Fat Blue

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Fat Blue

Fat Blue waiting at Charlie's Restaurant

First appearance	1969 (Fat Blue) 1972 (Mr. Johnson)
Gender	Male
Created by	Jerry Nelson
Voiced by	Jerry Nelson
Portrayed by	Jim Henson (1969 - 1970) Jerry Nelson (1970 - Present) David Rudman (1998)
Also known as	Fred Johnson Ed Binky Mr. Blue Mr. Blueman Mr.Starr Mr.Smith Uncle Jay Sir

Fat Blue is a character in the children's television show Sesame Street. Fat Blue is mostly seen as a customer at Charlie's Restaurant. The character during the first season was performed by Jim Henson (1969 - 1970). The character for a short time was performed by David Rudman for Elmo in Grouchland in 1999, and is now mainly performed by Jerry Nelson on Sesame Street (1970 - Present)^{[citation needed]}. Fat Blue is also referred to as either Mr. Johnson or Fred Johnson and often as Sir by Grover.

[edit] Synopsis

Fat Blue (left) with Grover, in A Celebration of Me, Grover

In the restaurant skits, Mr. Johnson goes to Charlie's, which is a table service restaurant he visits on a regular basis. Johnson is impatient and in a rush, and has no time to wait while Grover, a waiter, torments him with his antics and mistakes. Johnson is eventually turned into the angry victim. Skits typically end with Johnson either walking away in a huff or fainting. Despite the fact that Grover ruins his dining experiences, Johnson always returns to the restaurant. Other skits end in similar fashion, with Johnson walking in a huff, getting hurt or fainting.

Other sequences with Grover/Johnson interaction include skits on a plane, at the airport, in a telegram office, at a rental car agency, at fast food or other types of restaurants, at the movies, at a portrait studio, at the baseball game, in a department store, as a food vendor, as a fitness gym trainer, at a department store, as a salesman, in an art gallery, framing work, and in a taxi.

In two other skits, Mr. Johnson attends the park with Grover showing up to annoy him, one skit wanting to lunch by himself, another one wanting two long hot dogs or two short hot dogs. Attending the Birdland concert, and also nightclub getting pestured by a band called the Squirrel Nut Zippers singing Put a Lid On It.

Several skits also take place in Mr. Johnson's apartment at 14 Sesame Street, where Grover is involved in delivering singing telegrams, also with Elmo, selling wigs, delivering pizza, doing home renovation on Johnson's new house, or other door-to-door activities. In most cases, as with the restaurant skits, Johnson ends up fainting.

Mr. Johnson's brothers are actually named Simon The Soundman and Uncle Louie, two other Muppets patterned after the "Fat Blue" type. Soundman and Louie were also puppeteered by Jerry Nelson. Mr. Johnson also has a nephew named Charlie, patterned after the "Hot Pink" type. Charlie is puppeteered by Frank Oz.^{[citation needed]}

Little is known of Mr. Johnson's actual personal, and private life other than what is known, that he is actually married, has two children, and that his mother still lives in Chicago, Illinois.

In the series itself, the character come to be referred to as "Mr. Johnson", "Sir", and "Fred" (and once Mr. Smith, Mr. Starr, Ed, Binky, Uncle Jay, Mr. Blueman, and Mr. Blue). However the name "Fat Blue" was adopted earlier by the fan community based on the multipurpose Muppet Workshop pattern used to create him due to his unknown name at the time. Mr. Johnson often resembles actors like Dennis Franz, Macon McCalman, James Cromwell, Rob Reiner, Fred Berry, Michael Lerner, and Robert Loggia.