50 free Jim Henson trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Jim Henson turned a green coat and two ping-pong balls into the most famous frog in the world, and this quiz covers the whole career: the Mississippi-born teenager who got a TV job at 17, the college puppetry class where he met his wife, the coffee commercials that made his name, Sesame Street, the Muppet Show that American networks turned down, the dark fantasies The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, and the sudden death in 1990 that shocked the world. Easy questions ask which frog he performed and which street his monsters lived on; harder ones dig into his home economics degree, the Wilkins and Wontkins ads, the Oscar-nominated short Time Piece, Yoda, the SNL writer who would not write for felt and the Disney deal that was never signed. It is a fair round for anyone who grew up with the Muppets, Fraggle Rock or Sesame Street, and it goes deep enough for serious Henson fans. BrainPickle's Muppets and Sesame Street quizzes cover the characters in more detail. Every answer has been checked against the Wikipedia articles on Henson, his shows, films and collaborators, and each question shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which US state was Jim Henson born in 1936?
Mississippi
He was born in Greenville and raised partly in Leland before the family moved to Maryland in the late 1940s.
Q 02Where did Henson study, meeting his future wife in a puppetry class as a freshman?
The University of Maryland
He took a newly offered puppetry class full of seniors, including his future wife Jane Nebel.
Q 03What subject was Henson's university degree in?
Home economics
He had enrolled as a studio arts major thinking he might become a commercial artist.
Q 04What was the name of the short puppet show Henson and Jane Nebel made for WRC-TV from 1955 to 1961?
Sam and Friends
The three-to-five-minute nightly show included a prototype of Kermit.
Q 05The first Kermit was made from what?
A ping-pong ball and his mother's old coat
Denim from a pair of jeans formed the sleeve for the puppeteer's arm, and the creature was at first a vague lizard.
Q 06Henson claimed "Muppet" was a portmanteau of which two words?
Marionette and puppet
In truth many early Muppets were hand or rod puppets rather than marionettes.
Q 07In what year did Henson and Jane Nebel found Muppets, Inc.?
1958
They married the following year; a European trip that summer had convinced him puppetry was a serious art form.
Q 08What product did Henson's Wilkins and Wontkins commercials sell?
Coffee
In the seven-second spots Wontkins refused the coffee and got shot from a cannon or hit with a hammer; more than 300 were made.
Q 09Which snack company used an early Cookie Monster to advertise its Munchos potato snacks?
Frito-Lay
Henson also made ads for Royal Crown Cola, La Choy and Claussen's Bread before Sesame Street let him quit commercials.
Q 10Which piano-playing dog was the first Muppet to appear regularly on network TV?
Rowlf
Henson offered Dean 40 percent of his company in gratitude; Dean declined and never regretted it.
Q 11Henson's nine-minute experimental film Time Piece earned what honour in 1965?
An Academy Award nomination
He made a series of experimental films from 1963 to 1966, including The Cube in 1969.
Q 12Which puppeteer did Henson hire in 1963, beginning the partnership behind Bert and Ernie?
Frank Oz
Writer Jerry Juhl had joined in 1961; Henson credited both with much of the Muppets' humour and character.
Q 13Which producer invited Henson's team to work full-time on Sesame Street in 1969?
Joan Ganz Cooney
PBS later called Henson "the spark that ignited our fledgling broadcast service".
Q 21To whose memory did Henson dedicate The Muppet Movie?
Edgar Bergen
The ventriloquist who had inspired him as a boy died at 75 during production.
Q 22Which Star Wars character did George Lucas ask Henson to help create for The Empire Strikes Back?
Yoda
Lucas wanted Henson to puppeteer him; Henson suggested Frank Oz, who performed Yoda in the later films too.
Q 23Which fantasy illustrator's designs shaped the creatures of The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth?
Brian Froud
Henson co-directed The Dark Crystal with Frank Oz in 1982, aiming for creatures that seemed actually alive.
Q 14Which Sesame Street characters did Henson himself perform?
Ernie, Guy Smiley and Kermit
Kermit often appeared as a roving television news reporter.
Q 15In Henson's Sesame Street counting films, what always happens to the baker at the end?
He falls down the stairs with the desserts
Henson voiced the baker himself; he also directed the original "C Is for Cookie".
Q 16What were Henson's sketches on the first season of Saturday Night Live called?
The Land of Gorch
SNL writers disliked them; Michael O'Donoghue quipped, "I won't write for felt."
Q 17Which British impresario financed The Muppet Show after US networks rejected it in 1976?
Lew Grade
The show was taped at ATV's Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire and syndicated worldwide.
Q 18Why did the American networks turn down The Muppet Show in 1976?
They thought Muppets were only for children
Henson scrapped a planned Broadway show and moved his team to England instead.
Q 19How did colleagues describe Henson's management style, comparing him to Kermit?
A shy, gentle boss with "a whim of steel"
Caroll Spinney recalled he never said he disliked something; he would just go "Hmm", and if he liked it, "Lovely!"
Q 20Which song from The Muppet Movie, sung by Henson as Kermit, reached No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100?
Rainbow Connection
It was Oscar-nominated and entered the Library of Congress National Recording Registry in 2021.
Q 24What are the evil rulers of the planet Thra in The Dark Crystal called?
The Skeksis
The heroes Jen and Kira are Gelflings, and some creatures needed as many as four puppeteers.
Q 25Who played Jareth the Goblin King in Labyrinth (1986)?
David Bowie
Jennifer Connelly starred as Sarah, and Monty Python's Terry Jones wrote the screenplay.
Q 26Which Monty Python member wrote the screenplay for Labyrinth?
Terry Jones
He drew on Brian Froud's sketches for his first draft in early 1984.
Q 27How did Labyrinth's US box office failure affect Henson, according to his son Brian?
It left him close to depression
The film grossed just $12.9 million in the US but later became a cult classic.
Q 28Which pay-TV service co-produced Fraggle Rock with Henson, TVS and the CBC from 1983?
HBO
The show was designed to be adapted for broadcasters in many countries.
Q 29The puppeteer won Emmys for which two late-1980s series?
The Storyteller and The Jim Henson Hour
The Jim Henson Hour was cancelled after 12 episodes; Henson blamed NBC's constant rescheduling.
Q 30Which studio was Henson negotiating to sell his business to when he died?
Disney
The near-$150 million deal excluded the Sesame Street characters and collapsed after his death; Disney finally bought the Muppets in 2004.