It took a few seconds to realize that the video of a sock-puppet Councilmember Bob Kettle wasn’t a production of the real Seattle Channel — the city’s municipal TV station that airs City Council meetings, mayoral events and original programming.
Sure, the backdrop is a hastily drawn version of Council chambers, and the puppet is rough around the edges (not to mention wearing a hat with pink cat ears a la the 2017 Women’s March). But the puppet’s dialogue is actual audio of Kettle talking about the police department budget during a Council meeting, the YouTube channel name is The Seattle Channel and it’s not beyond the realm of possibility for government communications staff to attempt clever ways to engage people with dry policy things like the budget.
Then the song “Feed Me” from Little Shop of Horrors kicks in and a felt version of the musical’s carnivorous plant monster labeled “SPD” emerges to sing “Feed Me, Kettle!” — and it’s clear this is satire.
“Kettle Horror Budget Show” is one of more than 30 brief episodes of The Seattle Channel that have aired on YouTube and TikTok since November 2024, featuring sock-puppet versions of Seattle City Council members.
The videos’ dialogue is all taken verbatim from Council meetings. But it is distilled to brief moments from hours-long meetings and often grabbed from Councilmembers’ off-the-cuff asides. The episodes capture the absurdities and humor of local politics and always further the creators’ views that the current Council majority is acting on behalf of monied interests rather than everyday Seattleites. (Sock puppets, get it?)
The Seattle Channel is led by one longtime Seattle visual artist, with the help of four core collaborators and a broader network of progressive activists who are tuned into City Hall.
“The idea for having a puppet channel came out of … trying to think about how to get people to really engage in what’s happening locally,” said John, the lead puppeteer. “What a great metaphor for this particular Council, who seem like they are beholden to interests that aren’t their constituents necessarily. A lot of things they’re doing seem to be manipulated by other sources that isn’t public opinion or what people in Seattle really want.”
John is not the puppeteer’s real name. He agreed to an interview with Cascade PBS on condition of anonymity. He explained that the group chooses to remain anonymous because “for a lot of people the artist becomes a bigger story than the art, and for this we wanted to keep a sharp focus on the Council.”
The puppet show’s roots are in 2020’s Black Lives Matter protests. Attending rallies, getting involved in the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP) and seeing firsthand the Seattle Police Department’s fierce response to activists got John really focused on local politics and its impact on people’s lives. He joined several activist groups working on issues like the participatory budget and criminal justice reform, and started supporting those efforts with art and media to promote and explain the issues.
The idea for a puppet show came about in 2024, as John and his collaborators watched the more conservative Council majority introduce legislation that the group felt was out of touch with what Seattleites actually wanted — such as expanding police surveillance technology.
John said he draws inspiration from the history of political puppetry in the U.S., including Bread and Puppet Theater in Vermont and Sesame Street. He himself dabbled in political puppetry during a college internship with a puppet theater in Boston. John said the tradition is alive and well in Seattle, pointing to a recent protest at Denny Blaine Park over the city’s proposed limitations on nudity at the park that featured a puppet show.
The Seattle Channel’s first episode launched last November 17. The 15-second video features a puppet version of then-Councilmember Cathy Moore dancing as protestors chant “Cathy Moore hates the poor” with jaunty music overlaid. That chant happened during a Council discussion of Moore’s controversial bill to create prostitution banishment zones on Aurora Avenue North.
Props and puppet costumes from past episodes line a wall of the artist’s studio. Fake book covers from a recent episode are printed in reverse but flipped during the filming process. (Genna Martin/Cascade PBS)
Early episodes tended to feature just one puppet saying something silly or odd. The show has since evolved to include more props, as well as dialogue among Councilmembers played out over slightly longer 90-second episodes.
“We realized pretty early on that the best thing is interactions between Councilmembers. … I feel like this has become like a workplace sitcom because it’s the same group of people and week after week they sit there and have their kind of interpersonal relationships,” John explained.
