AY Honors/Puppetry/Answer Key

Template:Citations missing Template:Dablink Template:Selfref A sock puppet is a puppet made from a sock (or similar garment) which is placed over the hand of a puppeteer. When a sock puppeteer fits their hand into the closed end of the sock, the sock puppet can be made to "talk" with the opening and closing of the hand. The puppet's mouth is formed by the region between the heel and the toe, with the thumb forming a jaw. At a minimum the shape of the hand will instantly form the shape of a mouth, but sometimes the mouth is padded by putting in a fairly hard piece of felt (often with a tongue glued inside). Sometimes the region between the toe and heel is cut open with scissors to form a mouth.

Sock puppet called joanne

The sock is stretched out fully so that it is long enough to cover the puppeteer's wrist. Often, but not always, the puppeteer will hide behind a stand and raise up his or her hand above the stand so that only the puppet is visible. Many sock puppeteers, however, stand in full view along with their puppets and will hold conversations with their own sock puppets, using ventriloquism.

Sock puppets can be made from socks or stockings of any colour. Worn-out socks may be used, although socks that are too tattered may fall apart during performance, but socks are usually bought brand-new from the store in order to make sock puppets. Various additions can be glued on in order to give the sock a personality. Streamers and felt strings are popularly glued on for hair. Googly eyes (obtained from craft or fabric stores) are glued on for the puppet's eyes.

The process of making sock puppets is popularly taught as a creative activity in elementary schools. Many schools teach children to make sock puppets and then have the children put on shows or plays for the whole school with them, sometimes with all the sock puppets singing.

Uses

Sock puppets have many uses. They can be used in often elaborate puppet shows or children's plays, much as marionettes would be used. Sock puppets can also appear, like other puppets, on television shows. They can be used alone on the puppeteer's hand to entertain children, without a complex stage or show. Two orange sock puppets named "Fu" and "Fara" are used in teaching German children how to read.[1] People also make and display sock puppets for their own artistic value.

Perhaps the best known sock puppeteer was Shari Lewis and her well known puppets Lamb Chop, Charlie Horse and Hush Puppy.

Sock puppets have also appeared in advertising. During the late 1990s, the ecommerce company Pets.com used a "spokespuppet" along with the tagline "because pets can't drive" in its advertising to much critical acclaim. But while the puppet became a pop culture icon, it did not help the company sell enough products to survive the dot-com crash.[2]

As sock puppets appear friendly, non-threatening, and clearly non-human, therapists often have their patients speak to a sock puppet when they feel inhibited from speaking to the therapist.Template:Fact For the same reasons, and because oneself and one's sock puppet often feel like two different persons, one can speak through a sock puppet to express thoughts or facets of one's personality that one would not feel free to admit in person or fears would harm one's reputation were they actually said in one's own person. In an example of this, the American professional wrestler Mick Foley has used a sock puppet called Mr Socko as one of his signature weapons.

In the 1993 film Freaked, Bobcat Goldthwait plays Sockhead, a character who is a talking sock puppet.

The late 1990s MTV sock puppet show, Sifl and Olly, ran for two years and developed a cult following.

Sock puppets are the biggest fear of Homer Simpson, a character on the FOX TV show The Simpsons, as claimed on the show's 114th episode (in the sixth season).

Canadian music video network MuchMusic is the home of Ed the Sock. Ed is an intentionally gruff cigar-smoking sock puppet who has been a part of the MuchMusic line-up since the 1990s.

A 2001 episode of the BBC TV series Coupling "Jane and the Truth Snake", has Jane creating a pink sock puppet, called Jake the Snake, after losing her job and taking a cocktail of drugs, who always tells the truth and insults all her friends in quite appalling ways.

In 2003 the online bank Egg used the sock puppet as an amusing device to advertise their credit card, showing a diffident man trying to negotiate his way through potentially embarrassing situations, such as being ripped off by a menacing plumber on callout at his house, producing a puppet that proceeds to voice loudly and sarcastically his real sentiments.

Trivia

• The band Relient K asked fans to bring sock puppets to their shows.Template:Fact Their first music video begins with four sock puppets singing.

See also

• Sockpuppet (Internet)

External links

• Danielle's Place: Easy To Make Sock Puppets - Instructions on how to make a variety of different sock puppets