My Favorite Muppets, Part 1: Jim Henson

I have hesitated to do a "Best Muppets" list for as long as I've written this blog.  But, after perusing other lists of a similar ilk, I've noticed that everyone tends to pick the same handful of characters.  There is a large population of characters that deserve recognition.  Limiting myself to just top 10 or 20 feels wrong, mostly because the popular ones will end up getting all of the top spots anyway.

So I shall break it down by puppeteer.  10 per person seems reasonable.  And, who better to start with than dear old Jim Henson?

Be warned, some of your favorites may not appear.  The Top 10 List is a cruel beast.

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10) Yorick - Sam and Friends

One of Henson's earliest creations, Yorick proves that sometimes the simplest ideas cannot be topped.  Paving the way for every Muppet with a voracious appetite, Yorick is just a skull that eats.  With his unwavering blank stare, Henson managed to create a character that was equally terrifying and endearing.  Part of me wishes that the film Kermit, Prince of Denmark had seen the light of day just so that Yorick could appear as his namesake.

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9) The Newsman - The Muppet Show

The Muppet News Flashes fulfill humanity's desire to see stiff and proper individuals get their feathers ruffled and violently injured.  Sure, each segment was exactly the same, but it was schadenfreude at its finest.

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8) Guy Smiley - Sesame Street

What I love about Guy Smiley is how passionate he is to his craft.  He has taken the concept of a game-show host and made it its own species.  Guy Smiley is very similar to another Henson character, Convincing John from Fraggle Rock, but what makes Smiley more appealing is his total lack of awareness of life outside of entertainment.  Convincing John always seems to have a personal goal to his energetic ravings.  Guy Smiley just lives in the spotlight.

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7) Mahna Mahna - The Muppet Show, various variety shows

Mahna Mahna is Henson's creative mind in a physical form.  My most well-received post is about this character, so it's clear that something about this creature appeals to a lot of us.  Besides, who can hear the words "Mahna Mahna" and not want to break into song?  (And yes, I know I used an image of Bip Bippadotta, but they are virtually the exact same character, so calm down.)

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6) Rowlf the Dog - The Muppet Show, The Jimmy Dean Show

Although Rowlf gets lost behind the other Muppets with his go-with-the-flow outlook on life, there was a lot more life to him in those early days.  He could verbally spar with the likes of Groucho Marx back in his Jimmy Dean days (and even his Veterinarian's Hospital days, although those were mostly flatlining puns).  Eventually he found his calling in the piano, but it always seemed as if Henson used Rowlf to say that which he couldn't say normally.

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5) Cantus the Minstrel - Fraggle Rock

The designers of Fraggle Rock created Cantus as a caricature of Jim Henson.  All of the other Fraggles looked up to Cantus and his words of wisdom, even if they were difficult to comprehend.  Henson's musings often made their way into Cantus's persona, and just like the Fraggles, this caused the production staff to treat the character as a prophet and mentor.  Cantus is like Rowlf to the nth degree, which is why I placed him slightly higher on the list.

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4) Delbert the La Choy Dragon - La Choy commercials

If the next three spots weren't such important characters, the La Choy Dragon would have swept this list.  Even though he was a brief character, he is the funniest mascot I have ever seen used to sell a product.  They way he frightens customers and destroys merchandise is such an avant-garde approach to advertising that I can't help but consider him to be the perfect representation of mindless consumerism.

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3) Ernie - Sesame Street

If each puppet on this list represented a different facet of Jim Henson, Ernie would be his childlike sense of wonder.  While Ernie is supposedly older than the other Muppets on the street, he loves life and doesn't let anyone get him down, even if he annoys others in the process.  He's always willing to find humor in any situation because he realizes that a good laugh can be cathartic in the most distressing situations.  Ernie may have a lot to learn, but he's got life all figured out.

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2) Kermit the Frog - Sam and Friends, Sesame Street, The Muppet Show

What else is there to say about Kermit the Frog?  He's the Muppet we all want to meet.  He's the Muppet we all want to be.

