Even hard-hearted bastards like us can’t fail to be completely overjoyed at everything involving The Muppets. Even the rubbish films that came out in the ’90s bring a certain joy that no other selection of corpse-eyed cloth creatures with hands up their sphincters can match.
And so, it’s great to hear that The Muppets, notably the original Kermit the Frog puppet, has been donated to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington.
The muppet was donated by creator Jim Henson’s widow Jane, along with a bunch of other characters from the 1955 TV show Sam and Friends, a precursor to the famed Muppet Show.
Henson’s oldest puppet, Pierre the French Rat, was donated, along with early versions of Cookie Monster and Oscar the Grouch.
Jane Henson said:
“I think people realized that if you put Kermit’s face up there, it was just as powerful – we were mostly just doing it to entertain ourselves.”
The original Kermit looks more like a lizard and has eyes made with ping-pong balls and skin made of green felt from an old coat thrown out by Henson’s mother.
Museum curator Dwight Blocker Bowers said the muppets would be a boon for the museum’s collection.
“It certainly shows the muppets at the beginning of the career of a large family of entertainers. More than anything, I think it shows the genius of Jim Henson.”
The Hensons are also to give the Smithsonian more puppets in the years to come, possibly including a Miss Piggy to join her weedy, but loveable boyfriend. Here’s a video and we promise that this rare moment of positivity will be replaced with sneering asides in no time at all.
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Jennifer says
Aw, yay! I’m so glad such great figures in pop culture are being preserved somewhere safe like that!
I just want the Muppets to stay alive long enough for me to tell my kids and grandkids about them and even hopefully have something for their generations to see. ;)