Chip's blinking pupils

[minor muppetz]

Anybody know if there's any special reason why Chip's pupils have a blinking effect? It is weird, and Chip is kind of a weird character (even more so on The Muppets, where he's finally given character development), but his appearance isn't too weird (could that be the point, one of the more normal-looking characters created for The Jim Henson Hour having a weird physical effect?).

I had thought Chip didn't even blink his pupils on The Jim Henson Hour, but then I watched his two scenes last night and saw that they did blink, though in both cases it happened when MuppeTelevision switched over to Gorilla Television, when there was some fuzzy static, making it a bit hard to make out. He wasn't seen much after those instances, but I wonder if the blinking eyes were done to make it appear as if the fuzziness of switching programs were making them disappear briefly on screen.

 

[Mo Frackle]

Probably done just as a way for Henson and co. to experiment with new puppets. Every character built for JHH had a unique style that was unlike what had been built for the Muppets in the past, and Chip was no exception.

 

[minor muppetz]

One possibility that I thought of after watching his scenes sometime after posting this: In both scenes, the scene transitions from Muppet Central to Gorilla Television, it looks like Chip's pupils blink during the static transitions. Perhaps it was supposed to blend in with the static, to look as if the pupils briefly disappeared while the screen was temporarily static.

Of course, if that was the intention, then whoever performed him since had been using the effect when he was used since, not to mention the effect remained in the rebuilt Chip for the 2015 series. And if that is the case, could it be that they forgot/were unaware and just went crazy with the feature? Anybody remember if his eyes ever blinked on Muppets Tonight, where he was a frequent extra? It appears briefly in Muppets from Space and seems kinda freaky (especially since he was more of background character in that scene and hardly anybody knew who this character was), and his pupils blink a lot on The Muppets.

 

[LittleJerry92]

I don't know what purpose they serve, but they just creep me out.

And speaking of Chip - sometimes I can't help but wonder if he has some type of learning dissability. He seems to have alot of issues talking with other characters.