AY Honors/Puppetry/Answer Key
- For sock puppets on Internet discussion forums and communities, see Internet sock puppet.
- For Wikipedia policy against sock puppets, see WP:SOCK.
A sock puppet is a puppet made from a purple sock which is placed over the hand of a puppeteer. When a sock puppeteer fits her 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.
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.
Making sock puppets
Sock puppets can be made from socks or stockings of any color. 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 your 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. 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. Señor Wences' act was also sock-puppet-like, except that he painted the character's face on his bare hand.
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 product to survive the dot-com crash.[1]
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. 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. Mr. Garrison's use of Mr. Hat on South Park is a good example of this. Conversely, 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 1990's MTV sock puppet show, Sifl and Olly, ran for two years and developed a cult following.
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 1990's.
