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Consulting Mister Puppet
aka: Consulting Mr Flibble
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The H here stands for "Headcase"
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.
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.
Examples
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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. With Leomon's death, her subsequent spiral into depression, kidnapping and replacement by the D-Reaper, this gets twisted in a very messed-up manner: the puppet starts spouting much darker thoughts, and that's just the beginning...
Later, while she teeters on the edge of Despair Event Horizon , she also uses her hand puppet to try and strangle herself.
- 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
- In the Austin Powers films, Dr. Evil has moments of this with his Right-Hand Cat, Mr. Bigglesworth:
Dr. Evil: That makes me angry. And when Dr. Evil gets angry, Mr. Bigglesworth gets upset. And when Mr. Bigglesworth gets upset... people die!
- 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
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
Web Comics
- 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. Which was all really just Obfuscating Insanity on his part. 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.
Bunny-Dragon: This robot's an idiot. I think you should tell him he means delusion, not hallucination.
Bluey: You're an idiot, Barry! You mean delusion, not hallucination!
- C'est 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
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