For the past twenty years, the urban legend of Sesame Street's Bert and Ernie being "gay" has been circulating. The show has always had sort of a haha reaction to it, ultimately refuting that the puppets were anything other than really close platonic pals.

Now, it's been a minute since I watched Sesame Street. Myself, I think I stopped watching it when I was about seven or eight. When my daughter was a toddler, I was away at school in Ohio, so I missed much of her pre-preschool TV viewing; although I don't remember her being too big on SS (Blue's Clues was her thing.) However, if I'm not mistaken, I think the show had some of the puppet characters who would have 'innocent crushes' on puppets of the opposite sex and whatnot.

So do you think that the show should present Bert and Ernie as gay puppets who "innocently" crush on/interact with each other, just to get kids used to the reality of gay people?

Man those two LIVE together. "Innocent crush", my ass....far as I'm concerned, they're fucking....

LOL Nah. They don't need to go there with them.

I don't see it that way. Them living together, to me, it what made them work as a comedy team, like Abbott and Costello or Laurel and Hardy, or even the Odd Couple, the antics and jokes work BECAUSE they are living together, if each was living in a different apartment, maybe on other sides of the town, it wouldn't work, they would not be as funny. It's because they live together that they know each other so well and why Ernie knows everything that will burn Bert up. Now it's been a while since I watched the show too, but everybody else in there is pretty much on their own, the only exception being Big Bird and Snuffie, but they're not put together as friends for the sake of comedy, that's Bert and Ernie's territory.

Supernova wrote:

I don't see it that way. Them living together, to me, it what made them work as a comedy team, like Abbott and Costello or Laurel and Hardy, or even the Odd Couple, the antics and jokes work BECAUSE they are living together, if each was living in a different apartment, maybe on other sides of the town, it wouldn't work, they would not be as funny. It's because they live together that they know each other so well and why Ernie knows everything that will burn Bert up. Now it's been a while since I watched the show too, but everybody else in there is pretty much on their own, the only exception being Big Bird and Snuffie, but they're not put together as friends for the sake of comedy, that's Bert and Ernie's territory.

When I was little B&E were actually my favorite sketch on the show and I never questioned why they lived together or the nature of their friendship. They were the puppet version of the Odd Couple! The whole premise to me at the time was to show that people with "opposite" personalities could still be friends, no matter how much they got on each others nerves. I think society has just become so jaded and cynical that they have to take every little thing and twist it into something perverted.

Sure why not?

femme fatale wrote:

When I was little B&E were actually my favorite sketch on the show and I never questioned why they lived together or the nature of their friendship. They were the puppet version of the Odd Couple! The whole premise to me at the time was to show that people with "opposite" personalities could still be friends, no matter how much they got on each others nerves. I think society has just become so jaded and cynical that they have to take every little thing and twist it into something perverted.

Exactly. To me, watching them was almost like watching a couple of brothers because that would be the way they get along, one always getting on the other's nerves just to be funny. It was actually a lot like how my brother and I got along, because my brother actually DID collect paper clips like Burt did, and I was the one with a rubber duck. And I have to agree they were one of my favorite sketches to watch too, because they WERE so funny together. They were like one of the highlights of funny, most of the others were about cute and lessons and stuff, Burt and Ernie were the comic relief.

What would be the point of it? It's a toddler's television show. The two have never been hinted to be anything more than roommates. They're puppets, don't need to make them sexual. Sesame Street should remain a platonic show.

No, they should stay as is. SS is a show that teaches kids a lot. Think about the demographic of parents who would boycott the show if they were officially gay males, living together. Those kids with small minded parents need the educational value of the show because in my opinion, small minded parents, in general, don't teach as much at home.