Someone break out the Kermit tea meme -- the puppeteer who was behind Kermit the Frog's voice for 27 years is saying Disney actually fired him ... over the phone.
Steve Whitmire -- who started at age 19 back in 1990 -- wrote a blog post explaining his side of the story after news broke earlier this week that he was being replaced. He said he was told the role would be recast back in October but had hoped the sides could work things out, but to no avail.
Whitmire said, "I have offered multiple remedies to their two stated issues which had never been mentioned to me prior to that phone call. I wish that we could have sat down, looked each other in the eye, and discussed what was on their minds before they took such a drastic action.”
Whitmire's successor will become only the third person to play Kermit since Jim Henson created the frog back in 1955.