KyiMayKaung

Burma, America, The World, Art, Literature, Political Economy through the eyes of a Permanent Exile. "We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the oppressed. Sometimes we must interfere. . . There is so much injustice and suffering crying out for our attention . . . writers and poets, prisoners in so many lands governed by the left and by the right." Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize Speech, 1986, Oslo. This entire site copyright Kyi May Kaung unless indicated otherwise.

Monday, July 06, 2026

"Today I want to laugh, said my grandson"--then age 8. Visiting Jim Henson's workshop--Smithsonian Magazine.

The work that’s come out of this shop—and its sibling locations in London and Burbank—has so thoroughly shaped the national entertainment landscape that Lintelman calls it “the default American puppet style.” Henson puppets are known for their extraordinarily expressive faces and fuzzy texture, achieved through a process called flocking, wherein the carved foam base is covered in glue and electrostatically charged to attract small fibers. The look is familiar enough to inspire parodies like Avenue Q and such a reliable source of nostalgia that Disney’s most recent attempt at rebooting the Muppets, a one-off Muppet Show revival special that premiered in early February of this year, garnered 7.58 million viewers over its first week on ABC and Disney+.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/a-peek-inside-jim-hensons-creature-shop-where-sesame-street-characters-and-other-whimsical-puppets-are-designed-180989051/?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us
For the people who make these puppets, this is no surprise. Henson’s creations, and those of his successors today, teach toddlers to count and children to feel, all while winking at their parents, who grew up with the same characters.