Should Bert and Ernie Marry on Sesame Street?

[3point14]

I don't care, either way. What puppets to in the privacy of their own homes, is none of our business....

.....even if said puppets' homes are filmed for public television targeted for children.

Oh, you do go on.


(Every time I see one of your posts I want to reply with that. Had to get it out of my system)

 

[nvidiot]

I see nothing to be gained in sexualizing puppets.

With respect, I think you need to see "Meet the Feebles". Much hilarity can be gained by doing all kinds of sexual things with puppets.

But seriously is everyone here under the mistaken assumption that Seasame Street is marketed and pitched at children?

 

[3point14]

Bert and Ernie are doing it?!?!?!?!!?

Noooooooo!!!

Really? Are Bert and Earnie really doing the wild monkey-puppet-dance?


I'd have no objection to them getting married if they were gay, but (and I haven't seen much Seasame Steet lately) I haven't ever seen any evidence that B&E are doing it.

Bert and Earnie are about as gay as Morcambe and Wise were.

 

[TragicMonkey]

They can't get married because a) only one of them is gay, b) one of them is mentally retarded to the point where consent in law isn't possible, and c) they are brother and sister, and d) one of them is already married--separated, but not legally divorced.

eta: Obviously you people haven't been watching the show all these years.

 

[bonzombiekitty]

Odd. I recall them sharing a bed. Then again, the last time I watched it was... almost thirty years ago? >.>

I vaguely recall an episode where Bert was mad at Ernie for eating cookies in bed, because it left crumbs behind and Bert would get all itchy.

 

[PhantomWolf]

Bert and Ernie not gay and not getting married.

Well that solves that one, the answer is clearly no, no reason for non-gay puppets to get married.

Bert and Ernie, who've been on Sesame Street for 25 years, do not portray a gay couple, and there are no plans for them to do so in the future. They are puppets, not humans. Like all the Muppets created for Sesame Street, they were designed to help educate preschoolers. Bert and Ernie are characters who help demonstrate to children that despite their differences, they can be good friends.

 

[Darat]

...snip...

What I was trying to say. It's strange how, when people think of heterosexual love and marriage, they think of holding hands, kissing, living together, going on dates, etc., but when homosexuality is brought up, suddenly it's all about sex.

Sigmund Freud on line two.

Some of that is probably because public displays of affection between homosexual couples (especially male homosexual couples) such as hand holding is still very, very rare outside of the ghettos.

 

[marksman]

I wouldn't want Bert and Ernie to get married, but it has nothing to do with homosexuality. It has to do with change. This is a show for children, and changing characters is generally a bad idea. When Sesame Street dealt with Mr. Hooper's death, they had to, because Hooper was a staple on the show and he actually died, so his disappearance was going to be a disconcerting change. So they dealt with it, which was responsible. They didn't decide to kill off the Hooper character in order to teach kids about death.

I think it would be great if they introduced a new pair of married men (or women). Introducing new characters is much better than changing established characters. Sesame Street introduces new characters all the time. Elmo was introduced in the 1980's, Zoe in the 1990's, and Abby Cadabby in the 2000's. Introducing a pair of gay human characters, especially if they're introduce simply as the new neighbors and accepted as if it were nothing unusual, would be great.

But to have Bert and Ernie come out of the closet? Bad idea.

 

[Darat]

...snip...

Actually, they could address it if they want to, just not with Bert and Ernie. If they use those two characters to illustrate the issue, then everything we thought about them would be changed. Like there was some sexual tension betwen them that always existed but was never addressed. It would be changing a minor albeit still important part of many people's childhoods, including mine.

Using two new characters would be fine with me!

I agree with you about not using characters that are already used to educate or illustrate certain attributes in a friendship in this way, that would change the characters.

But don't agree with you that if I now learnt that they were getting married I would have to re-evaluate what I thought about them from when I was a kid!

 

[curious pheonix]

Whose to say Ernie and Bert are not just friends or are even children?! And why change something now when it has been good all these years?! (could say the same for the cookie monster and that cookies are a sometimes food).

For more complicated life skills and learning about the real world it should be up to the parents to teach their kids, not a television show.

No TV show is going to provide a 'real world' education or a fully realistic viewpoint of life. Let alone muppets.

Its the parents who are responsible for the children's eating habits, and its the parents who are responsible for being good role models and bringing children up with healthy eating habits and attitudes towards society, and acceptance of people and their relationship choices.

Why complicate something that is good. Parents should really take some responsibility for the education of their children, TV shows are for entertainment, and while some may be somewhat educational it is a sad world where people rely or blame television for the rearing of their children.

 

[DC]

Whose to say Ernie and Bert are not just friends or are even children?! And why change something now when it has been good all these years?! (could say the same for the cookie monster and that cookies are a sometimes food).

For more complicated life skills and learning about the real world it should be up to the parents to teach their kids, not a television show.

No TV show is going to provide a 'real world' education or a fully realistic viewpoint of life. Let alone muppets.

Its the parents who are responsible for the children's eating habits, and its the parents who are responsible for being good role models and bringing children up with healthy eating habits and attitudes towards society, and acceptance of people and their relationship choices.

