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Muppet History Sexual Harassment Allegations and Drama explained.

What Did 'Muppet History' Do To Get Canceled? The Allegations And Drama Surrounding A Muppets Fan Page Explained

If there's one thing you don't want from your Muppets fan page, it's troubling allegations.

So it's unfortunate to hear that, over the past few days, the owner of one of the most popular Muppets fan pages on Instagram and Twitter / X, "Muppet History," has had some very serious allegations leveled against him.

But what accusations have been made against Muppet History and how is social media reacting to them? Here's what you need to know about the drama unfolding on social media.

lorin @nirol__ "And the Muppet History guy, who did NOT beat the allegations..." 11:58 PM - Dec 2, 2024 - 28.8K Views


What Is The 'Muppet History' Drama?

On December 1st, 2024, the Muppet History account, run by Josh and Holly Gillespie, posted and deleted a vague apology to Instagram. In the post, which was only signed by Josh, he apologizes for saying inappropriate things to people and promises to get help.

On December 2nd, he posted another apology, this time signed by both Josh and Holly. Again, the statement is vague but apologizes for using the platform to overstep boundaries and hurt people. At the end, Josh and Holly claim they are going to take a few weeks off from the account to get help. These apologies quickly went viral online, inspiring a lot of confusion over what exactly Muppet History did.

Muppet History A @HistoryMuppet Good Evening We wanted to take a moment to address some concerns that have arisen as of late. Before we dive into these concerns, we want to thank you for your continued support and encouragement. We acknowledge that we are human and have made mistakes in the past, We are always striving to learn and grow and appreciate your understanding and grace. We extend our thanks to those who hold us accountable. This community is near and dear to our hearts and we hope to foster and embody the principles of Jim Henson in our words and actions. Therefore, we extend our most sincere apologies to those whom we have hurt, either through this platform or personal platforms. There has been a series in which boundaries with friends and viewers through messaging were overstepped. To the people who have been made uncomfortable by these actions we have only ourselves to blame and ask for your forgiveness. In building this community we have been overly protective, confusing fellow fan accounts for competition. We have not properly intervened when members in our own community have caused harm in defending our name. We have overstepped boundaries and ignored the hurt it caused. We cannot take back what has been said and we do not offer this apology with expectations that you will accept it solely on our word. We will be taking a step away from posting personal content on this platform over the next few weeks to reflect on our next steps forward in bettering ourselves. This community deserves only the best. We understand that actions speak louder. And we hope that one day we can regain your trust. - Joshua and Holly


In response to the second apology, Instagram user malonespops, another Muppets-related account, made several Story posts alleging sexual harassment from Josh. The posts claim that Josh Gillespie has a history of sending inappropriate and unwanted messages, including advances, to women on Instagram and Twitter.

The Story posts include some receipts in the way of alleged DMs from victims of Josh. They also include DMs allegedly sent to the user by Josh, with one that reads, "gurl that mouth opens wide, wut else can it do." Since then, several other social media users have come forward making similar accusations against Josh.

