The Muppets/Characters

This page is for any Muppets and human movie characters who debuted after The Muppet Show. For characters who debuted on or before the Muppet Show, go here.

Muppets

Clifford

Kevin Clash Debut: The Jim Henson Hour

• Ambiguously Purple
• Cool Shades: He couldn't wear them on Muppets Tonight, much to Kevin Clash's chagrin.
• Demoted to Extra: He was the last Muppet designed by Jim Henson, and it seems they had something planned for this guy. But after Muppets Tonight went off the air...
  • He actually started off as an Ascended Extra, as a new member to the band in some later specials (including the Disney special), and then got promoted to a main character for Muppets Tonight. Now he's come full-circle...
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: He's gone as of Letters to Santa.
• Dreadlock Rasta
• Not So Stoic: The formerly cool-as-a-glacier Clifford tended to lose his composure under the stress of being a TV host.
• The Ghost: Clifford's girlfriend, whom he's constantly talking to over the phone.
• The Utterly and Completely Definitive Guide to Cool: So he says.

Digit

Dave Goelz Debut: The Jim Henson Hour

• AI Is a Crapshoot
• Early-Bird Cameo: Was in Jim Henson's original pilot of The Jim Henson Hour, titled Inner Tube TV. Digit was the keyboard player for the all-new band and had a more-robotic voice. Digit is also the only Muppet from said pilot to remain on board when the show was changed to The Jim Henson Hour.
• Robot Buddy
• Uncanny Valley
• The Unexpected: After two decades of absence, he randomly showed up again in the video game Muppets Party Cruise.

Waldo C. Graphic

Steve Whitmire Debut: The Jim Henson Hour

• Cloudcuckoolander
• Conspicuous CGI
• Fad Super: Muppet*Vision 3D was his finest hour (and it still plays at Disney theme parks to this day), but his VR manipulation and outdated CGI gave Waldo a short shelf life indeed. You'd think with 3-D movies being all the rage these days, he'd be primed for a comeback...
• Fun Personified
• Meaningful Name: He's a computer graphic controlled by a puppeteer wearing waldos.
• Shape Shifter

Bean Bunny

Steve Whitmire Debut: The Tale of Bunny Picnic

• Flanderization: When he was introduced in The Tale of the Bunny Picnic, Bean was certainly cute (and naive), but he was also inquisitive, brave, quick-thinking, and smart. Those latter qualities vanished by the time of The Jim Henson Hour, with "cute" becoming pretty much Bean's entire character description.
• Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal
• Ping-Pong Naivete
• Put on a Bus: Bean's appearances became less frequent following the death of Jim Henson, once Steve Whitmire took over performing Kermit and Rizzo the Rat grew in popularity.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter

The Elvises

Debut: Muppets Classic Theatre

• Elvis Impersonator: The Elvises have had many Muppeteers over the years, all of whom count as these. Part of the fun is hearing the subtle differences between the different performers' imitations.
• Elvis Lives: And there are three of him! Nobody finds this odd.
• Elvish Presley: In their debut, they were the stars of a rather unconventional telling of The Elves and the Shoemaker
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: They don't really interact with the main cast much. They appear, rock out, and leave.

Pepe the King Prawn

Bill Barretta Debut: Muppets Tonight

• Breakout Character: The only Muppet post-1990 to become a full-fledged member of the main cast.
• The Casanova: Well, he tries.
• Catch Phrase: UN-believable!
• Demoted to Extra: In The Muppets. He was featured pretty prominently in some of the trailers, but it turns out most of that footage came from the one scene he was in that remained in the final cut.
• Getting Crap Past the Radar: More than any of the cast in modern Muppet productions.
• Insistent Terminology: Don't call him a shrimp.
• Just a Stupid Accent: Why is he Spanish? No special reason.
  • The actual reason is Bill Barretta based the voice on his wife's aunt.
• Malaproper: Related to:
• The Nicknamer
• Verbal Tic, okay?
• Wolverine Publicity: A few instances, but the worst was when Disney had him host the special features of the DVDs of four Muppet movies produced before his creation.

Bobo Bear

Bill Barretta Debut: Muppets Tonight

• Ascended Extra: The ONLY Muppets Tonight Muppet to appear for more than one scene or crowd shot in the 2011 film.
• Deadpan Snarker: Deadpan everything.
• The Ditz
• Everything's Worse with Bears: Well, not really.
• Gentle Giant: Like Fozzie, he's more of a teddy bear than a menacing one.
• Minion with an F In Evil: In two separate movies now.
• Small Name, Big Ego

Johnny Fiama

Bill Barretta (detecting a freakin pattern here?) Debut: Muppets Tonight

• Casanova Wannabe
• Lounge Lizard
• Meaningful Name: Fiama is an anagram of Mafia, a reference to the rumor that Sinatra achieved fame through his underworld connections.
• Momma's Boy: Johnny Fiama loves his mama.
• UST: With Miss Piggy, of all people.

