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gonzo CNN and Mental Floss have a great article about the origins of 20 Muppet characters, detailing where they first appeared and who or what inspired them. I’ve been a fan of the Muppets for as long as I can remember, but there were a lot of things on the list I didn’t know.

Here’s an example:

Gonzo: What exactly is Gonzo? Nobody knows. Even Jim Henson had no particular species in mind. Over the course of "The Muppet Show," "Muppet Babies" and various Muppet movies, Gonzo has been referred to as a "Whatever", a "Weirdo" and an alien. Whatever he is, he first appeared on the scene in 1970’s The Great Santa Claus Switch. His name was Snarl the Cigar Box Frackle. In 1974, he showed up on a TV special for Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass. He became Gonzo the Great by the first season of The Muppet Show and developed his thing for Camilla the Chicken almost accidentally: During one episode where chickens were auditioning for the show, puppeteer Dave Goelz ad-libbed, "Don’t call us, we’ll call you… nice legs, though!" It was decided then and there that Gonzo would have a bizarre romantic interest in chickens.

Check out the entire list for the Surprising Stories Behind 20 Muppets

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Any reader of Digg knows that lists are in. Not a day goes by that a Top 10… list of some sort doesn’t make it to the homepage of Digg. People love lists and savy web content producers are creating content to cater to that fact.

It seems the previous statement has not gone unnoticed by CNN, as I just found their Best — and Worst– Movie Battle Scenes on the Digg homepage. I have to say, I agree with most of their choices, but one makes me especially happy:

8. Starship Troopers — Battle of Klendathu, Battle on Planet P
Paul Verhoeven, 1997
“They sucked his brains out!”
A bloody bugfest on Klendathu sees 100,000 troops hacked, ripped and squished to death in an hour; then we follow Rico’s roughnecks to Planet P where his poorly-equipped infantry are sent back as bait for thousands of spiky Arachnids. But is it really the bugs who’re the evil ones? Slick, smart B-movie action.

Starship Troopers was a vastly underrated movie. The effects were ground-breaking (at the time) and they story was a great parody of propaganda and militaristic societies. Yes, it wasn’t hard-core Sci-Fi like the source material, but it was a great comment on media, society and violence.