"Million Puppet March Initially called the Million Muppet March, Million Puppet March was a grassroots rally organized during the 2012 Presidential campaign in support of continued public funding of public media. Co-organized by Michael Bellavia and Chris Mecham, the march was inspired by the comments of Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney during his 2012 presidential debate with Barack Obama. Romney promised to end funding for public broadcasting, saying during the debate that he would stop the federal subsidy to PBS. In particular, Romney added, ""I like PBS, I love Big Bird."" Bellavia and Mecham viewed Romney's threat as a straw man"
"a penguin onto the stage. Like the penguin!"" On Twitter, users posted about Romney approximately 38 times per second immediately following the speech, with positive comments about Romney slightly eclipsing those for Trump. In the March 5, 2016 episode of ""Saturday Night Live"", Jason Sudekis made a guest appearance portraying Mitt Romney in a sketch set-up as an interview between Romney and CNN's Jake Tapper (played by Beck Bennett). In the sketch, Sudekis' Romney entered the scene by announcing ""that's right, America, I'm back. You didn't ask for it, but you've got it."" Two days after the speech, Cruz showed"
"economy"", and depicted Romney as more concerned with cracking down on Big Bird than on white collar criminals such as Bernie Madoff and Ken Lay. Sesame Workshop subsequently asked that both campaigns remove ""Sesame Street"" characters from campaign materials, stating on their website: ""Sesame Workshop is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization and we do not endorse candidates or participate in political campaigns."" Big Bird did, however, appear on the October 7, 2012 episode of ""Saturday Night Live"" during the show's ""Weekend Update"" sketch. During his appearance, he made light of the situation with the segment's host, Seth Meyers, including bird-related jokes"
"Kennedy also performed Kermit for ""Muppets Ahoy!"", a 2006 Disney Cruise Line stage show (though Whitmire performed Kermit for the first few shows). Muppet performer Artie Esposito briefly performed Kermit in 2009 for a few personal appearances (an appearance on ""America's Got Talent"", the ""MTV Video Music Awards"", and at the 2009 D23 Expo). Voice actor Frank Welker provided the voice of Baby Kermit on the animated Saturday morning cartoon, ""Muppet Babies"". He also provided the voice of an adult Kermit for a short-lived spin-off, ""Little Muppet Monsters"". Matt Danner voices Baby Kermit on the 2018 reboot of ""Muppet Babies""."
"Rizzo the Rat Rizzo the Rat is a Muppet character, created and performed by Steve Whitmire. He is a fictional rat who appeared on ""The Muppet Show"" and numerous films, with a starring role in the 1992 film ""The Muppet Christmas Carol"". The character is particularly associated with Gonzo the Great, with the two sharing a double act since 1992. Whitmire based the character on Ratso Rizzo in ""Midnight Cowboy"" and performed him until 2016. Rizzo is a streetwise and sarcastic rat with a New Jersey accent. He is a self-proclaimed acrophobe. His humor can be risque, as in the"
"Miss Piggy, alongside her fellow Muppets and Jason Segel, participated in the opening monologue of ""Saturday Night Live"" by singing ""I Can't Believe I'm Hosting ""SNL""."" Miss Piggy and her fellow Muppets made a guest appearance on the Halloween 2011 episode of ""WWE Raw"". In an episode aired January 19, 2012, Miss Piggy appeared on """" Season 1 as a guest judge for clothes designed for her character in the movie. She also appeared on the British morning breakfast show ""This Morning"" alongside Kermit, Rizzo, and Beaker. On 9 February 2012, Miss Piggy appeared on Lawro's Predictions on BBC Football's"
"Robert Smigel Robert Smigel (born February 7, 1960) is an American actor, humorist, puppeteer, comedian and writer known for his ""Saturday Night Live"" ""TV Funhouse"" cartoon shorts and as the puppeteer and voice behind Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. He also co-wrote the ""Hotel Transylvania"" films and ""You Don't Mess with the Zohan"", both starring Adam Sandler. Smigel was born in New York City, to Lucia and Irwin Smigel, an aesthetic dentist, innovator and philanthropist. He is Jewish and frequently went to Jewish summer camp. He attended Cornell University, studying pre-dental, and graduated from New York University in 1983 with"
