Chappell Roan Dressing Up As Miss Piggy Confirms We Are Due for a Puppet Renaissance
and why it's important we bring weird back to the mainstream
What does it mean for something to be magical?
Interestingly enough, our visual system is one our brains often rely on for safety, yet it gets tricked all the time. When I think about magic my mind immediately goes to object permanence: the concept that people, objects, and places continue exist when out of sight. As babies we rely on our vision to define reality, but as we get older the more sophisticated parts of our brain send signals telling us “that’s real” or “that’s just pretend.”
Let’s think about puppets for a moment. A hand disappears. We briefly suspend reality, forgetting the hand existed at all, because suddenly and without explanation—severance. We may recognize the voice coming out of the puppet, but it no longer belongs to the person it usually inhabits. Now it’s inside a piece of cloth! *gasp* With a different face! *double gasp* Usually an animal of some kind, but not always! Does this mean we think the person has disappeared forever, doomed to live a life stuck inside a stuffed doll? I mean, there are plenty of horror stories written about that happening…but no. We don’t actually think that, because we have (say it with me now) object permanence.
AI generated images are really no different. You plug a few words into an algorithm that is coded to create an image. In your mind, you picture one idea, and the algorithm creates another. Or many others. That doesn’t mean your preconceived notion of the idea disappears, nor do the words you plugged in change their meaning. In fact, I would venture to believe that many users repeatedly attempt to match what’s in their mind to the images that appear.
Both are seemingly controlled by an unseen force. Not by might, and not by power, but by spirit alone!1 Inside the puppet, a hand moves cloth, and with AI a hand creates code that pixelates images. Ironically enough, we can usually tell an AI generated image from a real one because the hands look all wrangled and messed up. And yet, one is perceived to be “cool,” “revolutionary,” and “the future,” by a portion of society and the other is seen as “weird,” “childish,” and “old fashioned.”
But they’re not. They’re the same, because AI is just another form of pretend.
How does this relate to Chappell Roan?
Well, for those who haven’t yet been following her recent launch into fame, Chappell Roan is a relatively new pop star who is slated to become the next Lady Gaga. And honestly, she’s phenomenal..err..phemininominal.
Part of the reason that the public has likened her to Gaga, beyond her talents, is her theatricality. Each performance begets a new over-the-top campy look, and it has become increasingly clear to the internet-at-large that she is recreating iconic Miss Piggy outfits.
She and Lady Gaga went viral in similar ways. Not only are their points of view refreshingly different and novel, but also they just have fun performing. Additionally, they’ve both become public-facing with stage names. So not only is Chappell getting up on stage and singing really fun songs in Bob Mackie-esque costumes, she’s pretending as her on-stage persona.
Between the discourse around Miss Piggy’s influence on Chappell and my everyday love of The Muppets, my algorithm looks a lot like this right now in case you were curious:
And we can’t forget Bob Baker’s Marionette Theater in Los Angeles as a cultural landmark! Gotta give a special shoutout to @carlyewisel, the patron saint of puppets, for her love of both Bob Baker’s Marionette Theater and The Muppets.
But people can feel real weird when you want to embrace your inner child…
Sadly, they’re just diminishing their own capacity to enjoy playing and pretending. Life is really hard. Sometimes we need a little escape and we want to experience joy! So why is watching Love Island an acceptable escape, but watching The Muppets Take Manhattan unacceptable? (I watch both, for the record) Singing puppets = weird pretend, but a dating show in Fiji = fun reality?
Newsflash: THEY’RE BOTH PRETEND
Adults forget they used to play. More than that, most used to enjoy playing. Just because we grow up, doesn’t mean we should stop being playful. If anything, to maintain resilience throughout adulthood, we need to be playful3. We have to be able to imagine, innovate, hope, and dream. We need to believe that aspects of our lives can still be magical and change. Without that growth mindset, we wouldn’t create!
People can think that they’re “too old to pretend” all they want, but at the end of the day they are in fact pretending while building financial projections, inventing new products, and planning ads for the Olympics. If we can’t see it yet, does it even exist?
So, how does one get started playing with puppets?
First, forgo your ego. You’re not that cool and it’s not that serious.
Then, recognize that you’re not expected to be the next Jim Henson. You do not need to make your own puppets. If you would like to learn how, there are plenty of people online willing to share their process.
Use really simple puppets, like your hand with two black dots, a sock, a brown paper bag, or these little eyeball rings that turn your hand into whatever you want it to be (monster, alien, whatever your kid ends up calling it, etc.)
Kids love silly voices. Just make your voice sound different from your normal voice! That could be as simple as whispering or speaking really slowly. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel here.
Remember that stuffed animals can also be used as puppets, it’s not necessary to invest in anything new
If you do want to buy some actual puppets though, you can click the button below to see my curations!
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IYKYK
video via @sophietruax on tiktok
https://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/podcast-resilience-play/