Felt and Personae

It was not until recently that I really started to understand all of the forth-wall-breaking that goes on in The Muppets. There is a multiplicity of personae that I just didn’t understand: there is Kermit the Frog, who is an object made of felt and animated (originally) by Jim Henson; there is Kermit the Frog, who is a celebrity in this world, who appears on Letterman and so on; there is Kermit the Frog, who is a celebrity in the world of the various Muppet Movies and emcee of The Muppet Show; there is Kermit the Frog playing — for instance — Bob Cratchit and Captain Smollett in various feature films; there is (I think) Kermit the Frog playing a character named Kermit the Frog In Spaaaaaace in a feature film; and so on.

What occurred to me on watching the latest Muppet movie is that Kermit and the other Muppets had to be performers because they were Henson’s calling card; his way to show off what he could do with puppets, and that meant going up against other performers on their own turf. It wouldn’t be enough to have Kermit the Frog be the typist in a workplace drama, because you could make a specialized puppet for any specialized task and you could write the role around the limitations of the puppet. Kermit the Typist would only have to do everything that a typist has to do. Kermit the Frog, by contrast, has to be able to do everything that an actor has to do.

gauche
23 Jan 12