Muppet Fan Testimonials: Ryan Dosier

Ryan Dosier - Whenever anyone asks me, "How did you become a Muppet fan?" it's always asked with a tone of confusion and shock. And... I never really know how to answer without going into a long explanation involving lots of things they've never heard of. That's why I love this Testimonial series... all of you people out there are sure to understand! I was born in October of 1990--five months after Jim Henson passed away--and most people my age can barely tell you the difference between Fozzie and Rowlf, let alone tell you who performed Angus McGonagle the Argyle Gargoyle and what episodes of The Muppet Show he appeared in. The tale of my Muppet fandom is an odd one... but then again, would the Muppets really have it any other way?

When I was a kid the Muppets were always around, of course, but I felt like I never knew them as much as I wanted to. I adored Muppet Babies when I was young (and I still have some of my old video tapes), I clearly remember watching the episode of Muppets Tonight with The Artist Formerly Known as Prince when I was five or six, and when I was nine I went to see Muppets From Space with my grandparents and we were the only three people in the entire theater. I remember this because at the end of the movie, my grandpa got up and grooved to the soundtrack playing over the credits. When my brother was born, Sesame Street became his life. He had a Tickle-Me-Elmo, a talking Kermit (which I stole), and tons and tons of Sesame toys. We would play for hours with the toys... an omen, if you will, of what was to come soon after.

It was the summer of 2004. I was 13 and just about to start my eighth grade year of school. While everyone else I knew was developing a love for things like Halo, American Idol, and Britney Spears, I went in the exact opposite direction while visiting my aunt and uncle in Georgia. We went to a mall and while in a Suncoast movie store I made a purchase that would change my life forever. I remember very clearly my decision to buy an action figure of Gonzo (from Series 5 of the unbelievable Palisades Toys line), who was always my favorite when watching Muppet Babies. I don't know what drove me to buy this random little toy that day... but it's safe to say that Gonzo changed everything for me. To this day, Gonzo sits proudly on my shelf as my most prized Muppet possession.

After that single purchase, everything snowballed. On that same trip to Georgia I bought at least five other Muppet figures (Patrol Bear Fozzie, Rowlf, Kermit as Captain Smollet, Clifford, and Pepe). I was completely hooked on Muppets. I had to have more, had to know what was next. By December of 2004 I had joined the Palisades Toys Forum and the Muppet Central Forum. This is where I truly became a Muppet fan. Among people who loved these characters and knew more about them then I could ever hope to, I started to understand why I intrinsically loved the Muppets the way I did (and still do). I fell in love with a frog and a pig and a bear and a whatever. I became reintroduced to my old friends Big Bird, Grover, Ernie, Bert. I discovered a brand new world in Fraggle Rock. I truly understood Jim Henson's message for the first time.

I began writing fan-fiction on Muppet Central forum--mostly because I was bored one summer. It spiraled from there, giving me a new love of bringing these characters to life, fully understanding them, and being blown away by their heart and humor. Through fan-fiction I discovered why the Muppets love each other, why they were important, and just how difficult, yet at the same time rewarding, it is to deal with critics. I also made some wonderful, lasting friendships through fan-fiction. Friends who are still friends today, and who have helped make The Muppet Mindset a success.

Then came 2007. A relatively unimportant year in the Muppet world, but incredibly exciting for me. In August of 2007 I was announced as the winner of The MuppetCast Muppet Impression contest. My impression of Dr. Bunsen Honeydew won me a copy of Kermit's book, Before You Leap, signed by Muppet writer Jim Lewis and the Frog himself. I knew I had made it big. (Relatively speaking.) It was here that I first began working with The MuppetCast's Steve Swanson, who was gracious enough to let me come back to the show a few more times to do my impressions. This sort of snuck me into the world of people who actually create things for Muppet fans.

It wasn't until two years later that I became something more than the guy who does funny voices on The MuppetCast and the guy who occasionally writes fan-fiction on Muppet Central Forum. In 2009, after a lot of work and not a whole lot of thought, I started The Muppet Mindset. And... well, you all pretty much know the rest of that story, since we're here now. I've had such an incredible few years thanks to this little website. In two years I've met CEO of The Muppets Studio Lylle Breier, writer Jim Lewis, and performer Bill Barretta in the summer of 2010, I met Dave Goelz and talked to Gonzo in October of that year, along with Fran Brill and Zoe in December, I interviewed Kevin Clash and Elmo in January 2011, met Jane Henson in February, and got to meet Steve Whitmire and Eric Jacobson just last month.

