What Animals are the Muppets?

maynard

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You might not want to believe it but many creators base their work on real people.
For instance, Disney did this with many of his cartoons. And after American Graffiti came out Gary Marshall based most of the first 2 seasons of Happy Days on it.
Most of the Peanut characters are Shultz.
The Partridge Family is the Cowsills.
Homer Simpson is Otis The Drunk.
But since no one can help me find out certain Muppets- although Zoot is apparently that sax player from SNL- I have a new question:
What animals are the Muppets?
Gonzo is a turkey.
Rawlf is a Poodle.
Dr. Teeth is a spider.
Snuffie is a cross between an elephant and a Brontosoraus.
Scooter is a cross between Radar and a Rastaman.
Animal is a hippie bulldog.
Big Bird is a canary.

Also that thing over Kermit's head is a lilly
pod that he got from the swamp.:smile:
 

Billy's Girl

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Not being rude but have you made this info up yourself or have you read it somewhere because I don't think it's all correct.

I may be wrong so I'm just wondering......
 

Janice & Mokey's Man

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Originally posted by maynard
But since no one can help me find out certain Muppets- although Zoot is apparently that sax player from SNL- I have a new question:
What animals are the Muppets?
Gonzo is a turkey.
Rawlf is a Poodle.
Dr. Teeth is a spider.
Snuffie is a cross between an elephant and a Brontosoraus.
Scooter is a cross between Radar and a Rastaman.
Animal is a hippie bulldog.
Big Bird is a canary.

Also that thing over Kermit's head is a lilly
pod that he got from the swamp.:smile:
Well, Zoot came along before that SNL sax player (if you're thinkin' of the one that was with G.E. Smith's band---maybe that was him, I don't remember, lol). I forgot who he was based on, but somebody here knows...

And Gonzo is a myseterious being, and no one knows what he is---and don't anybody tell me it's revealed in MFS, cause I refuse to watch the whole thing (I did see a chunk), cause, to me, Gonzo will always be a "whatever" (yes, I'm a big Muppet tradionalist who strives for accuracy. I don't care if they found out what Gonzo is, that just totally ruins the magic of him).

Rowlf doesn't look much like a poodle to me, Dr. Teeth is a humanoid Muppet (as in, "Muppet who's in human image"---like Floyd, Janice, Zoot, and Animal), Snuffy is a "Snuffleupagus", Scooter's a humanoid, Animal's a humanoid (just a rather "primitive-lookin' " one---he's got too many hormones runnin' around in him), and Big Bird I think actually might be a canary, albeit 8 feet tall.
 

Daffyfan4ever

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I'll go with canary for Big Bird too, because Oscar once called him a big canary (of course he also called him a turkey, but he doesn't look like one).
 

matleo

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The thing baout the Muppets from a design standpont is that Jim Henson dealt with abstarct forms and very simple geometric shapes. So many of the Muppets (unless desginated, frog, bear, pig, dog, etc.) are just that abstract forms. Even early on, as many around here will tell you, Kermit was just an abstract. it wasn't until Don Sahlin (the late great puppet builder) came along and decided Kermit looked like a frog that Kermit became a frog. So to answer most of your questions, Maynard....

Gonzo is an abstraction. He was created originally as a kind of monster for a TV Special special called "The Great Snata Clause Switch" where he was simply known as the Cigar-box frackle. And was pulled out of storage and named "Gonzo" for the Muppet Show where he was termed a 'whatever'.

Rowlf the Dog is a dog. And if you want the specific breed of dog, they make reference to him being a hound dog in "Dog City" and I believe they mention that somewhere else too.

Dr. Teeth is again just an abstract human. Although, you are right here baout basing a character in a real person. Dr. Teeth is actually based on Louisiana Blues Artist, Mac Rebbenac (aka Dr. John) If you ever see Blues Brothers 2000 Dr. John sings the song "Season of the Witch" just as they arrive at Queen Moussett's. He's also one of the jeyboard players in the Louisiana Gator boys. That's him in the white suit and large hat just to the right of the drummer. The one who look a little like Dr. Teeth....you can't miss him.

Snuffy's full name is Aloysius Snuffleupagus and he is a...Snuffleupagus. it's a made up animal like Fraggles, and doozers, but on Sesame Street. However the Sesame writers have done a marvelous job over the years of putting together a sort of Snuffleupagus culture, if you will. Apparently, Suflleupagus's are native to Hawaii, eat cabbage and every year celebrate a Snuffle festival where they dance the Snuffle hula. Marty Robinson once said the Snuffle-hula was one of the hardest things he's had to do as a puppeteer. It involved a long dance down Sesame Street that he had to do over and over and they wanted it without very few cutaways. it was exhausting!!

Scooter is a another abstracted humanoid. Athough many people here will refer to him as gopher. it's actually a go-fer. it's an old stage term referring to the fact that his job was to "go fer" coffee or "go fer" sandwhiches.

Animal the jury's kind of out on this one. Many people will maintain that Animal is some sort of monster, but I and a few others believe that Animal's species is "drummer". I tihnk I've seen a few Henson designs and so forth that claim that but can't remember where. I always thought it was a funny idea though.

