The Best of the 365 Random Muppets Project

Published: January 5, 2015

On January 1st, 2014, the 365 Random Muppets website popped up and started filling out with brand new Muppet art. It seemed that the artist, Patrick Johnson, decided to give himself a challenge and illustrate a new Muppet every day, as chosen by the Muppet Wiki’s patented “Random Muppet Character” button.

Lo and behold, 365 days have now passed, and the project is complete! The images are filled with an amazing amount of diversity, from the A-listers all the way down to the most obscure characters to share the screen with the Frog and Pig.

Also, it helps that the illustrations are really, really good. Every one of them is spot-on and delightful.

Patrick is the co-owner of puppet company Swazzle. Swazzle designs, builds and performs puppets for all different kinds of projects from birthday parties to Pee Wee Herman’s Broadway show and a puppet-filled episode of The Simpsons. Patrick himself has worked with both the Jim Henson Company and the Muppets, and you can hear his voice as Lenny from the Lending Tree commercials.

Now that the 365 Random Muppets project is over, Patrick is taking a bit of a break. When it began, he considered devoting year #2 to the Sesame Street characters, but I guess there’s a limit to how many furry faces anyone can draw in a row before going insane.

Now that we’re into 2015, Patrick will continue to illustrate a new Muppet every Monday, starting with Fozzie Bear. Apparently Fozzie was his “white whale”, as he’d already drawn Baby Fozzie, Fozzie’s identical cousin, Fozzie the Amoeba, and Fozzie the Pig, but Fozzie Prime had eluded him for a full year. So the 366th day was devoted to the furry funnyman.

As a sort-of congratulations, we’ve chosen 50 of our favorite illustrations that we thought would properly highlight the past year’s worth of talent and joy. So if you like what you see, check out the other 315+ on the 365 Random Muppets website!

Day 1: Flaubert