Consulting Mister Puppet



"Tabitha: Penny, is there anyone else in this hangar?

Penny: Hold on! Let Penny ask Mr. Bear! ... ... ... ... Mr. Bear says no! Mr. Bear says we are all alone. ...He also hates you."

- Advance Wars: Days of Ruin

A character who never goes anywhere without his Hand Puppet pal or his Companion Cube, Imaginary Friend or pet. Not only does the puppet keep him company, but he also gives good advice, which his owner trusts, perhaps to the point that he never seems to make a decision of his own.

At least, this is what he tells everybody. Nobody else has ever heard the puppet speak, and his friends will be inclined to think that it's all in his head. Especially if the puppet's opinion always seems to boil down to, "We should do what I want but I'm not confident enough to recommend on my authority."

It's remarkable how often the puppet will be called Mr. Something. The puppet may have urges or ideas that the character denies having themselves. This way they can literally keep the urges at arm's length, even if they act on them.

This trope can overlap with Ventriloquism -- if it is blatantly obvious that anything the puppet says is actually being said by the character. If a pet speaks, it is usually an independent character: a Talking Animal. Simiarly, if the puppet is alive see Perverse Puppet, Demonic Dummy, etc. See also Caligula's Horse, where pets are appointed to positions of authority.

Anime & Manga

 * Best Student Council: The other members of the Council think that Rino is doing this with Pucchan, a hand puppet, early on in the series.
 * Ayame from Wandaba Style often asks "Mr. Fairy," magical creatures only she can see, what they think, and will occasionally attribute a comment she made to them: "I was only saying what Mr. Fairy told me," "Mr. Fairy thinks so, too," etc.
 * The little girl in Maria-sama ga Miteru whose best friend is the teddy bear almost as large as she is.
 * In Digimon Tamers, Juri Katou has an unnamed hand puppet which she regularly uses to talk in her stead and express her opinions, as some sort of defence mechanism.

Later,
 * Maria and Sakutaro, from Umineko no Naku Koro Ni, used to be like this before Rosa tore Sakutaro in half.
 * Kagari does this in the first episode of the Black Rock Shooter TV anime.

Comics -- Books

 * Black Panther: The villain Achebe and his hand puppet Daki.
 * DC Comics has the Batman villain "team" The Ventriloquist and Scarface, not to mention a small handful of backup puppets in case Scarface goes missing. Sadly, the secondary puppets don't really get along...

Fan Works

 * Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series
 * Mako Tsunami is obsessed with the ocean and eventually asks it to marry him. "The ocean says yes."
 * The ocean spoke back.
 * Arguably, Kemo. He never states his opinion or intentions; he states the opinions or intentions of his Anime Hair.
 * Rebecca Hawkins also calls on the opinion of her evil teddy bear. May be a borderline example, since even though it only tends to spit phrases like "Hail Satan!" she seems to think it offers worthwhile conversational input.

Film -- Live-Action
"Dr. Evil: That makes me angry. And when Dr. Evil gets angry, Mr. Bigglesworth gets upset. And when Mr. Bigglesworth gets upset... people die!"
 * In the Austin Powers films, Dr. Evil has moments of this with his Right-Hand-Cat, Mr. Bigglesworth:


 * Danny from The Shining has Tony, "the little boy who lives in [his] mouth."
 * Squire Trelawney (played by Fozzie Bear) in Muppet Treasure Island relies implicitly on the judgment of Mr. Bimbo, a tiny man who lives in his finger.

Literature

 * In the Discworld novel Making Money, Moist von Lipwig is given responsibility for a small dog named Mr. Fusspot, who has just inherited the Bank of Ankh-Morpork. This makes Moist the de facto man in charge of the Bank, as long as he's careful to specify that he's only acting on Mr. Fusspot's behalf. (Unlike most examples, Moist is entirely grounded and knows perfectly well that the ideas he's attributing to Mr. Fusspot are his own -- but for the system to work, he has to keep the people around him guessing.)
 * In the Kate Shugak novel A Deeper Sleep by Dana Stabenow, one of the suspects (a victim of fetal alcohol syndrome) keeps talking the Darth Vader action figure he carries in his top pocket.
 * In More Information Than You Require, the author talks about adopting a gambling persona, and gives an example of a guy who plays poker in character as a Crazy Homeless Person who lives in a hollow tree in Burt Reynolds' yard. He consults his German Shepherd, Wolfie, on all of his wagers, often having full conversations and shouting matches with the dog, at which point he says, "I'm sorry, my dog is a jerk hole!" makes a bet, and vomits on himself. This strategy manages to baffle experienced poker players.

