I Am Dr. Indigo

also... honestly, he is such a well designed character. he is very lovely... i uh, i wouldn't mind giving him a hug or. or a little smooch. just a friendly little kiss, that's all.

the anatomy of a muppet can generally go as follows (note: these terms have not been officially approved by any known research institution):

[A] skull: the mouth operator (i.e. the hand)

[B] mouthplate: the anchor between the head and skull

[C] head: the means of communication, holds the mouthplate and hides the skull

[D] arms: the main appendages of gestured expression

[E] body: the basic casing in which the bones hide

[F] handole: the entry point the puppeteer goes¹

[G] bones: the body of the host pupeteer (i.e. the arms)

generally, muppets are categorized in their functionality based on their body types and their arm types.

for body, you have characters that are meant to go over the arm and express mostly via the skull. these characters, often referred to as hand muppets, are the most prevalent and they tend to vary in size, with smaller characters tending to be more expressive in their mouths than their larger counterparts. such larger characters rely on the use of anatomical features such as feather hair to generate the appearance of movement. the mouthplate also can vary in anatomical material for the sake of movement; though typically factory-grade vinyl or plastic make up this mouthplate, but plenty of instances have also used cardboard, craft foam, and even gasket rubber (i.e. Kermit the Frog). hooks tend to grow from these mouthplates in order for pupppeteers to slip the skull fingers into, although some reportedly don't have these hooks for various reasons. without a proper means for anchoring, many puppeteers report these characters have more awkward and stiff mouth movements.

then, there are costume muppets, which are characters so large that they need their puppeteer to be within them in order to function. to do this effectively, the handole is widened for more bone capacity and then it's covered by the head of the puppet. these characters often have highly advanced mechanisms within in order to operate the mouth and other external functions such as the eyelids. in recent times, since some production companies have started implementing costume muppet functionality into their characters, mascots have also stared to receive the classification as costume muppets, despite the debate this has sparked among scientists.

while costume muppets generally take on one of their puppeteer's arms (or in modern instances such as Junior Gorg, both arms) to serve as their own, this part of the anatomy does give another layer to hand muppets specifically. in regards to arms, they can be streamlined into two groups: wirehands and livehands.

wirehands are the most common types you see in the hand muppet category, as they're the easiest type to latch onto puppeteers; they have free-floating arms that are more often than not attached to and operated by rods. it can be noted thar due to their design, the most impressive thing a wirehand can do is clap their hands. one such character includes ███, who reportedly learned how to clap and beat his chest to the tune of "We Will Rock You".

demonstration of this technique will soon be found on our Patreon page.

on the other hand (Hey now, was that a pun?), livehands are somewhat less commonplace, purely due to the fact they are functional marvels; they have complex digits capable of making gestures and holding objects such as tools and instruments. these characters will often have personality-based interests that demonstrate their arms, such as the Swedish Chef or Dr. Teeth. this even extends to characters like Ernie to an extext, as his interest in his rubber duck play partner allows him to use his arms to squeak said duck. as a side note, if you want to know what a play partner is, i have mentioned them in another post, which you can read about here. now in order for livehands to use their more complex arms, they often need one or more puppeteers to operate both. however, in the case of only one puppeteer being present, many have adapted to making one of their arms functionally wirehanded so it can be pinned to their body or left to float freely.

this need for the puppeteer's hands to serve as their own has coincidentally led to people mistakenly believing that all livehands have five fingers, myself included. in actuality, plenty if not most livehands fuse the third and fourth digit in order to make their hands four-fingered instead of five. for this reason, they effectively blend in with other rodhands with the exception of having often noticeably larger hands.

some theorists claim that they do this because not only are these character types an uncommon encounter and therby could be overall offputting to a rodhand, but rodhands may also become more avoidant if they perceive the hands of a livehand to be skulls, and "five fingers in puppet culture is indicative of a skull"². while this theory doesn't have any verbal confirmation from prominent members of said culture, some will point to the Muppet Show's isolation of the Swedish Chef and to an extent Dr. Teeth as proof, and it is worth noting that plenty of other livehands like Fozzie don't seem to usually have the same type of isolation occur to them; in fact a lot of them are often selectively paired off with a rodhand that counters their personality in order to have dynamicism in play along.

----

¹in media portrayals, the handole is often mistaken to be a rectal area, with even some assuming there to be a Gräfenberg spot. if their play partner suggests it, some puppets will joke about their handole serving as such. however this has proven to be merely a lie in play along, as puppets have no need to digest nutrition. neither do they have any appendage outside of what serves their portrayal, meaning they don't typically have any point that would functionally serve as a Gräfenberg spot. i say 'typically', but there are plenty of instances that have developed the capacity for those particular sensations in accordance with their portrayal. in fact, this curiously enough includes the original Muppets, as their initial portrayal was more adult-oriented and therefore included more risque content.