Rizzo the Rat | |
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The Muppets character | |
![]() Rizzo in Little Green Lie episode of The Muppets | |
First appearance | The Muppet Show (episode 418; 1980) [1] |
Created by | Steve Whitmire Jim Henson |
Voiced by | Ben Diskin ( Muppet Babies ) |
Performed by | Steve Whitmire (1980–2016) |
In-universe information | |
Species | Muppet rat |
Gender | Male |
Nationality | American |
Rizzo the Rat is a Muppet character from the sketch comedy television series The Muppet Show , created and originally performed by Steve Whitmire until 2016.
He is a fictional rat who appeared on The Muppet Show and numerous films, with a starring role in the 1992 film The Muppet Christmas Carol .
The character is particularly associated with Gonzo the Great, with the two sharing a double act since 1992. Whitmire based the character on Ratso Rizzo in Midnight Cowboy .
Rizzo is a streetwise and sarcastic rat with a New Jersey accent. [2] He is a self-proclaimed acrophobe. [3] His humor can be risqué, as in the TV series The Muppets where he was given the line, "Is ABC going to be OK with 'Mother Teresa on a stick'?" To avoid potential difficulty with real-life censors, alternative lines were filmed. [4]
Rizzo's family has been mentioned in Muppet media. He has 1,274 brothers and sisters, as told to Gonzo in The Muppet Christmas Carol . In 2016, Disney claimed that Rizzo came from a family of pizza makers as part of the backstory of the new PizzeRizzo restaurant at Disney's Hollywood Studios. [5] [6]
Rizzo's name is derived from Dustin Hoffman's Ratso Rizzo character in Midnight Cowboy . [7] Steve Whitmire created the character, [8] based on rats he had previously made out of bottles. [7]
Rizzo first appeared in episode 48 of The Muppet Show , as one of many rats following Christopher Reeve backstage. [7] He can be seen mugging and reacting to practically every line of dialogue. He remained a scene-stealing background figure through the final season, occasionally performing with Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem. [7] By the time of The Muppet Christmas Carol, Whitmire had been performing Rizzo for around 12 years. [8]
After the series, he appeared in The Great Muppet Caper as a bellboy in a fleabag London hotel. He has appeared in most later Muppet projects, including The Muppets Take Manhattan [9] and Muppets Tonight . In The Muppet Christmas Carol, he developed a double act with Gonzo, [10] with director Brian Henson and the crew envisioning Rizzo as "pain-in-the-neck sidekick." [8] The characters narrate, break the fourth wall, and Rizzo challenges Gonzo's claims to be Charles Dickens. [11] The Gonzo and Rizzo partnership was continued in Muppet Treasure Island , with Rizzo again offering a humorous critique of the handling of the story, [12] and in Muppets from Space . Along with Kermit and Gonzo, Rizzo gave an audio commentary for the Muppets from Space DVD. [13]
Rizzo appears as a background character in the 2011 film The Muppets , without a spoken dialogue, although he is seen singing along during the finale, as well as the scene in which Kermit the Frog addresses a large crowd of Muppets. In Muppets Most Wanted (2014), and the short feature Rizzo's Biggest Fan on the Blu-ray release, the character calls for more screentime. [14] Rizzo returned to prominence in the TV series The Muppets , where he was on a writing crew with Gonzo and Pepe the King Prawn. [15]
In October 2016, Whitmire was dismissed by The Muppets Studio. [16] [17] No replacement performer for Rizzo has been announced, though Benjamin Diskin voiced baby Rizzo in the animated series Muppet Babies (2018–2022). [18]
There are only two things... I hate: heights, and jumping from them