For seven years my Muppet fan journey has taken me all over the place. It's gotten me meetings with people whom I consider heroes. It's given me more opportunities than I ever could have expected. I've said it before, but I'll say it again: my goal with The Muppet Mindset has always been to make the world more Muppety. I just want to spread Jim Henson's message and point out the way the Muppets and Sesame Street and The Jim Henson Company are all still making the world a better place for Jim's having been here. I never knew Jim Henson... I never could have known him. But even still I try to spread his message in my small way.

Here we are in 2011 and the Muppets are about to make a huge resurgence. It's an amazing time to be a Muppet fan, and no matter where The Muppet Mindset might take me, that's what I'll always be: a Muppet fan. I'll never forget that seven years ago I was just a kid with a Gonzo action figure. Even today I'm just a kid with a lot of Muppet stuff and a website... but somehow, it works. It's like Jim always said, "Take what you got and fly with it."










The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier, ryguy102390@gmail.comSource URL: https://jimhensons.blogspot.com/search/label/Muppet%20Fan%20Testimonials
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Muppet Fan Testimonial: Casey Daron

Casey Daron - My Muppet fandom began four years ago, when I was eight. I was in my room, looking for something to do, when I found a Muppet coloring book. I faintly remembered coloring in it when I was three or four years old. As I kept my search in my room, a found a small Kermit stuffed animal. I knew nothing about the Muppets, yet they intrigued me. A few months later, I was in a store when I saw the book, Before You Leap by Kermit the Frog. I begged my parents to buy it, hoping to learn something from the book. I did learn some simple things, but I really had much more to find out.

I bought The Muppet Show: Season One in 2007, watched every episode, and shared a lot of laughs with my family. I now could easily recognize some of the lesser-known Muppets like Sweetums, Thog, Wayne, Wanda, and Uncle Deadly. I had just recently found Muppet Wiki and Muppet Central, and was found on them every day. I shopped online for any Muppet thing I could find. I remember myself going to Newbury Comics, and buying action figures, stuffed animals, lunchboxes, pins, stickers, and shirts. This was just the beginning to my vast Muppet Collection to over 150 items.

For my 9th birthday, I probably got the best present ever. My parents hired someone to paint me a beautiful Muppet mural. It showed Kermit on the Muppet Show Stage, with Statler and Waldorf in the balcony looking very displeased and cracking jokes. The next year, I got my very own Muppet Whatnot, which I named Elvis. We drove all the way from to New Hampshire to New York to get this personalized Muppet. This was awesome, because now I could make my own little Muppet shows. For Christmas I got the posable Kermit Photo Puppet, and later I got the Gonzo Photo Puppet as well.



When I turned eleven, I found The Muppet Mindset. This website was absolutely AWESOME! It told all these upcoming events, and even interviews with famous Muppeteers! This website was like heaven. I check on The Muppet Mindset every day, and read all the articles. It is absolutely awesome. I also found out about the new Muppet Movie, and was absolutely bonkers. THIS IS AWSOMELY AWESOME! This year, as I am 12, I have built my own full-bodied puppet similar to Sweetums. It was really simple, and only took me about three days. The Muppets are simply awesome, and I can’t wait to see the movie in November!







The Muppet Mindset by Ryan DosierSource URL: https://jimhensons.blogspot.com/search/label/Muppet%20Fan%20Testimonials
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Muppet Fan Testimonials: Maxwell Jessop

Muppet Fandom at Eleven: A Story of… well… My Awesome Obsession!

Maxwell Jessop - Throughout my life, the Muppets have been there. Whether as cameos or as one my biggest obsessions! I know I’m only eleven years old, but believe me I have much to tell!

In my early years, I watched Sesame Street and Bear in the Big Blue House. I loved Ernie as a little kid, and still do! I even have a picture of me at 1 ½ hugging an Ernie stuffed toy! I was practically a Muppet fan from the beginning.

