I been looking at the Muppet's and Walter and fozzie looks like the tongue is made of maybe art foam

any help would be appreciated

I believe they are actually carved foam an then dyed....

I found this tutorial online

Sandwich the puppet's foam tongue between the two pieces of Muppet fleece you cut out. Using a simple whip stitch sew the two sides of the fleece together. Once you have sewn the tongue, use a straight pin to pick the fibers out of the seam. This will make it virtually invisible.
http://puppet101.blogspot.com/2006/02/bark-production-journal-puppet-ears.html

That tongue info is good, but im positive that most of the muppets tongues are made from reticulated foam that is carved and dyed to the specific colour, but i have seen one or two of the actual muppets upclose and one or two seemed to have tongues made from either latex foam (like make up sponges) or a stiffer foam like L200!!!
but there are no rules to this game!!

I agree with jeezbo, there are no rules. Even the the Henson Studios employees different techniques when making their creations.

thanks for the insight it does help.

Jeezbo
how did you get to actually get up close to the muppets and how can I?

Well i know you already got your answer via a PM, but for everyone else i simply got presented the opportunity to come and take a look at the set of Muppet's letters to Santa with a few puppet buddies, we got to chat to the muppeteers, take a closer look at some of the puppets and even perform a little in the background of a few scenes, but nothing of note or that you would have seen!!
not that interesting really, but there is a way to see the Muppet's and even be in a film, you simply have to audition!! i know, its a bit harder than that, but remember that these films still need extras just like any other film and they still present the opportunity to the rest of the puppet community!!
one thing i did learn tho, was that just because these puppets are used in films and on the t.v., it doesn't mean that they are these incredible creations that us mere mortals can never make, or create anything as good, because i realised that they are just made by people like you and me and they still have a few visible seams and are a tad asymmetrical, so take comfort that you are possibly making puppets that are as good if not maybe a bit better in some cases (did i just say that?....yup, i did!!) i mean, they are good, but like Shawn said, even the builders use their preferred methods to make the Muppet's, some are better than others, its just that simple!!

My 7yo and I were watching some old Sesame St episodes from the early 70s to get a look at some of the Muppets(and we did need a refresher from Grover about the difference between near and far), and it is something to see how far the Henson folks came from then to the Muppets. While some of those early Muppets were very simplistic, what they did to bring them alive is something great to watch.

There was a touring exhibition in memory of Jim Henson....they had many displays of Muppets past to presents...and yes they had many imperfections...however back then quality of TV was not good so we never really noticed them...however as we go HD on TV and Blue-ray ect.  So they do need to clean up there act a bit more to not have to go back and do touch ups on the video...which becomes very expensive.  Tongues where made once upon a time by the Muppets with felt but as we can see they have progressed through out the years to I believe for some of the Muppets a latex based material like Miss Piggy's face material BEFORE they add the fluffy stuff(can't remember the materiel off hand--lol).  

I personally use reticulated foam with very small holes in it (you can get it depending on the brand with smaller holes or larger ones I use the larger holes ritculated foam for the under core of my puppets head ect and have a role for the tongues which is very closed holes to give it a filled in look to it) and I carve them out...I like the look of the tongues and they give that "3-D" look to them. I also airbrush some shadows after dying them or I usually just airbrush the foam since they are usually pretty thin and the paint gets right inside.  I make them long and short and every shape imaginable.

StiqPuppets

Not to derail the thread or anything... but Daryl, long time no see! What have you been up to?