"Freako!"" Rather than being insulted by these comments as Sam was intending, Cooper takes it as a compliment and thanks Sam, to which Sam despairingly retorts, ""Freakos one, civilization zero."" On ""Muppets Tonight"", Sam periodically hosted a debate show a la The McLaughlin Group, entitled ""From The Eagle's Nest"". Unfortunately, the only permanent debaters were Miss Piggy's dimwit nephews Andy & Randy, who routinely got the better of him. His tagline for the show was ""Let's talk POLITICS!"" Sam has appeared in every major Muppet feature film, usually only as a brief cameo or minor role (""The Muppet Movie"", ""The"
"puppetry with other parades and mobilizations around the country including Santa Monica, California and Denver, CO Million Puppet March Initially called the Million Muppet March, Million Puppet March was a grassroots rally organized during the 2012 Presidential campaign in support of continued public funding of public media. Co-organized by Michael Bellavia and Chris Mecham, the march was inspired by the comments of Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney during his 2012 presidential debate with Barack Obama. Romney promised to end funding for public broadcasting, saying during the debate that he would stop the federal subsidy to PBS. In particular, Romney added, ""I"
"gallery within the ""Worlds of Puppetry"" exhibition at the Center in November 2015. Muppet-like and Muppet-inspired puppets star in the 2004 Tony Award-winning Broadway musical ""Avenue Q"". Peter Jackson's film, ""Meet the Feebles"" is another parody of the Muppets. A vomit-spewing Kermit the Frog was a recurring character on ""Late Night with Conan O'Brien"", and the Muppets were frequently preempted at the beginning of episodes for the Canadian series ""You Can't Do That on Television."" Seth Green's short-lived show ""Greg the Bunny"" was about sentient hand-puppets working in a Muppet-like children's show. Many other films and television shows such as"
"As well as ""The Muppet Show"", Muppet characters feature in such television series as ""The Jimmy Dean Show"", ""Sesame Street"", ""Fraggle Rock"", ""The Jim Henson Hour"", ""Muppets Tonight"", ""Bear in the Big Blue House"", """", and ""The Muppets"". An adult-oriented Muppet segment, ""The Land of Gorch"", was a regular feature in the first season of ""Saturday Night Live"". Guest stars on ""Saturday Night Live"" occasionally include both the Muppets and ""Sesame Street"" characters, as well as Muppet likenesses of real people; these likenesses appear recurrently in early episodes of ""The Muppet Show"" and on ""Sesame Street"", and appear occasionally on"
"""Midnight Cowboy"". Steve Whitmire created the character, based on rats he had previously made out of bottles. Rizzo first appeared in episode 418 of ""The Muppet Show"", as one of many rats following Christopher Reeve backstage. He can be seen mugging and reacting to practically every line of dialogue. He remained a scene-stealing background figure through the final season, occasionally performing with Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem. By the time of ""The Muppets Christmas Carol"", Whitmire had been performing Rizzo for around 12 years. After the series, he appeared in ""The Great Muppet Caper"" as a bellboy in a"
"""Muppets"" franchise, including the part of Rizzo, after being unwillingly dismissed from the part of Kermit the Frog in October 2016. Disney did not immediately announce a new performer for Rizzo, though Matt Vogel was announced for the replacement for Kermit. Rizzo the Rat Rizzo the Rat is a Muppet character, created and performed by Steve Whitmire. He is a fictional rat who appeared on ""The Muppet Show"" and numerous films, with a starring role in the 1992 film ""The Muppet Christmas Carol"". The character is particularly associated with Gonzo the Great, with the two sharing a double act since"
