"Dear Nephew Gobo, I have discovered the most peculiar Silly Creatures..."
In every episode of Fraggle Rock, Gobo Fraggle ventures into Doc's workshop — "Outer Space" to the Fraggles — to retrieve a postcard from his Uncle Traveling Matt, the greatest explorer Fraggle Rock has ever known. These brief segments are comedy gold: Uncle Matt observes everyday human life with the wide-eyed wonder of a documentary filmmaker visiting an alien civilization.
A telephone becomes a "communication device that Silly Creatures attach to their heads." A parking lot becomes "a field where Silly Creatures leave their strange metal creatures to graze." Television is "a magic box that commands the Silly Creatures to stop and stare."
These postcard segments are brilliantly written as both comedy and gentle satire — turning our mundane world into something exotic and strange through the eyes of an earnest, well-meaning alien observer.
"Uncle Matt's segments allowed us to look at human behavior from the outside — and what we saw was often absurd, touching, and deeply familiar all at once."
— Jerry Juhl, Head Writer, Fraggle Rock
Uncle Traveling Matt is Gobo Fraggle's legendary uncle — the Fraggle who was brave (or foolhardy) enough to venture through the hole in the wall into "Outer Space" (our world). He is performed by Jerry Nelson, who also performed Gobo in the original series.
In each episode, Matt sends Gobo a postcard describing his latest observations of the "Silly Creatures" (humans) and their baffling customs. Each postcard opens with "Dear Nephew Gobo..." and ends with his signature. These segments were filmed at real locations — shopping malls, parks, beaches — blending the real world with the Fraggle puppet world.
While Uncle Matt genuinely believes Silly Creatures are the strangest, most confusing beings in existence, his observations are actually a mirror held up to human behavior. His earnest misunderstandings reveal how strange our own customs look from the outside — consumerism, technology worship, social rituals.
For Gobo, retrieving Uncle Matt's postcards is both a weekly adventure and a profound connection to the explorer he idolizes. Matt's journey inspires Gobo's own adventurous nature. Their relationship — uncle and nephew, mentor and student — is one of the series' most endearing emotional threads.
Uncle Matt appeared in all 96 episodes. Here are the most beloved, funniest, and most insightful postcard segments from across the series.
"Matt documents everything — and misinterprets everything perfectly. He is one of the greatest comic devices in children's television."
FraggleRockFan.com
Uncle Matt's debut segment sets the template: he's just arrived in "Outer Space" and is immediately confused by escalators, which he believes are "moving ground that Silly Creatures have trained to carry them." He's knocked over three times trying to ride it. The show's comedic and satirical tone is established in under 90 seconds.
Matt discovers telephones, which he concludes are "small shells that Silly Creatures hold to their ears and argue with." He becomes convinced they're hearing voices from the spirit world. He tries to communicate with "the spirit" and is bewildered when a human on the other end asks for their pizza order.
One of the most biting satire segments in the series. Matt observes humans watching television and concludes that "the magic box commands the Silly Creatures, who stop whatever they are doing and stare at it motionless for hours." He attempts to communicate with the box and is frustrated when it ignores him. Broadcast in 1983, it feels more relevant each decade.
Uncle Matt infiltrates a shopping mall and concludes it is "a sacred temple where Silly Creatures come to worship at the altars of small objects." He observes humans carrying bags as ritual offerings and becomes convinced the cash register is "the deity they are trying to appease." Genuinely one of the funniest segments in the series.
Matt discovers car culture. He observes a parking lot and decides that Silly Creatures "keep their metal creatures in open fields where they can rest and graze." He attempts to befriend a car by offering it radish crumbs and is puzzled when it doesn't respond.
Matt attends a baseball game and observes a sport he cannot understand. He concludes that the players are performing a sacred ritual to "appease a round white spirit that they must hit with a wooden club before it hits them first." The crowd's reaction to home runs convinces him they are celebrating a successful ritual.
Matt visits a hair salon and is convinced that Silly Creatures must periodically have their external fur "modified by specialists or it becomes threatening." He watches a woman getting a perm and believes she is undergoing a painful ritual to make her hair "more frightening to predators."
