Why is Ethan Slater being compared to a ‘Jim Henderson animatronic creation’ after hyping ‘Wicked?’

We turn now to Ethan Slater, who has kissed Ariana Grande, and we all need to learn to sit peacefully with that.

Slater became the face of a new generation of musical entertainment when he landed the lead role in the deeply weird SpongeBob SquarePants musical in 2016, a production widely remembered as the thing that theater kids at the time might have talked about if they could have just stopped reciting Hamilton for ten minutes. Since then, he’s been making bigger and bigger waves, appearing in the Broadway production of Spamalot, racking up television and movie credits, and dating Ariana Grande.

But arguably his biggest win: Landing the part of Boq in the upcoming big-screen adaptation of Wicked, which also stars Grande.

With that sort of success comes increased visibility, a bevy of reporters eager to stick microphones in your face, and many, many more opportunities to say the words “love and care.” What’s more, it brings commentary by people who – and this is a weird thing to have to say about an adult stranger – maybe don’t know as much about the Muppets as they think they do.

Ethan Slater and the no-good, very-bad Reddit comments

In a video that found a pretty remarkable audience thanks to the TikTok account @broadwaydirect, Ethan Slater is seen getting interviewed at a Spamalot-related event. Asked about Wicked, the performer gets a little bit out of sorts, the way that you did when you realized that this man has probably gone to the convenience store to pick up stuff that Ariana Grande forgot to pack in her overnight bag.

The video received no small amount of attention thanks to Slater’s jittery gesticulations, wild facial expressions, and the way that he repeats the phrase “love and care” over and over when describing how the musical is being approached by the filmmakers. One Reddit user even went so far as to call Slater a “Jim Henderson animatronic creation,” which, you have to assume meant “Jim Henson,” right? Unless there’s a guy named Jim Henderson out there, making Rock-afire Explosion jam bands out of guys that look like Griffin Newman from The Tick if he never got a chance to finish cooking.

Wicked is expected to be released in two parts, each of which was treated with love and care, with the first part hitting theaters in November 2024. Part two is slated for November 2025, and was also treated with love and care.