gunn, an island queen whom Kermit's captain once jilted.

Matt Vogel, Kermit the Frog's performer since 2017, also took over which Sesame Street character from Caroll Spinney?

Big Bird had been Matt Vogel's understudy job since 1996, stepping into the suit when Caroll Spinney could not, long before he took over full-time in 2018.

Which Muppets attraction, the last film Jim Henson directed, closed in Florida in 2025?

Muppet*Vision 3D was shot in January 1990, four months before Henson died; it closed to make room for a Monsters, Inc. land, and the Muppets were promised a nearby roller coaster instead.

Muppet Show hecklers Statler and Waldorf both take their names from which kind of New York landmark?

Grand hotels in New York City lent the two old men their names: the Statler Hilton and the Waldorf-Astoria, both Manhattan landmarks.

The 1999 Muppet film that finally explains Gonzo's mysterious species reveals him to be what?

An alien is the answer Muppets from Space gives: Gonzo's lookalike family arrive by spaceship to take him home, but he chooses to stay on Earth with his friends.

Unlike nearly every other Muppet, the Swedish Chef has which body parts supplied by a real person?

His hands belong to a second puppeteer and stick out of the sleeves, which lets the Chef grip real food and utensils while another performer works the head.

Which Star Wars actor guest-starred on The Muppet Show in 1980 as both himself and his screen hero?

Mark Hamill appeared as himself and as Luke Skywalker in an episode called The Stars of Star Wars, shown the year The Empire Strikes Back reached cinemas.

In The Muppet Movie, hidden strings from an overhead crane let Kermit do what in a full-body shot?

To ride a bicycle, a Kermit puppet with legs was fixed to the seat and pedals while the crane guided the bike along. The next film topped it with a whole pack of cycling Muppets.

In The Muppets Take Manhattan, Miss Piggy swaps Gonzo for a real what at the stage wedding?

A minister, properly ordained, takes Gonzo's place at the altar, which turns the staged finale of the Muppets' Broadway show into what looks like a real marriage for Kermit.

Which How I Met Your Mother star co-wrote The Muppets (2011) and played small-town fan Gary?

Jason Segel pitched the comeback film in 2008 with his co-writer Nicholas Stoller, three years before it reached cinemas with him in a lead role.

Which new Muppet, a lifelong fan with a gift for whistling, joined the gang in The Muppets (2011)?

Walter was introduced as the puppet brother of a human character, and his whistling act at the telethon wins him a place in the Muppet troupe.

In The Great Muppet Caper, Kermit and the gang fly to which European city to solve a jewel theft?

London is where the Muppets land after being thrown out of a plane's cargo hold in crates, because their boss gave them no money for the trip.

Muppet Labs scientist Bunsen Honeydew always wears glasses, yet which feature does his face lack?

Eyes are something Bunsen simply lacks: his lensless glasses sit on a bare, melon-shaped head, the feature that gave him the surname Honeydew.

Which comedian plays the insolent waiter at Kermit and Miss Piggy's dinner in The Muppet Movie?

Steve Martin drew praise for the bit even from a New York Daily News critic who felt most of the film's other star cameos slowed the action down.

Which British comedian plays crooked tour manager Dominic Badguy in Muppets Most Wanted (2014)?

Ricky Gervais plays Badguy, who turns out to be a jewel thief known as the Lemur and ranks only as the world's second most wanted criminal.

In Muppets Most Wanted, Kermit is mistaken for a master criminal and locked up in which region?

Siberia holds the gulag where Kermit ends up running the inmates' talent show, watched by a guard who is obsessed with him.

Lew Zealand's act on The Muppet Show involves throwing which objects that then fly back to him?

Fish are Lew's boomerangs: he turned up in the third season to plug his boomerang fish act and once used it to stop Kermit being tricked into a real marriage.

In the 2015 ABC series The Muppets, Miss Piggy is the star of which kind of television programme?

A late-night talk show called Up Late with Miss Piggy is the workplace of the mockumentary, with Kermit as its executive producer.

Which pop star fronted a 2013 Thanksgiving television special with the Muppets on ABC?

Lady Gaga duetted with Kermit in the ABC special, and she went on to make a cameo appearance in Muppets Most Wanted.

In The Great Muppet Caper, Miss Piggy crashes through a stained glass window riding what?

A motorcycle conveniently falls out of a passing van just when she needs one, a stroke of luck that Piggy herself tells the audience is hard to believe.

Rowlf the Dog is best known on The Muppet Show for sitting at which musical instrument?

Piano was Rowlf's job as the show's resident musician, and he even played a toy one as a baby in a musical number of The Muppets Take Manhattan.

Rizzo the Rat takes his name from a street hustler played by Dustin Hoffman in which 1969 film?

Midnight Cowboy features Ratso Rizzo, the con man on whom the rat's first performer based the character as well as the name.

Which towering, shaggy ogre chases the Muppets' car all the way to Hollywood in The Muppet Movie?

Sweetums is left behind at a used car lot, runs after the gang for the rest of the film and finally tears through the cinema screen in its closing moments.

Which ATV boss, already backing Gerry Anderson's puppet series, agreed to make The Muppet Show?

Lew Grade said yes after the American networks had all turned Jim Henson down, having already produced two specials with him.

Which provocative subtitle did Jim Henson insist on keeping for his 1975 pilot of The Muppet Show?

Sex and Violence worried the network, but Henson called the title a humorous hook: the half-hour special sent up how much of both was on television.

Which ballet star danced in Swine Lake and sang in a sauna with Miss Piggy on The Muppet Show?

Rudolf Nureyev shared the steam-room duet Baby, It's Cold Outside with Miss Piggy, then sang and tap-danced in the finale of his 1978 episode.

