Scouting
From Muppet Wiki
Scouting is a worldwide youth movement of multiple organizations for both boys and girls whose aims are to develop young people physically, spiritually and mentally so that they may take a constructive place in society. This is achieved by emphasizing outdoor activities and youth leadership. Scouting started in England in 1907; today Scouting has more than 28 million members and exists in more than 216 countries and territories (all but six countries worldwide are involved in the Scouting movement).[1] The American versions of the program are The Boy Scouts of America and Girl Scouts USA.
Jim Henson was a Cub Scout. As a child, the den meetings were held at his house, with his parents serving as Den leaders.
| [The den] got together at Jimmy's house where Betty Henson served them pecan pie and milk and told them about the moral obligations of the Cub Scouts. She taught them about the value of physical activities and fair play. The boys liked to meet at Jimmy's house for their den meetings because the Hensons were so friendly.[2]
| 
|
Chapter four of the book Jim Henson: Young Puppeteer, entitled "Cub Scout Projects with Puppets", describes Henson's time as a Cub Scout in some detail. The book shares an extended story from Henson’s Scouting experience in which each of the Scouts in Henson's den was challenged to come up with, and carry out, a major project of his own invention. Henson, with the help of fellow Scout Gordon Jones, developed a distinctive comedy act. Jones told stories with his hands behind his back, while Henson, crouching behind Jones, supplied the latter's arm gestures by extending his own arms through his fellow Scout's armpits. The act was an instant success and showed Henson's early creative thinking, along with his tendencies to explore the boundaries of creative performing and puppetry techniques. Due to the response to Henson's hand act, the following year Henson was asked by the new Den leaders to help organize and lead the entire den in putting on a puppet show. Henson got the entire den involved in putting on the show, and many of his fellow Scouts say Henson "got his start working with puppets in Leland’s Cub Scouts". Although nobody recalls what the shows, which featured homemade puppets, were about, everyone remembers the games that Jim and the Scouts played when they had free time.[3]
Several Muppet characters belong to fictional Scouting groups - including the Frog Scouts and the Worm Scouts.
Contents |
References
- A boy (played by Patrick Ostonic) dressed in full Cub Scout attire was featured with his mother in a La Choy commercial. The mother is pondering what to feed twelve hungry Cub Scouts.
- The Muppet Show introduced the Frog Scouts, an amphibian parody of the Boy Scouts.
- According to The Case of the Missing Mother, Fozzie was a Cub Scout and his mother was his Den Mother.
- A Girl Scout is seen in the opening musical number of The Great Muppet Caper helping Nicky Holiday cross the street when he poses as a blind man.
- Slimey on Sesame Street belongs to the Worm Scouts, a worm-only parody of Scouting.
- On October 5, 2006, Kermit the Frog appeared as a guest on Martha (along with a group of Brownie Girl Scouts) to promote environmentally friendly actions. Kermit jested to Martha Stewart that when she told him she was going to have "brownies" on the show, he thought she meant something else.
- The 2006 Puppet Up! - Uncensored television special featured a sketch in which an armadillo (Victor Yerrid) brings in an expert (Julianne Buescher) to talk to an unseen group of Boy Scouts and Brownies about where babies come from. The expert, however, speaks Nicaraguan/Spanish which has to be translated for the Scouts by the armadillo.
Muppet mentions
- In 2005, Bucks County Council (which includes the area of Langhorne, PA) released a special council strip patch in honor of Sesame Place. The patch, which features Cookie Monster and Elmo, is an official part of uniform insignia. Several other variations exist with Bert and Ernie, Big Bird and Grover among other characters.
Connections
The following individuals, in addition to their work with the Muppets/Henson, served as scouts.
- Buzz Aldrin, Boy Scout, Tenderfoot Scout
- Candice Bergen, Girl Scout
- David Bowie, Scout
- Jimmy Buffett, Boy Scout
- Barbara Bush, Girl Scout
- Laura Bush, Girl Scout
- Bill Clinton, Cub Scout
- Hillary Rodham Clinton, Girl Scout
- Billy Connolly, Scout
- Katie Couric, Girl Scout
- Walter Cronkite, Boy Scout
- Ken Dodd, Scout
- Henry Fonda, Boy Scout and Scoutmaster
- Gerald Ford, Boy Scout, Eagle Scout
- Michael J. Fox, Scout
- Lex Goudsmit, Scout
- William Hanna, Boy Scout, Eagle Scout
- Glenda Jackson, Girlguide UK
- Derek Jacobi, Scout
- Penn Jillette, Boy Scout
- Shari Lewis, Girl Scout
- Rich Little, Scout
- Rebecca Lobo, Girl Scout
- Susan Lucci, Girl Scout
- Mary Tyler Moore, Girl Scout
- Michael Parkinson, Scout
- Sally Ride, Girl Scout
- John Ritter, Boy Scout
- Richard Roundtree, Boy Scout
- Dick Smothers, Boy Scout, Star Scout
- Steven Spielberg, Boy Scout, Eagle Scout
- Martha Stewart, Girl Scout
- Barbara Walters, Girl Scout
- Norman Wisdom, Scout
See also
Sources
- ↑ World Scout Bureau Statistics. October 2007.
Scouting is not present in Andorra, China, Cuba, North Korea, Laos, and Myanmar. - ↑ Jim Henson: Young Puppeteer, page 49
- ↑ Jim Henson: Young Puppeteer, page 55
