El Paso Has An Official Page On The Muppets Wiki

There is a page on the official Muppet Wiki dedicated entirely to El Paso, Texas.

The Muppets, one of the most beloved and enduring creative forces in the history of American popular culture, have a documented canonical connection to the Sun City. It is small, it is goofy, and it is Gonzo.

Jim Henson Built Something That Will Outlast All of Us

Before we get to the sticker, it is worth pausing to appreciate what Jim Henson actually created. When The Muppet Show premiered in 1976, Henson pulled off something genuinely rare: he made a cast of monsters, weirdos, and oddballs that felt more human than most humans on television. Kermit the Frog was the anxious idealist holding the whole chaotic circus together. Miss Piggy was all ego and all heart at once. Fozzie Bear was the guy who keeps bombing but cannot stop trying. Animal was pure, unfiltered id behind a drum kit. Rowlf the Dog was the most laid-back, self-deprecating philosopher you ever met.

And then there was Gonzo.

Gonzo the Great, performed by puppeteer Dave Goelz since the mid-1970s, is classified in the Muppet universe simply as a "Whatever." His species is unknown, his origin is disputed, and his main artistic passion is performing dangerous stunts that audiences consistently hate. He is a blue-furred avant-garde daredevil in love with a chicken, and he is completely at peace with all of it. Author Christopher Finch described Animal as "the ultimate representation of unbridled appetite," but Gonzo might be the ultimate representation of something even rarer: the outsider who never stops being exactly, unapologetically himself.

Henson reached 235 million viewers in more than 100 countries at the height of The Muppet Show's run. He won five Grammy Awards and multiple Emmys. He passed away in 1990 at just 53 years old, but the characters he built are still walking around out there, being weird and funny and full of heart in new projects decades later. That is a legacy.

The Winter of 1986 and a Cowboy Hat Sticker

Now. The El Paso part.

Muppet Magazine was a full-color quarterly publication that ran from 1983 to 1989, replacing the Henson Company's official fan newsletter. Each issue featured celebrity interviews, original comic stories, character columns, and the kind of deeply committed Muppet-universe world-building that only existed in the era before the internet made everything instantly available.

In the Winter 1986 issue, Volume 4, Number 1, there is a story called "The Cosby Kids and Gonzo in a Holiday Homecoming Tale." The premise is that Gonzo runs away from the magazine itself to go spend the holidays with the Cosby Kids. He is eventually found freezing in the snow, having clearly been on a journey. His luggage is covered in travel stickers from the places he has been.

One of those stickers is from El Paso, Texas.

The sticker is shaped like a cowboy hat, and it comes from the El Paso Chamber of Commerce. It reads "Sunshine Playground of the Border," a slogan that the Chamber used from the mid-1930s through at least 1975, with the sticker design itself dating back to the 1930s or 1940s. Which means somewhere in Gonzo's canonical travel history, he swung through El Paso, picked up a Chamber of Commerce cowboy hat sticker, and stuck it on his luggage as a keepsake.

Gonzo has been to England. He has been to space. He narrated A Christmas Carol as Charles Dickens. He became a plumbing magnate. And at some point, he made it to the 915.

This Is Very On-Brand for Both Parties

Think about it for a second. Of all the Muppets to have an El Paso connection, Gonzo is the correct one. A creature of undefined species with a passion for absurdist performance art and a genuine indifference to whether anyone else understands him sounds like he would fit right in at a First Fridays on the Plaza or an open mic on a Tuesday night. El Paso has always had a soft spot for the weird and the genuine, for the thing that does not quite fit any easy category but shows up anyway and does its own thing with full commitment.

Gonzo's whole deal is that he has never fit the label, and he has never needed to. He walks past the "Men" and "Women" bathroom doors and goes through the one marked "Whatever." He gets shipped to England in a crate that just says "Whatever." He is whatever, and whatever is enough. There is something about that energy that feels deeply compatible with a border city that has spent its entire existence being told it is too this and not enough that, and continues to not care.

The Sun City made it onto Gonzo's luggage. That is canon.

The Muppet Wiki Has an El Paso Page and That Is a Fact You Can Tell People

The Muppet Wiki's El Paso entry documents the cowboy hat sticker story alongside other El Paso claims to fame, including the city being the birthplace of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and the filming location of Manos: The Hands of Fate, the legendary bad movie that Mystery Science Theater 3000 made famous. El Paso keeps excellent company in the annals of pop culture footnotes.

So the next time someone asks you what El Paso's connection to the Muppets is, you tell them: Gonzo the Great, a blue whatever of indeterminate origin and extraordinary artistic ambition, once passed through the Sunshine Playground of the Border and thought enough of it to carry a piece of it with him on his travels.

That is enough. That is more than enough. That is very Gonzo.

The Most Famous People You Didn't Know Were El Pasoans

These are just a few of the most famous El Pasoans to grace the earth. Some of them, like Alan Tudyk, have played so many famous characters, its crazy that we could ever forget they were El Paso born!

Gallery Credit: Grizz

Throwback: Bad Bunny in El Paso, Texas

Before the Grammys and the Super Bowl, Bad Bunny played El Paso venues. Remember when he was just warming up for what would become a historic global rise?

Gallery Credit: Courtesy: Jorge Salgado

The Geeks Guide To El Paso: All Star Comics & Toys

All Star Comics & Toys in Central El Paso is a staple of the geek community! Here for almost 40 years, this is a must visit for any vintage toy and comic collector in the Sun City!

Gallery Credit: Grizz