Naked Muppets

The Muppets poster.

"I'm naked, okay!" Pepe naked as Toto in The Muppets' Wizard of Oz.

Kermit (with Crystal Gayle) feels naked after the Prairie Dogs steal his collar in The Muppet Show episode 402.

Animal magnet and sticker.

Nastassja Kinski inspired photo, originally produced for Zink Magazine.

Jen's nude scene in The Dark Crystal.

Spanish Sesame Street comic from the 1970s.

Burt Reynolds or Pepe the King Prawn?

Camilla shows her chicken breast on The Muppets (episode "Little Green Lie" during the end credits).

Nudity or nakedness is the state of wearing no clothing. Wearing of clothing is a predominantly human characteristic, however many of the anthropomorphic animals, creatures and characters of the Muppet universe also wear various clothes. Yet still a number of the Muppet characters, such as Kermit the Frog, are most commonly seen unclothed.

References to nakedness

• In episode 206 of The Muppet Show, Sam the Eagle gives an editorial about nudity, complaining that underneath their clothing the entire population of the world is naked. Sam's editorial comes to an end when he realizes that underneath his feathers, he, too, is naked.

• Fleet Scribbler attempts to lure Miss Piggy into dishing him some dirt on the cast of The Muppet Show in episode 210. She initially declines, citing loyalty to her fellow performers, until Fleet indicates that he intended on running a picture spread of her for Page 3 (a practice in British tabloids in which a topless model took up the majority of the print). Piggy's jaw drops at the offer and immediately begins to spill the beans.

• When Reporter Kermit interviews the invisible man's family, he remarks, "Hey, it just occurred to me: are you all wearing any other clothes?"

• While reporting on the story of Ali Baba, his forty thieves strip Kermit down to his underwear and leave him stranded in the desert. Kermit suddenly realizes he's been de-clothed, covers himself up, and awkwardly exits the frame.

• After the Prairie Dogs steal his collar in The Muppet Show episode 402, Kermit laments that he feels naked.

• During Statler and Waldorf's production of "Take Ten Terrific Girls" in The Muppet Show episode 409 — the essence of which is a chorus of girls where one of them doesn't have a costume to wear — the camera pans past a line of dancing chorus girls and stops on a female Whatnot who suddenly realizes she's not wearing anything and spends the rest of the number trying to hide herself from view.

• Bert, in a Tarzan-like role, is shamed when he loses his loincloth in a Spanish Sesame Street comic from the 1970s.

• Super Grover's x-ray vision spies Bert covering himself with a towel while taking a shower in The Exciting Adventures of Super Grover.

• Oscar the Grouch dangles Bert's swimming trunks from the end of a fishing pole while a submerged Bert attempts to reacquire them in a studio photo used in View-Master reels and puzzles.

• The View-Master set Sesame Street's Silliest Home Videos features Bert attempting to go swimming in a lake, but he doesn't get his swimming trunks on in time, hidden away naked in the bushes from Prairie Dawn and Betty Lou.

• Kermit the Frog briefly appeared in the nude (without his collar) in an inconspicuous streaking scene on the German TV special Peter Alexander präsentiert Spezialitäten in 1977.

• Gonzo embarrassingly covers his eyes in The Great Muppet Caper as Kermit pulls up his pants and zippers his fly during the Steppin' Out with a Star musical number (although he also sneaks a peek).

• In The Great Muppet Caper, Janice exclaims, "Look, mother. It's my life, okay? So if I wanna live on a beach and walk around naked..."

• Jen appears nude sitting by the pool playing his pipe in the opening of The Dark Crystal.

• SkekSil the chamberlain is shamefully stripped of his clothes in The Dark Crystal after losing in the Trial by Stone ritual.

• While taking a jog in the September 8, 1983 The Muppets comic strip, Piggy uses her sweatband to cover her eyes as she passes a nude beach.

• Later, in the November 23, 1983 strip, Piggy prepares to star in a Lady Godiva skit, not knowing the clothing requirements of the character.

• In The Muppets Take Manhattan, Janice again comments on nudity: "Look, buddy. I don't take my clothes off for anyone, even if it is artistic."

• During the song "Sweet Vacation" in The Jim Henson Hour episode "Power"'s MuppeTelevision segment, Leon takes a chicken's bikini. The chicken looks down to see that she is nude and covers herself in embarrassment.

• The Muppets reenact the story of The Emperor's New Clothes in Muppet Classic Theater. Despite usually being seen without clothes, Fozzie (as the emperor) is revealed naked, save for a pair of boxer shorts. The citizenry think that since the Emperor isn't wearing clothing, that public nudity must be the latest fad.

• In the Muppet Heights sketch from Muppets Tonight episode 203, Chaz (played by Sal Minella) demands that Amanda (played by Heather Locklear) return the incriminating photos she took of him naked.

• In a parody of The Emperor's New Clothes, Clifford and Bobo arrest The Emperor for public nudity in the Fairyland PD sketch of episode 203 of Muppets Tonight.

• During a 1996 appearance on The Big Breakfast, Miss Piggy tells Kermit that she's naked underneath the bed sheets.

