- “Kissy kissy!”
- ―Miss Piggy
Miss Piggy is one of the central characters on The Muppet Show. She is a force of nature who developed from a one-joke running gag into a three-dimensional character.
Miss Piggy is a prima-donna pig who is absolutely convinced that she's destined for stardom, and nothing is going to stand in her way. Her public face is the soul of feminine charm, but she can instantly fly into a violent rage whenever she thinks she's insulted or thwarted. Kermit the Frog, her longtime crush has learned this all too well; when she isn't smothering him in kisses, she's sending him flying through the air with a karate-chop.
Background[]
From modest beginnings (which she is quick to gloss over), Miss Piggy first broke into show business by winning the Miss Bogen County beauty contest, a victory which also marked her first meeting with the frog of her life, Kermit (whom she usually calls "Kermie"). The rest, as they say, is history (and a lot of juicy gossip, too).
In her interview on Take Two with Phineas and Ferb, when Phineas Flynn asked what it was like to grow up on the farm, Piggy replied "Very humbling... I don't like being humble, so I got out fast."
When she appeared on So Random!; she considers herself to be "much bigger than Oprah, and less pink than Simon Cowell".
According to her Facebook page, she was educated at the Paris School of Fashion, and born on "None of your beeswax".
In 1976, Miss Piggy started out in the chorus of The Muppet Show. Thanks to her charisma and a correspondence course in karate. The correspondence course wasn't Piggy's only training. In an interview with Hitfix, she stated that she learned at Master Chang's Charm School and Karate Dojo; it was also a Chinese restaurant that Kermit used to go to. Piggy made her presence known and soon became the lead chanteuse and femme fatale on the show. Quickly, her career expanded to include television specials, home videos, records, and books. Her "how to" volume of advice on absolutely everything, Miss Piggy's Guide to Life, became a national bestseller, and her fabulous face has been featured on the cover of countless magazines too numerous to mention.
Miss Piggy starred in two regular Muppet Show sketches -- "Veterinarian's Hospital", as the ravishing Nurse Piggy, and "Pigs in Space", as the enchanting First Mate Piggy.
She also has a dog named Foo-Foo.
Development[]
Frank Oz performed 'Piggy Lee' on The Tonight Show on May 24, 1974, lip syncing with Hamilton Pig to 'Old Black Magic'. The first draft of the puppet was a blonde, beady-eyed pig who appeared briefly in the 1975 pilot special, The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence, in a sketch called "Return to Beneath the Planet of the Pigs." She was unnamed in that show, but by the time The Muppet Show began in 1976, she was recognizably Miss Piggy—sporting large blue eyes, wearing a flowing lavender gown, and jumping on Kermit, the love of her life. This early version of Miss Piggy also appeared on Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass.
Muppet designer Bonnie Erickson remembers, "My mother used to live in North Dakota where Peggy Lee sang on the local radio station before she became a famous jazz singer. When I first created Miss Piggy I called her Miss Piggy Lee -- as both a joke and an homage. Peggy Lee was a very independent woman, and Piggy certainly is the same. But as Piggy's fame began to grow, nobody wanted to upset Peggy Lee, especially because we admired her work. So, the Muppet's name was shortened to Miss Piggy."
The character was referred to as "Piggy Lee" in one Muppet Show episode, episode 106. She also uses that name in the 1977 Muppet Show Annual released in the U.K.
Miss Piggy soon developed into a major character, as the Muppet creators recognized that a lovelorn pig could be more than a one-note running gag. Frank Oz has said that while Fozzie Bear is a two-dimensional character, and Animal has no dimensions, Miss Piggy is one of the few Muppets to be fully realized in three dimensions. She became one of The Muppet Show's most popular characters, which was noted by Jim Henson during the development of Fraggle Rock. When discussing characters for the show, Henson included this in his notes:
- “...we would anticipate coming up with new personalities which would have much of the same kind of appeal as a Kermit, Fozzie or Gonzo. We will not create anybody with Miss Piggy's kind of appeal- nobody should try.”
- ―Jim Henson
Personality[]
Miss Piggy's distinctive personality has been seen in a few other Muppet characters before the famous sow's debut. For instance, this personality and voice can be seen (and heard) in the Sesame Street versions of Little Miss Muffet and Snow White, both performed by Frank Oz.
Talents[]
Miss Piggy considers herself a dramatic actress and a great singer, but she has other talents, too (besides karate).
In the Kaye Ballard episode of The Muppet Show, it has been proven that Miss Piggy can play a few instruments such as the trumpet and kazoo.
Miss Piggy proves to be great at bending metal bars (for example, in The Great Muppet Caper, she bent back the jail bars, and in The Muppets Take Manhattan, she was able to bend a metal bar).
As shown in The Great Muppet Caper, Miss Piggy also has the ability to model, tap dance, swim, drive a truck, and ride a motorcycle.
As pointed out by Rowlf in The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years and Kermit in A Muppet Family Christmas, no one can make an entrance like Piggy.
