How big of a Muppet / Jim Henson fan are you

mupcollector1

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I figure I post this for the fun of it among other reasons. One is that I never really meet another Muppet fan in person and the only time I ever seen Muppet fans is when I went to MuppetFest back in 2001. And I can totally tell how crazy Muppet Fans can get. Even to the point of seeing people write Kermit and Jim's name on the lavatory stool ways. lol So I'm just curious about just how Muppet fans are individually and their lifestyles.

I'll go first.

Well I'm an artist indie filmmaker who makes comedy films. I'm also a cartoonist both comics and animation and a puppeteer.

And Jim Henson is my #1 hero. I have pictures of him and the Muppeteers all over my apartment living room as well as the first 5 Muppet Movies in frames on my wall and a big poster of The New Muppet movie on my wall. Also a framed snapshots from Handmade Video from 5/7/90 figuring it's the last film footage of Jim before his passing. Plus an autographed photo of Frank Oz that he sent me in the mail which I'm really proud of. The mini Think Different poster, various photo print outs that I have either taped or tacked to my walls including the snapshot of the cut scene of The Muppet Show pitch tape.

I have a mini statue of Jim Henson on my living room desk and the Fisher Price Kermit puppet on one of it's shelves that I've had since I was a kid. It was a lucky find at a goodwill type shop.

In my apartment between my kitchen and bedroom, I have a special wall that I call my quote wall. And most of it is copy machine copies of quotes from my copy of "It's not easy being green and other things to consider". And in my Kitchen above my kitchen desk I have a picture of a young 1960s Jim Henson in his office.

Aside from being an artist who's trying to get into the industry with a sort of messy apartment full of books, computer equipment and drawings that fell durring animation scanning lol I am also a DVD collector and cartoon / old school comedy fan. So I have print outs of things from Spitting Image, Les Guignols De L'info, irreverent comic scripts from National Lampoon and The Far Side, Ren & Stimpy (an actual layout drawing used from the show), a drawing from creator John K to me back in 2001. As well as other adult cartoon and animation productions and TV shows from my childhood. My bathroom is full of weird funny corny horror movie print out posters from Troma and of course toilet humor just for the fun of it. Like Mr. Hankey from South Park. And my bedroom isn't as devoted to art. Mostly it's cat pictures and pictures of Tomboy Punk girls, Tank Girl, Haruko of FLCL, SanDeE* (Young Sarah Jessica Parker) various masculine females, K.D. Lang album covers and Harley Quinn :smile: (*BLUSH*)

Anyway my DVD collection is pretty big. A mix of Henson productions, Animation, Slapstick classic parody films of Zucker Bros and Mel Brooks, and really bad and corny B-movies. As well as a huge DVD-R book of my tape trade collections. Rare Jim Henson / Muppet footage, Muppet Show seasons not on DVD yet, Jim Henson Hour, Muppets Tonight, Apperances, etc. Bad Saturday Morning Cartoons of the 80s, Animated Shows and shorts, and a bunch of weird twisted crazy documentries and mixtapes of bad public access TV and stuff that I like to show my best friend late at night just for laughs or to annoy him and laugh myself lol

And I'm becoming more and more of a computer buff. loads of USB cords everywhere, a few DVD players, DVD recorder, fast Scanner and copier, blank DVDs, cords gallore. And of course my master tapes of films I made. And just bags of stuff, mostly two or three heavy backpags that I drag with me everywhere I go because I'm never ending studying, taking notes and drawing. lol It drives my mother nuts when she wants to spend time with me and bring me out to eat and I'm just coming up with ideas for a script or pitch and stuff. lol

Any finally my book collection which isn't as big as my dvd collection, barely any fiction, mostly non-fiction. It's made up of almost every Jim Henson biography ever released in book form, my ever growing Mad Magazine / Cracked Magazine collection, Punk feminist graphic novels (Tank Girl / Love and Rockets), Tomboy studies, Myers Briggs Personality Science studies, The Complete Far Side, and various books on the film industry and my favorite shows.

