Miss Piggy Puppet: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

Miss Piggy is a hand-rod puppet originally performed by Frank Oz and currently performed by Eric Jacobson. In a hand-rod puppet, like Miss Piggy, the performer’s dominant hand goes into the puppet’s head and operates the mouth and sometimes other facial features. The less dominant hand controls the arm rods, which are thin rods connected to the puppet’s hands. Miss Piggy is a diva pig who believes she is a superstar. She is madly in love with Kermit the Frog and is an expert in karate. Miss Piggy began as “Piggy Lee” on The Tonight Show in 1974 and eventually the “Lee” was dropped so as not to upset Peggy Lee. Miss Piggy then became a major character on The Muppet Show. This specific puppet was created for display at the National Museum of American History in 2016.

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: 2016
• maker: Henson, Jim
• maker: Erickson, Bonnie
• Object Name: puppet
• Physical Description: fabric; synthetic fibers; fabric (overall material)
• Measurements: overall: 35 in x 16 in x 16 in; 88.9 cm x 40.64 cm x 40.64 cm
• place made: United States: California
• ID Number: 2016.3105.01
• nonaccession number: 2016.3105
• catalog number: 2016.3105.01
• Credit Line: The Muppet Studio
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.