However, I didn’t know about the Muppets from The Muppet Show yet. On a trip to Walt Disney World in 2006, I was introduced to those Muppets. Unfortunately, I was afraid of them... My parents did get me to go on MuppetVision 3D, but throughout the show I was closing my eyes and holding their hands. Luckily two years later, at the age of 9, I went on another vacation to Disney World! This time I was still afraid, but afterward I wasn’t afraid. I actually liked it a lot! And thus a new Muppet fan was made!

The same year, before I moved to Tennessee, I was told by my friends that there were Muppet YouTube videos (I actually had read about them on Muppet Central but I thought it would be inappropriate or fake). But you see, before this I wasn’t actually allowed on YouTube without my parent’s permission. After this I was basically allowed to watch anything on there that wasn’t inappropriate. But also because of my friends' news, I might’ve never seen any of the Muppet viral videos. Especially Bohemian Rhapsody, which is my one of my favorite Muppet viral videos and one of my favorite Muppet songs (seriously, when I got it on my iPod, I listened to it a bunch of times and memorized the words in the Muppet voices)!

Anyway, from that year onward, my love for Muppets grew. In 2009, I began to watch Sesame Street again and saw my first Sesame Street in years: “Firefly Show.” After that I loved it again! Also later that year, I celebrated the 40th anniversary of the show and saw almost every episode of that season!

It was also a good year for Muppets; I started my Muppet DVD collection and got some of The Muppet Show season sets! And I was also introduced to The MuppetCast podcast and got more and more interested in the posts on Muppet Wiki.

Though, my fandom kept growing in the past, 2010 was the one of the awesomest years in Muppet fandom for me! In February, through Google, I stumbled upon a certain blog with a Kermit/Gonzo/Pepe header called The Muppet Mindset! I immediately liked the site and read a few posts. The first post I read was “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Muppet Movies,” which listed, obviously, seven habits of highly effective Muppet movies! Afterward, I read some of the “Discovering the Best of the Muppets at Their Worst” and began to read the site more and more until later that year I read it daily, as I do now!

In March, I also got more into the Muppet fan sites and, with the help of my dad, became a member of Muppet Central Forum! With the forum and the Mindset in my reach I knew the latest Muppet news. I found out about the new Muppet movie through the Mindset, though, I knew more with the forum’s help! By this time, I was obsessed! I read everything on the Mindset, looked at most things on the forum, and, by May, started listening to every new show on the MuppetCast. I sure did find my Rainbow Connection!

Moving right along! Why did I just reference to Muppet movie songs in one post? Oh yeah! To be funny! Anyway, there’s not much to tell after that. Except for the fact that in October I met legendary Muppeteer Dave Goelz and legendary stuntman and poultry enthusiast Gonzo the Great! But what made it even awesomer is that I met the creator and head writer of the Muppet Mindset, my favorite Muppet blog of them all, Ryan Dosier! That day was awesome--Dave Goelz even signed my Muppet comic book!



Max as Beaker
I’m just a big obsessed Muppet fan, well, not really big… I’m only 11! But don’t let that fool you – Muppet Wiki has taught me much! But I am obsessed! I even went as Beaker for Halloween! That tells you that I’m more than a regular fan! I can’t say much else but I wanna end with saying, I love the Muppets! That’s basically my obsession!



When Ryan Met Max








The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier
Source URL: https://jimhensons.blogspot.com/search/label/Muppet%20Fan%20Testimonials
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Muppet Fan Testimonials: Michael Wermuth, Jr.

Michael Wermuth, Jr. - I’ve been a Muppet fan all my life. My first memory of the Muppets is watching the opening credits sequence from The Great Muppet Caper. I was born the same year that Muppet Babies premiered. My earliest memories of watching Sesame Street seem to begin during the 19th season, though I feel I saw it earlier than that. I also saw Sesame Street: 20 and Still Counting in its original broadcast, and recall watching The Jim Henson Hour at least twice during its original run. I also watched Dinosaurs regularly during the show’s run.