And as for my social life, it's very small. It's just my mother who I'm really close to. And my best friend who I've been friends with for over 10 years and it keeps improving and we just find more and more things were into. We're basicly nerds that collect DVDs, old video games (I have a collection of Super Nintendo Games based on Cartoon TV shows lol). He recently got into The Muppet Show so now I have a friend who I can finally watch The Muppets with, without the fear of needing to explain why I love them so much. lol

Still single in my mid-20s but I feel that Myer Briggs science is going to guide me to the perfect partner and social life. I strongly believe in the science. lol

And finally my philosophy of why I love The Muppets, it's several things.
One of course is the comedy. It's so crazy. It's full of explosions, monsters eating characters, surreal wackiness and bad puns. lol Never a dual moment, very very fast pace. lol
Also just impressed with the TV puppetry and Movie puppetry technology that Jim Henson made specially for the medium. Like Bob Clampett did with with Benny and Cecil but bringing it further. And I'm sort of trying to figure out the next thing to bring puppets and cartoons closer. I'm start to get into digital Motion Capture puppetry mainly because of my own weaknesses and economy production budgets. For example I can draw really well, but I struggle with animation a little bit. And I'm a really good puppeteer, but I struggle building puppets and puppet material is too expensive for me right now. Especially looking since High School for my first job. lol I'm hoping to get something at Wal-Mart soon just to get some cash in my pocket. Though of course my dream is to be an artist in the medium.

Like I said, Jim's my hero and there's so many things about him that amazes me as an artist and media business man. Jim always had a million ideas in his head and always pitching, always having fun at his job with his employees at the same time do some hard work and really truly caring about art. And unlike most bosses in general, Jim and his crew became a family of close friends and truely carred about each other behind the scenes and their love of art, being treated equal and being able to come up with ideas and adlibs and just being able to laugh and have fun on projects from start to finish. Plus I've heard stories of Jim hanging out with his crew when they didn't do work like have parties at the Waldorf and I heard a story that they went water skeeing once :smile: Plus my favorite is them goofing around on the set, in the workshop and sometimes having characters say and do things off camera that they would never say on production just to make each other laugh. lol I know there's cartoonists who have that kind of fun as well. I know deep in my heart, that's the life for me. And I'm willing to work hard to get to my life's journey. :smile:


Anyway sorry of this post is a bit long but that's kind of what I wanted to do, have fans kind of talk about their lifestyles a big and just how Muppet fandom plays in their lives. Especially seeing how wild some Muppet fans can get at MuppetFest, I would love to hear some of these stories. :smile:
 

mupcollector1

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Forgot to add one more Muppet fandom detail besides wanting to write a Muppet Movie script. And I truely think Muppet fans can totally relate to this one. lol I still have like 20 something huge bins of Muppet Membrobillia at my Dad's house a state away that I couldn't fit into my apartment and hoping to get a job soon so I can pay for storage and quickly organize it and probably sell or trade some stuff on the forum sometime in the future. I just want to save the 70s and 80s stuff I have and my palisades collection. I have too much plush dolls that my father spoild me with as a kid because, well me and my dad never got along to put it sort. It's a very very long story. Most of it was verbal abuse from the guy. But anyway, the big Muppet collection thing I can totally relate too. lol

And just quickly replying to how much I constaintly read and study, r&d (research and development). I got to Power Fitness a couple times a week to work out. And what's cool is that I can hook up my ipod to it so I'm studying film writing and documentaries while running on a treadmill. lol
 

Misskermie

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To answer the question, to EVERYONE....

BIGGER THAN YOU!!!

LOL JK
 

Hayley B

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I'm not a big fan. I've always liked them. But not well into them. Before I decided to join Muppet Central. I kept thinking that this is just going to be a mere fad.
 

mupcollector1

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I always considered The Muppets to be sort of a cult following sort of thing. Back in the 70s they were HUGE mainstream, but as years went on. It became a cult following. A huge one in fact. I was so amazed how many people where there at MuppetFest back in 2001. I must have been the youngest person there. lol
 

JJandJanice

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I got a HUGE collection of Muppet stuff and last week I got Kermit the Frog tattooed on my shin, which I'll post pictures of soon.
 

Hayley B

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I got a HUGE collection of Muppet stuff and last week I got Kermit the Frog tattooed on my shin, which I'll post pictures of soon.
Look forward in seeing it. Why didn't you get one of Janice?
 

JJandJanice

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By the way, I just added the pictures on the thread "JJ's first Muppet tattoo" on the Friends and Family fourm.
 
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