by Kris@WLP » Wed Oct 12, 2011 11:10 am
Maybe not -everybody- who guested on the Muppet Show knew about lycanthropes, but quite a few did.
Without giving everything away, here are some guidelines:
* Anybody with an animal nickname in the modern age is almost certainly NOT a werewolf, and further is unlikely to be told the secret. Wolfman Jack might well have been in on the secret, but if so it was from BEFORE his DJ persona took shape.
* Anybody incapable of keeping his mouth shut, or prone to verbal tics, slips, or malapropisms, is not going to be told the secret. VP Joe Biden, for example, is one of those in DC who knows nothing of lycanthropes. (If he became President he'd have to be told, but the Washington lycanthrope community hopes Obama stays REALLY healthy and safe...)
* Anybody who appears prone to use the secret to make a quick buck (or a quick million) is on the Do Not Tell list. Mark Hamill has been mentioned as someone who almost certainly knows the secret... George Lucas, not so much. (Although, as best I can recall, Lucas has never done anything with werewolves as such in it... it's possible he might BE one, and come into the secret that way...)
* Religious figures, and people with strongly and loudly stated religious beliefs, are EXTREMELY unlikely to be told the secret... although, in many cases, they might know already. The higher levels of the Vatican know, and disapprove of, weres. Most low-end Catholic priests don't know, and such priests will have to demonstrate a general objector status with the pontiff before any were will tell willingly. Protestants are a bit of a mixed bag, but generally speaking Lutherans, Mennonites, Pentecostals, fundamentalists and evangelicals are kept shut out; Anglicans/Episcopalians, Methodists, and Presbyterians are more likely to be trusted. In general, though, if a priest knows the secret, the odds are they're either a lycanthrope themselves- and the second most likely probability is they're associated with werewolf hunters.
And finally:
* Lycanthropes are a bit more likely to reveal themselves to people who, even if they blurted out the secret, will NEVER be believed by ANYBODY about ANYTHING they say. Note: this is not a guarantee. Also, part of "never be believed" includes making sure that the person in question will not seek out proof positive to defend his or her claims. Obsessives like Sarah's dad Arthur, for example, are absolutely O-U-T.
I can't think of anything offhand that disqualifies anyone on the Muppet Show guest list. Mark Hamill is a sentimental preference. Zero Mostel almost certainly knew; ditto Harry Belafonte. Spike Milligan and Marty Feldman were nuts enough that telling either of them the secret was no danger at all. I lean against Peter Sellers, though; although even less connected with reality than Milligan and Feldman, he was prone to violent fits and temper tantrums, and was very difficult to work with most other places- though word is he was a lamb on the Muppet Show set.
One other note: I am NOT saying Jim Henson was a were. I doubt it much. If he were, though, he would have been a werebear- one not so much antisocial as painfully, painfully shy, who used puppets to both insulate himself from and connect himself to the rest of the world. (Hal's not going down that road, by the way.)