Dwarves

Ringo Starr als Larry the Dwarf on the set of 200 Motels.

Dwarves, midgets, munchkins (characters from The Wizard Of Oz) and little people in general, particularly pygmies, are recurring characters in Zappa's music, being part of his Conceptual Continuity. In conversation with Nigey Lennon, Andrew Greenaway analyzed the recurring use of dwarfs and midgets in Zappa's work.

One of Zappa's favorite films, Freaks, also features appearances of small people.

Gail Zappa's brother, Arthur Sloatman was nicknamed "Midget".

Frank Zappa's music publishing company Munchkin Music was named after the dwarves from the film The Wizard Of Oz. In Z-Pack - L.A. Times article (Rip Rense, Los Angeles Times, 24 October 1985), on "Porn Wars," Zappa programmed the voices into a digital computer system keyboard, which allowed him to "play" the voices in registers ranging from "gorilla" to "munchkin" to "mega-chipmunk" to "mosquito." Robert L. Doerschuk in The Zappa Legacy (Keyboard, April 1994) reports how Tommy Mars sang a song from The Wizard of Oz that pleased Zappa. Mars then noticed the Munchkin Music logo on his musical score and felt this was very cosmic.

• Dwarf Nebula Processional March & Dwarf Nebula
• Ringo Starr plays a character named Larry the Dwarf in 200 Motels (The Film)
• Little Green Scratchy Sweaters & Courduroy Ponce: "Munchkin cretins" (...) "munchkins get me hot".
• Penis Dimension: "If you're a lady and you've got munchkin tits...".
• Munchkin Tits
• The Red Throbber: "Enbalmed in a munchkin plastic bath tub".
• Camarillo Brillo: "And she was breeding a dwarf, but she wasn't done yet."
• Pygmy Twylyte
• Montana: "Just me and the pygmy pony over by the dental floss bush"
• The Torture Never Stops: "And a sinister midget with a bucket and a mop, where the blood goes down the drain".
• The Radio Is Broken: The final line is: "Dwarf Nebula!", which seagues into Mõggio, a song was inspired by a dream Diva Zappa had about a tiny little father named Moggio living under the pillow.
• Be In My Video: "And midgets dressed in white"
• Brown Moses: "Dis pygmy I be clutchin"
• Champagne Lecture: munchkin vegetables are discussed.
• In the 1993 interview Zappa Plays On, Zappa referred to his maze-like house in Laurel Canyon as "early Rumpelstiltskin".

Quotes

"I am never alone. I have a house with six dwarfs who take care of me. The dwarfs change from week to week so I don't get bored." - Frank Zappa in Fifty-Four Fab, Boss Questions ..., 1966.