Steve Whitmire is the man you weren’t aware you knew all these many decades (sort of like Alan Greenspan, at one point). The longtime voice behind Kermit the Frog has “portrayed” the iconic Muppet character for the past twenty-seven years, only to be given the ax for what Jim Henson’s son, Brian, explained as follows: “I think the character is better served to remove this destructive energy around it.” And so, apparently, Kermit was getting a bit too neurotic–too self-deprecatingly Woody Allen–to be fit for child consumption. Even though, let’s be honest, kids now are already plenty jaded without any help from Kermit.
While Whitmire felt that the primary reason behind his abrupt firing stemmed from being “outspoken about what’s best for the Muppets since the Muppets came to Disney,” sources at the Muppets Studio and Disney claim that Whitmire’s conduct has long been unsatisfactory ever since the Muppets made their transition to Disney terrain in the mid-00s. His replacement, Matt Vogel, is expected to re-steer the character back to his more original persona, the one developed by Jim Henson in 1955.
The sensitivity that Muppets fans have over this character, the lore that has been built up around him, cannot be underestimated. The fact that Kermit’s “character biography” treats him as a real performer as opposed to a puppet with a hand up his anus is the first and most telling sign of just how seriously people treat Muppet culture. The cracked out backstory hits its zenith when, somehow, Dom DeLuise gets in the mix as the “agent” responsible for passing by Kermit, remarking on his talent and, thus, prompting the amphibian to head to Hollywood.
Yes, to be sure, there has always been something a little bit edgy about Kermit and his storied past, and maybe this past bleeds onto whoever ultimately becomes responsible for embodying his character. Puppeteers, already bizarre by nature (as Being John Malkovich immortalized), can’t help but start to go a little batty (or is it Kermitty?) after too much time inhabiting the green felt that comprises the physical being of this most famous of frogs–even more famous than that WB one that sang “Hello! Ma Baby” all the time.
Maybe Whitmire started to act out a bit, got too big for his proverbial britches with what Henson dubbed “brinkmanship.” But maybe he also can’t be fully blamed for letting the spirit of Kermit take over him, his star power and therefore natural diva demands an inevitable aspect of portraying this, Miss Piggy’s great love. And then, of course, one must admit that having to deal with said porcine presence couldn’t have been easy on Whitmire. But evidently it wasn’t just Whitmire’s liberties with character notes and interpretations that got the powers that be’s goat. In addition, Henson also spoke on behalf of his dead father by remarking, “The last thing my dad would want is that Kermit just keeps doing the same thing over and over and over and is in the same circumstances and having the same attitude. The character needs to be stretched and maintain his heart.” But did anyone ever stop to think that the puppeteer who “stretches” Kermit also stretches the limits of his sanity?
