Big V

PERFORMER	various
DEBUT	1964

Big V is a long-nosed Muppet monster who ate Kermit in "The Glow-Worm" sketch, performed on various variety shows in the 1960s. This sketch was performed again in The Muppet Show, but with Gorgon Heap taking the role of the monster. As mentioned in Sam and Friends: The Story of Jim Henson's First Television Show, his full name is "Big Vomit Monster."

Big V made a smattering of appearances in other late 1960s and early 1970s Henson projects. In many of the appearances unrelated to the "Glow-Worm" sketch, his nose was truncated.

• He appeared in the title role in Shrinkenstein, a 1965 industrial film made for Pak-Nit. Here, he was performed by Jim Henson.
• He swallowed Mack in ads for C & P Telephone Co. of VA and Southern Bell Telephone in the mid-1960s.
• He appeared in a Sesame Street sketch from the first season where he ate Kermit's radio. (First: Episode 0039)
• He had a cameo appearance in the 1969 special Hey Cinderella!
• An animated version of Big V appeared in the episode "Red's Drippy Dilemma" of the animated Fraggle Rock series, parodying the "Glow-Worm" sketch, and reappearing several times throughout the episode.
• Big V appeared alongside Gorgon Heap in the 2010 comic book miniseries Muppet Snow White.

A new version of the puppet was built in 2023 for the Jim Henson Company's Puppet Up! shows, wherein they re-enact the classic "Glow-Worm" routine.

"Jane Henson looks for a place to store a Muppet called Big V."

Big V with Jim Henson

Big V in the animated Fraggle Rock series

Frank Oz, Jim Henson and Jerry Juhl tangle with Big V

Big V on Sesame Street

Big V and Gorgon Heap together in Muppet Snow White

Puppet Up incarnation

Filmography

• The Jack Paar Show (1964)
• C & P Telephone Co. of VA (1964/65)
• Shrinkenstein (1965)
• Southern Bell Telephone (1966)
• The Hollywood Palace (1966)
• The Mike Douglas Show (1966)
• The Ed Sullivan Show (1966)
• Blue Like an Orange (1967)
• The Wonderful Night of Hercules Brown (1968)
• Hey Cinderella! (1969)
• Sesame Street - "Kermit's Lectures: Soft and Loud" (1970)
• The Dick Cavett Show (1971)
• Fraggle Rock (animated) - Episode 111: Red's Drippy Dilemma (1987)