 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Dr. Bunsen Honeydew" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(October 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| Dr. Bunsen Honeydew | |
|---|---|
| The Muppets character | |
 | |
| First appearance | The Muppet Show (episode 108)[1] |
| Created by | Jim Henson |
| Performed by | Dave Goelz (1976–present) |
| In-universe information | |
| Species | Muppet |
| Gender | Male |
| Title | Doctor (Ph.D.)[1] |
| Occupation | Scientist, inventor |
| Nationality | American |
Dr. Bunsen Honeydew is aMuppet character from thesketch comedy television seriesThe Muppet Show, created and performed byDave Goelz. He is a bald,yellow-green skinned, bespectacled, lab-coated scientist who presented periodicscience segments from "Muppet Labs, where the future is being made today." The character has no eyes, only completely transparent, lenslessglasses, giving the appearance of a stereotypicalabsent-minded intellectual. Bunsen's experiments usually cause great harm to his very nervous and long-suffering assistantBeaker, a nearly mute Muppet with a shock of reddish hair.[2]
Bunsen's first name is derived fromRobert Bunsen, after whom theBunsen burner was named. His last name is a reference to thehoneydew melon, which his head resembles, as well as toHoneywell Labs, a technology company which aired TV commercials ("That someday is today ... at Honeywell") well-known at the time ofThe Muppet Show.
Some of the inventions that were created and tested included: edible paper clips, all-purpose tenderizer, exploding hats, a gorilla detector, hair-growing tonic, a banana sharpener, a robot politician (played byPeter Ustinov), and an electric nose warmer. In response to the ancient quest ofalchemy toturn lead into gold, Honeydew created a device that turned gold into cottage cheese. However, his various inventions and experiments almost always malfunction or backfire with Beaker being the victim.
Dr. Bunsen Honeydew's moniker is derived from the traditional piece of lab equipment, theBunsen burner, plus the fact that his head was shaped and colored like ahoneydew melon. He was rumored to be modeled afterLew Grade, whose companyITC Entertainment producedThe Muppet Show. Henson responded in a Judy Harris interview:
Bunsen Honeydew was not specifically Lew Grade when we did him. It would have been easy to make him much more like Lew Grade if we had tried to and, in retrospect, I wish that we had. The character that owns the Muppet theatre only appeared a couple of times and I always — in looking back — wished that I had made that to look just like Lew Grade because he's very caricaturable.
Bunsen's performerDave Goelz took inspiration for Bunsen's myopic work style from colleagues he knew throughoutSilicon Valley while Goelz worked atHewlett-Packard.[3] One of his most endearing features is his lack of visible eyes, despite the fact that he wears glasses. Occasionally, Honeydew removes his glasses to clean them, or lifts them as if to get a better look at things, which is something of arunning gag. Bunsen's eyes have only been seen once, during a sequence inThe Great Muppet Caper. His appearance inMuppet Babies uses the shadow of his glasses' frames as a stand-in for eyes, which move to indicate his emotions, however the character model itself has no eyes.
Films where he appeared in major roles includeThe Muppet Movie (1979),The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992),Muppet Treasure Island (1996),Muppets from Space (1999),It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie (2002), andThe Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005) with Beaker. He also appeared in a small supporting role with Beaker inThe Great Muppet Caper (1981) andA Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa (2008), though inThe Muppets Take Manhattan (1984) Bunsen and Beaker only appeared as background characters in the wedding scene. A scene with them was deleted.[citation needed]
In the Halloween 2011 episode ofWWE Raw, Bunsen developed a specially formulatedenergy drink that provides strength, agility and fresher smelling breath to those who take it. He had Beaker go deliver it toSantino Marella for his match againstJack Swagger.[citation needed]
The duo appear in the 2011 feature filmThe Muppets, where they have been apparently working atCERN with theLarge Hadron Collider afterThe Muppet Show ended. Their big CERN scene was deleted, as well as a scene with a bowling ball, leaving them with a minor role in the film. Both Bunsen and Beaker appear in the follow-up feature filmMuppets Most Wanted (2014) with a substantially larger role than the previous film and are in a supporting role including a featured invention of theirs, a big bomb-attracter vest. Bunsen and Beaker also appear in the 2015 TV seriesThe Muppets, as the heads of the props and special effects department, and inMuppets Now as the hosts of "Muppet Labs Field Test".
Bunsen graduated from Carnegie Mellonhead University (a spoof ofCarnegie Mellon University) and was employed as an assistant to Dr. Pinhole Burns.[4] He is the founder of Muppet Labs.
Both scientists were later incorporated into theMuppet Babiesanimated series.Howie Mandel andDave Coulier voiced Bunsen, andFrank Welker providedBeaker's squeaky meeps. Bunsen made an appearance inLittle Muppet Monsters, voiced byBob Bergen. FollowingRichard Hunt's death in 1992, the role of Beaker was taken over bySteve Whitmire. Whitmire performed that role until 2016.
In a 2004 Internet poll sponsored by theBBC and theBritish Association for the Advancement of Science, Beaker and Dr. Bunsen Honeydew were voted Britain's favourite cinematic scientists. They beatMr. Spock, their closest rival, by a margin of 2 to 1 and won 33 percent of the 43,000 votes cast.
Dr. Bunsen Honeydew on Muppet Wiki
