Pepe the King Prawn

From Muppet Wiki

Pepe the King Prawn, whose full name is Pepino Rodrigo Serrano Gonzales, started life in Madrid, Spain. There he worked as a chef before going to Hollywood. In a TVGuide.com chat in 1999, he remarked, "There were one too many close calls in the kitchen. I was mistaken for an appetizer, okay."

Pepe was introduced to Muppet fans on Muppets Tonight in 1996, as a companion to Seymour the Elephant. The pair worked at the KMUP studios, as elevator operators in the first season and as commissary chefs in the second season, but they always aspired to onscreen singing stardom. These dreams never came true, however, because their performances were dire. They would always sing the same song, with slightly altered lyrics:

I'm Seymour...
I'm Pepe...
We're two of a kind.
I'm a little bit forward,
And I've got a big behind.

The pair only appeared on stage twice - in the Pierce Brosnan episode, when they were taken hostage by an army of lobsters in a bid to take-over the studio, and in the Sandra Bullock episode, when Gonzo and Rizzo were desperate for an act to keep the show's ratings above 50.

When Muppets Tonight went off the air, Pepe ditched his partner and Seymour never appeared again.

At MuppetFest, Bill Barretta explained that originally, Pepe was going to be a mouse, but "We decided an elephant and a mouse was too easy."

Pepe established himself as a "solo act" in the 1999 film Muppets from Space, in which he connives with Rizzo to convince Gonzo that the aliens want him to build a hot tub. As developed in later appearances, the smooth-talking Pepe sees himself as a crustacean Casanova. His efforts are generally less than successful, as exemplified by Rachel Bitterman's treatment of him in It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie.

The four-armed Pepe is very proud of being a king prawn, and takes great offense if anyone refers to him as a shrimp ("I am not a shrimp! I am a king prawn, okay?"). He speaks with a heavy Spanish accent, often punctuating his sentences with "...okay?" Puppeteer Bill Barretta based the accent on his wife's aunt, who is known in the family as "Maria Theresa Okay". Due to his sometimes impenetrable accent, Pepe calls the Muppets "Muffins" or "Muppens", and he regularly calls Kermit "Kermin", Fozzie Bear "Fotzie", and Rizzo "Ritzo". He also referred to Scooter as "Scooper" in The Muppets Wizard of Oz.

Pepe is a creature in love with Hollywood, and expects he will earn several Oscar nominations (for good looks, acting and choreography. And foley.). His influences include Dick van Dyke, Marlon Brando, Ruth Buzzi, Topo Gigio, and Mighty Mouse. He has also referred to Ricky Martin on at least two separate occasions. In his TVGuide.com chat, he challenged the pop star to a sing-off, and in It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie, he was invited to shake his "bon bons" at Ricky Martin's South Beach Christmas party.

In 2002, he became the official spokes-prawn for Long John Silver's, starring in several commercials and appearing on their website.

In a TV appearance on CBS's The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Pepe revealed to the world that he had become engaged to a girl named Christina, also from Madrid, and together they have a total of about 1,500 children. Pepe might open his own seafood restaurant chain soon.

He served as a correspondent in the early installments of the web series Statler & Waldorf: From the Balcony, where - among other things - he interviewed Jodie Foster and other actors on the red carpet of Flightplan. He was performed by Drew Massey for the "test pilot" of the show.

Pepe's popularity and irreverence, along with Bill Barretta's improvisational skills, have resulted in Pepe's becoming a frequent host of DVD extra features. Pepe introduces much of the behind-the-scenes material on the DVDs for It's A Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie and The Muppets Wizard of Oz, while "Pepe's Profiles" of various Muppet characters are featured on the 'Kermit's 50th Anniversary Edition' releases of The Muppet Movie, The Great Muppet Caper, The Muppet Christmas Carol and Muppet Treasure Island.

Filmography

External links

• Pepe's Pad, dedicated to Pepe the Prawn