Before the Muppets, Jim Henson made a series of funny but disturbing commercials for Wilkins Coffee starring a pair of puppets. When one puppet refused to drink the coffee, the other puppet would shoot him, brand him, drown him, and punish him in all manner of other violent ways.


The puppets were named Wilkins and Wontkins and in the 1950s, they were stars. Wilkins is the smiling coffee lover and Wontkins his frowning, much-abused counterpart. In a typical eight-second ad, Wilkins would ask Wontkins if he liked the coffee, Wontkins would say no, and Wilkins would punish him in some way — although sometimes, as you can see from the series of commercials above, sometimes Henson would change up the formula. In fact, sometimes poor Wontkins would be a target even when he claimed to like the coffee.

Wilkins and Wontkins [Muppets Wiki via Mental Floss]