Which Monty Python star co-wrote his Muppet Show episode and had a cameo in The Great Muppet Caper?

John Cleese was a fan of the series who helped write much of his 1977 episode, and he returned in the film as an easily bored aristocrat.

Which singer performed Turn the World Around on The Muppet Show and later at Jim Henson's memorial?

Harry Belafonte sang it with a chorus of specially made Muppets patterned on African masks, and the number ran on over the closing credits of his episode.

Robin the Frog's 1977 top ten single Halfway Down the Stairs sets to music a poem by which author?

A. A. Milne published the poem in When We Were Very Young in 1924, and the little frog's recording climbed to number seven in the UK singles chart.

Which vain, square-jawed pig commands the spaceship in The Muppet Show's sketch Pigs in Space?

Link Hogthrob has wavy blond hair, a cleft chin and a high opinion of himself, and his swagger keeps him at odds with his first mate, Miss Piggy.

Which Muppet is famous for setting off explosions with a plunger box on The Muppet Show?

Crazy Harry once backed a guest's song on an explodaphone, a row of plunger boxes that went off at the end of every verse.

What job does the slow-witted Beauregard hold backstage at the Muppet Theater on The Muppet Show?

Janitor Beauregard is so attached to the place that The Muppets (2011) finds him still living in a closet there, unaware the show went off the air years ago.

Jerry Nelson, voice of Robin the Frog and Lew Zealand, had which long-running Sesame Street role?

Count von Count was Nelson's longest-serving Sesame Street character, a vampire who delights in counting anything and everything he can.

Which dreadlocked, sunglasses-wearing Muppet became the host of the 1990s series Muppets Tonight?

Clifford fronted the series from 1996 until it ended in 1998, then went back to his original look for Muppets from Space the following year.

Which R&B singer plays Dorothy, a Kansas teenager chasing stardom, in The Muppets' Wizard of Oz?

Ashanti won the part over Hilary Duff and Jessica Simpson for the 2005 TV film, in which Dorothy's pet Toto is a prawn rather than a dog.

Which Muppet Babies character, Scooter's twin sister, was created specially for the 1980s cartoon?

Skeeter was added because the series needed a second girl to set against Baby Piggy's bombastic personality.

Which puppeteer, a former industrial designer, developed Gonzo and first played him in the 1970s?

Dave Goelz worked for firms such as Hewlett-Packard before joining Jim Henson as a puppet builder, and he saw Gonzo as a misfit who mirrored his own feelings.

In The Muppet Movie, Fozzie Bear drives Kermit across America in which make of 1951 car?

A Studebaker Commander from the film, one of two used in the shoot, is now on display at the marque's own museum in South Bend, Indiana.

Which star of TV's The Avengers plays the robbed fashion designer in The Great Muppet Caper?

Diana Rigg plays the designer whose prize jewel is targeted by her own brother, a thief who falls head over heels for Miss Piggy.

Which puppeteer took over performing Miss Piggy in 2001 and Fozzie Bear the following year?

Eric Jacobson first played Piggy at the MuppetFest fan convention, and he consulted the characters' original performer to keep their personalities and movements true.

Which Muppet, once billed as the Phantom of the Muppet Show, later ran Miss Piggy's wardrobe?

Uncle Deadly claimed to be an actor who once played Othello at the Muppet Theater and was killed there, though only by the critics.

Jim Henson modelled the Electric Mayhem's gold-toothed bandleader on which New Orleans musician?

Dr. John was the model, and Henson found the part one of his hardest to play because of the harshness of the bandleader's voice.

Electric Mayhem bassist Sgt. Floyd Pepper takes his rank and surname from an album by which band?

The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band supplied the rank and surname, while his first name and pink skin are a nod to Pink Floyd.

The Electric Mayhem's blonde lead guitarist takes her first name from which 1960s rock singer?

Janis Joplin inspired the name Janice, though the guitarist's looks are much closer to those of folk musician Joni Mitchell.

Zoot blows the final off-key note of The Muppet Show's closing theme on which instrument?

Saxophone is Zoot's instrument: after that last note he peers into it, bewildered, then gives a satisfied nod. His name honours jazz player Zoot Sims.

Which jazz legend fought a drum battle with the Electric Mayhem's drummer on The Muppet Show?

Buddy Rich was matched against a puppet whose drumming was really played by Ronnie Verrell, in one of Rich's most widely seen television performances.

Which trumpet player joined the Electric Mayhem for the final season of The Muppet Show?

Lips arrived in the fifth season as the band's sixth member, with a name inspired by the mouth on posters for The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

In The Muppet Movie, Kermit first meets Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem in what kind of building?

An old church is where the band has set up, and it is there that the musicians and their manager help the travellers disguise their car.

In The Muppet Movie, what does the Electric Mayhem read to find Kermit stranded in the desert?

The film's script lets the band skip ahead to the breakdown scene, so they turn up in the desert in time to rescue the trip to Hollywood.

In The Muppets (2011), the Electric Mayhem's drummer is found at which kind of celebrity clinic?

Anger management comes with a court-appointed sponsor, Jack Black, who will not let him play the drums or even hear the instrument mentioned.

Dr. Teeth leads the Electric Mayhem as its gravelly-voiced singer while playing which instrument?

Keyboards are his instrument, and the gold tooth in his wide grin is said to have been made by melting down his gold records.

Which actress plays Mary, a schoolteacher and Gary's longtime girlfriend, in The Muppets (2011)?

Amy Adams plays the teacher, whose long wait pays off when she ends the film as Gary's fiancée.

Which comedy director plays the mad scientist ordered to brainwash Kermit in The Muppet Movie?

Mel Brooks plays Professor Krassman, whose electric brain-frying device is turned on him when Miss Piggy fights off the villain's henchmen.