Kermit The Frog is a Muppet character that has been around us for more than 40 years. He’s also known for his famous phrase, “I don’t have a clue”. Kermit The Frog has become a popular internet meme over the period. He is often used as a reaction meme to express confusion or frustration.
The meme also became popular on Reddit, where users would pictures of Kermit with various captions, which were then voted up or down by other Reddit users.
Origin of Kermit The Frog:
Kermit The Frog is a muppet character from “The Muppets”, a franchise of characters created by Jim Henson in 1955 for “Sam and Friends”. To begin with, it wasn’t supposed to be a frog, but in the 1960s it was characterized as a frog. The muppet appeared on “Sesame Streets” in the 1970s. But he is best known for his appearance on “The Muppet Show”. Kermit is one of the few muppets to appear in all forms of media.
Kermit’s popularity has been documented as early as 1978 when he became a spokesman for American Express. Kermit is featured in various TV series, films, books, and comic books.
Evolution and popularity:
With various videos and parodies, Kermit remains in the mainstream of the entertainment industry. It was popular before the internet era and when people were introduced to the internet, they were quick to adopt Kermit as their favorite meme.
Kermit has his official Facebook page with millions of likes and an official Twitter account with over 410k followers.
Kermit’s filmography contains an uncountable list, some notables among them are, “Hey Cinderella”, “The Frog Prince”, “The Muppet Show”, “The Muppets of Walt Disney World”, “The Muppet Show Live”, “Muppets Now” etc.
Kermit has appeared in a variety of reality shows as a guest star since the 1950s. The list is countless but some of the notables are, “The Ed Sullivan Show”, “The Tonight Show”, “The 52nd Academy Awards”, “The 54th Academy Awards”, “Good Morning America”, “Entertainment Tonight”, “Larry King Live”, “Hollywood Squares”, “American Idol”, “America’s Got Talent”, “MTV News”, “Dr. Phil”, “Desperate Housewives”, “Dancing With The Stars”, “The Masked Singer” etc. These are just a few picks from an ocean-length list.
Kermit was in high demand since the 1960s for companies to promote their products and services, as a result, Kermit appeared in numerous commercials. For example Ideal Toys(1966), National Wildlife Federation(1985-1989),V-chip(2000), Denny’s(2002), Mastercard(2002), Ups(2002), Pizzahut(2004-2005), NBA(2005), Ford(2006), Toyota(2014), Subway(2014), Lipton(2014), and many more.
It also appeared in video games like Muppets Party Cruise, Spy Muppets: License to Croak, and The Muppets Movie Adventures.
Kermit received a star on “The Hollywood Walk of Fame” in 2002.
Popularity in memes:
More notably Kermit's expressions have become the subject of various internet memes. Some of Kermit's expressions continued to gain popularity online. Eventually, for decades it became a common part of the internet meme culture, which we love today. To this day it is widely popular in various merchandise, proving that Kermit has truly crossed into the mainstream.
Merchandise like:
Or,
Would be a great addition to your collection.
Social media memes inspired by Kermit The Frog:
The expressions of Kermit which are widely used in the meme industry are:
● Sad Kermit:
In 2007, Kermit’s unofficial parody of Nine Inch Nails' song “Hurt” was uploaded on youtube. It was different than our usual family-friendly Kermit as it shows that Kermit engaged in drug abuse, smoking, and consuming alcohol, which gave birth to sad Kermit.
Another popular sad Kermit meme is popular on the internet, where the puppet sits in visible depression while folding his knees to his chest and looking down.
The image is adapted from Kermit the frog’s Lipton tea commercial, where Kermit is shipping his tea, unbothered about the social situations. According to muppet WiKi, “But that’s none of my business” is a sarcastic expression used as an addition to a disrespectful remark.
● Evil Kermit:
The evil Kermit meme has been around us for a long time. It’s an image of Kermit talking with his nemesis, who is influencing him to perform some lazy or selfish act. The nemesis, Constantine, is dressed as a Sith Lord from Star Wars.
● Kermit The Frog driving away:
The commercial of BMW featuring Kermit, driving a vehicle in a desert, also became a popular meme as “Kermit The Frog driving away”.
It’s been decades but Kermit’s popularity is intact as it was before. Be it the internet, wardrobe, or your puppet collection, Kermit is everywhere. With his dauntless huge popularity, it is safe to say that Kermit will stay with us in the coming years too.
-Riya Maji
