II think I need some perspective from my puppety friends.

Last week, BoingBoing posted a video, and titled the post "Senior in love affair with muppet dog." http://boingboing.net/2012/04/20/music-video-nothing-to-celebr.html  It's pretty cute, though I found myself annoyed at their use of lower-case-m muppet as a generic term for puppet. So, I shot off an email to the author of the post. Here it is:

"Rob-

Normally, I wouldn't bother e-mailing you about something as simple as capitalization in a post title, but I did want to make a quick response to your post on 4/20 "Senior in love affair with muppet dog"

I'm sure you know without me pointing it out, that the puppet featured in the video isn't a Muppet. It was created by Ben and Julia, the directors of the video. "The Muppets" is the name of an specific ensemble act created by Jim Henson. The Muppets used many styles of puppets to create their cast. What we think of as "muppet style puppets" are hand-and-rod puppets (think Kermit, Gonzo, or Count LeShoc) or movable mouth puppets with live arms (like Rolf, Ernie, or Furry J. Ackermonster), though over the years there have been full body suit Muppets (Big Bird, Sweetums) and puppets that combine live action with animatronics (Snuffy's little sister has a live person in the suit controlling her movement, but her eyes are remote controlled.)

However successful The Muppets have been, it's not really appropriate to refer to all puppets generically as lower-case-m muppets. It implies that puppets are fungible, and that all puppet projects are pretty much like the Muppets. It's akin to referring to all improv troops as vilifiers; Vilification Tennis is a specific troupe doing work that wouldn't be confused with Improv Everywhere, even though both are about comedy and improv.

Not even Jim Henson referred to all of his puppets as Muppets; the Fraggles aren't Muppets, the creations from The Dark Crystal aren't Muppets, nor are the amazing special effect creatures that the Henson team has created over the years. Each of these projects are unique, and with different artistic aims, even though they all involve puppets.

In a post-Henson world, you can't really do anything with puppets without it being compared and contrasted to something done by the Muppets years ago. There's an amazing crop of really talented, very passionate puppet people out there waiting to be recognized for their work, but too often they're sidelined and their contributions diminished because they're "just muppets."

Anyhow, there's my cranky letter for the day. It was a really cute video!

-Dr. Megan Director of Research The Institute For Ridiculous Science"

I got a really quick reply from Rob:

"The word "muppet" (small "m") is a good generic short hand for that particular style of puppet, and I think this is a doomed language battle in the long run. However, I'm happy to try and avoid it, and have changed the headline of that post.

Thanks for reading!"

So, here's my question for you guys: do you care when your work is referred to as "muppets"? Do we as artists have a right to ask that our work be discussed properly by others? Should we just give up and roll with the muppet as generic thing, or is important to differentiate between The Muppets and all the rest of modern puppetry? Am I a crank?

I have never refereed to any puppets that I made as Muppet,Muppet like,or Muppety. I'm not sure why some attach that word to there puppet creations but they do. This has been a heated topic over the years so I've learned to keep my comments to a minimum. Here are some definitions of the word "Muppet". Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/muppet
http://www.allwords.com/word-Muppet.html

I applaud you for sending off the email! While I don't normally get to worked up over this issue I see no reason why a gentle reminder does not hurt.  I try my best to correct people when I can but don't push it. Heck even the correct term to use is often argued over. I've always used "hand in mouth" as the type of puppetry that is associated with the Muppets.  Not everyone agrees with me on that even.

Yes try and educate but try not to let it ruin your day when folks won't listen. I think I'll go have me a coke now while I blow my nose on a kleenex... ahh  I mean Pepsi and nose tissue.

Fungible.  Awesome word.

I try to distance myself from the term "muppet" being applied to puppets I make, but it ends up that way to most people anyway. From my experience, a large amount of Americans label puppets as either "muppets" or as "toys". Example: Despite multiple conversations with my aunt about puppetry and the fact I wanted to eventually make low end animatronic puppets, she gave me a mass produced kids puppet for Christmas. Even worse to me was that she included a note about hoping that it would inspire me. I was horrified, in fact. I felt like it was the same way as sending an art student a coloring book and Rose Art crayons and telling them "I hope this can help you learn how to draw".
So, yeah, I can see the frustration at all puppets being called muppets.

I got around this Muppet/muppet problem by making my own word. Our church team used Christian puppets, which combined became...cruppets, hence my on line name...cruppetman.

Good examples Shawn, 'Xerox' gets used generically a lot for copy machines.
As a new puppet builder, I have had to force myself to avoid using the term Muppet. I grew up on Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, and im re-watching them now with my 7yo son, so they are and always will be a huge part of my life. But I try to differentiate, when I am talking to people about my new hobby.
I do think it's good that DrMegan sent the email, which was very tactfully written. I personally like being 'set straight' on things, it's unlikely I have learned everything at my age, so im appreciative of new knowledge. Im sure Rob would make the distinction between say, a marionette and Fozzie Bear. Fozzie is a puppet called a Muppet, a marionette is a puppet, not a Muppet. Although a marionette could be a Muppet if Jim Henson had made it and proclaimed it as such.

I experience the same thing Dr Megan. A bunch of family visited recently and I got the full gambit of terms ranging from muppets to plush toys. It irked me considerably as I don't deem a 5ft or 7ft puppet with massive rods sticking out of them soft toys! For technical purposes, I am choosing to refer to my puppets as ventriloquist puppets (I know this is far from accurate but in Australia more people seem to understand how they work with this term). In terms of marketing though, I have adopted a similar concept to cruppetman. I created a hybrid of my business name, puppet and ventriloquist and lovingly refer to my hoard as 'Lupvets'! Where the term fails in description, it at least provides me an opportunity to explain and crush the soft toy/muppet oppressors!!!

I guess that is the only good thing about the Muppets haven't been so popular in Germany.(I was totally shocked when I mentioned Gonzo and a young friend of my husband asked: "who?"). So here a Muppet is a character of the show or a member of Sesame street (Ernie, Bert and Kermit are well known). But we do not distinguish between dolls and puppets since the German word "Puppen" means both things. That can lead to confusion. So I sometimes refer to different Puppen as doll- Puppe or puppet- Puppe...

Okay, in this interview Jim Henson calls Kermit a glorified sock puppet.


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