"which was held in the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. In 2006, Henson's Muppet character model ""Scred"" was featured as a highlight of his body of work in the exhibit ""Jim Henson: Performing Artist"" at the University of Maryland's Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. In a 2011 appearance as host of ""Saturday Night Live"" while promoting his film ""The Muppets"", Jason Segel mentioned ""The Land of Gorch"" in his opening monologue. In a follow-up interview, he was asked about the possibility of re-introducing ""The Land of Gorch"" to popular"
"replies it is better than being in the audience. In the 1996 series ""Muppets Tonight"", based on a television rather than theatre show, Statler and Waldorf were shown watching the show at an assisted living facility, still making disparaging remarks. The duo are featured characters at Disney's ""Muppet*Vision 3D"" at Disney's Hollywood Studios as audio-animatronic Muppets helping Bean Bunny escape the theater and, of course, heckling the show. They also make a cameo appearance in Pixar's 2008 short film ""Presto"", where they can be seen in their theater box. ""The Muppet Newsflash: A Jim Henson News Blog"" announced on September"
"Muppets Tonight from 10 March to 10 April in ""Complete Muppets"". In 2014, Kermit, Fozzie and Sweetums visited the PuppeTV studios in Sussex for the ""When The Muppets Visited PuppeTV"". Following Steve Whitmire's firing as Kermit's puppeteer, the channel dedicated a month to the puppeteer's best performances in ""Kermit And Steve: A Match Made In Heaven"" in Feb 2017. ""The Muppet Show Theme"" (written by Henson and Sam Pottle in 1976) is the show's theme song. It is the opening and closing theme for every episode of ""The Muppet Show"" and was performed by The Muppets in a scene of"
"Madagascar, Sudan, and Syria. In 2016 No Strings was awarded the 2016 Adela Dwyer-St. Thomas of Villanova Peace Award from Villanova University In 2013, Kathryn Mullen attended Dragon Con with Karen Prell and Michael K. Frith as part of the 30th Anniversary of ""Fraggle Rock"" where Kathryn Mullen performed Mokey Fraggle while Karen Prell performed Red Fraggle. Kathryn Mullen Kathryn Mullen (born February 10, 1940) is an American actress, voice actress, and puppeteer most closely associated with Jim Henson projects. Mullen began performing on ""The Muppet Show"" in its third season, primarily as Gaffer the Backstage Cat. She also voice"
"François Mitterrand. On May 21, 2018, Kermit and contestant Maddie Poppe performed ""Rainbow Connection"" live on American Idol. As an April Fool's joke, Kermit hosted CNN's ""Larry King Live"" in 1994 and interviewed Hulk Hogan. Kermit was also a semi-regular during various incarnations of ""Hollywood Squares"", with other Muppets such as Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch also making appearances on the original ""Hollywood Squares"". Jim Henson's characters, including the Muppets, have inspired merchandise internationally, with Chris Bensch, chief curator of Rochester, New York's The Strong National Museum of Play, reporting ""There seems to have been a particular craze for"
"Pepé in a test pilot for the web series """". Pepe the King Prawn Pepé the King Prawn is a Muppet character created for ""Muppets Tonight"" and performed by Bill Barretta, originally as part of a vaudeville double act with Seymour the Elephant. Pepé is Spanish (his full name is Pepino Rodrigo Serrano Gonzales) and speaks with a heavy accent, punctuating his sentences with ""Okay?"" His character plays on many Latino stereotypes: he has a fiery temper (especially when referred to as a ""shrimp""), and thinks of himself as a lothario, often making suggestive remarks. Pepé is also a schemer,"
"Tonight"" featured multiple guest stars. Typically, there would be one principal guest, but other celebrities would make small walk-on appearances. For example, the Garth Brooks episode (aired as episode #2) features a cameo from Leonard Nimoy. The reception from critics was mixed. Among the staff at other ""TGIF"" shows, reception was also negative; Jaleel White, star of ""Family Matters"", blamed ""Muppets Tonight"" for ""Family Matters""' own cancellation: ""[S]omewhere along the line, Winnie the Pooh and the Muppets started emerging around us and it [TGIF] became kids' night. And we lost a lot of credibility."" Muppets Tonight Muppets Tonight is an"
