In the renewed interest of reaching out to fans, both casual and mainstream, about my concerns about Disney, the Muppets, and Steve, I created a quiz to see if Muppet fans could correctly identify quotes by Jim, Frank, and Steve.  Please feel free to share it through social media, if you are so inclined:

Who Said It:  Jim Henson, Frank Oz, or Steve Whitmire?

(Please take the quiz before reading any further.  Thank you.)

I wanted to see if even the most hardcore Muppet fans could correctly attribute quotations by Jim Henson, Frank Oz, and Steve Whitmire if they were taken out of context.  I also wanted to prove a point about how similar Frank’s views on the Muppets are to Steve’s.  My hypothesis is that if people know that a quotation comes from Jim, Frank, or Steve, they will read it differently based on their perception of each individual.  It’s the Skenfrith thing again; if they have a positive opinion of Frank, they will probably perceive his words more positively than they would Steve’s.  Conversely, if they have a negative opinion of Steve, they will probably perceive Steve’s words more negatively than Frank’s, even though (in my opinion) Frank expresses more or less the same opinions on the Muppets as Steve but does so much more bluntly–and arguably more harshly.

Here are my sources for the quotations:
Jim Henson:
Jim Henson: The Biography, by Brian Jay Jones

Frank Oz:
Frank Oz admits ‘it hurt’ to give up Muppets, says they’ll never be as ‘touching and soulful’ , by Gwynne Watkins, Yahoo! Movies, October 20, 2017.
Interview with Jim Henson, Frank Oz, and Michael Frith, circa 1989, posted to YouTube by “Muppetational” on March 19, 2014.

Steve Whitmire:
(All quotations taken from Muppet Pundit blog)
“The Muppet Performers Are Not Interchangeable,” July 16, 2017.
“High Noon,” July 30, 2017.
“Acceptance, Fear & Hope,” August 1, 2017.
“Doing What’s Best for the Muppets–Part 1,” August 15, 2017