So say the producers of "Sesame Street". Cathy and I thought y'all would want to know.
From PinkNews:
Rumours have circulated for years that Sesame Street’s Bert and Ernie are in a relationship and now Bert has hinted at it on Twitter.
Bert, who shares a bed with Ernie, wrote on the Sesame Street Twitter feed during Pride season that his hair was “mo” – a slang word for gay.
Comparing his trademark mohawk to that of A-Team character Mr. T, Bert said: “The only difference is mine is a little more ‘mo,’ a little less ‘hawk.’”
....
However, show producers poured cold water on hopes of a puppet gay icon.
Oh, and I love this:
In 1994, Reverend Joseph Chambers, a Pentecostal minister from North Carolina, tried to have Bert and Ernie banned under state sodomy laws.
“Bert and Ernie are two grown men sharing a house and a bedroom,” he railed. “They share clothes, eat and cook together and have blatantly effeminate characteristics.”
Puppets banned under sodomy laws? Seems a stretch to me.
I haven't watched "Sesame Street" in a while, but I seem to remember Ernie and Bert sleeping in twin beds. Of course, I could be wrong.
Image from Wikipedia.
Thanks to Cathy for the link.
Mimi, you are absolutely correct. Ernie and Bert sleep in two separate twin beds.
ReplyDeleteBut so did Lucy and Desi. :)
I take Bert's pronouncements on the subject far more seriously than I take the producers'.
ReplyDeleteBarry, as did June and Ward Cleaver, and Rob and Laura Petrie, etc., etc., etc.
ReplyDeleteAs did all the actors who played married couples in the old movies. :-)
Cathy, hear, hear!
ReplyDeleteThe Rev Chambers seems to have failed to spot one or two legal technicalities with that one. Surely even rabid homophobes have better things to do with their time?
ReplyDeleteLet's not forget the Rev'd Mr Falwell, who thought that Tinky Winky looked gay. Delusional!
ReplyDeleteInteresting shot here of Tinky Winky's butch inner self. Eat your hearts out, ladies!
Goodness, Tinky Winky is good-looking. Did that chap really not want to do anything in life other than dress up in a gigantic fuzzy blue outfit?
ReplyDeleteI think the Teletubbies are incredibly sinister looking myself.
Lapin, I meant to mention the craziness surrounding Tinky Winky in my post, but I forgot.
ReplyDeleteDo you mean that the guy pictured in your link is butch-gay? He looks gay to me.
During all the Tinky Winky/Falwell controversy, we had a couple who were students at our church. They were working and going to school, money was tight, and she was very pregnant. A local gay bar had a costume contest and the prize was $100. Mary Beth, full of chutzpah, decided she knew how to win that much needed $100. She put on a pair of purple sweats, carried a handbag over her arm and a sign that said, "F*** Jerry Falwell." When she walked down the bar, the whole place went wild and Mary Beth went home with the $100. Falwell's stupidity did one good thing, it helped feed two of our deserving grad students.
ReplyDeleteYay for Mary Beth and Tinky Winky! Did MB have a cap with a triangle?
ReplyDeleteDidn't strike me that way, Mimi. Remember that to American eyes all Englishmen seem a wee bit funny.
ReplyDeleteYes, Lapin. You're all a wee bit funny. You said that!
ReplyDeleteBTW, are you still English?
The wee bit funniness is something of which you might occasionally remind those who are habitually snide at the expense of US vulgarians.
ReplyDeleteYes, I'm still a UK citizen, tho' I havent been there in 34 years.
Bert effeminate????
ReplyDeleteGoody Proctor, be there poppets in thy house?
ReplyDeleteMimi, Mary Beth probably did have a cap with a triangle or whatever Tinky Winky wore. Our students were/are always more up-to-date on current culture that most of the regular parishioners. It is fun trying to keep up with them, however. The interaction does tend to keep us somewhat younger in outlook than we would be otherwise, I think.
ReplyDeleteErika, yes!!! :-)
ReplyDeleteTobias, I never kept no poppets, not since I was a girl.
BooCat, I'm sure Mary Beth got it right. What a splendid idea!
Their interactions seemed to have enough irritation for them to be a couple.
ReplyDeleteErnie and Bert were certainly not gay! And neither were Paul Lynde, Charles Nelson Riley, and Tony Randall.
ReplyDeleteReal He-men all.
There was a time when even married couples slept in twin beds, in the movies at least.
ReplyDeleteYes, all couples you mention above slept in twin beds, but Lucy and Desi were the first to have "Hollywood" beds and push them together so their was no 'commuting' at night.
ReplyDeleteCounterlight--don't forget Liberace. ;-)
ReplyDeleteTheir interactions seemed to have enough irritation for them to be a couple.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, Paul! Sometimes Grandpère and I wonder how we made it thought 49 years of petty irritations.
Come on people! A list of teh gays in the entertainment world would be endless.
Susan, I'd forgotten that Lucy and Desi pushed their beds together. Scandalous!
Not only are Ernie and Bert definitely gay, in my opinion, but I suspect the rubber duckie in the picture is as well.
ReplyDelete