30 Day Writing Challenge: Day 25 - Puppet

OK.  Day 25 - "Think of any word. Search it on Google images. Write something inspired by the 11th image".  Holy crap.  I am clueless.  Sooo, when you are clueless where do you turn to...the Internet.  I found a Random Word Generator.  Pressed a few buttons and presto-wammo.  I got the word: 

Puppet

 

Puppet - a goddamn creepy child's toy that will give you an eternity of nightmares.

 

Here's my 11th puppet picture.  ->

 

Oh, happy, happy, joy, joy.  This is a daily double. 

Two clown marionette puppets. 

Double the fun (nightmares). 

Remember I don't like clowns.

 

What can we say about puppets that hasn't already been said in dozens of horror films?  A puppet is an inanimate object or representational figure animated or manipulated by a puppeteer. It is used in puppetry, which is a very ancient form of theatre. (Wikipedia)   Puppets and puppetry date back to Greek culture and writings in the 5th century B.C.  It's construction can be very complex or very simple.  The materials could be paper, fabric, wood, string or a host of other materials and inventive ideas.

 

There are several forms of puppets: 

1. Black light,  performers dressed in black, using black light to accentuate the puppet 
2. Bunraku , Japanese wood carvings with shamisen music
3. Carnival or body, just what it says, like Mardi Gras or Chinese New Year dragons.  The Jim Henson Company also has their version of these puppets called Full-Bodied Puppets.
4. Finger, self explanatory
5. Sock, self explanatory
6. Hand or glove, like Punch and Judy (I heard they finally divorced.  Domestic abuse or something.)
7. Human-arm, hand puppet times 2 (i.e. requires two puppeteers which means the sucker is big)
8. Light curtain, similar to black light except using white spot light on the puppet keeping the performers invisible
9. Marionette, the creepy stringed up bastards in the photo above
10. Marotte, simplified rod puppet that is just a head and/or body on a stick
11. Pull string, strings on rings that puppeteer pulls to make the dummy parts move
12. Push, dumbass novelty toy where you hold the base and press the button on the bottom and the puppet collapses and reforms when you leave go of the button...you make it dance.
13. Toy theatre, some cut-out on a stick, a 19th century children's form of entertainment
14. Rod, a puppet constructed around a central rod secured to the head. A large glove covers the rod and is attached to the neck of the puppet. A rod puppet is controlled by the puppeteer moving the metal rods attached to the hands of the puppet, any other limbs and by turning the central rod secured to the head.
15. Shadow, a cut-out figure held between a source of light and a translucent screen
16. Supermarionation, more sophisticated marionettes with special bells and whistles as seen on the TV show, Thunderbirds
17. Ticklebug, is your hand painted up and using 4 fingers as legs, etc.
18. Table top, puppet on a table operated from behind similar to Bunraku
19. Ventriloquism dummy, the most common and most audience accepted puppetry.  Some famous teams:  Shari Lewis and Lamb chop (her daughter has taken over since her death), Paul Winchell with Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff (pictured right) and Edgar Bergen with Charlie McCarthy and the latest offering, Jeff Dunham with a slew of dummies, his most popular and possibly most offensive, Achmed the Dead Terrorist.
20. Water, creepy Vietnamese art form performed in knee deep water
21. Object, using objects not necessarily puppets, like Señor Wences and hand dummy and head in the box. "S'awright?  S'awright."
22. Motekar, is like a Shadow puppet in the far east. 

As a child I have to admit I liked watching Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop and Paul Winchell's TV show.  I enjoyed and sat gape-mouthed watching Señor Wences on Ed Sullivan.  I even liked Ed's mouse puppet, Topo Gigio, a popular 1960s Spanish and Italian children's TV puppet/character.  Puppets and puppetry is still as popular (and creepy - just the clowns) as ever.  There's even a creative center for it in Atlanta.  Georgia has got everything.

 

I'll leave you with this little ditty.  I defy you to not laugh.  This is some funny shit!

 

 

 

Tomorrow same bat time, same bat channel!  Day 26 - "what I need to improve on".