This week is Beauregard Week, in keeping with the Muppets’ large seventieth anniversary marketing campaign. What a beautiful motive to have a good time everybody’s favourite dummy janitor. Though Beau is most definitely a fan favourite, there’s nonetheless a lot we don’t learn about him. Like, just about the whole lot.
For many years, followers have been asking, “What’s Gonzo?” Is he an alien, a Frackle, or one thing like a turkey? Whether or not you assume there’s a definitive reply or not, there’s a pleasure within the act of questioning. Gonzo is an unsolvable thriller, and it’s enjoyable to take part on this fruitless debate.
However there are different Muppets on the market who don’t get the identical dignity as Gonzo for us to marvel about their species of origin. Scooter, for instance, may very well be a human, or maybe some type of chicken, or perhaps a literal gopher (to accompany his job as a gofer). However for some motive, most of us don’t appear to care all that a lot about Scooter’s background. He’s predominantly a “child” who’s breaking into the enterprise, and his backstory is sufficient to maintain the plot shifting ahead. No must delve into questions on his lineage.
Beauregard falls someplace in between. He’s positively not a human – in all probability some type of animal, but an indistinguishable one (in contrast to Animal, who’s proudly indistinguishable). We’ve gotten loads of teases all through the years – although not as many as Gonzo – that different characters have guesses as to what he’s, and but we hardly ever ask ourselves this query straight-out.
Due to this fact, I ask you now: What’s Beauregard? I’ll get you began with a couple of choices.
Notably, Beauregard was created after Dave Goelz carried out Wendell Porcupine in Emmet Otter’s Jug Band Christmas. He should’ve preferred this dimwitted simpleton and thought he may slot in on the Muppet Theater effectively sufficient, so Beauregard was born out of his character. So possibly Beau is a component porcupine? Might his origins lie in not simply the voice and the persona, however the DNA as effectively?
Beauregard took middle stage within the Joan Baez episode of The Muppet Present in a narrative that sees him develop into an honorary rat. Certain, it’s only a method for the Muppet rats to make the most of his good nature and skill to achieve fridge cabinets, however maybe they noticed one thing in him that was extra rat-like than anybody else. Is Beau a large rat? A Borat, if you’ll.
Again in 2009, Beauregard co-starred in a collection of on-line movies with Bobo the Bear, and I gotta say, it acquired me asking lots of questions. Primarily, how did we by no means discover that their names had been so related? Contemplating that there are a number of completely different species of bear, maybe Beau and Bobo have some connection down their household tree. Even wanting on the two of them, Beau is about half of a Bobo, size-wise, and as everyone knows, half of Bobo is Bo. That’s simply math.
One unusual element about Beauregard that just about by no means comes up is his immense power. Apparently he’s actual good at lifting, as evidenced by that one picture we’ve all seen of him holding an anvil below one arm. I did some analysis on “robust rodents” to see if he may attribute his power to his species. Whereas the beaver is usually thought-about the strongest rodent attributable to its highly effective chunk, that’s not precisely the type of power Beau possesses. As an alternative, we’ll look to the most important rodent: the capybara. And truthfully, to take a look at a capybara, you may completely see how Beauregard could be in some way associated to them. Give a capybara a flannel shirt and a mop, and I promise it’ll look mighty acquainted.
Lastly, within the basic “Sam’s Track” bit from The Muppet Present, Sam the Eagle refers to him as “a lump taking part in harmonica.” And whereas he’s definitely lump-like, I believe we are able to safely say that he’s not a lump. Not as a result of “lump” isn’t a species, however as a result of Sam the Eagle is sort of by no means proper.
Maybe it doesn’t matter what Beauregard is, so long as he retains the Muppet Theater clear and will get his taxi cab to its vacation spot with out too many crashes. And but, that gained’t cease me from questioning… what the heck is he???
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by Joe Hennes – [email protected]