Family[]
Piggy has two dim-witted nephews, Andy and Randy Pig.
From a 1979 People magazine article: "According to Oz, Miss Piggy's father chased after other sows, and her mother had so many piglets she never found time to develop her mind. 'I'll die before I live like that!' Miss Piggy screamed, and ran away to the city. Life was hard at first. People got all the jobs; pigs had to take what was left. To keep going, Miss Piggy walked a sandwich board for a barbecue stand. Desperate, she took a stage name, Laverne, and entered a beauty contest. She won and got her big break: a bacon commercial. This led to a season as mascot for a local TV sportscast called Pigskin Parade -- and then on to The Muppet Show."
Miss Piggy looked fondly at a photo of her mother in The Case of the Missing Mother.
Relationship with Kermit[]
Eventually, in the films, Kermit started returning her affections and (unwittingly) married her in The Muppets Take Manhattan, although subsequent events suggest that it was only their characters in the movie that married and that their relationship is really the same as ever.
Before The Muppets Take Manhattan, in episode 310 of The Muppet Show, Miss Piggy unsuccessfully attempted to get Kermit to marry her. She wrote a "comedy sketch" involving a wedding between her and Kermit, got Scooter to trick Kermit into signing a marriage license, and hired a real minister for the sketch. However, during the skit, before Kermit was to say "I do", he introduced Lew Zealand instead.
In episode 502, after planting one too many rumors about her and Kermit's relationship to the gossip papers, Kermit fired Miss Piggy, having guest star Loretta Swit replace her in "Pigs in Space" and "Veterinarian's Hospital". The rest of the cast was sad until they realized that this meant they'd be rid of Foo-Foo. Eventually, Loretta Swit got them to sing a song and all was apparently forgiven after that.
A month before the debut of their 2015 ABC series, The Muppets, Miss Piggy and Kermit announced their split. Piggy's statement said "Dating moi is like flying close to the sun. It was inevitable that Kermit would drop down to the ground while I stayed in the heavens." while also concluding it was a mutual agreement. Kermit, however, countered “After careful thought, thoughtful consideration, and considerable squabbling, Miss Piggy made the difficult decision to terminate our romantic relationship". It was specified, however, they will continue to work together.[1][2][3] Kermit has apparently moved on with his new girlfriend, a pig named Denise, who works on ABC.[4]. Although the two broke up because Kermit still had feelings for Miss Piggy.
Kermit and Miss Piggy occasionally perform musical numbers together. Some of their duets include "I Won't Dance", "Ukulele Lady", "Waiting at the Church", "The First Time It Happens", "Love Led Us Here", and, via dream sequence, "Something So Right".
Appearances[]
- The Muppet Show
- The Muppet Movie
- The Great Muppet Caper
- The Muppets
- Muppets Most Wanted
- The Muppets
- Muppet Babies (series)
- Muppets Now
Trivia[]
- According to "Miss Piggy's Guide to Life", Miss Piggy's birthday is June 14, meaning hers is one day before Vanessa Doofenshmirtz's.
- Miss Piggy wrote a book called "The Diva Code", which she describes as being a "selfish-help book" rather than a self-help book.
- In The Muppet Show episode 106 Piggy is referred to by the full name "Piggy Lee"; and in episode 116 Piggy tells guest star Avery Schreiber that Piggy is short for "Pigathius", which is "From the Greek, meaning 'river of passion'." However, there is no evidence to support that this is part of her name. It is more likely that this is an intentionally made-up name on Miss Piggy's behalf as part of her plan to make Kermit jealous.
- On her August 2, 2007, guest appearance on The Late Late Show, Piggy stated that her first name is actually "Miss".
- Because Frank Oz was busy with other projects and not on the set very often, Miss Piggy was puppeteered by Kevin Clash in Muppet Treasure Island and Peter Linz in Muppets from Space, with Oz dubbing the voice in later.
- Her film appearances in The Muppets Take Manhattan and Muppets from Space are both owned by Sony Pictures, It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie is owned by NBCUniversal, the other Muppet movies are owned by Disney (along with the rest of the Muppet franchise).
- For several international dubs such as French Le Muppet Show, German Die Muppet Show and Italian Il Muppet Show, Miss Piggy was originally dubbed by female voice artists. They were replaced with male artists only much later when Disney Character Voices International, Inc. was put in charge, in some cases even ordering re-dubs of the series and select TV specials.
- She released her own perfume named "Moi" (whose name translates from French as "me") in 1998.
- Miss Piggy sang Spa Day in an episode of Take Two with Phineas and Ferb.
- Miss Piggy was a guest star in a 2011 episode of So Random!
- Muppet Babies and Little Muppet Monsters are the only instances where Miss Piggy is voiced by a woman.
- Her film appearances in The Muppets Take Manhattan and Muppets from Space are both owned by Sony Pictures, It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie is owned by NBCUniversal, the other Muppet movies are owned by Disney (along with the rest of the Muppet franchise).
Gallery[]
External links[]
References[]
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