National Post (National Edition)
ARE BERT AND ERNIE A COUPLE? A REVIEW OF THE EVIDENCE.
On Monday, former Sesame Street writer Mark Saltzman told Queerty.com that whenever he wrote for Bert and Ernie, he always imagined them as lovers. “I always felt that without a huge agenda, when I was writing Bert & Ernie, they were. I didn’t have any other way to contextualize them,” he said. But is this definitive proof that Bert and Ernie have been gay this whole time? The National Post reviews the evidence. BERT CREATOR OZ SAYS CHARACTER ISN’T GAY
Veteran Muppeteer Frank Oz, who created the voice and character of Bert, weighed in Tuesday on the question of Bert and Ernie’s living situation. It’s fine that (Saltzman) feels they are,” Oz wrote on Twitter, adding “they’re not, of course.” Oz also wrote that it shouldn’t matter, “there’s much more to a human being than just straightness or gayness.” When critics questioned Oz on his authority to make such a proclamation, he wrote “I created Bert. I know what and who he is.”
BERT AND ERNIE BASED ON PLATONIC RELATIONSHIP
More than 10 years before Saltzman joined Sesame Street, the initial dynamics between Bert and Ernie were worked out organically in a writer’s room. Jim Henson and Franz Oz kib-butzed with the puppets while writers pelted them with character suggestions. What ultimately emerged, according to those present, was a relationship between Bert and Ernie that was simply an exaggerated version of the real friendship between Oz and Henson. “Jim was the instigator, the teaser, the cutup. Frank was the conservative, careful victim. But essential to the rapport was the affection and respect which these two men held for each other,” said early Sesame Street writer Jon Stone in the book Street Gang, a history of Sesame Street.
(SOME) MUPPETS DO APPEAR TO HAVE SEX LIVES
Muppets are not real, of course, but this doesn’t mean that there aren’t strict taboos within the Muppet universe. One of the most persistent rules is that a Muppet can never directly admit that they are a puppet. But there appears to be no rule against a Muppet alluding to an offscreen sex life. A Muppet fan site has compiled a detailed catalogue of all the times a Muppet has engaged in sexual innuendo, including the famous 1975 instance of Kermit the Frog asking Cher “do you, uh, fool around?” But all the hanky panky happens exclusively among Muppets owned by the Jim Henson Company or from the Disneyowned Muppets studio. Sesame Street Muppets are an entirely different breed with different ownership and licensing — and these Muppets are kept strictly sex-free (and not only because most Sesame Street Muppets are meant to represent young children). Recall that in 2010, Sesame Street cut a segment featuring Katy Perry and Elmo over fears that the singer’s ample bosom was a little too risqué for preschool audiences.
SESAME STREET’S PROGRESSIVE MESSAGES
Sesame Street was the first children’s show on American television with a racially integrated cast. At the time of its debut, the United States was only two years removed from complete legalization of interracial marriage. The show also contained veiled references to 1960s-era civil disobedience, such as a sketch in which an early version of Grover argues that he “does not want to be last in line” and demonstrates to be allowed at the front. But as Saltzman told Queerty, even by the ’80s Sesame Street had no interest in addressing the burgeoning gay rights movement. “I can remember pitching to the education department, the gatekeepers of the curriculum, gay content, just to get it off my conscience,” Saltzman told the site. “And I can remember being stonewalled in a way that it made me think it was a lost cause.”
SESAME WORKSHOP DENIES THAT DUO IN RELATIONSHIP
As soon as the Salzman comments began getting press attention, Sesame Workshop, the non-profit organization behind Sesame Street, publicly denied that Bert and Ernie have any attraction towards one another. “As we have always said, Bert and Ernie are best friends,” it read. “Even though they are identifiable as male characters and possess many human traits and characteristics (as most ‘Sesame Street’ Muppets do), they remain puppets, and have no sexual orientation.” Indeed, Sesame Workshop has been periodically releasing some version of this statement repeatedly for nearly 25 years, though the original 1994 version was more curt: "Bert and Ernie do not portray a gay couple, and there are no plans for them to do so in the future. They are puppets, not humans.'' The organization also addressed the issue in 2002 after the short film Ernest & Bertram portrayed the pair as openly gay, and again in 2011 when Sesame Street shot down an online petition’s request to have Bert and Ernie wed in order to teach tolerance to preschoolers.
PAIR HAVE BECOME ICONS OF GAY MARRIAGE
When the U.S. Supreme Court upheld same sex marriage in 2013, the New Yorker ran a cover featuring a snuggling Bert and Ernie watching the decision on TV. In Northern Ireland, the Sesame Street duo found themselves at the centre of a legal case that saw a Christian baker found guilty of discrimination. A gay rights activist requested a cake featuring the Muppet pair, and the text “support gay marriage.” When the baker refused, citing religious opposition to same-sex marriage, the Northern Ireland Equality Commission took it to court. Of course, this is not inherent proof that Bert and Ernie are gay.