Live-Action TV
"Rimmer: Mr. Flibble's very cross. You shouldn't have run away from him. What are we going to do with them, Mr. Flibble?
 * Red Dwarf, in the episode "Quarantine". Rimmer becomes deranged after contracting a holovirus, and starts associating with a penguin Hand Puppet called Mr. Flibble, who was the former trope namer.

(Mr. Flibble appears to whisper in Rimmer's ear)

Rimmer: We can't possibly do that! Who would clear up the mess?"


 * In an episode of MacGyver, an crazy old woman witnessed a murder, but acted like her pet parakeet was the only one who saw it. They brought her into court and asked her what the bird knew.
 * Margaret Lanterman, the "Log Lady", in Twin Peaks. She carried around a log and claimed it communicated with her.
 * Stephen Colbert. "What's that? What's that, Sweetness?" Sweetness is his Companion Cube gun. "Oh, no, we need him to run the camera." Notably, the ear that Sweetness always "speaks" into is deaf. Colbert seems not to notice.
 * In at least one episode of Jack of All Trades, the Governor was treating a cow hand puppet named "Mr. Nipples" in this manner.
 * Jane in Coupling after taking a couple of random tablets that she thought might have been headache pills before auditioning to be a children's show presenter with a sock puppet called "Jake the Snake".
 * Robbie and his hand puppet, Rex, on Victorious.
 * Sledge Hammer: Sledge likes to talk to his gun, especially when excited.
 * Murdock of The A-Team sometimes converses with a sock puppet. Another great way of annoying B.A.
 * An episode of Murder She Wrote featured a ventriloquist who was so shy off stage he let the dummy do all his talking. Which was a problem when he faked the dummy's theft to avoid going to Vegas, and was promptly framed for murder.
 * Similarly, in the Jim Henson sitcom pilot Puppetman, the snarky puppet on a kids' TV show got more insulting towards the human host when the cameras weren't rolling, although the puppeteer (played by Richard Hunt) wouldn't dream of expressing such opinions himself. In fact, when the puppeteer tries to make peace with the host, the puppet calls him out for his hypocrisy.
 * On Mock the Week -- "The Worst Person to be Married To" -- Russell Howard may love you, but his hand wants you to "DIE, BITCH!!"
 * In Arrested Development, GOB has Franklin, a black puppet with some pretty serious issues. Disturbingly, Franklin's slurs get even more off-color when Buster gets a hold of him.
 * Two episodes of The Fall Guy featured Ozzie (played by Buddy Hackett), a Too Dumb to Live Cloudcuckoolander homeless man who had an invisible friend named Harold.

Pro Wrestling

 * Al Snow's most famous gimmick was with a mannequin's head called, simply, Head. The gimmick started when Mick Foley told him that to get ahead in the wrestling business, he had to get a little head (a metaphor for sleeping your way to the top). Snow, being a little touched (story-wise), took it literally. The Double Entendre was not lost on the crowd...or the theme song writers.
 * Perry Saturn later adopted a similar gimmick, but with a mop named "Moppy".
 * Also, Foley himself had Mr. Socko, though the degree to which he gave the sock an independent personality varied somewhat.

Puppet Shows

 * Zoe from Sesame Street has a pet rock, creatively named Rocco, and she has been known to announce Rocco's opinion on whatever's happening.
 * The Sooty Show: A saner version is Sooty. As The Voiceless, he could only communicate by whispering into the ear of his puppeteer human friend.
 * Ventriloquist Nina Conti is often accused of this by her cynical monkey puppet, Monk. When he isn't accusing her of wasting her life learning ventriloquism.

Video Games
"Minsc: Minsc will lead with blade and boot! Boo will take care of the details."
 * Minsc from the Baldurs Gate series, and his miniature giant space hamster Boo.


 * "What? Boo is outraged! See his fury! It's small, so look close. Trust me, it's there."
 * "Go for the eyes, Boo, GO FOR THE EYES!"
 * Penny/Lili from the U.S. version of Advance Wars: Days of Ruin, and "Mr. Bear".
 * Team Fortress 2: The Heavy apparently think Sandvich is sentient ("What was that, Sandvich? 'Kill them all'? Good idea! Hahaha!"); furthermore, Fanon posits that the Soldier takes advice from his Shovel.
 * The Soldier takes advice from a lot of things. He needs multiple viewpoints for a balanced assessment.
 * There are several misc items that can be used for this trope, such as a teddy bear for the engineer.
 * Doug Rattman from Portal hallucinates his Companion Cube talking to him, and follows its advice. Oddly enough it works, with him failing to navigate a turret-chamber only when he takes his medication and the Cube stops talking.
 * A minor example: Moose from Tales of Monkey Island will vote whichever way Santino votes when making decisions as part of the Democratically United Brotherhood of the Manatee Interior. (Just... don't ask.) Santino is a skeleton and has apparently been dead for some time.
 * One of the Nightkin on Fallout New Vegas will regularly ask Antler, a brahmin skull, for advice.
 * Appears in the Penny Arcade story "One Man and a Crate of Puppets".
 * Wentos the Traveling Salesman from Sonic Unleashed has a Chao puppet that encourages him to talk to people and overcome his shyness, as well as giving him advice on how to interact with others.
 * Big Steve in Magical Diary will start doing this if you give him a rabbit plushie.
 * Carl Clover in Blaz Blue does this with Nirava/Ada, his puppet.
 * His glasses allow him to talk to other things, too. Like mailboxes.
 * Subverted in Psychonauts with Even Raz is surprised.

