Sir Linit

PERFORMER	Jim Henson
DEBUT	1967
DESIGN	Jim Henson designer
	Don Sahlin builder

Sir Linit, a Muppet knight that looked like a spray can, appeared in ads for Linit Fabric Finish in 1967. In close-up shots Sir Linit was a puppet, but in wide shots he was a marionette.

A curated entry of Jim Henson's Red Book provided some insight into the creation of this character:

“[ad executive Bill Ballard] suggested building on his idea for “Linit-Man”, a “…johnny on the spot like a Minute man”. He asked that the color scheme reflect the product’s packaging, that the character could, perhaps, have a big “L” on his hat, and that his feet be shaped like irons. Jim and writer Jerry Juhl put their heads together and a couple of weeks later presented the idea of, “…a sort of parody of the White Knight, blowing his trumpet (always flat), and speaking with ‘forsooth’s’, ‘odds bodkins’, ‘whence cometh’, ‘hey, nonny nonny’, etc.” The agency liked it and gave the go-ahead to build the character. Jim had an unwavering idea of what a knight should look like – drawing a similar one in a cartoon as a teenager and later designing them for his “King of Eight” film on Sesame Street – and made the clear connection to the product by making the body and head in the shape of a Linit can. Ballard’s idea for iron-shaped feet stuck, and by the beginning of March, they were ready to shoot the commercials.”