"during an infamous encounter with ""Star Wars"" fans; and Conan O'Brien. On August 10, 2004, NBC released a DVD, ""Late Night with Conan O'Brien: The Best of Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog"" featuring select Triumph appearances from ""Late Night"". In Eminem's ""Ass Like That"", he uses the Triumph puppet to talk his way out of trouble with the police. Triumph himself appears in the video, once again insulting Eminem. Triumph the Insult Comic Dog Triumph the Insult Comic Dog is a puppet character puppeteered and voiced by Robert Smigel, best known for mocking celebrities in an Eastern European accent. As"
"over as the performer and voice for Kermit on July 10, 2017. Whitmire later revealed that he had not chosen to voluntarily leave the role, but rather, had been recast by Muppet Studios in October 2016. In an interview with ""The Hollywood Reporter"" later in July 2017, Whitmire elaborated he was fired for two reasons: long-term creative disagreements over Kermit's characterization and prolonged labor union negotiations that delayed his involvement in Muppet-related productions. For a brief demonstration at ""MuppetFest"" (a 2001 Muppet fan convention), Muppet performer John Kennedy performed Kermit opposite Whitmire's performance of young Kermit (from ""Kermit's Swamp Years"")."
"announced that Rudnitsky would join the cast of ""Saturday Night Live"" as a featured player for the show's forty-first season. In the third episode of that season, Rudnitsky portrayed Anderson Cooper in a sketch, acting as moderator for a Democratic presidential debate, for which he was criticized by Cooper. He has also done impressions of Wolf Blitzer, John Mayer, Martin Scorsese, Tom Cruise, and Vladimir Putin (in a dress rehearsal sketch on the episode hosted by Donald Trump), while also doing a Dirty Dancing sketch for Weekend Update, which was seen as one of his high points of the season."
"with Craig Ferguson"" and ""@midnight"". Jacobson performed Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, and Animal for an appearance on """". Jacobson performed Bert for an appearance in episode 22 of ""Between the Lions""' season 2, ""Tweet! Tweet!"". Eric Jacobson Eric Jacobson is an American puppeteer, best known for performing the Muppet characters Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, and Sam the Eagle for Disney's The Muppets Studio, as well as ""Sesame Street"" characters Bert, Guy Smiley and Grover—all roles that he inherited from the characters' original performer, Frank Oz. As of 2015, Jacobson is now Caroll Spinney's replacement for Oscar the Grouch due"
"""The Muppets Take the Bowl."" Paul McGinnis Paul McGinnis (born 1973) is an American puppeteer for Sesame Street and The Muppets. He has also performed in various non-Muppet television productions such as Julie's Greenroom, The Wiz Live!, Crash & Bernstein, Crank Yankers, Warren the Ape, Greg the Bunny, It's a Big Big World, The Book of Pooh, Between the Lions and Dog with a Blog. He performed on stage in the 2004-2005 Broadway tour of Little Shop of Horrors, as well as Walking With Dinosaurs: The Arena Spectacular. Paul also creates his own works of puppetry for . Paul was"
"Pepe the King Prawn Pepé the King Prawn is a Muppet character created for ""Muppets Tonight"" and performed by Bill Barretta, originally as part of a vaudeville double act with Seymour the Elephant. Pepé is Spanish (his full name is Pepino Rodrigo Serrano Gonzales) and speaks with a heavy accent, punctuating his sentences with ""Okay?"" His character plays on many Latino stereotypes: he has a fiery temper (especially when referred to as a ""shrimp""), and thinks of himself as a lothario, often making suggestive remarks. Pepé is also a schemer, willing to betray or at least take advantage of his"
"Muppet movies. In 2002, he was the ""spokesprawn"" for restaurant chain Long John Silver's. He has also made many television appearances on shows including ""America's Funniest Home Videos"", ""The Jay Leno Show"", ""Late Night with Jimmy Fallon"", and ""Dancing with the Stars"". He was also an award presenter at The Game Awards 2018 ceremony, which honored the best video games of that year. The parody self-help book ""It's Hard Out Here for a Shrimp"" is attributed to Pepé and tells his life story. Bill Barretta has remained Pepé's performer since his 1996 debut on ""Muppets Tonight"". However, Drew Massey performed"
