The performer’s hands set the puppet’s apparent handedness
A hand puppet’s head and mouth often take the puppeteer’s dominant hand: the performer slips that hand inside the puppet and moves the jaw with their fingers. For a right-handed puppeteer, that leaves the left hand to operate an arm rod—a thin control attached to the puppet’s arm. The performer’s left hand may therefore do much of the visible work with the puppet’s arms.
A production habit, not a character trait
That arrangement can make a Muppet seem to favor its left hand, especially when it gestures or handles a prop with the arm the puppeteer can control. But the puppet has no independent handedness; what looks like a preference is often the practical result of how a performer’s hands are assigned.
The setup also lets the puppeteer give the character a moving mouth while controlling an arm at the same time. A small staging choice—using the dominant hand for the face—can shape what viewers read as a personality detail.
