Cross-dressing characters



The Muppets have borrowed many motifs from vaudeville or burlesque, especially in their earliest variety show appearances. Drag, or female impersonation, was one of these recurring motifs, sometimes deliberately intended as such, or simply recycling a male puppet in a wig or dress for a specific sketch. The practice has its roots in many vaudeville comics who had female characters, as well as the concept of the pantomime dame (where matrons or ugly stepsisters in stage fairy tales were always men in drag).

Kermit the Frog in particular, in his earliest years, often donned a wig to lip synch to female vocalists such as Keely Smith or Rosemary Clooney. In an early appearance on The Today Show, the host complimented Jane Henson, performing the character opposite Jim Henson's Sam, on the "feminine" quality she brought to the character (though Jane tried to stress that the puppet was named Kermit, and normally male).

The Whatnots, Anything Muppets, Unisaurs, and many Muppet Monsters have appeared incongruously as both genders. For example, the normally male Beautiful Day Monster, in a wig and bow, played Lulu in the Sesame Street skit "Lulu's Back in Town."

On still other occasions, instead of a drag performance, a puppet is refurbished or recycled as a differently gendered character, a practice done with both male and female Muppets.