Does "Muppet" mean "Marionette and puppet"?

The children's biography Jim Henson: Creator of the Muppets depicts Ernie as a marionette, providing a provably false etymology of the word Muppet.

While marionettes were used sparingly by the Muppets, the operation of the Dancing Clown, a standard hand puppet built for episode 508 of The Muppet Show, mocks the hybridization of the two styles of puppetry.

The answer seems to depend on when the question was asked.

This etymology of the word "Muppet" was first promulgated by none other than Jim Henson himself. Later, as in a 1977 appearance on The Mike Douglas Show, Henson acknowledged that Muppet was originally a combination of the words, but stated that the definition wasn't accurate later in his career because they used marionettes so infrequently. Later still, Henson and other members of his troupe claimed that the origin story was never true and he just liked the sound of the word.

This page examines the evidence that the name "Muppet" was coined by combining the words "marionette" and "puppet."

Pro

• Apr 21, 1957 — The Steve Allen Show guests: "The Muppets, combination of marionettes and puppets."

press release printed in at least 14 newspapers

• Jun 2, 1958 — "Mr. ver Stander told how the muppets [sic] (a word derived from puppets and marionettes) have caused a sensation in advertising and television circles, after they were introduced in Washington last October. He confessed that he and his associates had been 'flabbergasted' by the repercussions."

M. Belmont Van Stander, ad agency president

• April 10, 1961 — "They're called Muppets because they're neither puppets nor marionettes, but kind of a combination."

Dave Garroway on The Today Show

• May 16, 1964 — "Well, when we first started our studio, some of our creations were part puppet, part marionette. Since then we've discontinued strings entirely, but in the meantime the term became identified with us."

Jim Henson to The Sentinel newspaper

• Feb 16, 1966 — "We call our company Muppets because we originally used marionettes as well as puppets."

Jim Henson to the UPI news service

• Dec 29, 1974 — "Originally, it was to be a combination of marionette and puppet because back when I first started, we used to do some work with marionettes and puppets, and that's how it came about."

Jim Henson on Wonderama, December 29, 1974

• Oct 1974: "This year Sesame Street's educational and entertaining format will be joined by...Poco Loco, a parrot 'Muppet' (the word combines "marionette" and "puppet")..."

Sesame Street season 6 press release

• Oct 24, 1977 — "Well, originally, when I started a long time ago, we called it Muppets because it was a combination of marionette and puppet. It's not really true anymore because we do a little bit of marionette work, but not much."

Jim Henson on The Mike Douglas Show

• Nov 7, 1977 — "The Hensons brought the lovable Muppets (the name is an amalgam of marionette and puppet) to Sesame Street seven years ago to make reading and counting fun for preschool children."

Nellie Blagden for People magazine

• Feb 1978 — "The name Muppet, by the way, was coined by Jim to represent his own individual puppet designs, a combination of 'marionette' and 'puppet.'"

Muppet Show Fan Club Newsletter vol. 1, no. 5.

• Mar 3, 1978 — "Now I would like to point out that the name Muppet is a combination of the word 'marionette' and 'puppet'."

Dr. Jerry Nelson, while giving a speech on the Muppets' history, The Vent Event

• 1993 — "Jane Henson recalls that the name Muppet was actually an amalgam of the words puppet and marionette...although Jim later insisted that he chose the name simply because he liked the sound of it."

Jim Henson: The Works, page 18

• 2001 — "Jim came up with the name Muppets during the Sam and Friends years -- it is a combination of the words marionettes and puppets."

Alison Inches for Jim Henson's Designs and Doodles

Con

• Sep 2, 1956 — "A Muppet, according to Henson, is a cross between a hand puppet and a stick puppet. Henson thought up the term Muppet in order to 'have something distinctive.'"

Washington Post, September 2

• Feb 17, 1957 — "Jim devised the name 'muppets' for his brainchildren, because they're a cross between stick and hand puppets."

Katharine Elson for Washington Post and Times Herald

• Dec 25, 1978 — "The word was coined from 'marionette' and 'puppet', says Jim Henson, 42, the skinny, bearded Zeus from whose brow the creatures began to spring 20-odd years ago, when he was a teenager hooked on television... Like other geniuses, Henson is a sly fellow whose sound artistic instinct is to resist critical analysis... Now he backtracks and says that "muppet" was simply a word that sounded good to him. The sound combination of puppet and marionette is merely an explanation that happens to sound logical."

John Skow for Time magazine

• April 1983 — "I think we did the term Muppets before we got the show Sam and Friends - a few months after I started working. It was really just a term we made up. For a long time I would tell people it was a combination of marionettes and puppets but, basically, it was really just a word that we coined. We have done very few things connected with marionettes."

Jim Henson for Cinefantastique

• Jul 10, 1984 — "We told reporters the word was a combination of puppets and marionettes, but that wasn't true. We just coined it. We just made it up. We just said that to satisfy the reporters."

Jim Henson for the Baltimore Evening Sun

• 1986 — "In actuality, Muppets was a word we just coined. It was merely to be the name of our act. ... I used to say to people that It was a combination of 'marionettes' and 'puppets.' But that was mostly an answer that I made up so that people who needed an answer would get an answer. But then I stopped telling this lie, and I'm back to the truth: It just came out of mid air."

Jim Henson for The Gettysburg Times

• July 2, 1986 — "Well, you know, in reality it was just a word that we made up. I used to tell people that it was a combination of puppets and marionettes, but that was just sort of an answer so I would have something to tell people when they asked the question. I've stopped saying that now."

Jim Henson on Breakfast Time

• March 18, 2001 — "My parents came up with this name, 'Muppet,' because it was a funny, cute name... and some people say that they took the two words 'marionette,' which is a string puppet, and 'puppet,' and they put them together. But, we actually think that it's more that my father just thought it was a fun-sounding word."

Cheryl Henson in A&E Biography: Sesame Street

• Sept 22, 2003 — "'Muppet' was the name Henson came up with to describe the characters in 'Sam & Friends.' Some have said the term comes from combining 'marionette' and 'puppet.' Puppeteer Jane Henson said her husband just liked the word."

Fern Shen for The Washington Post

Other Etymologies

• The 1971 book All About Sesame Street by Phyllis Feinstein claims in chapter eight, "The word Muppets is a Henson crosshatching of words moppet and puppets."

• Henson biographer Brian Jay Jones suggests "moppet" might have inspired "Muppet" in chapter two of Jim Henson: The Biography.

See also

• What is a Muppet?