Jim Henson's Muppets have brought joy to countless millions across the globe. Yet in sticking with Topless Robot's ongoing commitment to pointing out the dark side of life whenever possible, today's Daily List overlooks the happiness presented by Kermit and company and instead chooses to focus on the dark side of the Muppets. As any parent who had to tend to their children's Skeksis-induced nightmares will tell you, not all of the Henson Creature Shop's output is cute and cuddly. But let's cast aside any night terrors caused by Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal or any other non-Muppet projects (whose scary creatures merit a list of their own) and today focus strictly on terrifying creations featured in Sesame Street and The Muppet Show. Be it based on appearance alone or something more sinister that lies just beneath the surface, each of these 15 entries is enough to fuel plenty of nightmares.
Just a quick note before we begin: because what people find scary is subjective and this list is based on my own experience, you may not agree with some of my picks. If that's the case, be sure to name which Muppets scared the bejesus out of you in the comments. That said, let's take a look at my picks for the 15 most nightmare-inducing Muppets ever seen.
15) The Yip Yip Martians
Let's start things off easy with some Muppets that are less overtly scary and more nightmarish in a frustrating way, the so-called "Yip-Yip Martians." Just like the co-worker who shares the same anecdote about meeting Adam West at Wizard World over and over again, the Yip-Yips drone on repetitively without end. There's no way to be sure, but I'm guessing the reason that Sesame Street featured them so often was to prepare children for the constant bores they would encounter in their adult lives. A few minutes with these aliens and you'll feel like you're watching a production of Sartre's No Exit produced by the Children's Television Workshop.
14) Lefty
Guess what kids? PUSHERS ARE EVERWHERE! Have fun trying to enjoy the rest of your childhood when danger lurks around every corner.
13) Digit
One of the new creations for The Jim Henson Hour, Digit was a creepy looking puppet fever dream who was supposed to be part robot. Jump to 1:50 in the above clip (taken from the appropriately titled The Cosby Show episode "Cliff's Nightmare") to see Digit in action. So this is what the offspring of Max Headroom and Miss Piggy would have been like. Shudder.
12) Janice
On the surface Janice seems to be a joyful hippie who is all about peace and love. But you know who else was? Squeaky Fromme. Look how that turned out.
11) Count von Count
Fact: exsanguination is an 'E' word. The only thing deadlier than a typical vampire is one with an untreated case of OCD. That's one, two, three neck bites. Bwa ha ha.Fortunately, Liam Neeson snapped the Count's neck shortly after the above video was filmed, so that's one less puppet vampire on the loose.
10) Gonzo the Great
I'm as moved by "I'm Going to Go Back There Someday" as much as the next guy. But that song's considerable pathos isn't nearly enough to make me overlook the fact that Gonzo is a alien puppet character who wants nothing more from life than to have endless sex with chickens. Does anyone else think this is a questionable raison d'être for a character on a show largely geared towards children to have?
9) Craniac
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Oh, and I'm surprised Statler and Waldorf didn't make this list? When their freaky skinny legs would appear, they scared me especially.
And what about Fraggles? I grew up in a border town, so we watched mostly Canadian TV, Fraggles were big on the CBC. The garbage heap, doozers, and the Gorgs caused me many sleepless nights.
As for Dark Crystal and its ilk, thank you for not including them at all. The fact that those movies exist sometimes prevents me from getting a decent rest. [Shudder].
In answer to the question re: which Muppets scared me, the answer is: ALL OF THEM! Shit. Muppets were the most terrifying thing in my childhood, and I was subjected to them every single Saturday night after bath time. Why get clean when my mind was just going to be dirtied with horrifying puppetry?
The only tolerable Muppets are a couple of the Sesame Street folks, Kermit (but only on Sesame St., when he was on the Muppet stage he scared me as much as any of them), Ernie (NOT Bert), Elmo, and maybe Grover.
The key to my Muppet fear was that they surrounded their human hosts on the Muppet Show. I was convinced that they'd turn on the human at any moment. The human to Muppet ration on Sesame St., on the other hand, made these terrifying creatures easier to handle because they were outnumbered. Because of this fear of Muppets gobbling up their human captives, Swedish Chef actually scared me less than most Muppets. His human hands reminded me that there were people under those scary beasts, that helped me sleep a *tad* more easily.
That said, I was a Muppet Babies devotee, go figure. But then I'd picture that at the top of Nanny's striped tights was a face like Animal's, and then I'd go down that rabbit hole...
@DetectiveFork Sam scared the soup out of me too! Those menacing eyebrows. And does anyone else think he looks like Steve Carell?
The only ones from this list that bothered me at all when I was a child were the Yip Yips. Don't know why but they freaked me the hell out.
Thought Gonzo was great though.
