What is the best type of puppetry?

Yet another question pulled right from the Google searches. I find it quite odd that somebody might have typed this into a text box, given that the answer should be rather obvious.

There’s no such thing as "best" type of puppetry. Like all art, puppetry is appreciated based on personal taste. Many people I know don’t even like puppets, and some don’t consider it a true art form at all; especially when considering it for adults.

To take the answer further, there can be many nuances of what you like and don’t like about puppetry. I love marionettes for instance; but find them incredibly annoying to work with. And while I do like muppet-type puppets, I’m not overly fanatic about them. I’ve seen great performances using object theatre, as well as horrible ones. So in my personal taste, I can like one type of puppet as an audience member, but dislike it as a builder or designer; and so on.

The "best" type of puppetry will entirely depend on what you like and don’t like in an aesthetic sense, but also based on past experiences either as a designer, performer or audience member. The trick is to try to approach any puppet or performance with an open mind, and not let the previous experiences colour your ideas too much.

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