How the Muppets won back Gen Z
Illustration by Zoe Arntsen, Illustrator
“We are so excited to be back on the very stage where it all started… and then ended… and then is maybe starting again, depending on how tonight goes,” said critically acclaimed actor Kermit the Frog at the top of his new special, “The Muppet Show.”
Fifty years after they first came to American screens, the Muppets are back with a new special filled with slapstick comedy, musical numbers, celebrity guests and puppets galore. Despite being a brisk 30 minutes, the special was met with widespread acclaim, earning 98% on Rotten Tomatoes and drawing nearly 7.5 million viewers in its first week.
“It's everything that we already know we love, such as Kermit and Peggy's relationship … while also being combined with things that we also really love outside of the Muppets,” said junior film and media studies student Annie Pasmann. “We love Sabrina Carpenter, most people love Seth Rogen (who executive produced the special), so it's kind of like these two extremely positive forces that are almost guaranteed to succeed.”
To celebrate half a century since the Muppet’s first appearance, the 2026 special returns to form with “The Muppet Show’s” original variety show format. With hopes that the special will serve as a backdoor pilot for a full revival series, the integration of Gen Z pop culture into the familiar format might be the key to its success.
“I think about (the Muppets) like I do with Disney characters or Looney Tunes. How can they be refreshed, and what is needed to refresh them?” said class of 2013 film production master’s alumnus Alex Griffin.
Griffin, who has been interested in puppetry from a young age, is a producer for Heather Henson’s “Handmade Puppet Dreams,” a traveling film series that promotes independent artists working in handmade craft for the screen.
“I feel like the core Muppets are kind of timeless. With Kermit and Piggy, those are just timeless characters,” said Griffin. “With the Electric Mayhem, they are definitely a late '60s or early '70s rock band … based on stereotypes at that time, so it's been a bit of a weird toggle between what's the base of nostalgia versus being more relevant today.”
For much of Gen Z, the first introduction to the Muppets came with the success of 2011’s “The Muppets.” However, with middling responses to the sequel, “Muppets Most Wanted” and Disney’s issues with Kermit puppeteer Steve Whitmire, the 2010s revival of the Muppets was short-lived and the characters entered a state of flux. Though attempts were made through various projects like “Muppets Now,” “Muppets Haunted Mansion,” or 2015’s “The Muppets.” sitcom, nothing seemed to stick.
“People kind of maybe realized that nothing could be at (2011’s) level … it was a little bit hard to find that momentum again,” Passman said.
While the Muppets came and went for some with the mid-2010s bump, others clung to the franchise, delving into decades of Muppets media. With a whimsical comedic approach and endearing characters, many find they offer a positive alternative to other media. In an age of doomscrolling and what feels like perpetual doom and gloom, many latch to comedic media as a source of levity.
“I think society has had this turn where, because things are so bad, we need to go out and romanticize life and we need to find the joy in the little things,” said freshman creative writing and history double major Isabel Hau. “The Muppets perform in this crumbling theater, none of them are good at their jobs and they can't put on a show without something horrible happening, but they still find the joy in their work and what they're doing. In a way we're all kind of like a Muppet in a crumbling theater, getting excited about a bunch of chickens dancing.”
As a form, puppetry also has found an increasingly devoted audience over the last few years. While Jim Henson’s studio found regular work in Hollywood through the late-20th century, doing practical effect puppetry for prevalent projects like the “Star Wars” franchise, the rise of digital effects made the future of puppetry on screen unclear. While attempts were made to adapt puppetry to a digital era like with “Sid the Science Kid,” it seems like a love for practical puppetry has prevailed.
“If I go on any social media platform, half of what I'm seeing is AI,” said Griffin. “I feel like there's more of a longing for something that’s real. There's a comfort in that. People want to connect with something, they want to have a physicality. I don't think that's ever going to go away.”
For many, the tangibility of the Muppets reaches to something deeper. With the new special parodying several Gen Z cultural staples like The Weeknd and “Bridgerton,” an emphasis on camp has sparked a deeper connection with young audiences. Through all of this, the Muppets champion an unrivaled sense of creativity and uniqueness.
“While there are some people that aren't very open-minded, I think a lot of Gen Z likes to embrace originality and being different,” said Pasmann. “Especially when it comes to being queer, I think that Gen Z's access to being original and being creative is kind of what led them back to Jim Henson and his work, because that was kind of his whole shtick.”
Whether the recent Muppets revival gets the green light for a full series or not remains up in the air, but the special seems to have still struck a chord in revitalizing an interest in the Muppets. Perhaps opening the door for a new generation of creatives to embrace the practicality and physicality of puppetry, the special marks an optimistic future for younger generations’ approach to the industry and the art form.
“Today, we're having conversations about how puppetry is a dying art form, yet people are still doing it,” said Griffin. “Like a lot of things, it ebbs and flows, but it's never been a dying art form, and it probably will never die. My hope with this special doing so well is that not only will they greenlight a full season of this new ‘Muppet Show,’ but that other studios and productions will be willing to bring puppetry in and allow these imperfections to shine.”