Muppet of the Fortnight: Sweetums

As per a friend's request, today's MotF is Sweetums.

[ignore the little frog, though, I hate that guy...future blog post to explain why?]

Sweetums is the greatest.  Sweetums for president.  All hail Sweetums.  Glory be to Sweetums.

If it ain't abundantly clear, I love me some Sweetums.

[and so do all these hot babes]

"Why do you love you some Sweetums, good sir?', you ask? 
Well, thank you for asking.  I shall answer with a god-awful poem:

O Sweetums, 

great lumbering brute, 

big shaggy ogre,

man in a suit?

Full-body Muppets

they sure are neat

they seem alive

as they walk down the street.

You look like a monster

but are gentle and shy

it was your looks 

that first caught my eye

but then your character

I began to see

and it was these factors

that endeared you to me.

[Your face says it all, big guy...]

Well, that lived up to its billing.  Bleh.

Right, so Sweetums is a seven-foot tall ogre who is also bashful, clumsy, a bit simple, and often hilarious.  My earliest memory of him, if I have my memories straight (I probably don't, memory is a dodgy thing) is a picture in a book.  Similarly to my Frazzle story, I had a Muppet book of some sort as a kid, I knew all the other familiar friendly faces, and then there was this one page...

This is where I'd post a picture of the page if I could find it.  Instead, here's Sweetums busting through a wall like a boss:

[OH YEAH!]

It was just Sweetums eating a bowl of soup.  But again, like Frazzle, he grabbed my attention, he stood out, and scared wee tiny me just a bit.  Filling the page, he seemed massive, I'd never seen a Muppet with such size.  He was this gigantic, rag-clad, shaggy monster with a face unlike any other Muppet.  Animal may have similar features but he also has this seemingly crazed grin on his face.  Sweetums, on the other hand, looked gruff and threatening, at least in this image. 

I would assume my next exposure to the big guy was The Muppet Movie which would add depth to my interest as I was able to see that no, this big scary monster was not really scary but in fact, quite lovable and dare I say charming.

It's odd that Sweetums wasn't really my favorite Muppet until more recently.  I didn't grow up loving him as much as I do now which I find rather strange in retrospect.  He's everything I should have loved and for some reason, it was only in the last ten years or so that I really started digging him.  I would chalk that up to him being more of a second-tier character, often in the background or only having a line or so, someone easily overlooked...and yet, that's also something that draws me towards other characters.  I tend not to go for the most popular folks, this is what kept me from liking Kermit for the longest time.  On top of that, I always like the misunderstood monsters like Frankenstein's monster, Quasimodo, X-Men's Beast (I do believe I'm repeating myself from my Animal post here) and Sweetums absolutely fits right into a group like that.  I should have been over the moon for this guy as a kid and thinking back, I can remember kind of liking him but that was about it.  Truthfully, though, my overall Muppet fandom and appreciation for the franchise and its characters has amplified quite significantly in that same time frame as my fandom for Sweetums specifically.  So I guess it might just be a case of "I got older, wiser, and more into this stuff" and thus was willing and able to assess the various characters from a different perspective and evaluate my favorite on more mature terms?
But you know, also HE'S A BIG OL' GIANT FURRY MONSTER DUDE.

Another cool thing about Sweetums is that he's a full-body Muppet.  He can be shown head to toe, he can walk around, he can dance, he's got a freedom that lends to a realism that isn't so easy to afford to other characters.  You can suspend your disbelief that much easier when he's walking around like you or me.  In fact, he appears in the theater during the Disneyworld Muppets 3D show, which I have attended and therefore, I can say I've seen him in person.

What I consider to be Sweetums' best moment is likely something few people have really seen.  It's not from one of the movies or The Muppet Show, it's from a digital Muppisode on youtube and Sweetums steals the show and I think, steals the scenes from Gordon effin' Ramsey of all people:

What else can I say?  I want to hug the big bastard and then go play soccer with him at the park and I don't even like sports.  I...
I think I might be in love.
I think I might be in love with Sweetums. 
I mean, I'm thinking of us spending time together and I can't stop smiling.  I'm thinking of us canoeing at sunset and cuddling on the couch.  I'm thinking of skipping through a field, hand in hand, and feeding each other grapes.  I can see us playfully wrestling in the long grass before we roll under a tree and I find myself brushing back his shaggy locks as he holds me close.  I can see a beautiful future together, I can see a happy future, I can see us growing old together...

...I, uh, think I opened up just a little too much there.
*ahem*
So, right, this was my blog about Sweetums who is probably my favorite Muppet because he is pretty great and stuff.  Hope you liked it.  

If you've got a Muppet in mind that you want me to ramble about, sound off all ten of you that read these MotF posts.

Close us out, Sweetums...

Good lord, I love him so...