Hand puppets which are created by covering the hand with a sock, the mouth created by a rubber band or stitching which allows the opposable thumb of the puppeteer to become the lower jaw, and the other four fingers to add expression as the upper jaw, head, and facial muscles. The flexibility of the fingers allows perfect synchronization with the voice and maximum range of emotional expression with a minimum of materials.
While today's celebrity sock puppets (e.g., Ed the Sock, the Pets.com Sock Puppet, Sifl and Olly) depend on irony, their success can be directly attributed to television pioneers like Ollie the dragon and the most famous of all sock puppets, Lamb Chop.