Sesame Street sues raunchy film

What do puppets do when they are not bringing joy to children?

According to The Happytime Murders, starring Melissa McCarthy in which puppets and humans inhabit the same world, the lovable characters get involved in sex, drugs and even murder.

It is not the movie’s raunchy depiction of puppets prostituting themselves, cursing or blowing their heads off that caused Sesame Workshop, the educational non-profit that produces Sesame Street, to file a lawsuit against the film’s creators, STX Entertainment.

It is the use of the tagline “No Sesame. All Street.” in its promotions that tarnishes a brand beloved by millions of children for nearly 50 years, the lawsuit claims.

“We take no issue with the creative freedom of the filmmakers and their right to make and promote this movie, rather this is about how our name is being misused to market a film with which we have no association,” Sesame Workshop said in a statement.

The movie is directed by Brian Henson, a son of Jim Henson, who helped develop Sesame Street characters before creating The Muppet Show. (Jim Henson died in 1990 at 53.)

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, maintains that the trailer, which features “profane, drugusing, misogynistic, violent, copulating and even ejaculating puppets” “tarnishes” the Sesame Workshop brand.