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1) Link Hogthrob - The Muppet Show

And out of all the Muppets Henson has portrayed, Link is his polar opposite.  A buffoonish clod who disrespects those he finds inferior to him, Link is what happens when Henson has the chance to play to the extreme.  He gets to indulge in a persona that is so unfamiliar to him that you can tell he has a wonderful time playing him.  I'm sad that Link never really took off as his own character, even though Henson tried his best to include him in the gang right until the very end.  With Kermit taking up most of his time, Link had to shine in his "Pigs in Space" and "Bear on Patrol" sketches, not to mention his covers of Village People songs.  I personally cannot hear "Macho Man" without picturing a leather-clad Hogthrob prancing about town.

And "In the Navy" is the greatest Muppet Show sketch of all time.  I've always wanted to talk about it, but I've never had much analysis administer to it.  It is just a wonderful piece, enhanced by the fact that Link plays the leader of the Vikings.

It's so wrong.  It's so right.  Just like Link Hogthrob.

Crouching Puppeteer, Spittin' Dragon

The history of advertising is closely linked to the mindset of the average consumer.  Early advertisements appealed to the public through the written word (and maybe a nice picture) to inform the audience about the product.  The claims may have been exaggerated or false, but the focus was always purely on whatever was trying to be sold.  As ads reached film, attempts were made to create visual and auditory memories, so that the consumer would be reminded of the clever premise or catchy jingle when strolling down the aisle at the supermarket.  It is during this era that mascots took off.  Characters came to life on the screen, existing only to shill their wares.  We have seen how Jim Henson's early commercials involved a clever send up of scare tactics used to sell items (by having his characters overtly threaten the consumer).  But his next target would be the concept of mascots themselves.

Advertising mascots only have one job: to represent their product in a positive light.  While mascots that hate the product are popular (such as the Geico cavemen or the adults who just don't understand why kids like Apple Jacks when they don't taste like apples) they do not besmirch the name of their company in the process of their antics.  Doing so would just be clumsy advertising.

Oops.

When the makers of La Choy Chow Mein contacted Henson to make a mascot for them, he obliged.  When they asked to make it a fire-breathing dragon, he had a field day.  Delbert the La Choy Dragon was an over-zealous, lumbering beast who LOVED La Choy products.  Unfortunately, in his excitement, he failed to notice his surroundings.  Like Godzilla, destruction followed this dragon wherever he went.

Unlike most mascots who are welcomed with open arms by the human characters, Delbert would frighten and endanger all those he encountered.  All the while, he would be completely oblivious to the chaos he left in his wake.  This satire on advertising comes off as very post-modern.  Ads like the one above would not feel out of place today.  In fact, it would fit in quite nicely with modern Super Bowl commercials.  But for the '60s, this kind of behavior was unheard of.

In pitching this character to advertisers, Henson knew that he would have to appeal to the producer's funny bones.  He made up a short reel, explaining the concept, all while poking fun at his own image (as well as those of the Muppets).  He knew that his stuff was weird, but it was the kind of weird television needed.  Even in a short few minutes, it is clear that he was passionate about this character, and he was especially proud at creating a new piece of technology that set the dragon apart from any puppet that had come before it.

Fire.  A puppet that could breathe fire.  Such an idea was unimaginable.  But Henson made it.  And he ran with it.  In every ad, showing the flame for one second just wasn't enough.  Everything else had to burn.  The food, the kitchen, the entire sets.  Henson was allowed to play with fire, and he was going to have fun with it.

All while poor Frank Oz had to suffer inside the suit.

Like all of Henson's mascots, the La Choy Dragon eventually disappeared along with the product.  It is a shame that Jim did not get more opportunities to play with this character.  The unbridled passion combined with his tendency towards dangerous spectacle made him the perfect Henson character.  This anti-mascot was too good for his time, but he will forever be one of the best.