What made Bobo work better than Beauregard?

[Lourenzo]

So I looked up Beauregard on the Muppet Wiki and saw the reason why his character never took off: Apparently he has no desires and does not want anything.

And this just seems weird to me, because Bobo kinda of the same. He's described as content and by Bill Baretta as "just grateful that he gets to have a life outside the zoo"

While Beauregard has more or less faded into obscurity over the decades, Bobo's still going. He Pepe and Big Mean Carl are real the only 90s muppets who have managed to live on to the present day.

So why does one work better than the other?

 

[BlakeConor14]

For me bobo can have any job in the Muppets and still make it funny. Beauregard has that one role which is difficult to write for

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

For me bobo can have any job in the Muppets and still make it funny. Beauregard has that one role which is difficult to write for

That's true, Beauregard's main traits are that he's unintelligent and he likes mops, while Bobo is a much more flexible character because he's smarter and generally has more interests.

 

[Mikey's Muppet]

I like Beauregard and often wondered why he wasn't seen more often. Loved his sincere "What colour are their hands now?" question in the Great Muppet Caper after Kermit says they're going to catch the thieves "red handed". He's a funny character.

 

[muppetperson]

I prefer Beauregard!

 

[Muppet Master]

Well Beauregard is basically just a one note character, he talks goofily and does somtething stupid. Bobo has more depth to him, sure he is also goofy, but is not stupid and his deadpan style of humor makes him way more funny.

 

[jobi71]

I think they did use Beau pretty well in the original Muppet Show. He had the main plot in the last episode filmed: The End of the World. And aside from being the janitor he was a stage hand with Beaker with typical results - both of them tangled in the fly system in Another Opening Another Show and bringing everything but bananas to Fozzie during the Banana Boat song. His best use by far was the Cabbie in Great Muppet Caper. As to why he faded from sight? His role was primarily as backstage staff. And if you look at the other characters who had similar roles - George, Hilda and especially Gladys - none of them stuck around too long either. It was a nice meta joke for the gang to find him in the old theater wondering where they went. I saw Dave Goelz speak a few years back and someone asked about Beau. He said he loved the character, but the writers found it hard to write for him. If we do get a second season of the new TV show I am hoping they can find a bit more for him to do. After all so much of the show is the behind the scenes that he would fit in. I know I frequently pitch plot ideas that involve two odd or non-associated characters stuck in L.A. traffic, but what if Beau had to drive Sam to an important meeting at ABC and they were - you guessed it - stuck in traffic.

 

[minor muppetz]

I always thought Bobo was dumb as well. I was surprised when Bobo and Beauregard were paired together in a couple of Muppets.com videos.

 

[Old Thunder]

For me bobo can have any job in the Muppets and still make it funny. Beauregard has that one role which is difficult to write for

That's basically my thoughts as well - Bobo can do anything, whereas Beauregard can't. (Though I do like Beauregard, too.)

 

[Muppet Master]

One thing I realized about Beauregard is that early on, he was supposed to have superhuman strenght, but the writers dropped that early in TMS, that would have been a strange trait.