the.com/puppet show
Grown adults narrating conflict through socks so children will actually watch it.
means A performance in which lifeless figures (string-pulled, sock-covered, or hand-stuffed) are made to speak and move for an audience, usually one with a shorter attention span than the performer.
from 'Puppet' traces back through Middle French 'poupette' to Latin 'pupa,' meaning girl or doll (the same root that gives us 'pupil' — a small figure reflected in the eye, and also a young student). 'Show' is just Old English 'sceawian,' to look at or behold. So at its root a puppet show is simply 'a doll to be looked at' — the theatrical sense of puppets as stand-in actors grew naturally once people realized a doll on strings could carry a story as well as, if not better than, the people pulling them.
- origin
- ancient greek and roman street performers used them first
- strings vs hands
- marionettes use strings, puppets just need a fist
- political slang
- became shorthand for leaders secretly controlled by others
- uncanny valley
- too lifelike and the charm turns to dread