Hey! Crabnon here! I just saw your post about MFN so here’s a small headcannon!
I like to imagine that when one of the puppets (I’m thinking Norman, June-Bug or Leonard) grabs at Gordon whenever he got to close that one time they accidentally tickled him causing the grumpy old man to burst out laughing and say things like “what the fuck is this!?” As Gordon hasn’t been tickled in literal decades. Anyways when one puppet finds out it soon becomes gossip that the grumpy old man himself is ticklish (Ricky helped out the gossip by being himself and obviously telling everyone) so now on top of needing to shut off the antenna Gordon now also has to deal with a bunch of overly friendly puppets in a ler mood when Gordon is overly sensitive due to lack of affection in literal decades.
Welcome back Crabnon! Good to see you here.
Honestly 100% at some point one of the background puppets accidently grabbed the old man in a soft spot and he cackled due to touch-starvedness. Most likely after he started spending more time around them when he agreed to help with the show.
And when I tell you, whoever did it got the biggest grin on their face. Because now they had a way to make the grumpy gus smile whether he wanted to or not. Ricky of course made sure the whole cast knew about it in a little under an hour.
After that, Gordon was quite regularly pounced with short bursts of tickles. They'd pinch his ribs, squeeze his sides, nuzzle into the crook of his neck, anything to make him crack a smile or even chuckle if they were lucky. The bigger puppets made sure the littles were gentle, the old guy doesn't have the lungs he used to! Even Ricky is sure to remind them to not kill the poor guy.
Gordon pretends he's more bothered than he is, but he honestly enjoys how lovey-dovey they are. He'll never admit that to anyone though (except maybe Pearl, but she'll never tell)