Lieutenant

Lieutenant is a muppet character from the TV series, CityKids. He is one of the members of a trio of muppets who make recurring appearances in the Inside the Head segments and lives in the functioning mind. As one of the Freudian ideas personified, he represents superego, the conscience, and is the voice of reason. He was puppeteered by David Rudman.

About Lieutenant

In "Pilot", Lieutenant and the others are shown in the mind of David, who is infatuated with a girl named Freida. Checking a monitor, Lieutenant informs Captain he doesn't see any signs of movement in David's digestive tract. David literally has the butterflies in his stomach, and Lieutenant tries to shoo them away as Captain tells him to return to his position. Having a bad feeling, Lieutenant tells Captain that Freida is just going to say no to David going out with her, comments on how pathetic he and his cohorts are, and tells Captain desperately to turn back. But Captain doesn't listen. Surely enough, Lieutenant was right, as after Freida shoots David down, an alarm goes off in his mind as Lieutenant and Captain panic, and flee before David faints in shock.

In "Becoming a Man", David wants to have a bar mitzvah just to get a CD player. Wanting the same thing, despite Lieutenant's doubts and protests, Captain tells him to steady David's system. Later, when David meets with a priest and tells him a lie, Lieutenant brings up what David just did and says they're "going straight to...", but Captain cuts him off before he can finish that sentence and tells him to keep his "eyes on the prize".

In "The Curse of Ali Baba", Captain orders Lieutenant to get Tito to approach his sister and confront her. Lieutenant comments that she's related to Tito and is hesitant about it. Then, the "seeing red" alarm goes off as Libido's cage opens and he escapes, pressing the button that indicates Tito's rage.

In "Pack of Lies", Snoopy is in class when his professor calls on him to answer a question. When Snoopy freezes, the scene switches to what's going on in his mind. Lieutenant and the others also get panicky when Snoopy is unsure of what to say. Captain tells Lieutenant to steady Snoopy's system. Having misheard him, Lieutenant picks up a book and looks through it saying, "Studying, sir!". But Captain clarifies, "I said steady, not study!", and smacks Lieutenant with the book, leaving him dazed. After Snoopy and the professor are shown again, the scene cuts back to Lieutenant and the others while Captain tries to regain control of Snoopy's system.

Physical Appearance

The prototypical Lieutenant appears differently from the version that appears in other episodes. The original Lieutenant was originally a red monkey with the lower part of his face peach. He wears square glasses with black frames and handles; a matching helmet with a couple beige feathers sticking out the beige opening on top of it; and yellow ear coverings with light gray outlines; a red body suit with a yellow collar; cyber yellow gloves; and an orchid purple, ruffled tutu.

Lieutenant as he appears in the pilot.

The redesigned Lieutenant has a horizontal, cylindrical head with sky blue eyelids; pink lips; white brain-shaped parts of each side of his head that spin like electric fans or pinwheels with black, circular bottoms and pale blue outlines; wears a razzmatazz body suit that matches most of his head; yellow outlines are the shoulders and matching gloves.

Personality

As the superego, Lieutenant is the most rational of the three. He is sensible, doubtful, diffident, conscientious, scrupulous, nervous, pessimistic, panicky, wary, pensive, and apprehensive. He is the first to be thoughtful, thinking ahead of the consequences of actions and has a more negative outlook than Captain. As the second-in-command, he tries his best to get Captain to realize the errors of his ways, but is often unsuccessful. He and the others work together to keep the sound mind.

Appearances

• Pilot (prototypical Lieutenant)
• Becoming a Man (redesigned Lieutenant from this point onward)
• The Curse of Ali Baba
• Pack of Lies

Trivia

• The prototypical Lieutenant on guitar or bass was among the members of the muppet band that backed Cee-Lo Green during his performance of "Forget You" at the 2011 Grammy Awards.
• Both versions of Lieutenant went on to appear in other projects, including the Miskreant Puppets shows like Puppet Up!.
• Lieutenant and the other Inside the Head muppets were shown in the minds of three of the main, human characters: David, Tito, and Snoopy.
• Prototypical Lieutenant and the other prototypical Inside the Head muppets don't appear in the intro prior to the pilot episode nor do the other muppets from the show. However, the redesigned Inside the Head muppets do appear in the opening before other episodes.