Female Muppets performed by males

[wiley207]

I was wondering, which is your favorite male Muppeteer in doing female characters? Almost every male Muppet performer has done at least one female character, I noticed.

Well, I like Frank Oz's female Muppet voice best. Usually it's heard on Miss Piggy, but it's also heard whenever Frank usually does another female Muppet characters. This actually makes it pretty funny, for instance when you see a Muppet version of Snow White sounding like Miss Piggy or Grover. I also enjoyed it when he performed the Wicked Witch in that News Flash skit about the Magic Mirror (I think Frank Oz did the best witch voice out of all the Muppet performers; his characters tend to steal the show in those news reports).

Close seconds include Jerry Nelson and Richard Hunt. They did female roles a lot, too. Richard's Janice was pretty good, too, especially when Janice sings. His Young Woman who Lived in a Hat was really funny, too. Another well-known female Richard performed was Gladys the Cow. Although the voice sounded a bit deep, it really fit well with the character. Jerry Nelson's female Muppet voice is also easily recognizable. Wether it's Fozzie Bear's mother or Sleeping Beauty or Tinna Twiddlebug, it almost always sounds like Robin the Frog after inhaling the helium from a balloon. I also liked his Little Bo Peep voice, too. (That WAS Jerry, was it?)

I know that originally Jim Henson did all the Muppet voices until Frank Oz began doing voices, including the little girl in the "Beautiful Day Monster" skit. It sounded like a high-pitched Ernie. In the first season of "Sesame Street,"
Frank Oz usually played the females. But in 1970, they finally got their first female Muppeteer, Fran Brill. She added realism to some female Muppets, like Prairie Dawn. Her Zoe and Little Bird is cute, too. Jerry Nelson also came that year, so they were able to have more female characters on the show (Did anyone notice that in the second season there was a "new character explosion" then?)

Which female Muppet voice performed by a male Muppeteer do ya like best?

 

[minor muppetz]

I know that originally Jim Henson did all the Muppet voices until Frank Oz began doing voices, including the little girl in the "Beautiful Day Monster" skit.

Actually, Jerry Juhl did voices before Frank Oz joined the company, too, and I think Jerry Juhl performed voices as early as he had joined. He performed Taminella in Tales of the Tinkerdee, from 1962, and I know that that special has quite a few unidentifiable voices (at least accoridng to Tough Pigs' "My Week with Tinkerdee" article on the special). I wonder if Juhl performed more voices than just Taminella.

I think that Jerry Nelson and Richard Hunt performed the best female voices.

 

[minor muppetz]

(Did anyone notice that in the second season there was a "new character explosion" then?)

Yes, I noticed that, and I noticed that Jerry Nelson performed most of those new characters. I guess Jim Henson or Sesame Workshop decided that there needed to be more Muppets on the show (the first seasosn Muppet cast seemed to be scarce). It would have been great if Jim Henson, Frank Oz, and maybe even Caroll Spinney would have been given a few more characetrs that season, but it is great that Jerry Nelson got to have his own characetrs so soon. Sort of like joining the cast of a hit show and winning the lottery, only with characetrs as the prize instead of money.

 

[Super Scooter]

aww, no fair! You beat me to it!

Anyway, Taminella Grinferfall, witchiest witch of them all (the one they didn't invite to the ball), is my absolute favorite female performed by a male in the Muppets.