While I had always been a Muppet fan, I think my obsession started to become an obsession in 1992. My grandparents had given me every volume of Jim Henson’s Muppet Stories that year, and during the summer I often watched my copy of A Muppet Family Christmas, and started to pay attention to how several characters looked. Then on the first day of school that year me and my classmates looked through magazines for some sort of project, and I saw several pictures of Muppets, and noticed that they looked different than in A Muppet Family Christmas. So after school I watched the few Muppet videos I had at the time, and on my next few trips to the video store I would rent Muppet videos (that video store had four of The Muppet Show compilation videos released by Playhouse Video, and five videos from Jim Henson’s Play-Along Video label).

Lucky for me this was a very good time to be a fan of the Muppets. Around this time I got cable and Nickelodeon just started airing Muppet Babies reruns, and would soon start airing old Muppet specials, and a couple of years later Nickelodeon would start airing reruns of The Muppet Show. The Disney Channel started airing reruns of Fraggle Rock, and although I didn’t have the channel at the time I did get to watch the show regularly. The Muppet Christmas Carol was released in theaters that year. And best of all, the Jim Henson Records and Jim Henson Video lines had started.

I first learned that the Muppets were really puppets when Nickelodeon aired "The Secrets of the Muppets." In fact I think this was what made me learn that what happens on TV and in movies wasn’t real (I had seen a number of animated cartoons in which characters worked in movie sets, but was ignorant of what was going on). I wasn’t disappointed that the Muppets weren’t real, though; In fact I thought it was cool. And this helped make a few things I noticed make sense to me: I had started to notice that the movies listed the names of the Muppet characters underneath other names, I had noticed the arm wires of the characters but didn’t know before why they were there, and I had noticed that many of the characters legs weren’t shown much. And I believe I learned the names of the Muppet performers quickly, faster than I’d learned the names of many celebrities and voice actors. In 1994 I obtained a copy of The Story of Jim Henson: Creator of the Muppets, and later that year I saw the Great Performances documentary “The World of Jim Henson”, which helped me learn more about Jim Henson and the Muppets.

In 1996 my household got the internet, and the first website I visited was the old Muppet Home Page by Bill Sherman. I would soon look at other Muppet websites, my favorites being Muppet Central, Tough Pigs, Muppet Wiki, and of course The Muppet Mindset. I regularly lurked around the various Muppet message boards before finally joining the Muppet Central message board (under the name minor muppetz, in part because I like many of the minor characters). And I’ve made many great contributions to Muppet Wiki and The Muppet Mindset.

For years I have had a strong desire to be an actor, writer, and maybe director, and I feel a big part of this desire was due to the Muppets (after all, many Muppet productions involve the characters putting on a show or production of some sort). In 2009 I started a YouTube channel, mwermuthland. Many of my videos include references to the Muppets, and in some of them I wear a t-shirt featuring Muppet characters. One video I did, “Harftoons Flashlights”, was inspired by the Wilkins Coffee commercials. I’ve done a handful of variety show videos called “eMpty-TV”, all of which so far include at least one sketch with my Palisades Toys Muppet action figures (the Muppet segments were also uploaded separately as stand-alone videos). Another of my videos, “Xormorphic News Program #18: What News?”, ends with a long, meaningful tribute to Jim Henson (among a variety of funny, fictitious news stories). I included my Statler, Waldorf, Pops, and Dr. Strangepork action figures in a video called "Old People Vs. Slackers" (based on a late-1990s Game Boy Pocket commercial). And there have been many other references, too numerous for me to name.

In conclusion, the Muppets are one of my biggest obsessions. I do enjoy other things, like Looney Tunes and Family Guy, but the Muppets are at the top of my interests.











The Muppet Mindset by Ryan DosierSource URL: https://jimhensons.blogspot.com/search/label/Muppet%20Fan%20Testimonials
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Muppet Fan Testimonials: Heather Nadolny

Heather Nadolny - “Be my echo, sing after me, be my echo if you please….”

It’s another sunny morning, and, as my grandmother anxiously anticipates her daily viewing of The Price is Right, I abandon my hot chocolate and waffles to bounce up and down in front of the television. Grover is on.
My name is Heather, and since May 26, 1987, I have been a die-hard Muppet fan.

My first Muppet memory begins with Sesame Street. While the “Tickle Me Elmo” craze happened a while after my preschool years, I had a whole different obsession: the music. My mother recently e-mailed me the YouTube video of Madeline Kahn and Grover performing “Sing After Me," sending with it floods of memories and an instant playlist of songs parading through my brain.