"Whitmire hid the puppet away for weeks before deciding on taking on the role. Following the death of Richard Hunt and the retirement of Jerry Nelson, Whitmire took over the roles of Beaker and Statler, respectively. In 2014, Billy Barkhurst took over the role of Ernie, with Peter Linz taking over that role in 2017. Muppet characters original to Whitmire include Rizzo the Rat, Lips (the trumpet player from Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem), Foo-Foo (Miss Piggy's dog), Wembley Fraggle and Sprocket the Dog on ""Fraggle Rock"", and Bean Bunny, a character that originated in ""The Tale of the"
"shows ""Sesame Street"" and ""The Muppets"". Marx interned at the program early in his career, and all four of the original cast's principal puppeteers—John Tartaglia, Stephanie D'Abruzzo, Jennifer Barnhart and Rick Lyon—were ""Sesame Street"" performers (D'Abruzzo returned to ""Sesame Street"" after leaving ""Avenue Q""). Three of the puppet characters are direct recognizable parodies of ""Sesame Street"" puppets: Roommates Rod and Nicky are a riff on Bert and Ernie, while Trekkie Monster bears the distinctive voice and disposition of Cookie Monster, though not his obsession with baked goods. (The production officially disclaims any connection with either Sesame Workshop or The Jim"
"to demonstrate differing opinions"". Oscar and Big Bird were specifically created for the reshooting of the ""Street"" scenes with the idea that they would be able to interact with the human characters. For his part, Oscar has several friends of his own despite his pessimism; these include the Grouch's pet worm, Slimey, and his girlfriend Grundgetta. Two other Muppets who have appeared on the show since its beginning are Ernie and Bert, a pair of best friends with contrasting personalities; Ernie is portrayed as a free-spirited trickster who loves his rubber duck, while Bert is the world-weary foil to his"
"""Saturday Night Live"", ""The Colbert Report"", ""The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon"", ""Jimmy Kimmel Live!"" and ""The Muppets"", where he performed Scooter and Janice. His film credits include ""The Muppets Take Manhattan"", ""Labyrinth"", ""Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles"", ""A Muppet Christmas Carol"", ""Elmo in Grouchland"", ""The Muppets"" and ""Muppets Most Wanted"". Following the departure of Steve Whitmire in 2017, he became Beaker's new voice performer. In addition to his work on ""Sesame Street"" and with the Muppets, Rudman is co-owner of Spiffy Pictures where he co-created, executive produced, directed and performed in ""Jack's Big Music Show"", ""Curious Buddies"" and ""Hocle and"
"dialogue track. The Muppets Studio and Muppet performers Steve Whitmire, Eric Jacobson, and Dave Goelz provided consultation, as well as recording the voices for their respective characters. Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo, and Sam Eagle are featured in the show. A live cast member portrays James ""J.J."" Jefferson, the town crier who engages the audience in the ""Declaration of Independence"" sketch. Each show performance features one of the following sketches: The show's development started in the spring of 2014, following the release of ""Muppets Most Wanted"". Originally, the show was only going to feature Sam Eagle interacting"
"the ""Night of too Many Stars"", a biannual celebrity fundraiser to benefit autism education. He won an Emmy on the 2012 broadcast of ""Night of Too Many Stars"" for his writing. Robert Smigel Robert Smigel (born February 7, 1960) is an American actor, humorist, puppeteer, comedian and writer known for his ""Saturday Night Live"" ""TV Funhouse"" cartoon shorts and as the puppeteer and voice behind Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. He also co-wrote the ""Hotel Transylvania"" films and ""You Don't Mess with the Zohan"", both starring Adam Sandler. Smigel was born in New York City, to Lucia and Irwin Smigel,"