Why complicate something that is good. Parents should really take some responsibility for the education of their children, TV shows are for entertainment, and while some may be somewhat educational it is a sad world where people rely or blame television for the rearing of their children.

when i was a kid we had several shows that were a ideal mix of entertainment and education. Today they seem to be only entertainment.

i think especially shows for kids should have educational values.

 

[Aepervius]

That make the expression "coming out of puppeteer closet" all the more funnier. Arharh.

Sorry forgive my humour.

 

[pgwenthold]

I don't care whether they have B&E come out or what, but if having a homosexual relationship/couple/marriage is too age unappropriate shall we remove any reference to Gordon and Susan's continuing marriage?

Especially since the person playing Gordon has changed so often over the years. One Gordon leaves, another takes his place. That's a great marriage lesson, yes?

 

[pgwenthold]

I wouldn't want Bert and Ernie to get married, but it has nothing to do with homosexuality. It has to do with change. This is a show for children, and changing characters is generally a bad idea. When Sesame Street dealt with Mr. Hooper's death, they had to, because Hooper was a staple on the show and he actually died, so his disappearance was going to be a disconcerting change. So they dealt with it, which was responsible. They didn't decide to kill off the Hooper character in order to teach kids about death.

I think it would be great if they introduced a new pair of married men (or women). Introducing new characters is much better than changing established characters. Sesame Street introduces new characters all the time. Elmo was introduced in the 1980's, Zoe in the 1990's, and Abby Cadabby in the 2000's. Introducing a pair of gay human characters, especially if they're introduce simply as the new neighbors and accepted as if it were nothing unusual, would be great.

Can they get rid of Zoe?

(I know there are people who hate Elmo, but that is mostly a backlash against his popularity. Zoe doesn't even have that. She's just bloody annoying. In contrast to Rosita, who I love (although she'd be cooler if she still had her bat wings); Abby herself is ok, but I hate that "Flying School" crap; easily the worst part of the show)

 

[Nursedan]

Forgot to reply to the last part of your post:


I don't know, maybe just mention it casually that they are now married, or make them call themselves honey or something.

That's up to the writers to come up with stuff, that's their job.

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.

 

[Cavemonster]

Got any evidence that Bert and Ernie love each other that way? A lot of people love each other as friends and that doesn't mean that they should be getting married. Where is the evidence that Bert and Ernie are anything more than super best friends?

I'm not talking about B+E. I've stated several times I don't think they should get married.

I'm addressing Nursedan's contention that gay marriage in and of itself should be excluded from the show because "It teaches kids that breaking the law is okay"

 

[Nursedan]

I'm not in favor of changing characters that have a clear educational role, for reasons I've described above that may differ from yours.

The kid in the youtube above understood gay marriage with no difficulty and went to play ping pong. Talking animals are even more rare than gay marriage, but kids accept those on the show, no problem.

I strongly suspect that you neither have kids nor spend much time with them. The number of things one explains to them, the number of idiosynchratic, specific and rare things is huge, concepts far more difficult than "When two people love each other very much, sometimes they get married and become a family" come up every day.

2 kids, mentioned one of them in my post.

How do you know the kid understood gay marriage from that video? Isn't it just as likely he was confused or uncomfortae and just wanted to leave the room? Maybe he didn't like being on camera? Saying that the kid understood gay marriage is really reaching I think.

 

[marksman]

TV shows are for entertainment

Part of Sesame Street's stated goal is to educate, as has been for more than 40 years.

it is a sad world where people rely or blame television for the rearing of their children.

I don't think anybody is relying on blaming Sesame Street for making education a part of its goals. I think we're just discussing whether having Bert & Ernie come out of the closet would be a productive way for Sesame Street to meet that goal.

 

[Cavemonster]

Its the parents who are responsible for the children's eating habits, and its the parents who are responsible for being good role models and bringing children up with healthy eating habits and attitudes towards society, and acceptance of people and their relationship choices.

Why complicate something that is good. Parents should really take some responsibility for the education of their children, TV shows are for entertainment, and while some may be somewhat educational it is a sad world where people rely or blame television for the rearing of their children.

Highly disagree. Sesame Street is funded and conceived as educational, and as much socially educational as it is about letters and numbers.

It was created largely because we live in a sad world where preschool education is absolutely vital and yet a huge number of children, especially children from poor families, don't get it, yet do have plenty of access to television. It was created as one way to help brideg the gap that a failure of the public educational system (no free options before kindergarten in many places) and the parents create.

Sesame Street is the most widely researched educational intervention in history http://www.eric.ed.gov:80/ERICWebPo...&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED385553 and has shown a clear positive impact.

Recently, Sesame has created special programs to address having a family member in the military and even having them die overseas, and one dealing with financial troubles within a family due to the economic downturn. Children's "entertainment" is deadly serious business.

 

[bigred]

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2011...-bert-and-ernie-get-married-on-sesame-street/

"LOS ANGELES (CBS) — Will the Children’s Television Workshop give way to same-sex puppet love?
An online campaign is calling for the producers of TV’s “Sesame Street” to allow characters Bert and Ernie to get married in an attempt to “put an end to the bullying and suicides of LGBT youth”, according to the group’s Facebook page.
The petition letter adds that “[w]e are not asking that Sesame Street do anything crude or disrespectful by allowing Bert & Ernie to marry”, suggesting that the show “even add a transgender character to the show…in a tasteful way”

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