Funny Boy

Whenever I read anything relating to the history of the Muppets, I always noticed that specially fond mention would always be given to Richard Hunt - who wasn’t only memorable for being one of the original core five puppeteers and for skillfully giving life to Scooter, Janice, Statler, Beaker, and many, many other characters. Short and scattered descriptions painted him as a figure whose infectious personality made him a much more treasured and appreciated figure when he was off camera (or to be more accurate, when he wasn’t performed beneath the camera frame). The more I read, and the more snippets I came across, the more that I genuinely wanted to know about this seemingly larger-than-life person who was one of the crew behind the affectionately anarchic bears and frogs and pigs that I adored so much. However, no matter how detailed the Muppet-centric book, there was always a hard limit to how much more I could learn about Hunt (along with his colleagues).

Such was the case at least until the arrival of “Funny Boy,” the new Richard Hunt biography by Jessica Max Stein. Written upon a foundation of God only knows how many interviews from an enormous cast of friends, family, and colleagues of Hunt, this book feels as intimate and detailed an overview of a single individual’s life as one can possibly get without having that person write their own tale. And it reveals a man who was everything he was hinted to be in all past Muppet-related works I’ve read, and also so, so, so much more. He was life of every party that he attended. A tireless entertainer. The man with the ability to befriend seemingly anyone. Mentor and collaborator to a generation of Muppet performers. A figure who was fiercely generous to a fault. An incredibly devoted sibling and son. The buoyant soul who faithfully kept up everyone’s spirits no matter where he was. In short, he’s shown to be an absolute force of life on multiple levels, and “Funny Boy” not only does his best to give him his proper due, but it also makes his premature departure from this world all the greater tragedy.

This labor of love from Stein is unquestionably the newest member of what I would consider to be the core Muppet nonfiction literary canon, joining the ranks of works like Brian Jay Jones’ “Jim Henson: a Biography” and Christopher Finch’s “Of Muppets and Men.” However, one doesn’t need to be a particularly zealous fan of the Muppets such as myself in order to thoroughly enjoy “Funny Boy.” It’s just an excellent biography in general, and other readers are sure to appreciate this wonderfully done telling of the life a man who burned so brightly and was able to touch so many both on and off the big and small screens.