Who’s Pulling His Strings Today?

Everything has its own class system, and where there is a class system there is going to be a struggle. Take puppet wranglers for instance, not to be confused with puppeteers, they sit at the very bottom of the puppeteering world.

Puppet wrangling is an on-set position unique to Henson and Henson-adjacent companies like Sesame Workshop and the Muppets. It is a highly specific subspecialty that requires a varied set of skills, not the least of which is knowing how to build and repair puppets. There are only about 25 people in the world who work as full-time wranglers — and they are currently seeking union representation, something that has eluded them since the job first emerged with the rise of Sesame Street and The Muppet Show in the late 1970s. – THR

Wranglers are considered craftspeople, as opposed to  the puppeteers who work the puppets and are presumed to be the ‘talent’ and hence members of the elite SAG-AFTRA puppeteers union. The ‘talent’ doesn’t want the riff-raff craftsmen in their union. The puppet wranglers claim they are treated as an underclass, subject to abuse and unsafe conditions:

Buckets of dangerous flammable polyester resin, the stuff puppets are made of, in the Henson Creature Workshop.

The lowly wrangler is a puppet builder who works on set.

“You’re the talent coordinator for a puppet, basically,” says Rachel Burson, a wrangler herself, “You make sure the puppet’s in the right outfit, holding any props that they need to be holding and rigged to do any specialty moves.” 

Puppeteers sit at the top of the puppetry ecosystem; they are the ones who  “flap their hands around and make funny voices and are told they are the talent.”

“If a puppet breaks — which they frequently do — they toss them to us and tell us to fix it.”

Wrangles seek membership in the SAG-AFTRA puppeteers union, but the puppeteers want nothing to do with these “lesser” creatures. They suggest they recognize their place in the order of things and join the IATSE’s (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees) props union, Local 44 (the same union responsible for putting a live bullet in poor Alec Baldwin’s prop gun).

I don’t know which union puppet wranglers belong in but I do understand that both unions, along with the unaffiliated ABPM (American Brotherhood of Puppet Masters) have filed suit to force all members of Joe Biden’s administration to join their ranks.

They certainly make a compelling case.

At any time you don’t know who’s pulling his strings or who has their hand up his butt, but you do know for a fact somebody does.