"I Feel Pretty," the opening number of the second act of Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim's musical West Side Story, is an unironic song about how being loved can make a person feel more beautiful. The song has been used in several comic sketches performed by the Muppets.
performed as an instrumental on the April 30, 1967 appearance, in which a woman named Amanda tries to change her looks using a self-help book in order to gain the affection of Conrad Love.
performed by a Large Lavender Live HandAnything Muppet woman on the television special Julie on Sesame Street. As she prepares for a date, the pretty pretty woman removes parts of her face and replaces them with ugly features, turning herself into a monster for her date with Frazzle.
performed by a Whatnot woman on episode 109. This sketch is a remake of the one seen on Julie on Sesame Street, but featuring different characters (Beautiful Day Monster replaced Frazzle). The song, which is preceded by several bars of "Tonight," another song from West Side Story, was performed by Fran Brill as the pretty woman, whose voice grew hoarser with every line and corresponding change to her appearance, until Jim Henson eventually took over as the voice of her ugly, monster self. This version of the sketch was illustrated in The Muppet Show Book, but with Mean Mama replacing Beautiful Day Monster.
In The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland, Huxley says, "I almost performed in the bus and truck tour of west side Story. They said I wasn't right for Maria. What do they know? I feel pretty."