VOTE for the Best ToughPigs Article of All Time!

March Madness is upon us! And for a bunch of Muppet fans who don’t know lickety spit about basketball, that usually means we’re about to see a whole lot of pop culture-related brackets all over our social media feeds. What we couldn’t have predicted is that one of those bracket games will be all about us.

Our friends at the Muppets No Context Twitter feed have taken it upon themselves to create the first ever Best ToughPigs Article of All Time competition! ToughPigs readers submitted their favorite articles, and the top 64 were chosen to compete. (Frankly, it’s news to me that there were 64 good articles to begin with!)

Over the next few weeks, Muppets No Context will be pitting these articles against each other in a series of head-to-head battles, eliminating one per round until one feature will be crowned the winner.

Of course, there are no losers here – we’re so proud to see our work celebrated in this way, and the ToughPigs family will be rooting for each other through the entire event. Whichever article “wins”, we’ll all feel like winners.

Now, we know not everyone has read all 6,000+ articles on ToughPigs, and re-reading 64 full articles may seem like a lot. But we hope you’ll check out the competitors below, if only because it’s a terrific cross-section of our favorite work, representing almost every year and almost every writer who had worked on the site over the past two decades.

The nominees are!

1. This Article Is Not Brought to You By the Letter Z: The Case of Sesame Street’s Missing Letters, by Shane Keating, 2022
2. Who Is Jim Hanson?, by JD Hansel, 2022 
3. Everyone Should Date a Gonzo, by Julia Gaskill, 2013
4. The Fraggle Foodie: Doozer Sticks, by Beth Cook, 2021
5. Muppet News From the Future: October 21st, 2015, by Matthew Soberman, 2015
6. Jim Henson: The Index, by Danny Horn, 2002
7. The Two Piggies, by Joe Hennes, 2017
8. The Great Muppet Casting Call, by the Tough Pigs Staff, 2017
9. Crazy Fan Theory: The Muppets Die at the End of The Muppet Movie, by Matthew Soberman, 2019
10. The Importance of Cotterpin Doozer, by Anthony Strand, 2017
11. My Week with Muppet Covers, by JD Hansel, 2023
12. My Week with Bear, by Danny Horn, 2001
13. Folder? I Don’t Even Know Her!, by Joe Hennes, 2007
14. What’s the Deal with Janice’s Uvula?, by Ryan Roe, 2017
15. Little Things: Prairie Dawn and My Trans Identity, by Becca Petunia, 2022
16. Why A Muppet Family Christmas is the Greatest Christmas Thing Ever, by Matthew Soberman, 2022
17. Understanding Pepe the King Prawn, by Becca Petunia, 2021
18. The Book I Never Wrote: The Secret Origins of Tough Pigs, by Danny Horn, 2021
19. Am I A Muppet Fan First?, by Jarrod Fairclough, 2022
20. Unboxing! Series, by Joe Hennes, Ryan Roe, and Dave Hulteen, 2015
21. Weekly Muppet Wednesdays: The Gingerbread Men, by Anthony Strand, 2011
22. The Scooter Fist: A Video Guide to Scooter’s Trademark Gesture, by Shane Keating, 2019
23. Presenting the Great Muppet Mural, by Joe Hennes, 2021
24. Muppet Cupcakes – A Fill In The Blank Response, by Jarrod Fairclough, 2021
25. Review: Jim Henson’s Labyrinth Bestiary, by Zach Woliner, 2022
26. Gonzo the Great: Nonbinary Icon, by Ren Goetz, 2021
27. Reminder: Kermit Is Not a Homicidal Coffee Salesman, by Ryan Roe, 2018
28. Muppet Christmas Carol: The Fraggle Rock Connection, by Becca Petunia, 2017
29. My Week with Grover’s Mom, by Danny Horn, 2003
30. Stop Being Wrong. by Ryan Roe, 2010
31. HEY! Let’s Make a Video About a Superhero Called Captain Google!, by Joe Hennes,Ryan Roe, and Michal Richardson, 2009
32. Donald Trump: The Anti-Henson, by Joe Hennes and Ryan Roe, 2017
33. Fozzie’s Hat is a Neat Hat, I Think, by Ryan Roe, 2021
34. The Answers You’ve Been Searching For, by Ryan Roe, 2008
35. Forget Hogwarts Houses, Sort Yourself by Henson Houses, by Joe Hennes, 2022
36. Steve’s Hair: The Journey of a Puppeteer’s Head of Hair, by Julia Gaskill, 2012
37. The Dark Crystal vs. Entertainment, by Danny Horn, 2001
38. Strange Trip: Big Boy Meets Jim Henson, by Danny Horn, 2003
39. An Open Letter to Bill Prady: Bring Back Our Favorite Muppet, by Anthony Strand, 2015
40. Yes, We Have Seen the Sesame Street Thanksgiving Comic, by Joe Hennes, 2015
41. 27 Things to Do During “When Love Is Gone”, by Ryan Roe, 2007
42. Overthinking It: How Many Calories are in Oscar’s B Sandwich?, by Ryan Roe, 2017
43. Jerry Nelson: The Rock of the Muppets, by Matthew Soberman, 2012
44. ToughPigs Roundtable: The Worst Muppet Christmas Special, by the Tough Pigs Staff, 2014
45. Labyrinth NFTs: The Henson Company’s Worst Decision, by Becca Petunia, 2021
46. The Oral History of Mo Frackle, by Anthony Strand, 2021
47. The Muppet Show Haiku Project, by David Beukema, 2009
48. Jenny, Mary, Nadia, and Lady Holiday, by Maria Nance, 2021 
49. My Week With More Christmas, Part Three: Calling the Celery, by Danny Horn, 2005
50. 57 Great Answers to 57 Great Unanswered Questions from “A Muppet Family Christmas”, by Matthew Soberman, 2013
51. My Week with Muppet Christmas Carol, by Danny Horn and Kynan Barker, 2004
52. Strange Revelation: Sesame Street Isn’t Real?, by Staci Rosen, 2015
53. NYC Week: The Manhattan Music of the Muppets, by Louie Pearlman, 2017
54. The Muppets Need New Songs, by Jarrod Fairclough, 2022
55. Sesame Street: 50 in 50 – Season 44, by Anthony Strand, 2019
56. My Week with Muppet Breakfast, by Danny Horn, 2002
57. Let’s Address Matt Vogel’s Kermit, by Jarrod Fairclough, 2021
58. Merger Go Round, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Beaker Doll, by Danny Horn, 2001
59. One Second from Every Muppet Show Episode, by Shane Keating, 2020
60. Cancellation and the Art of Muppet Fan Journalism, by Joe Hennes, 2016
61. The Muppets are Ugly, by Joe Hennes, 2011
62. What is SIRE?, by Ryan Roe, 2010
63. Exclusive: Steve Whitmire No Longer with the Muppets, by Joe Hennes, 2017
64. It’s Time to Panic: Denise Will Ruin the Muppets, by Joe Hennes, 2015

Wow, that sure is a lot! I wonder how many times we mention Fozzie Bear. Probably at least six.

Voting on round one begins this Tuesday, February 28, with two polls running per day, culminating at the end of March. To vote, be sure to follow @MuppetNo on Twitter! And good luck to all of our fellow nominees!

Click here to double dribble on the ToughPigs forum!

by Joe Hennes – Joe@ToughPigs.com