Since Muppet History doesn't want to get into what he's actually done to hurt people, I will. You can't keep something like this vague. Good Evening We wanted to take a moment to address some concerns that have arisen as of late. Before we dive into these concerns, we want to thank you for your continued support and encouragement. We acknowledge that we are human and have made mistakes in the past, We are always striving to learn and grow and appreciate your understanding and grace. We extend our thanks to those who hold us accountable. This community is near and dear to our hearts and we hope to foster and embody the principles of Jim Henson in our words and actions. @muppethistory no. malonespops 18h Hey, sorry to bother you & I'm not sure if you'll ever see this, but I wanted to say thank you and to sincerely wish you the best too! Thank you for using your voice to speak out about Joshua/Muppet History's serial harassment of women. I was one of his targets myself, and it was super scary for me, because I felt so alone and so afraid to speak up about it, worried nobody would believe me. I wanted to say thank you for speaking out on him on your story and for inspiring many other women to come out and talk on it too Much love! And also, I hope you are okay! So many stand with you and I hope you feel empowered and uplifted during this Thank you again. You gave me courage I didn't even know I had and I'm grateful For starters- there are many, many, many people affected. I want to make that very clear. Whether it was sexual abuse and misconduct or bullying people in this community. I will not let him reduce it to nothing. I will not let these people be invalidated. Hi Megan, we don't know each other but i saw that you might involved with the Joshua Gillespie stuff going on. He has been overly friendly sending sexual jokes and flirtatious messages to me and 3 other people that I know of. I am trying to figure out how many people have been targeted by this, if you're comfortable sharing anything else you know about the situation please contact me. Thank you! malonespops 18h What happened to this apology, Josh? I've been running Muppet History for the last 6 years. In that time, I've said terrible things to people, belittling and insulting things, inappropriate things, and have gone against everything I've tried to make this page about, and everything Jim Henson stood for. To those people I am deeply sorry. I've let down those subscribed to my Patreon and not provided the things I offered. To those who feel scammed I am sorry. I've used my audience irresponsibly as to go after people who have brought up genuine concerns and criticisms. That use of my platform and position is disgusting. I'm thankful that there are finally people who are standing up to hold me accountable for my actions in the past. Whether it was prior to now or recently, I have to be held accountable for my actions and should strive to do better. I'm disappointed and ashamed. I've let down my friends, my wife, and the community as a whole. My hope is that I learn from my actions, receive the help I need, and become the person I have pretended that I am. - Joshua malonespops 18h Inad posted this, and some other things to my close friends story saying I questioned his character. It was never supposed to be something other than me expressing that, but I was met with SO MANY PEOPLE telling me they had the same experience. Or worse. Some, much worse. After that, I felt I had a responsibility to keep speaking up in my private way. I wanted to let the community members I knew aware. I had even talked to Josh last night to try to avoid still going public with all of this He was going to own up to the REAL HURT he has caused. But chose to take that cop out, BS apology route instead. You all deserve to know. <muppethistory 304 Business chat Replied to your story gurl that mouth opens wide HHHAHAHAH I'm dead OCT 15 AT 9:32 PM Wut else can it do OCT 16 AT 9:32 PM malonespops 17h My DMs are going crazy right now. I've already just received serveral more messages of people thanking me for speaking on this, because they dealt with it too. This is so widespread, you guys. I am sick to my stomach that this community was made unsafe by someone with this much of an influence. I want to say a few things.. first off, you are valid. Every single one of you who has come to me, I will continue to validate you and be your voice. None of this is okay. This is NOT what the Muppets fandom is about, I promise you. And I'm dedicated, along with many others, to keep it a positive and uplifting place. Not a place to get harassed. I am so sorry if you thought this was a safe space and was met by an internet creep g preying on you. Insane. malonespops 17h. ent this to his wife after she asked me what's going on. And she was very dismissive. Essentially claiming she approves of his messages, and as they are a poly couple, they admitted to a friend that messaging me like that as an attempt to flirt. They even made it seem I consented to that, which I never did. This is how they act with someone who h phas sa platform, an opportunity to speak up and share the truth. Now just imagine how they've treated people who they felt would never tell. You can only assume. Holly Gillespie > Active 44m ago вов So yes, the wife is in on it. Hey Holly, I appreciate that. And thanks for reaching out, yeah. Yeah there is, unfortunately. I honesty do not want anything to do with Josh anymore. I'm sure he told you abt the lil tiff w the MV3D stuff, but that's NOT my concern. When he upset me, I posted my thoughts abt some things to my close friends, I followed that with a screenshot of some sexually charged comments he made. The response to that was immense. So many people told me they had problems w him, screenshots of him being belittling, talking down, telling someone even they aren't a real muppet page. But worst of all, others had said that he made them feel uncomfortable in a more than friendly way, too. Many said that you should be messaged and made aware, but the whole thing is super 1. I've reshared on close friends screenshots that were sent to me, and the things I was told. I made it a private thing because I wanted MY people to know. No one is spreading rumors, they are spreading their own stories.


Malonespops also shared a screenshot of an email Josh sent to her apologizing for what he calls "flirtatious" messaging, writing that he misunderstood their friendship. Malonespops critically comments on this claim in the post, claiming that she never made any indication that he could send her those types of messages.

1:18 espops 14h Joshua Gillespie 4:33PM to me v 5G+ 3 ↑ Ж Dear Megan I apologize that my messages of playful flirting went too far. It was never my intention to make you uncomfortable, clearly I misunderstood our friendship and that was unfair to you. I hope you can forgive me. Please let me know if there is any way I can make things better. "clearly I misunderstood our friendship" ??? Fr? I quite literally went back and looked through every message I have w him, I never ONCE - EVER, said ANYTHING that would give any indication that talking to me like that was appropriate, funny to me or encouraged, did he think because I was so nice to him I wouldn't say anything? Like? What's that even mean??? This is the lamest apology I've ever seen Anyway like I said I'm choosing to not engage. I've blocked all of his pages, I'm not responding to his wife. I've said all I needed to say in the first message, and leaving it at that. Neither of them are worth my energy, I'm just keeping you all informed on this cus They are insane Send message...


How Is Social Media Reacting To The 'Muppet History' Allegations?

In general, people have taken the victims' side regarding the allegations against Josh Gillespie. They've also been highly critical of his and his wife's apologies, claiming they're too vague and don't address specific accusations in a meaningful way.

Holly Gillespie has also gotten caught up in the drama, as she's been posting on Twitter in defense of her husband, claiming all the messages he sent were okay because they're in an open polyamorous relationship.

Of course, despite the seriousness of the allegations, the incident has also inspired numerous memes and reactions. Most notably, a wave of related media history and gimmick accounts have gone viral by making posts disavowing Muppet History and his actions.

cinnamon bun @notsofiacoppola Man I just wanted to see pictures of muppets. Why does a muppet history account have allegations 6:48 PM • Dec 2, 2024 538.3K Views Mike Beauvais @MikeBeauvais ME: The man behind Muppet History, one of Twitter's foremost Muppet- related accounts, is stepping away after it came to light that he was sending unsolicited messages of a sexual nature to various women. The online Muppet community is aghast. MY WIFE: The baby is crying. 9:56 PM - Dec 2, 2024 89.6K Views frank oz facts @frankozfacts Frank Oz Facts does not support the actions of Muppet History and finds him to be quite a disgusting person. The behavior he has exhibited is unacceptable. Jim Henson's core values were about love and community, which Joshua clearly doesn't understand. 12:30 PM · Dec 2, 2024 325.3K Views


For the full history of the Muppet History Drama, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.

Related Memes 5 total

Muppet History Sexual Harassment Allegations and Drama depicting an alleged DM from the account.

Muppet History Sexual Harassment Allegations / Drama

Poly / Polycule / Polyamory slang term.

Poly / Polycule / Polyamory

The Muppets

The Muppets

The instagram logo.

Instagram

Twitter / X

Twitter / X

     



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