Should Bert and Ernie Marry on Sesame Street?

[Furcifer]

In a wheelchair? No problem. Fat, be proud of yourself. Nerdy? You have a great future ahead of you. Gay? Don't talk about it till your older.

Sure, but the target demographic is too young to know what "gay" is. You really run the risk of creating confusion, just because someone likes to play with the girls or likes to play with the boys doesn't make them gay. You really need to define sexual attraction, and that's not something Sesame Street age kids are capable of.

 

[Foster Zygote]

Sesame Street is an anarcho-syndicalist commune.

I thought they were an autonomous collective.

 

[elipse]

The muppets on Sesame Street are children. Bert and Ernie are older than, say, Elmo, but they're still children. So no. But they could have a gay human (all the adults on Sesame Street are human) couple, no problem. In fact, I'm surprised they don't already have one.

 

[applecorped]

I thought they were an autonomous collective.

splitter

 

[Stacko]

I've always just assumed that Bert & Ernie were brothers.

I'd always assumed this too.

 

[MatildaGage]

suggesting that the show “even add a transgender character to the show…in a tasteful way”

I don't think anyone has remarked on this part of the OP. I realize the whole thing has been debunked by snopes--I guess someone was just trying to start a rumor or maybe spark a discussion on this subject.

So my take on it is gay muppet couples are ok since it is a totally normal thing and age-appropriate for kids. I don't understand the comparisons to bestiality and drug abuse--those things are harmful, illegal and/or morally wrong, unlike being homosexual. It is legal in the US to marry someone of the same gender, just not in all the US--yet.

My take on the transsexual muppet characters is...no. It's a much more complex thing than 2 adults loving each other. My sense is it would be disturbing and possibly frightening to kids.

I've always thought that the muppets in Sesame Street were supposed to be children. Or child-like at least. I think that if Sesame Street wants to address gay marriage they should do it with a human couple.

That is a good point.

 

[Pardalis]

And that wouldn't confuse a child? Come on try harder.

How about responding to the first part of my post? You 'forgot' to do that.

Why suddenly so arrogant?

I didn't answer the first part because it striked me as irrelevant, if you want to know the truth.

I see everything I said passed right over your head.

 

[TragicMonkey]

The muppets on Sesame Street are children.

No they're not. That show's been around forever. Those puppets are adults--senior citizens, in fact. But they've been locked up in the Sesame Street Asylum for most of their lives because they are criminally insane. Oh, yes, it's a nice asylum, made to look like a neighborhood street with shops and trees and stuff, but still it's a secure facility for murderous sociopathic puppets who have gleefully killed and would kill again, were they removed from their special environment. Don't be fooled by how cute some of them are; those puppets are deadly, they are all psychopaths, and they're kept locked up for the safety of all of us.

Let them "marry" if they want to, let them recite the alphabet to each other, let them count things and talk about cookies. Just so long as they can't get out and resume the cannibalism and murders and arson that got them locked up in there.

 

[Safe-Keeper]

^^
Sesame Street (like Duckburg) is one of those universes that looks peaceful and well-run and family-friendly only so long as you don't actually start to think about them. ETA: be glad you live in blissfull ignorance about the Norwegian Sesame Station.

suggesting that the show “even add a transgender character to the show…in a tasteful way”

Why would anyone have a problem with that? Naive rhetorical question, I know, because I know a lot of people would, but a transgender person is just a guy in a girl's body, or the other way around. Nothing kids wouldn't be able to handle.
Oh, no, wait, that's all about sex, too, right?

 

[bigred]

To what ends though? What does making Bert and Ernie officially gay do? It seems like a political platforming instead of educating children on a children's education program.

I'd add just because people don't complain about Cookie Monster stealing cookies, doesn't mean people won't complain about same sex marriages being portrayed as "legal" in areas where the program is shown. The FCC is federal and I don't think it's going to matter where the program is made, just where it's shown.

I don't think it's cowardice for a children's program to limit their programming to children's issues and not adult ones. Unfortunately while gay marriage may affect both, it's still an adult issue. Drinking and using drugs, even abortio affects kids, probably more so than adults, but it's still not appropriate to put on Sesame Street. I think it might require a format change it it's going to get political. Until it's resolved across the US you'd be hard pressed to say it's not a political issue.

:APPLAUSE: Of course it's a political issue. It's also an absurd example of special interests. Well said and thank you for reminding me that at least some people get it.

PS and update if not already stated: Sesame St basically said "uh I don't think so" on this idiotic idea, as I figured they would. I can just see them rolling their eyes and shaking their heads.

 

[bigred]

a transgender person is just a guy in a girl's body, or the other way around.

Well if THAT'S all.

Yes I'm sure that's a reaonable and even common topic among 1st graders at recess - the usual, yknow - "LGBT," abortion, birth control, gun control, the economy....

:forehead slap:

 

[Safe-Keeper]

Well if THAT'S all.

It is.

Oh, no, wait, that's all about sex, too, right?

