# Muppets vs Puppets **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 10, 2003, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muppets-vs-puppets/167671 "2003-04-10T00:23:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![kad271](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/278dde/32.png) [@kad271](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kad271)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2003, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muppets-vs-puppets/167671/1 "2003-04-10T00:23:09Z")
What’s the difference between muppets and puppets? ---
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2003, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muppets-vs-puppets/167671/2 "2003-04-10T00:26:22Z")
Muppets were envisioned as a combination of string controlled marionettes and hand controlled puppets (hence the term “muppets”.) ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2003, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muppets-vs-puppets/167671/3 "2003-04-10T02:17:00Z")
Nitpick: “Muppets” is properly spelled with a capital, because it is a trademark. That’s the big difference. Muppets are strictly puppets owned by Jim Henson (or whatever his successor was). ---
**Author:** ![FatBaldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecd19e/32.png) [@FatBaldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FatBaldGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2003, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muppets-vs-puppets/167671/4 "2003-04-10T02:17:19Z")
Muppets was the name coined by Jim Henson for his particular troupe of puppets, starting with Kermit the Frog on a local TV show, then later on Sesame Street and the Muppet Show (and movies). As **Eutychus** has indicated, it was derived from the words Marionette and Puppet. ---
**Author:** ![FatBaldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecd19e/32.png) [@FatBaldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FatBaldGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2003, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muppets-vs-puppets/167671/5 "2003-04-10T02:18:38Z")
Rats. If I hadn’t stopped to preview, I would have beat you. ---
**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2003, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muppets-vs-puppets/167671/6 "2003-04-10T02:18:56Z")
According to the A&E Biography special on Sesame Street, Jim Henson picked the name Muppets because it sounded funny, not as a combination of puppet and marionette. His Time Magazine [profile](http://www.time.com/time/time100/artists/profile/henson_related2.html) seems to back this up. > [@](#): > > Like other geniuses, Henson is a sly fellow whose sound artistic instinct is to resist critical analysis. If you peel art away, layer after layer, what you have at the end is all peelings and no onion. For years Henson, who plays Kermit, insisted that the character was not a frog but “a froglike creature.” Peel that, you peelers. Now he backtracks and says that “muppet” was simply a word that sounded good to him. The sound combination of puppet and marionette is merely an explanation that happens to sound logical. It goes on to give a description of Muppets. I can’t think of any that were controlled from above by strings like a marionette. ---
**Author:** ![Tony\_Barber\_s\_Underwear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/58f4c7/32.png) [@Tony\_Barber\_s\_Underwear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tony_Barber_s_Underwear)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2003, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muppets-vs-puppets/167671/7 "2003-04-10T06:57:15Z")
What’s a muppet? Well, it’s not quite a mop, and it’s not quite a puppet, but man…ha ha ha. So to answer your quesiton, I don’t know. - Bubba.