The Liberty Biberty Creature Is Actually A Jim Henson Muppet... Kind Of
Biberty was created by Jim Henson's Creature Shop, but it's allegedly not part of Disney's Muppet Cinematic Universe (MCU).
If you watch live sports in the United States, as I do with college football, you have undoubtedly seen the Liberty Mutual commercial featuring a new character, Liberty Biberty. No, it's not LiMu Emu and Doug, but it's a cheesy attempt at hocking car insurance, nonetheless. Here it is, if you haven't seen it, because you're blessed to live under a rock.
The little, yellow character isn't quite as creepy as car insurance companies secretly using your smartphone apps to score your driving habits, but saying people on the internet aren't fans of the Liberty Biberty would be an understatement. In fact, protesters have gathered outside the Liberty Mutual Insurance Company's headquarters to protest Biberty, according to The Boston Globe. Those protesters aren't happy.
Connor Harvey, a 19-year-old YouTuber has called for the protest with a video titled "Death of Mascots." In that video he jokingly cause on people to proest the headquarters. "This is a revolution, this is the next Boston Tea Party," said Harvey. "This is to take down Liberty Biberty here on Liberty Mutual's Headquarters."
Harvey has said that if the company asks him to leave, he will, and that his protests will be peaceful. But the reactions to Biberty have been pretty wild. The Globe quotes one kid saying, "I am against AI, but this is much worse; this is the worst thing a human can create." But did you know that it's not artificial intelligence? It's actually a Muppet. More or less.
What makes a Muppet a Muppet?
That's right, Liberty Biberty was created by Jim Henson's Creature Shop, the team that builds Muppet-like characters for stage and screen. In fact, the creators released a blursed social media post documenting Biberty's creation.
I'm not sure if that makes Biberty more or less creepy. But it's a post I had to see, so now it's a post you have to see. But is it a Muppet?
Now, you could argue that even though Henson's shop did the work, Liberty Biberty isn't a canonical Muppet, and you'd be correct. Disney purchased the rights to the Muppets in 2004, but the Muppet Wiki lists Biberty. On the Wikipedia page titled "List of Muppets," Biberty is not listed.
Like in this past season of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds," the episode titled "Level 5 Transporter Incident" had characters from the Hensen Creature Shop, and while I'd like to believe they were Muppets, they really weren't. They were, however, cuter than Biberty here.
Surely, Liberty Mutual appreciates the attention on Liberty Biberty, even if there's some internet rage around the character. All press is good press, or so they say. Besides, compared to everything else going on in the world, Biberty seems like something we can all unite behind.