Lew Zealand
Lew Zealand is a Muppet character whose name is a play on the Oceanian country of New Zealand. Performed by Jerry Nelson, he has an obsession for throwing fish. His thrown fish are unique in that they return to him once thrown. In the 1984 movie, The Muppets Take Manhattan, he appears at Scooter's job at theater in Cleveland, Ohio. He shows Scooter his boomerang fish while the audience is watching Attack of The Killer Fish, a 3-D movie partly seen in the movie. He appears on The Muppet Show from the third season onwards trying to promote his Boomerang Fish act. He is also able to play a fish organ (a line of fish that, when squeezed, each gargle a different note). The sketches he appears in usually end with the entire stage in an uproar.
Lew Zealand was originally puppeteered by Jerry Nelson until his retirement from The Muppets. Bill Barretta was his performer in It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie and The Muppets' Wizard of Oz. Matt Vogel assumed this role as well as Jerry Nelson's other primary Muppet Show characters starting with the 2008 TV movie, A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa.
Lew has appeared in The Muppet Movie, The Great Muppet Caper, Muppet Christmas Carol, a cameo knitting a Jolly Roger in Muppet Treasure Island, and The Muppets.
[edit] Trivia
- Lew is known for his trademark catchphrase: "I throw the fish away, and it comes back to me!"
