How are these characters operated?

[BEAR]

I know I should be putting this in the Puppetry thread, but I thought I would get more response here. i was just curious as to how they operate characters like Beaker, Pepe and Rizzo. Their mouths are much different then the others and they seem a bit more complicated technically. Also, Rizzo and Pepe are so small, how do the puppeteers put their hands inside. is it a different sort of mechanism than the whole hand moving like with Kermit?

 

[Docnzhoss]

I may be wrong, but I think this was discussed on this forum a while back. A search might give you the answers you're looking for. I just Googled the question and got a whole lot of unhelpful articles. Sorry I couldn't be more help.

 

[Was Once Ernie]

Beaker is a hand puppet like the others. Pepe and Rizzo are operated more like ventriloquist dummies. There is a rod with a lever on it that you pull down to open the mouth and let up to close it.

 

[MWoO]

Beaker is operated upright as opposed to bending the wrist. If you wanted to make Kermit talk you would raise you arm up above your head and bend at the wrist so that your finger were parallel with the floor. Beaker is done by doing the same thing minus the wrist bending. Your fingers would be perpendicular with the floor.