I’m a musician. It’s hard enough to get tunes out of my head. But I can safely say that there is a Muppet song, line, or joke for nearly every occasion. Even the sad ones. What better way to deal with someone leaving than “Saying Goodbye”? And is there any better alphabet song than Big Bird’s phonetically fabulous “ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ”?

But I’m getting ahead of myself. I have had a long, in depth journey with Jim Henson’s brainchild. Since my parents worked, I spent a lot of time at my Grandma’s, where I would sing Sesame Street songs over and over again to the point of potential annoyance. But my Grandma, Muppet fan as well, never seemed to mind. From “Put Down the Duckie” to “Dance Myself to Sleep,” the songs of Sesame Street all spoke to me.

I was first introduced to Kermit, Piggy, and the rest of the gang through both The Muppet Christmas Carol and Muppet Family Christmas when I was 5. I fell in love with Kermit, Rowlf, and Robin, who remain my favorites. The innocence of Robin resonated with the wide-eyed 5 year-old, and Rowlf solidified my love of clumsy, goofy dogs.

Inspired, my mother gave me Rowlf’s Rhapsodies as a gift, a sing-along special featuring Rowlf as a Caribbean “Music Mon” whose attempts to show off his musical stylings go haywire as the song gets faster. Between that and The Muppet Christmas Carol on VHS, I’m still wondering how I had time to fall in love with Disney princesses and Barbie.

Muppets Tonight! came at the beginning of middle school, and it was a sad Friday night if I missed it. My father and I connected as we watched Kermit and Tony Bennett sing “Firefly” and Sandra Bullock introduced me to “Mahna Mahna.”

Kermit inspired me to perform “Rainbow Connection” in singing competitions, and I waited for other Muppet movies to appear. I saw Muppet Treasure Island at a birthday party, and eventually saw Fraggle Rock and Dinosaurs.

In junior year of high school, I visited the University of Maryland, Jim Henson’s alma mater. I became giddy over the thought of seeing his “Designs and Doodles” exhibit, and took a picture of the statue of him and Kermit, which now hangs in my house.

With college came the DVD releases of The Muppet Show and Sesame Street: Old School, each one giving me hours of new material to watch. My friends come over begging to get their Muppet fix, and I am all too happy to oblige. The beauty of the Muppets is, no matter how many times you watch, there’s always something new.

Having said all this, I will admit that this love has had its obstacles. While watching Season 1 when I should have been writing a paper, I fell asleep and dreamed that the Mahna Mahna backup monsters had teeth and were chasing me through a locked library. I took that as a sign that I should probably get serious about the looming deadline.

But the biggest inspiration, and best part of being a Muppet fan, is helping children like myself become one as well. For the past four years, I have serenaded the girl I babysit with my favorite Muppet songs, which have in turn become hers. I get regular requests for “I Don’t Want to Live on the Moon” and “I’m Gonna Always Love You,” and through YouTube, have shown her bits and pieces of this amazing world.

I know that she, like me, will keep the love for the Muppets music and childlike wonder alive. And that is what’s really important in all of this.

As a nanny, a teacher, and a performer, I am constantly in awe of the innovation and inspiration garnered from Jim Henson’s creations. But more than that, I am endlessly grateful for them. Despite current events and life’s ups and downs, I know that I can pop in a DVD, or scan YouTube, and find something that helps me feel like a child again.

Though I miss my Grandma, and worry about the pressures of getting older, I, and I’m assuming many others, can be comforted by what we have known for years. With the impending holiday season upon us, the words of “One More Sleep ‘Til Christmas,” seem delightfully relevant:

’Tis the season to be jolly and joyous
With a burst of pleasure, we feel it all right
’Tis the season when the saints can employ us
To spread the news about peace and to keep love alive…

So, fellow Muppet fans, I am grateful for Jim Henson and all of his Muppets for bringing unimaginable joy to my life, and those of countless others--especially those little ones still bouncing and singing in front of the TV.

Thank you, Mr. Henson, for being my hero.











