Bert and Ernie: the Rumor Officially Debunked!

If you've never heard the ugly rumor about Bert and Ernie's private life off-camera, you're one of the few lucky old-school viewers. Another web site has debunked the rumor in detail, but here's a scan of CTW's official statement so you can confirm the source yourselves...

Oh no, not the Veggie Monster again!

The same YouTuber who claimed Sesame Park wasn't a genuine Canadian production, also insisted that "they turned Cookie Monster into the Veggie Monster--LAME!" (I've read angry comments like that all over the site whenever someone posts recent Sesame material, in fact. The guy I'm quoting, though, is one of the few users who did it without spamming the comment section or using swearwords. :-) )

By now I'm tempted to have a form-letter response ready for everyone who brings up the false rumor about the "Veggie Monster" change; it'll probably look like what I sent this guy, though I'll have to send it privately because of the web links included as proof.

The Veggie Monster scare is just an urban legend. Sesame Workshop DID have Cookie Monster cut back on his trademark food and act more concerned about his health--but he has definitely not turned into the Veggie Monster. (In fact, a recent episode had Matt Lauer interviewing Cookie, who complained that the media blew everything out of proportion.) Check out these links if you need proof--

http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Episode_4115

http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Cookie_Monster:_A_Cookie_is_a_Sometime_Food

and, from another site--

http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/veggie.asp

Oh no, not THOSE rumors again!

One of my friends at the nursing home noticed that I had Sesame Street on TV again, so our conversation eventually brought up the way Bert and Ernie are being phased out of the show. When my friend asked, "Didn't they make Bert and Ernie gay?" she couldn't believe that the official answer (straight from Sesame Workshop staff) was "no". This 1993 press release should have settled the debate once and for all, in my opinion:

Bert and Ernie, who've been on Sesame Street for 25 years, do not portray a gay couple, and there are no plans for them to do so in the future. They are puppets, not humans. Like all the Muppets created for Sesame Street, they were designed to help educate preschoolers. Bert and Ernie are characters who help demonstrate to children that despite their differences, they can be good friends.

When I denied the "gay couple" rumor, my friend asked: "Well, what about that Muppet with HIV?" She was worried about her daughter growing up too fast, and said there were some things kids that age shouldn't see on TV. I explained that Kami was meant only for the South African production of Sesame Street, where some younger children were born with HIV--and that there were no plans to include that character in the American version. (If some new Muppet character were created to represent a major problem that affected mostly American preschoolers, you wouldn't expect to see that Muppet in a foreign production...especially not if people in the other country associated that same problem with homosexuality and drug addiction!)