Muppet Wiki (website)

Muppet Wiki's main page in January 2010.

Muppet Wiki is a wiki "for everything related to Jim Henson and the Muppets." It is hosted by Wikia, which runs on MediaWiki software. This format allows visitors to add, remove, or otherwise edit and change the available content. Muppet Wiki works as a fan community on the collaborative project of creating in-depth encyclopedic articles.

Founded on December 5, 2005, Muppet Wiki's database contains 44,519 encyclopedic articles (which does not include wiki discussions, project pages and redirects). The best of these entries have been voted on by the community and dubbed Quality Articles. The logo was designed by Scott Hanson and based on a theme from the March photo in The Miss Piggy Calendar 1980. This was incorporated into a new design based on The Muppet Show logo by Julian Kleibeler in October 2010 with seasonal flair.

Although the wiki is run in an unofficial capacity, several industry insiders have made substantial contributions, adding to the wiki's verifiability (see "Mission" statement below). Their presence has been welcome in a capacity of their choosing: while some individuals have gone on record as identified experts, the anonymity of others is respected and acknowledged by the wiki hosts.

Administration

Muppet Wiki founders Danny Horn and Scott Hanson show fans how to edit the site at Wondercon 2008.

Founders

• Danny Horn — runs Twitter feed
• Scott Hanson — runs YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Vine accounts

Admins

• Peter Papazoglou — December 7, 2005
• Andrew Leal — February 6, 2006
• Guillermo Gomez — September 8, 2006
• Wendy — January 17, 2007 (also Wikia Staff)
• Henrik Rytter — February 16, 2009
• Shane Keating — December 28, 2009 (runs Tumblr blog)
• Julian Kleibeler — December 4, 2010 (logo designer)
• Jonathan Brangwynne — July 2, 2011
• Nate Downs — September 19, 2011

Mission

The goal of Muppet Wiki and its contributors is to build a database of articles related to Jim Henson's career and various character universes. Through the research of published works and various media content, the database is meant to serve as a comprehensive source of reference. An accurate account of works cited is provided when possible (by way of footnotes and adherence to other policies), and particular attention is given to verifiability. Special care is taken with disputed or erroneous information, and in some cases may result in a settlement in the form of a rumor disclaimer.

Although the name of the site is Muppet Wiki, the encyclopedia extends to areas outside of what may be publicly perceived as "Muppet" content in some cases. For example, Sesame Street, while well known for its inclusion of Jim Henson's Muppets, comprises a number of different contributions such as animation and live-action film unrelated to the Muppets. Because Sesame Street and the Sesame Street Muppets are so closely associated, these areas often blend into one another, and thus, have been included in some cases.

Similarly, Jim Henson's work outside of the Muppets is also stressed, one example being technology and characters furnished by Jim Henson's Creature Shop. Of the works created by companies using material furnished the the Creature Shop, only those works produced by The Jim Henson Company are covered extensively. Other examples of non-Muppet Jim Henson content include The Cube and "Tick-Tock Sick."

Milestones and Press Coverage

Love for Muppet Wiki

Yahoo's 2006 segment on Muppet Wiki.

Jimmy Wales uses Muppet Wiki statistics and the article on Itzhak Perlman as an example of the potential in subject-focused wikis in a lecture at NYU on February 1, 2007. (listen here)

A link to Muppet Wiki from the official Sesame Workshop website.

Quote in Esquire

• The official Sesame Street Japan staff blog, with a link to Muppet Wiki.
• A translation of the Sesame Japan page.

1/2

Muppet Wiki-uploaded images (bottom) used on Sesame Go service

The Tough Pigs play a Wiki-based game at the Museum of the Moving Image in 2015.

• Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia and Wikia, frequently uses Muppet Wiki as an example of how to build a successful wiki community in public lectures, seminars and interviews.

• By December 5, 2006, Muppet Wiki's one year anniversary, the database housed 1,766 Muppet Characters, 548 Sesame Street Books, and 521 Muppet Show Songs; 12,130 articles in all, averaging a thousand articles per month in one year. [5]

• Muppet Wiki was featured in segment #4 of the August 3, 2006 broadcast of The 9 on Yahoo TV!

• The site has been mentioned in major newspaper publications such as The Boston Globe, The New York Post, Australia's The Age and Denmark's Ekstra Bladet.

• In the July 2007 print edition of reason magazine, coverage of Muppet Wiki is used as an example of Wikia's growth:

“Consider, for instance, the astonishing growth and readership at the Wikia site devoted to Muppets. At a little over one year old, the Muppet Wiki has 13,700 articles. Every single one is about Muppets. Interested in an in-depth look at the use of gorilla suits in the Muppet movies? No problem. Just type in "gorilla suits" and enjoy a well-illustrated article that documents, among other things, the names of actors who have worn an ape outfit for Jim Henson. There is a timeline of all things Muppet-related. An entry on China details Big Bird's reception in the People's Republic. The site is astonishingly comprehensive and, perhaps more impressive, comprehensible to a Muppet novice.”

