My favorite moment from The Muppets 2011 movie is when the finale of "Life's a Happy Song" cuts to a rare Beaker close up, and he sings, "mee-mee MEE mee-mee mee-mee mee-mee!" I fall down laughing every time. 1:52 on this video... Beaker and Scooter are by far my favorite Muppet characters, because they're so odd and unpredictable.
Aloysius Snuffleupagus and Big Bird Two life sized puppets who's controls are worked from the inside.
Two more nominees... Tutter Mouse from Bear In The Big Blue House (Yes, I have a fondness for rodents) Crow T. Robot from MST3K
I'm just now finding out both that Kukla was the clown and that Ollie was meant to be a dragon! This is as momentous as learning that Grimace (Grimmus?) from the McDonald's commercials was meant to be a stomach (a big purple one). Not a puppet though... OT! Now these are puppets. Food, but also puppets...
I love Tutter! Definite inclusion! Must be that accent... a very loud little mouse! I also remember that great special moment when the world united as one around Triumph and friends... "together in pooping!" He debuted among the Anipals in that TV Funhouse show, but my real favorite there was the other dog that had all these elaborate schemes to catch his own tail!
The name Kukla came from the Russian ballerina Tamara Toumanova. When she saw him, she said Kukla! Kukla turned out to be Russian for puppet (and/or doll).
You know, Señor Wences lived so long, his head eventually looked like his fist. I was fascinated by this guy. His act was bizarre; a head in a box and Johnny.
My favorite is a Cincinnati local favorite. Hattie The Witch (or Battie Hattie From Cincinnati) Dayton (OH) native Larry Smith, who was a puppeteer, moved to Cincinnati in 1957 after he graduated from High School and immediately got a job on Cincinnati's Uncle Al show. Larry was a mainstay on various children's programs until 2006 when he retired. He logged over 6,000 hours of live TV with all his appearances on the various shows and programs with his puppets. Here he is in 2008 (a couple years after he retired) with Hattie The Witch: Here he is from an undated photo with a lot of his puppets: He died in 2018 at the age of 79.
Hate to say it but I was not a fan of Yoda at all when "Empire Strikes Back" came out! The main reason being that he had Grover's voice! Very disturbing for a kid who had grown up watching Sesame Street! Fast forward to the 2nd round of Star Wars movies and I found myself wishing there was more Yoda!
This is a little different than perhaps what the OP intended, but I thought this was at least related and thoroughly fascinating. These are giant marionettes and are completely amazing! The music is interesting as well.
You didn't know that Ollie was a dragon??? Not at all dragon-like of course, which is kind of the point/joke. Amazing that it took so long for someone to bring KF&O up; they're the first thing I thought of!