He said the best material comes from Councilmembers’ off-the-cuff tangents: “That’s when they say things that are really revealing. Fortunately for the puppet show and maybe unfortunately for the people of Seattle, we have some Councilmembers who like to speak off the cuff at length.”
To date, the episodes have featured most Councilmembers — but not all. Joy Hollingsworth is conspicuously absent. Despite the District 3 Councilmember’s frequent alignment with her colleagues, John said he doesn’t see her as beholden to outside interests in the same way and therefore has not yet made her into a sock puppet, although he disagrees with her politically.
Councilmembers Alexis Mercedes Rinck and Mark Solomon made cameos as popsicle stick-sized puppets in one brief episode. But as the Council’s most progressive member, Rinck has thus far been spared the satirizing, and as a temporary appointee, Solomon won’t be getting his own puppet.
@theseattlechannel Rob Saka ♥ blast ball
♬ original sound - theseattlechannel - theseattlechannel
The creation of each episode begins with the audio. John and his four main collaborators often watch Council meetings to find clips, but also rely on John’s broader network of activist friends to recommend moments to draw from.
“There are a lot of people who are really passionate about trying to make Seattle a better place for everyone who lives here and really identify how much power there is in city government,” said John of the perhaps surprising number of people tuning into Council meetings each week.
John said they abide by a few rules, using audio from only a single Council meeting for each episode and presenting it in the order it was spoken. The audio is all publicly available thanks to the actual, non-puppet Seattle Channel.
“I have to put in a plug for the real Seattle Channel,” said John. “It’s such a service that they record all those meetings, and they do such a great job of it. One of the things that makes the videos really work is this idea of taking the audio directly from those meetings.”
Once the audio is edited to no more than 90 seconds of a given moment or event, John creates additional props if necessary, rehearses with the puppets to get the mouth and body movements right, then records in front of the camera.
The studio is basic. John films with his laptop propped on a table in front of a green screen made of construction paper. The group tries to post a new episode every Sunday, mostly drawing on the prior week’s meetings to shine a light on what’s happening in City Hall.
“The intention is to really to portray [local politics] truthfully within the realm of this fantastical puppet world to make it more accessible to people,” John said. “Not everyone has the time or patience to sit through hours of City Council meetings every week. We’re trying to hook people into what’s happening.”
The show is a sharp and unflattering satire. Kettle’s puppet is stark white and scowling, Council President Sara Nelson’s puppet has bug eyes and Councilmember Dan Strauss’ puppet is a worm.
“We have talked in the groups about crossing certain lines in parody,” said John. “They’re public figures. And they’re doing things that I think many of us feel are really harmful for the city. But also they’re people. We’re trying to keep the focus on the politics and actions on the Council.”
Still, John concedes that it can be a harsh parody: “We’re not attacking them personally. But if I was a subject of one of these, it’d be really hard to watch myself as a puppet worm. I get it.”
Handmade puppets representing (clockwise from top left) Seattle City Councilmembers Rob Saka, Sara Nelson, Dan Strauss and Maritza Rivera and former councilmember Cathy Moore.
Cascade PBS asked all the featured Councilmembers, along with Hollingsworth and Rinck, for their reactions to the project. Only Kettle responded.
His office sent an email: “Councilmember Kettle appreciates the creativity of the Seattle Channel puppets and has laughed at many of them. One creative note — his beard and eyebrows do still have some pepper among the salt!”
With the art project nearing its first anniversary, John and his collaborators have talked about what the future may hold for their cast of puppet politicians.
He said they’re only interested in making the show about this particular Council, so it’s unlikely it would continue if there were a major change in the body’s members. The progressive swing in August’s primary elections also has them thinking about The Seattle Channel’s endpoint.
“Next November is definitely a moment to evaluate whether the project needs to continue,” said John. “A lot of these folks will continue being on the Council after that. But potentially the primary suggests there will be a moment where the tides shift in the tenor of what’s happening in City Hall. If that indeed happens it could be a good end moment for the project.”
