For Juhl, the former Muppet performer, it was character and motivation that mattered more than puns or vaudeville-style jokes—a predilection Jim and the puppeteers appreciated. “What he always seemed to do best was to watch … us develop our characters and then write along those lines,” said Hunt. In the writing room, however, Jim was adamant that “these puppets are not just characters up there telling jokes. If you just stand there and tell jokes,” he continued, “the whole thing will die. The humor only holds if there’s visual interaction between the characters.”