• While pitching The Muppets Present as a new series to television executives, Pepe promises that all of their guests will be naked and shows a clip reel of guests from Muppets Tonight with their nether regions censored. At the end of the pitch, Kermit begins to dissent to the idea that he will do the show in the nude before realizing he is, in fact, already naked (at which point a black bar covers his crotch).

• Dr. Bunsen Honeydew provides Pepe with the latest Muppet Labs invention during The Muppet Show Live: X-ray vision glasses. Using BVD technology, the glasses can see through underwear, enabling the user to see people naked. Pepe uses them to ogle a woman in the front row, offering to get naked with her, but promptly announces he's taking them off when asked to look for Miss Piggy.

• When Pepe the King Prawn enters Oz in The Muppets' Wizard of Oz, he discovers he is naked. Dorothy makes him put on clothing from a teddy bear to cover himself up.

• In a 2008 Rove Live show, Rove McManus warns Elmo that there's no place to use the bathroom on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Elmo tells him that it's no problem because he's usually naked, so he can just do his business anywhere.

• Miss Piggy posed unclothed in a Nastassja Kinski inspired photo for Zink Magazine.

• Despite evidence to the contrary, Miss Piggy says in a 2014 appearance on E! Countdown to the Red Carpet that she turned down the Margot Robbie role in The Wolf of Wall Street because she doesn't do nudity.

• In the 2015 presentation pilot for The Muppets, Animal announces that he'll do nudity if it's tasteful.

• A promotional poster for The Muppets, shows Kermit the Frog with the caption "Finally, a network TV show with full frontal nudity."

• In The Muppets episode "Got Silk?" Pepe the King Prawn, and Rizzo attempt to take off Gonzo's suit pants (without removing his shoes first), Kermit walks in on them, and asks them to always wear pants in the office, at which point Rizzo snaps back with "Okay, Mr. Naked."

• In the Muppets Now episode "Due Date", Janice mentions during a video chat with Miss Piggy and Linda Cardellini that clothes are "an option" when Linda points out the inconsistency of her and Janice wearing non-formal attire and Miss Piggy dressing more extravagantly, Janice hinting that she'd go nude if she had the choice.

• In The Muppets Mayhem episode "Can You Picture That," Dr. Teeth makes use of the hot tub at Hannah's house. Before he gets out, he asks Nora to get him a bathing suit, implying he got in the water with no clothes whatsoever.

Naked Muppets

Due to animal and abstract nature of many Muppet characters, it is not uncommon for there to be Muppet characters that are unclothed (or only partially clothed) with no shame or commotion from others. Occasionally typically unclothed Muppets will dress up for costumed roles or will wear seasonal or role-related clothing. Below are some exceptions or noteworthy examples of Muppets that don't wear clothing.

• Baby Bear often appears without clothes (although, like many of the puppet characters, he is not routinely shown below the waist on camera), however, the walk-around version of the character wears overalls.

• Bobo the Bear is often seen without clothes. In his role as security guard at KMUP in Muppets Tonight he wore a security guard hat and ID badge. He wears a full suit in his roles as the bad guy's sidekick in Muppets from Space, Letters to Santa, and The Muppets. He wore gym clothes when exercising in an installment of "Better Living with Bobo" on muppets.com; and he'll also occasionally wear a necktie.

• In the teleplay for the Fraggle Rock episode "All Work and All Play", writer Jerry Juhl describes Doozer wardrobe on the morning of Cotterpin's helmet ceremony: "The female Doozers all wear little flowered hats and the men are in bowlers. Otherwise they are nude. This, apparently, is formal attire for state and religious occasions."

• Ernie is presumably naked in his bathtub when performing such songs as "Rubber Duckie" and "Do De Rubber Duck."

• Fozzie Bear is often seen wearing nothing more than a hat and necktie. In fact, the removal of the latter garment makes him feel naked as referenced in the November 16, 1984 The Muppets comic strip. However, in his role as Patrol Bear he wears a uniform, which he loses in episode 416, and shies from his nudity. In The Great Muppet Caper, the removal of his hat causes him to be confused for a frog, as it is a known fact that "bears wear hats." Fozzie plays the emperor in the story of The Emperor's New Clothes in Muppet Classic Theater, being exposed to the public when he doesn't wear clothes.

• On television, Herry Monster is unclothed, like most Sesame Street monsters. However, in illustrations, storybooks, and some merchandise, he is invariably clad in white pants with pink stripes (though Tom Cooke's illustrations depict him in purple pants with yellow-orange polka dots).

• From her introduction until Season 33 (when she started wearing a tutu), Zoe was unclothed, apart from necklaces, bracelets, and barrettes. In Season 49, she returns to a sans-tutu wardrobe. However, Zoe still wears it for ballet scenes (e.g. Episode 5023) and in illustrations and merchandise.

• Kermit the Frog often only wears a collar; although he sometimes wears a tuxedo, notably in the Panel Discussions in the first season of The Muppet Show, and a trench-coat in his reporter role. Kermit will occasionally allude to the fact that he doesn't wear clothes in interviews and other appearances, such as when he is pick-pocketed by Fozzie Bear in It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie despite not having pockets or pants.

• In early appearances Rizzo the Rat, like most of the Muppet rats, was unclothed. He and the other rats have since adapted to wearing clothing (or at least shirts) on a regular basis.

See also

• Muppet sex