Revisiting 8 Sesame Street Rumors

Are Bert & Ernie lovers? Is Cookie Monster becoming 'Veggie Monster'? Here's a look at 8 nagging Sesame Street rumors and whether there's any truth behind them.

1. Bert & Ernie Are Lovers

Sure, Bert and Ernie are two happy-go-lucky bachelors who happen to share a bedroom, but that doesn't mean there's anything going on beneath the sheets (which, knowing Ernie, are most likely littered with cookie crumbs). The duo have become unofficial poster-Muppets for gay rights, most likely because of their penchant for sharing, the way they squabble like an old married couple, and for loving each other against all odds. Sesame Workshop has been releasing statements on the subject since 1993, in which they refute any arguments that Bert and Ernie are gay, or that they have any sexuality at all.

Even Ernie himself (as performed by Steve Whitmire) said, "All that stuff about me and Bert? It's not true. We're both very happy, but we're not gay," when asked about their relationship. A few years later, Bert (as performed by Eric Jacobson) answered the same question by saying, "No, no. In fact, sometimes we are not even friends; he can be a pain in the neck." And if you can't take a Muppet's word for it, who can you trust?

2. Muppet = Marionette + Puppet

What is a Muppet? According to Homer Simpson, "It's not quite a mop, and it's not quite a puppet"¦ but man! So to answer your question, I don't know." Homer may have been on to something. Not with the mop thing, but by claiming to not know.

For years, people have spread the rumor that Jim Henson coined the word "Muppet" by combining "marionette" and "puppet." When asked about his portmanteau, Henson always claimed that he just found the word amusing, and that there was no hidden meaning.

However, interviews from early in Henson's career have recently resurfaced in which he confirms that the marionette-puppet rumors are true.

So did Jim change his mind about the origins of "Muppet" once it started to become a household word? Or did he bend the truth early in his career to avoid sounding pretentious? The world may never know.

3. There's an HIV-Positive Muppet

4. Brian Henson Became Kermit

When Jim Henson died suddenly in 1990, many people believed that his signature character, Kermit the Frog, was passed down to his son, Brian. Though Brian was heavily involved with the Jim Henson Company and often performed as a puppeteer, he did not perform the frog. That honor went to Steve Whitmire, who started with the Muppets on The Muppet Show, and is best known for characters such as Rizzo the Rat and Fraggle Rock's Wembley. Brian did become President of the Jim Henson Company, and later directed several feature films starring his father's creations. Though he didn't take over the Kermit puppet, he get the chance to perform one of his father's characters: The Muppet Newsman. Brian performed the Newsman at The Muppet Show Live in 2001 and in the video game, Muppet Party Cruise.

5. They Were Plotting Ernie's Death

In the early 1990s, soon after Jim Henson's death, a rumor circulated that Ernie would be killed off in order to teach children about death, in the fashion of Mr. Hooper's death on an earlier episode of Sesame Street. The cause of death in these rumors ranged from a fatal disease to a car accident. Thankfully for us (and thankfully for his buddy Bert), this was not the case. According to Snopes, the rumor may have spread thanks to New Hampshire college student, Michael Tabor, who convinced his graduating class to wear "Save Ernie" beanies and sign a petition to persuade Sesame Workshop to let Ernie live. By the time Tabor was corrected, the newspapers had already picked up the story. Ernie is alive and well today, and continues to pester his roommate on a daily basis.

6. It's a Wonderful Life Helped Name Bert & Ernie

Every Christmas when people revisit It's a Wonderful Life, they hear the names of Ernie the cab driver and Bert the cop and think that it's too much of a coincidence for both sets of characters to share the same names. According to Jerry Juhl, the head writer for the Muppets for over 30 years, Jim Henson did not have much of a memory for details like that, so he wouldn't have remembered the names of two minor characters from an old film. Supposedly, when he saw the Bert and Ernie puppets, he looked at them and decided that this one looks like a "Bert" and that one looks like an "Ernie."

The rumor was referenced in the 1996 special Elmo Saves Christmas, in which Bert and Ernie walk by a TV set that's playing It's a Wonderful Life, which just so happens to be set to a scene where George Bailey says both of their names. Bert and Ernie were just as surprised as any of us.

7. Those Toys Sure Have Potty-Mouths

No, the Cookie Monster Dump Truck Driver doll does not say, "Time to f*ck." No, the Potty Time with Elmo doll does not say, "Uh oh, who wants to die?" No, the Talking Elmo doll does not say, "Beat Up Elmo." And no, the Elmo Knows Your Name doll did not threaten a young boy by saying, "Kill James." But damn if they all didn't sound like it.

8. He's Becoming the Vegetable Monster

This is far from the first time Cookie Monster has touted the benefits of a non-cookie diet. In 1974, he was featured in an ad for The Nutrition Council about healthy eating:

In 1987 he rapped (yes, rapped) about fruits and veggies with the Run-DMC spoof, "Healthy Food." And these don't even begin to skim the surface of the many different things Cookie Monster has devoured over the years, which include flatware, telephones, microphones, and letters of the alphabet.

In case anyone was still on the fence about Cookie Monster's status as a cookivore, Matt Lauer visited Sesame Street in 2007 to ask him directly. Cookie Monster refuted the rumor, claiming that "you members of media blow story WAY out of proportion." A year later, he visited the set of The Colbert Report to defend his stance on cookies once again. As you can see, Cookie Monster's status (and name) remain entirely intact.