Sal Minella

Brian Henson Debut: Muppets Tonight

• Everything's Better with Monkeys
• Those Two Guys: He and Johnny are practically inseparable.
• Unfortunate Name

Seymour

Brian Henson Debut: Muppets Tonight

• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Hey everybody, remember when Pepe had an elephant sidekick?
• Dogged Nice Guy: Compared to Pepe, it was no question who the more interesting one was.
• The Garfunkel

Dr. Phil Van Neuter

Brian Henson Debut: Muppets Tonight

• Freudian Excuse: This guy's been messed up his whole life.
• Heterosexual Life Partners: With Mulch. Although the "heterosexual" part gets a little murky when you see that Phil's wife, Composta Heap, is essentially Mulch in drag...
  • Fridge Logic: Of course it's Mulch in drag. It's his twin sister. That could explain why Phil and Mulch put up with each other: They're brother-in-laws.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain
• Mad Doctor
• Sissy Villain

Big Mean Carl

Bill Barretta Debut: Muppets Tonight

• Comedic Sociopathy
• Extreme Omnivore: As all good Muppet monsters are.
• Flat Character

Walter

Peter Linz Debut: The Muppets (2011)

• Adorkable
• Ascended Fanboy: The lucky guy gets to meet his idols, help them come back to relevance, and even gets a part in their telethon!
• Audience Surrogate: As Tough Pigs put it, "(...)Walter is us. I related with his character so much, I practically expected him to say that he runs his own website for Muppet Fans Who Grew Up."
• Fan Boy: Of the Muppets.
  • Fridge Logic: ... when he is a Muppet himself. Not that he knew that to begin with, anyway.
    • Though part of the reason he likes the Muppets in the first place is because they're the only ones out there like him.
• Keet: He's very excitable and energetic, especially when fanboying.
• Hidden Talents: He can whistle, but he didn't think of it as a talent until he was put on the spot and had to do something to fill time.
• Oblivious Adoption: Averted. The film never even addresses how human Gary and Muppet Walter are brothers.
  • According to Jason Segel, they just decided the audience will go with it, like in The Great Muppet Caper the people just went with the idea of Fozzie and Kermit been identical twin brothers.
• Original Generation
• Ridiculously Average Guy: Walter is a brand-new Muppet created for the film, and is described as a plain brown Whatnot. He's not exactly a fan of how generic he is.
• Stage Fright: So bad he managed to make a Walter-shaped hole in a brick wall when running away.
• Victorian Novel Disease: Prone to fainting when he gets overexcited or overstimulated, despite being able to withstand an electric fence shocking him. He faints seeing Kermit in the flesh, and after waking up, he's told he was brought into Kermit's house, immediately fainting again (albeit much more briefly).

80's Robot

Matt Vogel Debut: The Muppets (2011)

• Artificial Intelligence
• Computer Voice
• Disco Dan: Apparently never got the input code that TAB and New Coke are out of vogue.
• Do-Anything Robot
• The Eighties
• Non Standard Character Design: He's one of the rare Muppets not to have any mouth where the puppeteer's hand can operate from, he's basically all remote-controlled by someone off-screen. If he were to appear in any other movie, audiences won't think he's a Muppet at all.
• Robo Speak
• Robot Maid: Introduced as a butler for Kermit when he is found living in his mansion. Assumed to act as someone Kermit can talk to without being completely lonely... to an extent.

The Moopets

• Anti-Hero Substitute: To Kermit, Miss Piggy, Janice, Animal, Rowlf and Fozzie.
• The Cameo: Miss Poogy later shows up imprisoned in the Gulag in Muppets Most Wanted.
• Face Heel Turn: They decide to work for Tex Richman for revenge. Even after Richman reforms, they still want his money.

Constantine

• Big Bad
• Criminal Doppelganger
• Evil Counterpart: To Kermit.

Human Movie Characters

Doc Hopper

Charles Durning Debut: The Muppet Movie

• Big Bad
• Fat Sweaty Southerner in a White Suit

Max

Austin Pendleton Debut: The Muppet Movie

Ebenezer Scrooge

Michael Caine Debut: The Muppet Christmas Carol

• Anti-Hero: Pretty much the same tropes from the original book can fit him here.

Jim Hawkins

Debut: Muppet Treasure Island

Long John Silver

Tim Curry Debut: Muppet Treasure Island

• Big Bad
• Large Ham
• Pirate

Gary

Jason Segel Debut: The Muppets

• Big Brother Mentor: To Walter.
• Heroes Want Redheads: With Mary.
  • Hot for Teacher: Again, with Mary.
• The Lancer: To Walter.

Mary

Amy Adams Debut: The Muppets

• Cool Teacher: Her students even simultaneously admit they'll miss her during their two-week Spring Break.
• Deus Ex Machina: When the Muppet Theater loses power during the telethon, she abruptly appears to repair the fuse box.
• Foil: Arguably to Miss Piggy. Then "Me Party" shows that the two aren't so different.
• Heroes Want Redheads: Amy Adams, natch.
• Hot Teacher

Tex Richman

Chris Cooper Debut: The Muppets

• Ax Crazy: Not in the sense that he wants to kill anyone, but near the end of the movie he becomes hellbent on destroying everything in his path to ruin the Muppets' career.
• Big Bad
• Corrupt Corporate Executive
• Heel Face Turn: Thanks to Gonzo's bowling ball.
• Large and In Charge
• Piss-Take Rap: His Villain Song.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: When fencing, he throws his foil at his expensive flat-screen TV and destroys it once he hears about the Muppet Telethon on the news.