Yes I'm sure that's a reaonable and even common topic among 1st graders at recess - the usual, yknow - "LGBT," abortion, birth control, gun control, the economy....

I called it!
No, wait, I didn't. Apparently when you hear "transgender" you think "gun control" and "the economy". Er...

...considers implications from safety of cardboard box

The muppets -- who are magical creatures -- don't appear to have jobs. (Though Abby Cadabby is apparently a fairy godmother in training.)

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FriendsRentControl

 

[RandFan]

Don't agree about Bert and Ernie but if young children can survive knowing about mommies and daddies, or married men and women then they damn sure can survive knowing about daddies and daddies / mommies and mommies and they can deal with married people of the same sex.

That a person is attracted to a person of the same sex says no more about sex than a person who is attracted to a person of the opposite sex.

The kids will do fine. Just don't start with Bert and Ernie.

 

[RandFan]

If two men who are boyfriends or married is about sex then a man and woman who are dating or married is about sex.

I've heard this inconsistent nonsense before. It's dishonest. It's just an assertion coupled with special pleading. Throw in argument ad nauseam and you've got what seems like a logically valid argument.

It's not.

 

[Puppycow]

The muppets on Sesame Street are children. Bert and Ernie are older than, say, Elmo, but they're still children. So no. But they could have a gay human (all the adults on Sesame Street are human) couple, no problem. In fact, I'm surprised they don't already have one.

TragicMonkey's funny post aside, this is basically how I see it.

Ernie plays with a rubber ducky in the bathtub, for example. Maybe he's not exactly a child, but he's a muppet who is supposed to relate to young children as a friend, not an adult authority figure. The muppets on Sesame Street don't get married, do they? (Kermit did marry Miss Piggy, but not on Sesame Street IIRC). The Muppet Show was geared to an older audience, or to include an older audience.

Anyway, Bert and Ernie have always been essentially asexual and childlike, and they should stay that way.

I wouldn't have a problem with gay human characters getting married on Sesame Street, but let the muppets just be muppets.

 

[RandFan]

TragicMonkey's funny post aside, this is basically how I see it.

Ernie plays with a rubber ducky in the bathtub, for example. Maybe he's not exactly a child, but he's a muppet who is supposed to relate to young children as a friend, not an adult authority figure. The muppets on Sesame Street don't get married, do they? (Kermit did marry Miss Piggy, but not on Sesame Street IIRC). The Muppet Show was geared to an older audience, or to include an older audience.

Anyway, Bert and Ernie have always been essentially asexual and childlike, and they should stay that way.

I wouldn't have a problem with gay human characters getting married on Sesame Street, but let the muppets just be muppets.

 

[Furcifer]

If two men who are boyfriends or married is about sex then a man and woman who are dating or married is about sex.

I've heard this inconsistent nonsense before. It's dishonest. It's just an assertion coupled with special pleading. Throw in argument ad nauseam and you've got what seems like a logically valid argument.

It's not.

And two men living together isn't about sex until you say they're homosexual.

The same goes for a man and a woman living together. Sex isn't implied by their living together, but it is as soon as you say they're a couple. What's dishonest is saying the declaration of a relationship implies sex when it's gays but it doesn't when they are heterosexual. Please.

If Bert was a girl and Ernie a boy, and after 25 years of living together they decided they were a couple it would imply they were having sex.

 

[Irony]

They shouldn't. As others have pointed out Seaseme Street Muppets are largely portrayed as children, and Bert and Earnie have never been a romantic couple. The "adults" of the Seaseme Street world are humans, and if the issue is to be tackled it should be by a human gay couple. IMO the best way to do it would be to simply have them there, introduce them as a couple, and have no one actually care or remark about it any more than they would were they a gender-mixed couple. Let the silly fundies rant and rave, and meanwhile show (not tell, show) the kids that there's nothing strange about it at all.

 

[ponderingturtle]

Yeah right. Just when you think you can't hear anything more asinine. I'm so surprised this comes out of L.A. Really!

Yes let's introduce (mostly very young) children to sexual lifestyle choices, that's what's needed on Sesame Street. Why stop there? Let's have a character into beastiality and maybe a drug addict too. wheeeeeeee

Yep ban all marraiges on sesame street! Children do not need to know anything about marriage as that is a sexual lifestyle choice. Marriage divorce all of that crap needs to be kept away from children.

And the Muppet's already address bestiality, see Kermit and Miss Piggy's wedding in The Muppet's Take Manhattan.

 

[ponderingturtle]

Neat, don't watch much new dr who ( love the old stuff but i still havn't watched nearly all of it. ), but it always kills me that it seems a bi character always has a bit of shady to them ( the being a former con man reference.) .

The best bi character i have seen was from a totally tripe move called city rats. A series of vignettes , and his was the only interesting one.

His lover in Torchwood didn't, other than some weird issues with an ex girlfriend.

Of course Jack is not a modern bisexual, he is from the future when humanity slept their way to the top of the galaxy.