Introduction
I watched a lot of Sesame Street and The Muppet Show growing up. My parents were anti-Disney--especially the princesses and their special brand of prescribed gender-normativity. As a result, the visitors and residents of Sesame Street and performers on The Muppet Show aided in my learning, laughing, and entertainment (not to mention, they’re absolutely responsible for my love of bad jokes and puns).
Over the years, my adoration for Jim Henson has never faded; because of that admiration, I decided to research the creators, characters, and performers in Henson’s universe for my final project at The General Assembly’s Front End Web Development Course in 2019/2020. The sorter is the result of my study.
As I began my research, I asked myself: How many of these were in Sesame Street or the Muppet Show? Were there any characters that overlapped, either on TV or in films? How many characters are monsters, how many are animals, and how many are people?
I knew Jim Henson and team created a lot of unique muppets; but, as I researched more, I found there are over 364 muppet characters just between the two main shows--Sesame Street and the Muppet Show--as well as the 11 movies that I’ve seen. As of right now, however, there are only 150 muppets in the sorter, mostly due to access to data--but that number will continue to grow as more data becomes available.
The Muppet Sorter filters by muppet category and show, both described below:
