The International Order of Puppeteers has chosen this year’s winner of Puppeteer of the Year recipient, sock puppet master Vladislav Pupin.

News of Pupin’s win broke last night, after winning the award with a first-ever unanimous vote by IOP judges. “This big win is not surprising,” according to puppet show critic, Manolo CalcetÍn. “Pupin’s ability to manipulate multiple puppets while keeping his audiences mesmerized is ‘unmatched’ in the world today.” 

Pupin’s current production, “The Puppet States” features his three most popular puppets. Children adore Blumpkin, the large orange child with impulse-control issues that has mistakenly been put in charge of the kingdom. The other puppets in the show are Twitchel, the sad old turtle, and Whindsey, the elven redneck. They are Blumpkin’s friends and confidants, who try to help Blumpkin out of the endless stream of problems he stumbles into.

As all three are often on stage at the same time, there was a tremendous debate as to how Vlad could control all three sock puppets simultaneously. In an interview on June 12, Vlad laughed at the question. “I only have two hands, so I have my foot firmly up Blumpkin’s bottom to control him. This is why he lumbers and stumbles about. It’s tough to control something that far away from you.” 

Pupin’s “Puppet State” does have its critics, though. Children, (and those of similar mental capacity) love it, but many adults think the show is “sick” and “poorly-disguised propaganda”. One man, who asked to remain anonymous in between blasts on his whistle, said “this show has run for three years?!? That’s way too long for this drivel”.