ToughPigs is celebrating pride month with articles like this one and a charity drive with fabulous prizes! Click here for more info on how you can help LGBTQ+ people and win some cool stuff!
I am an incredibly curious person, and this is a problem. When my curiosity leads me to an unending stream of interesting facts, that’s good. Did you know that the Muppets have performed “Consider Yourself” on four different occasions? Or that Megan Piphus, the puppeteer of Gabrielle, is also a ventriloquist? Or that Sesame Street has no fewer than five chicken characters with the bug-eyed look? And finally, did you know that I learned all of these facts by starting on the Edgar Bergen episode page of Muppet Wiki? Muppet Wiki is lovely with its instantaneous answers to all of my curious questions about Muppet thing after Muppet thing.
But my curiosity isn’t limited to just Muppet things or things that anyone has made a wiki for. So when I ask questions like “Why did my lights just turn on and off with no one touching them?” or “What’s behind the broken piece in the elevator?” it’s more likely that I’ll never get answers. And that’s bad. Some of them can’t be answered. Some of them can, but maybe I get distracted because, oh, I looked over there, and now I’m asking another question.
This is my life every day. I’ve learned to sponge up as much information as I can from what’s available in front of me (You better believe I opened up that elevator flap.) and from whomever is willing to talk about their special interest. It’s not that I don’t want answers to every question I have. I’d really like to know if my lights are haunted or not. But I don’t have time. There’s someone warming up potato salad in the microwave, and now that has captured my attention.
For these same reasons, I didn’t come to Muppet fandom until I was in my thirties. I love the Muppets. I’ve always loved the Muppets. I especially love learning more about the people who make Muppet projects come to life. Any time a Muppet show or movie presented itself on television or a book passed my librarian eyes or a post came to my awareness online, I would eagerly consume it, usually wishing for more as soon as it had concluded. But again, for too long, I never typed “Muppet” into any search boxes to see what popped up. I never went looking for more of that particular joy, despite the warm feelings these fleece characters always inspired in me. There was always something else.
That was until one day when a post advertising Muppet Guys Talking came across my social media feed. Once I followed through on the need to watch this Muppet-related creation, it came to be that Muppets were now in front of me even more. It was in this way I discovered ToughPigs and the forums and the many wonderful podcasts and people who made them. I met people with many, many more things to share and more for me to learn. I learned about Grover’s Mom, Mo Frackle and Adventures of Big Boy. And I learned more about queer identities.
Now, I know what some of you might be wondering. “How has this person never encountered queer people in any other part of their life?” And my answer to that is that someone’s queerness is only one aspect of them. When I meet someone, my curiosity towards them as people rarely strays into whether they’re LGBTQIA+ because there are so many other cool things about them that I want to know, like where they got that sweet shirt they’re wearing or where the inspiration came from for the artwork they’re selling at the convention. And similarly, that artist is not necessarily going to volunteer details about their identity or sexual orientation in that context. It would make things very awkward.
But once I was ensconced in the Muppet fandom community, I was presented with a plethora of occasions when people not only discussed their love of the Muppets in connection with their queer identities, but enumerated the many ways that the Muppets made them feel accepted because of those identities. With ToughPigs articles like Gonzo the Great, Nonbinary Icon, The Book I Never Wrote, and Fozzie Bear Is My Ace of Hearts, as well as posters on the forums writing about how the whole Muppet troupe was a found family just like the ones that embraced them after they came out, suddenly I was presented with all of this fantastic information in one place. And all I needed to do was examine it.
Which I did, with the same vivacity with which I examine Muppet eyebrows. You see, I’ve spent my life so curious about everything and everyone around me, that I’ve rarely stopped to examine myself. So I guess I’m not as curious as I could be. I’ve just never found myself that interesting. Who am I? I’m not as funny as Fozzie Bear. I’m not green, so my life has been fairly easy. And after I danced my cares away, what else was worth thinking about? It turns out, a whole lot. Like that my incuriousness about my gender is because I don’t consider myself to have one. My lack of interest in dissecting the romance between Kermit and Piggy is because I’m aromantic. My tepid response to the idea of shipping any of the Muppets together is likely due to my asexual identity.
These facts about myself only became visible to me once I was ensconced in Muppet fandom. At no other point in my life (not at college, not on social media and not amongst my friends or family) have I been surrounded by other individuals so welcoming, encouraging and open about what makes them different, that I could focus enough to learn what makes me different.
One of the key quotes that helped me realize that I was agender was this one from Kira Hall in their Pride Month Profile from 2023: “The closest approximation of how I feel about my gender is, it’s an amorphous blob. If you think of me as an amorphous blob, that would be ideal.” I recall reading this and doing the Leonardo DiCaprio point at the screen. The gong of self-recognition rang louder than the bells they’ve got in Fraggle Rock. Once I’d been presented with this possibility of understanding oneself, it finally took precedence over every other question bouncing around my head.
I know everyone comes to understanding who they are in different ways. For some people, it’s not something into which they ever have to put effort. For others, it involves deep thought or soul-searching. No matter how you come to know yourself, it’s always a process worth doing. I can wholeheartedly recommend my own process: immersing yourself in Muppets, Fraggles and the fandom that surrounds them until you find yourself just as colorful as the stacks of Muppet fleece in the Muppet workshop. I don’t think it’s possible to be a member of this fandom without finding your true colors, or realizing that there’s more to this group than an appreciation of amusing, wiggling dolls. There’s a belonging and a safety. And those two things give us an intimate stage on which we can sing our true heart song, brave the possible tomatoes or dance to the music only we can hear while also wrestling a brick… for some reason.
And ToughPigs is still posting articles and sharing perspectives that can help people understand the many ways to be. Last year, articles in The ToughPigs Beacon series helped shine various lights on neurodivergence in the Muppet fandom experience. Very necessary perspectives to share. And if I may choose one particular article to highlight from this year’s Pride offerings, Beth Cook’s Pride Month Beacon: Neurofairy Muppetgender is another heartening example of exactly how the Muppets encourage everyone to find their true selves at their own pace. It’s such a perfect example of what I’ve been discussing that it’s almost as if Beth wrote that article specifically to reinforce everything I’ve said here. (I swear I had no idea about that article until I’d already written this one. Sweet Muppet serendipity.) And I am certain that someone who reads it will learn a little bit more about their own identity.
Thank you, Muppet fandom, for creating this space. Thank you for keeping it open and keeping it strong. I’d love to hear how all of you reading this article came to Muppet fandom and how it has made you feel. Has it brought you belonging, self-understanding, or new friends? It doesn’t have to be Pride-related, but if it makes you proud to be a Muppet fan, shout it from the rooftop like you’re Kermit the Frog ready to conquer New York. Because I can promise that we’re just as proud to have you here with us.
Click here to warm up potato salad on the ToughPigs discord!
By K. T. Lyn – [email protected]