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/502/lasvegasparanot.jpg/
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I thought Yorick was this terror from Sam and Friends...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=RUWQKwrbcvA
Just watch what he does to poor Kermit at the end of this vid...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=OkNE4FiUtOE
surprised to see both Janice and the sweddish chef on the list. for true she came off as a peace love child muppet she actully was not that bad other then whinning all the time. the chef was hilerious. and glad i am not the only one who thought uncle dudely was scary looking . Sweetums . when i first saw him i did not want to watch the muppets for fear of seeing him wanting to eat kermit ,or the celeb on the muppet show
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It was actually Ernie that induced nightmares in me when I was little. Not everyday, fun-loving, troublemaker Ernie. No, no, I'm talking about a particular appearance of Ernie. In the episode the Count sleeps over at Bert & Ernie's place and takes Bert's bed. When the Count can't sleep, Ernie suggests he count sheep. Well, the Count being the Count enjoys counting sheep so much that he does it all night (loudly) rather than sleep. In the morning Ernie stumbles out of the bedroom 'zombified' with his hair matted down and scary glazed eyes muttering numbers to himself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=LH62UQ8pSR4#t=195s
I stopped watching Sesame Street for a week out of fear that 'sleep deprived Ernie' would make a reappearance.
@JuliusGryphon I managed to escape this episode in my childhood, but now I'll never be able to look at Ernie the same way again.
The Muppets that terrified me were twofold:
1) The man-sized Muppets that would open up their mouths and basically inhale people and other Muppets.
2) The giant Chopped Liver from the Pigs In Space episode.
The only Muppet I ever found more frightening than these was the nightmare I had where one killed Henry Winkler with an axe. I realized later it was my step-mother.
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For some reason, Lew Zealand and Guy Smiley always unnerved me. But then as a kid I had no problem with the Skeksis, but cried if I had to look at a Gelfling for more than twenty seconds.
@EliasAlgorithm Guy Smiley's mouth just opened too big. It was creepy. Very Terrance and Phillip.
@EliasAlgorithm The only time I was creeped out by the Skeksis was the dinner scene. Even now, I prefer not to watch that.
@EliasAlgorithm Gelflings were the creepiest - it's the uncanny valley effect, where more humanoid replicas are creepier because we identify what's "off" about them more quickly.
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As a wee one, it was never the regular Muppets that freaked me out, but this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLyyBWsdbXo
It's an awesome bit of performance and genuinely lovely puppetry, but as a kid, that ghost face just about sent me behind the couch.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57oUeO_OJMg
Obligatory in a thread mentioning the Chef.
It hasn't been too long that I did, a friend on a music video fb group posted it. Chris Hardwick has a country parody about science, as well, which is probably better than this one. ("Trace Elements")
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Hey... where's Animal? The guy's so dangerous he has to be kept on a chain so he doesn't go berserk and murder everyone. He's what happens when you cross a wolverine, a honey badger and Keith Moon.
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@aphthakid I think kids identify with Animal rather than being scared of him. That's my recollection of elementary school perceptions, anyway.
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Wait...you compared a member of Doctor Teeth and the Electric Mayhem to a Manson girl?!?
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/XAWQ7xB.gif[/IMG]
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Gonzo scared me up to the age of six. Nice to hear from Chris and a most excellent list.
Nice with the Magic reference. Anthony Hopkins--fuck Hannibal--at his finest*
*Sub weirdest/creepiest/most scenery-chewing as you see fit.
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Personally i prefer muppets in real life...
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/3bLwqKU.jpg[/IMG]
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@rabidronnie @Canadian.Scott http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m90hxitXCo1rwz405o1_400.gif
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Your choices are too nice. Here's a muppet from the early days of Sesame Street that scared the crap out of me.
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@skrag2112 don't make eye contact. . . proceed slowly backwards. . . [IMG]http://i297.photobucket.com/albums/mm227/ciaosushi/tumblr_lmhwmhfzpA1qkkljxo1_400.gif[/IMG]
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My sister was terrified of Uncle Deadly, who until now I only knew as the Phantom of the Muppet Show. I was a year younger and he didn't phase me but my sister went hysterical alternately crying and screaming for hours the night that show aired - far more scary than the muppet. I guess having to deal with an older sister made the horrors of the world pale in comparison.
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@Gallen_Dugall As an older sister myelf, I am not sure whether to be deeply offended or to go find your sister and shake her hand.
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@rabidronnie @Gallen_Dugall she has a tendency to hysteria. I was called out of class to calm her down in high school once after she was struck with hysterical blindness during a frog dissection.
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@Theodore_T_Theodore @Gallen_Dugall hysterical blindness is some scary stuff if you've never experienced it before. I'd never heard of it before and since only because the character Albert Blithe is stuck with it in that episode of Band of Brothers. There's a tendency to think the person is faking since there's no physical cause (I certainly did) but it's an actual thing.
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@Gallen_Dugall My coping mechanisms suddenly seem quite reasonable. Bless you, dear sir.
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@rabidronnie @Gallen_Dugall She was one of the "cool people" who did things everyone talked about; like getting the principle to break down during the morning announcements into the "lumberjack song" and other such shenanigans. Plus she was selling paintings at that point and starting to make a serious name for herself (some of her things were displayed in a Miami gallery) until she swore off painting because it was too much about money and not art and gave away all her work instead of taking the money. I also credit her with the resurgence of '60s fashion among other things.
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