A Muppet is a puppet built in the soft foam-and-fleece style developed by Jim Henson’s workshop, with a moving mouth worked by the performer’s hand and arms operated by rods or a second puppeteer.
The word is a trademark
It belongs to The Muppets Studio, and it refers to specific characters rather than to a style of construction. Builders describe their own work as Muppet-style, Henson-style or hand-and-rod — and if you sell puppets, calling them Muppets is a legal problem, not a description.
What actually defines the construction
Reticulated foamReticulated foam is open-cell polyurethane foam that has had... structure rather than carved wood or moulded latexLatex is a liquid rubber that cures into a flexible, paintab... More. FleeceFleece is the knit fabric used as the outer skin on most mod... More skin that hides its own seams. A hinged mouth plateThe mouth plate is the rigid two-part structure inside a pup... More sized to the performer’s hand. Light enough to hold overhead for a full take. Built for the camera rather than for a stage.
Why it took over
The combination is expressive, cheap relative to animatronicsAnimatronics is the use of motors, servos, cables and electr... More, forgiving to build, and reads beautifully in close-up. Almost every English-language puppet building tutorial teaches some version of it.
The thing worth remembering
it is one branch of a very large tree. BunrakuBunraku is the classical Japanese puppet theatre in which th..., wayang kulitWayang kulit is the Indonesian shadow puppet tradition, perf..., marionettes, glove puppetry and shadow theatre are all older, all still performed, and all solve problems this style does not. Building only in this style is a choice, and it is worth making it knowingly.
Origin of the word
is genuinely uncertain. Henson said at various times that it was a blend of marionetteA marionette is a puppet controlled from above by strings or... and puppet, and also that he simply liked the sound of it.
For a builder, the useful takeaway is that Muppet-style construction is a set of solved problems you can learn quickly and then depart from.