A group of Muppets with Jim Henson in the middle.
The Muppets are a group of puppet characters known for an absurdist, burlesque and self-referential style of variety-sketch comedy. Created in 1955 by Jim Henson, they are the namesake for the Disney media franchise that encompasses films, television series, music recordings, print publications, and other media associated with The Muppet Show characters.
The Muppets were the stars of multiple television series and films, including; The Muppet Show (1976–1981), The Muppet Movie (1979), The Great Muppet Caper (1981) and The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984). After Henson's death in 1990, The Muppets continued their presence in television and cinema with Muppets Tonight (1996–1998), a series continuation of The Muppet Show, and three films, The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992), Muppet Treasure Island (1996), Muppets From Space (1999), the former two were co-produced with Disney, who sought to acquire the characters since the late 1980s. In 2004, The Walt Disney Company purchased the rights to The Muppets, and later formed The Muppets Studio, a division created specifically for managing The Muppets franchise.
Disney underwent an extensive re-branding of the franchise beginning in 2008, in anticipation of the seventh film; The Muppets. The film, written by Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller and directed by James Bobin, was released by Walt Disney Pictures on November 23, 2011, and met with critical acclaim and commercial success. The eighth film, Muppets Most Wanted, is scheduled to be released on March 21, 2014.
Fozzie Bear (which is a common design for a Muppet)
is a character with a very wide mouth and large protruding eyes.
The puppets are often molded or carved out of various types of foam, and then covered with fleece, fur, or other felt-like material. Muppets may represent humans, anthropomorphic animals, realistic animals, robots, anthropomorphic objects, extraterrestrial creatures, mythical beings or other unidentified, newly imagined creatures, monsters, or abstract characters.
Muppets are distinguished from ventriloquist "dummies"/"puppets", which are typically animated only in the head and face, in that their arms or other features are also mobile and expressive. Muppets are typically made of softer materials. They are also presented as being independent of the puppeteer, who is usually not visible—hidden behind a set or outside of the camera frame. Using the camera frame as the "stage" was an innovation of the Muppets. Previously on television, there would typically be a stage hiding the performers, as if in a live presentation. Sometimes they are seen full-bodied. This is done by using invisible strings to move the characters' bodies and mouths, and then adding the voices later.
Muppets tend to develop, as writer Michael Davis put it, "organically", meaning that the puppeteers take time, often up to a year, slowly developing their characters and voices. Muppets are also, as Davis said, "test-driven, passed around from one Henson troupe member to another in the hope of finding the perfect human-Muppet match".
When interacting with Muppets, children tended to act as though the Muppets were living creatures, even when they could see the puppeteers.
Some of the Muppets have even been designed to resemble celebrities from TV, movies, music, or other pop-culture. Janice, of the Electric Mayhem Band, is said to resemble many female celebrities from Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary, to Heidi Montag, to even Suzanne Somers.
Janice, of the Electric Mayhem band
Supposedly she even resembles other non-media celebrities, but we're not sure without photographic proof.
Since the 1950's when Jim Henson created the Muppets, they have been a welcome addition into our culture and will be for many years to come with new creations and characters being created in the style and the same affections as Jim Henson originally gave to his "inanimate" creations.