The Muppet Mindset by Ryan DosierSource URL: https://jimhensons.blogspot.com/search/label/Muppet%20Fan%20Testimonials
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Muppet Fan Testimonials: Beth Kondrick

Beth Kondrick - A couple of years ago a friend of mine came over to my house for the first time and as I was giving him the tour which included such highlights as my photo puppet Kermit the Frog and my extensive Muppet DVD collection, he finally said, "Okay now explain something to me – what is up you and the Muppets?" He wanted to know "why" I have such a love and obsession with them and I thought about it for a few minutes and finally said, "It’s really tough to put it into words."


It is extremely difficult to define my Muppet fandom and how it even began.  Like most fans, my earliest exposure and memories I have are of watching Sesame Street as a young child and giggling hysterically at Ernie and Bert, specifically the sketch "Here Fishy Fishy." I had numerous Sesame Street toys and books. I would watch Sesame Street on PBS just about twice a day in those formative years. I also had Christmas Eve on Sesame Street on a videotape and it was in heavy rotation even in the summertime.


Later on I had two of the Muppet movies The Muppets Take Manhattan and The Great Muppet Caper and would watch them constantly. So many of the jokes went completely over my head, but I still loved every minute and could recite every single line right along with them. "What color are their hands now?" and "You hear me New York? I’m staying here, the Frog is STAYING!" were some of my favorites, along with Animal saying "Bye bye" at the end of the credits of The Muppets Take Manhattan – it became a family joke in my house in fact.  


Eventually The Muppet Show and Fraggle Rock made it into my viewing as well and, again, I loved every minute of these shows. Somehow I just connected with these special creatures. They made me happy, they spoke to me, and they were my friends.


In middle school one of my close friends and I used to pass a notebook back and forth and eventually decided we needed code names as we talked about boys we liked and such and didn’t want to give away our identities if it fell into the wrong hands. I was Cookie Monster, she was Elmo. And every single crush we had was assigned a Muppet nickname. My eventual husband was referred to as "Gonzo" I think!


Moving into adulthood, I found myself still wanting to watch Muppet movies often, to collect some of my favorite characters memorabilia, to try and catch an episode of Sesame Street on a day off or a sick day. I never felt like I was “outgrowing” them at all. In fact, it seemed as I got older, my love for them continued to grow. My love/obsession increased even more when I discovered a fan community in 2005 called Muppet Central. I started following along and posting on the forum there and made tons of friends from all across the country and even out of the US in places like England and Australia. I couldn’t believe there were other crazies out there who loved something as much as I did. To this day I have several very good friends I have never met in person, but am deeply connected to because of a shared love of the Muppets. (Note from Ryan: Hey, I think she's talking about me!)


No matter how bad of a day I’m having, I can always count on the Muppets to cheer me up. I specifically remember the day I moved out of my parents house and into the house I would be living in with my then future husband, I was excited to be on my own, but kind of sad to be leaving childhood behind. I popped in The Muppet Movie that very first night and it helped somehow. It made the feeling of growing up less scary.
I have decorated my house with various Muppet memorabilia. My first anniversary present from my husband was the Master Photo Puppet Kermit the Frog. It is proudly on display in my living room and I have fun dressing him up for each season – especially Christmas, he gets a hat, scarf and mittens!  


The latest addition to my Muppet collection is a very unique piece of art by Dave Hulteen, Jr. depicting the Muppets at a very large dinner party. It is extremely long – about six feet or so, but it’s also short. I recently finished painting my living room and wanted to have this print hung after it has sat in the tube it was sent to me in for the last two years.  It cost me a pretty penny to have it framed – but it was worth every cent. I have had so many compliments on it and it looks fantastic on my wall.


Now I’m on the lookout for a Rowlf the Dog stuffed animal or puppet – he is one of my all time favorites and so I am making it my goal to find one to add to my collection!



The Muppets are just a part of me and part of who I am. There’s a pop song out called "Everything’s Better With Muppets" and I feel that should be my theme song. Because it is true!


So, when my friend says "Why Muppets?" I now say, "Why NOT Muppets?" Where else can you find humor, heart, and pure joy? I wouldn’t trade my Muppet fandom for anything in the entire world!



