• National Public Radio listed Muppet Wiki's Cookie Monster article as a "Web Resource" in conjunction with a featured spot on their program In Character on February 8, 2008. [6]

• Kermit Culture, a collection of academic essays about the Muppets in popular culture, offers Muppet Wiki as an additional resource "for fans and scholars" of The Muppet Show cast. Two essays source articles on Muppet Wiki in their works cited: "The Muppets and Shakespeare" by Hugh H. Davis (Kermit, Prince of Denmark); "The Uniquely Strong but Feminine Miss Piggy" by Maryanne Fisher and Anthony Cox (Bonnie Erickson, Miss Piggy). Additionally, Muppet Wiki administrator and regular editor since January 6, 2006, Andrew Leal, contributed "Muppets and Money."

• The National Post cited Muppet Wiki as the sole source for their 2009 interactive article "101 Muppets of Sesame Street," indicating that some journalist are using Muppet Wiki as a primary source of information.

• Muppet Wiki reached 20,000 articles on November 16, 2009.

• The official Sesame Street 40th anniversary book, Sesame Street: A Celebration - 40 Years of Life on the Street, published in 2009, cites Muppet Wiki several times as "an invaluable resource" for readers who would like to learn more about the series. Tough Pigs founder and Muppet Wiki co-founder Danny Horn is interviewed for the merchandise section, where he talks about his earliest memory of Sesame Street Merchandise.

• Sesame Workshop has a link to Muppet Wiki on its parenting blog, Sesame Family Robinson. Sesame-Street.jp has linked to articles on Muppet Wiki (including Twiddlebugs and Meryl Sheep) for further, comprehensive information on entries for their monthly character feature.

• Muppet Wiki is listed as a source in the resource materials provided at the Jim Henson's Fantastic World exhibit.

• Jim Henson: The Guy Who Played with Puppets lists Muppet Wiki as one of its website sources.

• Production designers on The Muppets used Muppet Wiki "thoroughly for research."

• In the audio commentary recorded for the Blu-ray release of The Muppets, director James Bobin stated that fans at Muppet Wiki and Muppet Central probably know more about the characters than the filmmakers do.

• Character images for Harvey Kneeslapper and Pedro were used in the background of Sesame Street's Downton Abbey parody (See image). An earlier version featured the same Harvey image, as well as one of Queen Olivia, but with digital alterations. (See image here).

• Sesame Street director Nadine Zylstra mentioned the website when talking about Sesame Workshop's large audience at a Google Tech Talk in March 2013. (YouTube)

• Muppet Wiki images for certain Sesame Street segments and "Elmo's World" episodes have been used for thumbnails for videos found on SesameStreet's YouTube Channel and Sesame Go.

• At the "Second Annual Muppet Trivia Spectacular" event held at the Museum of the Moving Image by The Jim Henson Legacy in October 2015, the members of Tough Pigs faced off in a three-round game called "The Toughest Pig." The second round featured excerpts from Muppet Wiki articles (including Sam the Robot, Mr. Hooper and event co-host Stephanie D'Abruzzo) and the contestants would earn points by correctly pointing out the (newly-added) bit of incorrect information.

Seasonal logos

Beginning in October 2010, with a design overhaul of Wikia, Julian Kleibeler started designing various Muppet Wiki logos with seasonal flair. Based on the classic "MUPPET" font developed by Michael Frith, Kleibeler added imitating "WIKI" lettering; all the while incorporating the trademark Kermit eye that Scott Hanson first prominently used on the Wiki's original design, based on the first Miss Piggy Calendar's "private eye" icon, again designed by Frith. In the style of Google's commemorative Google Doodles used for special occasions, the blank space to the right of the logo has been used for special holiday images.

Basic Muppet Wiki logo October 15, 2010 Thanksgiving logo November 25, 2010 Christmas logo December 24, 2010 Valentine's Day logo February 14, 2011 Spring logo March 21, 2011 Earth Day logo April 22, 2011 Arbor Day logo April 29, 2011 Memorial Day logo May 30, 2011 Independence Day logo July 4, 2011 Basic Muppet Wiki logo (shadow adjusted) November 4, 2011 Summer logo June 26, 2013

Halloween logo October 31, 2010 Winter logo December 4, 2010 Groundhog Day logo February 2, 2011 St. Patrick's Day logo March 17, 2011 April Fool's Day logo April 1, 2011 Easter logo April 24, 2011 Mother's Day logo May 8, 2011 Father's Day logo June 17, 2011 Labor Day logo September 5, 2011 New Year's logo December 30, 2011

See also

• Muppet Wiki Main Page
• Muppet Wiki FAQ
• Muppet Wiki Statistics
• Wikkeez

External links

• Muppet Wiki on YouTube launched September 22, 2008
• Muppet Wiki on Twitter launched April 2, 2009
• Muppet Wiki on Facebook launched May 12, 2010
• Muppet Wiki on Tumblr launched March 27, 2011
• Muppet Wiki on Vine launched September 22, 2013
• Muppet Wiki on Instagram launched January 30, 2014
• Wikia, Inc. Press Release (archive) (September 24, 2007)