Web Comics
"Bunny-Dragon: This robot's an idiot. I think you should tell him he means delusion, not hallucination.
 * The Order of the Stick
 * Cloudcuckoolander Elan worships Banjo, his own hand puppet, as his god. Despite it just being an ordinary puppet that Elan made, the nature of the D&D-based world means his worship turned it into a real god (though a very weak one, since it only has one worshiper).
 * Lord Shojo defers to his cat, Mr. Scruffy. Belkar treats Mr. Scruffy somewhat the same way, though to a much lesser extent, considering the cat his partner in crime.
 * Dragon Tails has Bluey and his companion the bunny-dragon.

Bluey: You're an idiot, Barry! You mean delusion, not hallucination!"


 * Cest La Vie: The relationship between Mona and her childhood stuffed rabbit doll, Monsieur Smokey. Mona also used to talk to a potted plant called Carl.
 * Schlock Mercenary had a palace gardener who tried to "commune with the soil". Schlock who was sent to help him didn't like his attitude, so he "talked" with the soil in question... and then with his shovel.

Western Animation
"Max: Well? Baudelaire?... say something!"
 * Maxwell Madison Jr. in Phantom 2040 never goes anywhere without his cat, Baudelaire, and never expresses an opinion without prefixing it with "Baudelaire says..." After Max manages to do an Epic Fail trapping all his family in Cyberville, they ask him What Were You Thinking?? His response is to look at Baudelaire and say:


 * Puff the Magic Dragon: In the 1982 special Puff and the Incredible Mr. Nobody, a gifted child is persecuted by peers and authority figures alike for his excessive creativity, so he starts attributing his output to his imaginary friend. He eventually comes to believe that all his talent is due to his friend's presence.
 * South Park
 * Mr. Garrison has his hand puppet Mr. Hat in early seasons. And, after Mr. Hat went missing, Mr. Twig. Particularly interesting since Garrison actually talked through the puppet, yet was still apparently oblivious to the fact that he was arguing with himself, though Mr. Hat seems quite capable of independent mobility. He even kicked Mr. Mackey's butt.
 * One episode had Cartman's hand seemingly develop an independent personality called "Jennifer Lopez" (but not the Jennifer Lopez), which Cartman would provide the voice for by speaking in a high pitched manner. For most of the story it was left ambiguous whether he was just faking it, had gone completely insane, or was undergoing some sort of genuinely supernatural event. Kyle insists it's all a joke, but at the end acknowledges that enough weird occurances have happened to them that it's possible Jennifer is real..
 * Johnny from Ed, Edd n Eddy, whose friend Plank may or may not be sentient.
 * In The Venture Brothers, Phantom Limb's Revenge Society consists of a single high heel, a toaster, and a coffee mug.
 * Darkwing Duck: Quackerjack carries around a little banana-headed doll he calls Mr. Banana Brain. He routinely asks it for advice or holds conversations with it when he's bored. Normally he provides Mr. Banana Brain's part of the conversation as well, but when the doll gets possessed and starts talking on its own, all he notices is that Mr. Banana Brain has a deeper voice all of a sudden. And he's learned to fly.
 * The Human Ton in The Tick had Handy, a crude hand puppet. Handy is an interesting case, because while he's clearly autonomous, he can't use a wishing machine because he's not a real person, and goes inert when he's not on someone's hand. Ton also screams and collapses without his puppet.
 * Rugrats
 * The It's a Wonderful Plot episode has Chuckie's dad turn into a shut-in who talks to a sock puppet as a result of being lonely without his son. This is what makes Chuckie realize he really is needed.
 * Angelica sometimes uses her doll Cynthia this way. The show doesn't stay consistent on whether she realises it's just a non-sentient toy or not.
 * In Wakfu season 1 episode 7, a crazy old Sadida is seen talking to a pet rock ("Monsieur Caillou" in the original French).
 * Played for Laughs in an episode of The Oblongs. Beth gets taken to a therapist because of her recent unusual behavior. She picks up a doll and uses it to say exactly what's bothering her and why she's acting clingy, but the therapist angrily says nobody cares about the stupid doll, they want to know what's wrong with Beth.