Jacob and Robert Marley
From Muppet Wiki
Jacob and Robert Marley are the former business partneres of Ebenezer Scrooge in The Muppet Christmas Carol. Both dead and "decaying in their graves," the Marleys return to haunt Scrooge. The pair are initially rather jovial about being able to heckle again, but soon, through their song "Marley and Marley", explain their plight. Due to their unbridled greed and cruelty, the pair are forced to wander the earth, bound by an endless chain and laden with Cashboxes and Locks, their earthly plunder now burdening them in the afterlife. They are the vanguard of the other three spirits, Ghost of Christmas Past, Ghost of Christmas Present, and Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, and warn Scrooge that if he rejects their visitations, his fate will be as dire as theirs.
Later, younger versions of the Marleys are seen at Fozziwig's Christmas party, enjoying the revelry.
The Marleys would later surface as part of Palisades Toys lineup of Mini Muppets, complete with chains and transluscent skin. The pair also surfaced as the bosses for the Christmas Carol stage in the Muppet Race Mania video game.
Behind the Scenes
In the original Dickens text, there was only one ghostly partner, Jacob. But by giving him a brother, Brian Henson was able to use both Statler and Waldorf. However, rather than break entirely from tradition, Jacob Marley is still the only face to manifest on Scrooge's doorknocker.
The way the filmmakers shot Statler and Waldorf as ghosts was to powder the puppets down and make them much whiter. The characters were filmed against black velvet with the puppeteers, also clad in black. The images were then superimposed over the backgrounds and Scrooge to make them transparent. Brian Henson said in the DVD audio commentary that "it's really nice to shoot on black fabric because the puppeteers can be right in shot, and you don’t know it 'cause the black doesn't superimpose."
