For a frog who was born in a swamp alongside a few thousand siblings, Kermit has certainly come a long way. Today, no frog is more famous, no amphibian more celebrated. As Kermit himself put it, “I’ve had a pretty extraordinary life so far. I've met kings, queens, presidents, and pigs. I've worked with some of the greatest talents of all time — from Bob Hope and Rudolph Nureyev to Quentin Tarantino and Robert De Niro.”
Of course, Muppets creator Jim Henson had a hand — quite literally — in Kermit’s rise to fame. Henson introduced Kermit in 1955 on the sketch comedy show Sam and Friends, but it was only in 1969 that Kermit began to achieve more widespread celebrity, thanks to a fledgling show called Sesame Street. Kermit’s first job was as a news reporter. Then he became a producer on The Muppet Show, a fictitious show-within-a-show in which Kermit was often flustered by the likes of Fozzie Bear, Gonzo, and the karate-chopping diva Miss Piggy — with whom Kermit has had a well-publicized on-off relationship.
It hasn’t all been smooth sailing for the lovable frog — as Kermit famously said, “It’s not easy being green.” Being a shy, awkward, but endlessly kind frog, Kermit (whose personality has often been compared to that of Henson) sometimes finds it difficult to cope with his fellow Muppets, most of whom are, to put it mildly, rather eccentric. Still, Kermit will do anything to help his friends. He’s always on hand with sound advice and words of encouragement, as the following quotes show.
Just because you haven't found your talent yet, doesn't mean you don't have one.
Well, I’ve got a dream too, but it's about singing and dancing and making people happy. The kind of dream that gets better the more people you share it with. And well, I’ve found a whole bunch of friends who have the same dream, and that kind of makes us like a family.
Life’s like a movie. Write your own ending.
There’s one other thing that I think every person or frog needs to be creative: friends. For me, the best part of creativity is collaborating with friends and colleagues. Mine happen to be bears, pigs, rats, and penguins, but you go with what works for you.
Here’s some simple advice. Always be yourself. Never take yourself too seriously. And beware of advice from experts, pigs, and members of Parliament.
With good friends, you can’t lose.
When you decide what your Big Dream is, you’ll be bursting with enthusiasm and want to share it with everybody … Most everybody will give you one of those “OK, that’s nice, now please pass the ketchup” looks. Some will scoff, suggesting that whatever your Big Dream is, it’s too big for you. And a select few will whisper words of encouragement. My advice is this: Pass the ketchup. Ignore the scoffers. And remember those words of encouragement ’cause they’re the only ones that matter.
Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection. The lovers, the dreamers, and me.
Me? In love with a pig? Wait till I tell the guys in marketing.
As we say in the wetlands, “Ribbit-ribbit-kneedeep-ribbit,” which means “May success and a smile always be yours … even when you’re knee-deep in the sticky muck of life.”
If we failed, we failed together and to me that’s not failing at all. And I don’t care what anybody says, I don’t care if no one believes in us because … I believe. I believe in you.
I believe creativity is an inherent part of everyone … So, never worry about failure. It’s gonna happen. But that’s OK: Go ahead, take chances … and you might just find that what feels like failure isn’t failure at all, it’s what inspires you to dream even bigger.
Take a look above you, discover the view. If you haven’t noticed, please do. Please do.
When we pull together, we can do anything.
All those people had one thing in common, folks. They didn’t wait to know where they were going before they started their journey. They each had what Jim Henson liked to call “ridiculous optimism.” Without that, we wouldn’t have this amazing world we live in.
When green is all there is to be, it could make you wonder why. But why wonder, why wonder? I am green, and it’ll do fine. It's beautiful, and I think it’s what I want to be.
Featured image credit: Maximum Film/ Alamy Stock Photo