Uncle Matt observes joggers and is bewildered. He concludes that Silly Creatures "periodically become possessed by the Running Spirit and must run until it leaves them." He tries running alongside joggers to help them "exorcise the spirit" faster and is chased away from a park.
Matt discovers fast food restaurants and is fascinated that Silly Creatures "feed through a ritual involving small windows in the sides of buildings." He tries to participate and receives a bag of food through a drive-through window, which he concludes is "a gift from the building spirit." One of his more triumphant moments.
Beautifully meta: Uncle Matt observes the human mail system and finds it "an elaborate ritual where Silly Creatures leave small flat packages for each other in colored containers." He is moved to discover that "even Silly Creatures need to reach across distances to say: I was here. I thought of you." A rare moment of genuine emotional insight.
In the series finale, Uncle Matt's final postcard is his most profound. Without spoiling the finale's emotional climax, Matt's last words to Gobo represent the completion of his journey — from confused tourist to genuine appreciator of the Silly Creatures and their world. It is a perfect ending to one of television's most joyful recurring segments.
Uncle Matt's encounters with human culture are funny on the surface but carry deeper observations that make the segments work for adults as well as children.
By having an outsider observe our culture with genuine confusion, the writers expose how bizarre everyday customs look without cultural context. Shopping, jogging, watching TV, driving — all ordinary behaviors that seem inexplicable from the outside.
Many segments are quietly critical of consumerism, media consumption, and modern American life — but so gently that children find it funny while adults pick up the satirical layer. The mall-as-temple segment is a good example.
Despite his confusion, Uncle Matt consistently ends his postcards with warmth and affection — for Gobo, and eventually for the Silly Creatures themselves. Connection transcends cultural understanding.
Uncle Matt approaches the human world the way children approach everything — with wonder, no preconceptions, and zero embarrassment about asking naive questions. His joy in discovery is infectious.
Matt's segments celebrate curiosity and exploration — the willingness to venture into the unknown and sit with confusion until understanding develops. A value the show champions throughout its run.
The segments work because every culture has rituals that seem bizarre from the outside. The laughter is self-aware — we're laughing at ourselves as much as at Uncle Matt's confusion.
Uncle Traveling Matt is Gobo Fraggle's legendary uncle and the greatest explorer in Fraggle Rock history. He was the first Fraggle brave enough to venture into "Outer Space" — the human world — and he sends postcards back to Gobo in every episode, describing his baffling encounters with what he calls "Silly Creatures" (humans). He was performed by puppeteer Jerry Nelson, who also performed Gobo Fraggle in the original series.
Uncle Traveling Matt sends a postcard in every single episode of Fraggle Rock — all 96 episodes of the original series. Each postcard segment features Matt observing a different aspect of human life in "Outer Space," from shopping malls and escalators to televisions and telephones. These segments were filmed at real locations with the Uncle Matt puppet interacting with real people.
Uncle Traveling Matt calls humans "Silly Creatures" because, from a Fraggle's perspective, everyday human behaviors are genuinely mystifying. He observes humans riding escalators, watching television, shopping in malls, and driving cars with complete sincerity, and his earnest attempts to understand these customs lead to humorously wrong conclusions. The "Silly Creatures" name is affectionate rather than dismissive — Matt genuinely finds humans fascinating, if utterly confusing.
Uncle Traveling Matt was performed by Jerry Nelson throughout the original Fraggle Rock series (1983–1987). Jerry Nelson was a legendary Muppet performer who also performed Gobo Fraggle (the main character) in the same series, as well as performing Count von Count on Sesame Street. Nelson's ability to bring warmth and genuine wonder to Uncle Matt's character made the postcard segments some of the most beloved in the show.
While Uncle Matt appears via postcard in every episode, the episodes that feature him most substantially in the main storyline include "The Bells of Fraggle Rock" (S2E13), where Matt's journey becomes central to the plot, "Gobo's Discovery" (S4E12), which deals with Matt's relationship with television technology, and the series finale "Change of Address" (S5E13), where Matt plays his most important plot role. Several episodes also feature Matt returning to Fraggle Rock briefly for key story developments.
Uncle Traveling Matt's postcards are one of Fraggle Rock's most enduring delights — a reminder that the world looks extraordinary when seen with fresh eyes. Read his full character profile or explore the complete episode guide.