A Ranking of the Top 25 Muppets of All Time

You wouldn’t think it would be THAT hard to put together a list of the 25 Best Muppets, but NPR recently decided to do it, and they put a lot of effort into it.

They surveyed more than 18,000 people, and they DIDN’T narrow the scope – over 150 different Muppets received votes.

Any Muppet from any property or era was eligible, including “The Muppet Show”, “Muppet Babies”, “Fraggle Rock”, “Sesame Street”, “Labyrinth”, and so on. (H. Ross Parrot even got a nod.)

They counted all variations of a Muppet character together. So, Gonzo the Great and Gonzo from “Muppet Babies” both count as Gonzo.

Some Muppets were counted as a set, like Statler and Waldorf.

Others were counted individually, like Beaker and Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, as well as Bert and Ernie.

The Fraggles of “Fraggle Rock” were also counted individually.

They disqualified other puppets that are NOT Muppets, including Yoda, and the cast of “Avenue Q”.

And naturally, they ignored the HUMANS in Muppet movies, like Jason Segel, Tim Curry, Michael Caine, and Charles Grodin.

Here’s the Top 25:

1.  Kermit

2.  Gonzo

3.  Animal

4.  Beaker

5.  Rowlf

6.  Grover

7.  Fozzie Bear

8.  Miss Piggy

9.  Swedish Chef

10.  Statler and Waldorf

11.  Cookie Monster

12.  Rizzo the Rat

13.  Oscar the Grouch

14.  Big Bird

15.  Janice

16.  Pepe the King Prawn

17.  Sam the Eagle

18.  Ernie

19.  Sweetums

20.  Snuffleupagus

21.  Scooter

22.  Elmo

23.  Bert

24.  Dr. Teeth

25.  Count von Count

 

(NPR)