The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier
Source URL: https://jimhensons.blogspot.com/search/label/Muppet%20Fan%20Testimonials
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Muppet Fan Testimonials: Jordan Sibayan

Jordan Sibayan - Sitting at college and worrying about finals. What helps me calm down? The Muppets of course! In some way shape or form, the Muppets have always been a vital part of my life even if I didn’t know it. Whether it was watching Sesame Street before preschool, watching The Great Muppet Caper over and over again on VHS, or listening to “Do Dee Rubber Duck” on my MP3 Player during my bus rides to college.

My first encounter with the Muppets was with... of course... Sesame Street. Ya see... I lived in an NICU unit in a hospital for the first ten months and four days of my life. But there are pictures of me with a Telly Monster plush and one with me facing the TV with a caption “Jordan Watching Sesame Street.” I clearly remember watching the "Elmo’s Song" segment from an early age, as well as "I Don’t Want To Live on the Moon" and "One Fine Face." Then, as I grew into a toddler, I had homecare nurses, and one used to bring different tapes. They were the “It’s the Muppets!” tapes and “It’s Not Easy Being Green Sing-Along” tape. I also remember being introduced to Labyrinth in this way as well, I still love the Fireys after all these years. We also had a few Muppet tapes, from Sesame Street, which included “Sing Yourself Silly” and their 25th anniversary tape and Muppet movies of the 90s such as Muppets Treasure Island and The Muppet Christmas Carol. I used to love watching them over and over.

Also when I was a toddler I remember watching Dinosaurs (specifically the episode “Georgie Must Die” where Earl stomps on the Baby’s video tape... for some reason that scared me a bit). Then during adolescence... whenever I was upset or feeling bad I’d put on the Muppets. I remember finding my copy of The Muppet Movie at a pawn shop, and my copy of The Great Muppet Caper at the flea market. I also  found many other gems at the flea market, and still do to this day. It was also around this time I’d noticed the ad’s for Fraggle Rock on just about every tape from around 1993-1995 so I tried desperately to find a copy. Eventually I found the tape “Beginnings,” or so I thought. It was really the tape that had “The Great Radish Famine.”

Now, I never really got INTO the Muppets until about fourth grade. That’s also when I discovered... the internet. Every day during free time on a computer I would type in “Muppets” and see what I could find. It was also at that time I stumbled upon a newer site known as... Muppet Central. I lurked the forums a lot back then, until I got an account in 2006. I started researching everything about the Muppets I could. When the Muppet Wiki started I remember contributing to a few articles (I think I helped start the article on “Honker Duckie Dinger Jamboree” and a few others). The collection grew, with such acquisitions as my Kermit Phone, Mega Gonzo action figure, and other such items. But I was always drawn to the VHSs and DVDs.

I think the final straw was when I learned that Jim Henson, Steve Whitmire, and myself all shared the same birthdays. I took it as a sign from God, because, like Jim, I naturally had an interest for animation, and puppetry (making my own puppets and performing them to lip-syncs like he did). Though with my disabilities, I wouldn’t be able to hold my own against any of the Kevin Clash’s or Frank Oz’s or even the Mike Quinn’s out there. But I always wonder if Sesame Street needs a Scooter--I mean, a gofer. In all honesty though, I get some of my creativity from Jim such as the use of puns when necessary and I use it in my comics and videos I create. Also, funnily enough, and by sheer coincidence, both of our main characters are green.

I could go on and on with other things to say about the Muppets and what they mean to me and other fun stories, but that’d take up too much space. But I will leave you guys with this: I use a green wheelchair to get around, yet my favorite color is red. Why green? To show the world that it’s not easy... but it’s who I want to be, myself. Through all the hard times I’ve gone though, I always turned to the Muppets because the Muppets are kind and gentle. I see them as peacemakers and intellectuals in their own right. They don’t let the little stuff bother them too much. That’s the way I try to go about life, even though I've got some crazy stuff going on, I try to act that much crazier so I can balance everything out. They just... taught me to be myself and embrace all my flaws and strengths and make the best of what I got. Can I run a marathon? No. Can I tell a good pun? Yes, I “wheelie” can, and I’d love to “chair” some with you.

AHHHHHH! Wocka! Wocka!

Jordan Sibayan or colbynfriends










The Muppet Mindset by Ryan DosierSource URL: https://jimhensons.blogspot.com/search/label/Muppet%20Fan%20Testimonials
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