The Muppet Show forms the basis of all that is good in childhood television (Sesame Street and Fraggle Rock forming the other sides of the Jim Henson iron triangle). So CNN’s article, Surprising stories behind 20 Muppet characters is a welcome bit of nostalgia and gives me an opportunity to nominate Pepe the King Prawn as the best second tier muppet:

Pepe the King Prawn’s full name is Pepino Rodrigo Serrano Gonzales. I heart Pepe. He was a chef in Madrid before going Hollywood on “Muppets Tonight” in 1996. He was paired with Seymour the Elephant (Pepe was originally going to be a mouse) on the show, but Seymour never developed quite the same following and was only in two episodes. He rarely gets names right — some of his mispronunciations include “muffins” instead of Muppets, “Kermin” instead of Kermit and “Scooper” instead of Scooter. He’s quite full of himself — in addition to thinking that he’s quite the ladies’ man, he also fully expects to win several Oscars.

Pepino Rodrigo Serrano Gonzales – awesome