And I tihnk Big Bird is just that, a big bird, but if you want to put him in a specific category than OK, I guess you could say he's a large canary.


hope tihs tries to answer soem of you questoins. I agree with you that many artist do base their creations on people around them, but the key thing there is not every character is based on someone and when it is it's no neccessarily someone famous or another chracter on television or movies. The world would be a very dull place if we every show featured characters based on characters from other shows don't you think? A lot of times (particularly in the Muppets) a character emerges from some bit of business that the puppeteers are doing or because of an interesting design or because of a need to filll a certain void within the cast.

But if you're looking for characters based on certain things here are a few you may find interesting, Maynard....



Pepe the Prawn is based on Bill Baretta's aunt from Madrid who often times used the word "ok" as a question.

Scooter is based very strongly on Richeard Hunt when he first joined the Muppets because he was always so eager.

the Two-headed Monster on Sesame Streetcame from seomthign that puppeteers Richard hint and Jerry Nelson had been doing one day on the set. A character was based around it.

the Flying Zucchini Brothers are actually based on a waiters from a restaurant where the Muppet show writing staff like to eat. the food was good, but the service was lousy. IN fact the service was os lousy, it was amusing. The Muppet writers based a cannonball act on it.

Oscar the Grouch was laos based ona waiter who had once served Jim Henson and Muppet writer Jerry Juhl at a restaurant names "Oscar's" Apparently, the guy ws just mean. later Carroll Spinney based the voice on a taxi cab driver who drove him to work one morning.


Again, I hope that kind of fills some things in for you and helps out. It's really just a bit if intersting trivia.

--Matt
 

Beauregard

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Hey,

How do you know all this? Matleo???
 

matleo

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Beau

I read too much, watch too many BTS documentaries and have WAY too much time on my hands. Seriously, most of it is out of either Of Muppets and Men (the documentray and the book) , the Unpaved book, Jim Henson the Works or some of the various articles over here at MC that have appeared over the years. So yeah TOO much time.

--Matt
 

punkNpuppets

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KERMIT is a frog, so is Robin
FOZZIE is a bear, so is Bobo, Baby Bear, and Basil (from Canadian SS, love that show)
MISS PIGGY is a pig, so is Link, Julius, Spamela, and Annie Sue
CAMILLA is a chicken
GONZO is an alien
BIG BIRD is a bird that's big
DR. TEETH is a man who dresses in glammy outfits
FLOYD is a psychadelic bassist
ZOOT is a burntout sax player
JANICE is a valley girl
LIPS is a hairy guy
ANIMAL is weirder than Gonzo
ROOSEVELT FRANKLIN is a boy who was sadly born without a nose
PRAIRIE DAWN and BETTY LOU are GIRLS who were sadly born without noses
BEAKER is a nervous scientist
BEAUREGARD is a black guy who was sadly born with a weird nose
BUNSEN is a scientist who was sadly born without a nose
ERNIE is a boy
BERT is a stuck up boy
GUY SMILEY is a crazy man
SONNY FRIENDLY is a follower of Guy Smiley
BIFF is a construction worker
SULLY is a mute
BRUNO is probably Sully's older brother cause they look alike and are both mutes.
RIZZO is a rat with a sqeaky new york accent
PEPE's NOT a shrimp, he's a king prawn
SEYMOUR's an elephanant who had most of his trunk chopped off
FLUFFY is probably Seymour's lost trunk
SNUFFLEUPAGUS is a Snuffleupagus
SAM's an eagle
the OTHER SAM is a bald guy that looks like my friend Zack
STATLER AND WALDORF are old geezers
LEW ZEALAND is a fish thrower who looks like Ernie's uncle or something
SAM is a blue eagle
CRAZY HARRY is a man who blows stuff up
BEAN BUNNY's a cute little rabbit
CLIFFORD is part man part catfish
LEWIS KAZAGGER is a weird looking man
NIGEL is part fish part man
the OTHER NIGEL is a nervous anteater
THE SWEDISH CHEF is a chef that's from Sweden
SWEETUMS is a monster
THOG is a monster with a big ***** and little legs
JOHNNY FIAMA is like Barry Manalow (a singer who i hate, but johnny's cool)
SAL is a talking monkey
MUMFORD's a magician
GLADYS is a british cow
BARKLEY is a St. Bernard
ROWLF is a brown lab
BENNY is an evil looking rabbit
COOKIE MONSTER is a monster
HERRY is a monster
GROVER and ELMO are monsters, believe or not
FRAZZLE is the Animal of SS
The TWO HEADED MONSTER are, or is, a monster that speaks pig latin
THE COUNT is a vampire
DON MUSIC is a frustrated songwriter
OSCAR is a grouch, like a monster but he's mean
GRUNGETTA is a grouchess
HARVEY KNEESLAPPER's a freak
HOOTS is an OWL
PLACIDO's a flamingo
ROSITA is a spanish monster
TELLY is a monster
SHERLOCK HEMLOCK is a detective
SLIMEY's a worm
The TWIDDLEBUGS are bugs
ZOE is a monster
 

BlueFrackle

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Punk,

Hey,
I know Beaureguard isnt a Black Stagehand.

Most Muppets dont have 'color', Beaureguard is an abstract creature.

The same as Gonzo, oh but ofcourse Gonzo is Blue...


Sweetums is near the same color as Beau, but you wouldnt call him Black...


Think about it !

See ya
 
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