Bert and Ernie are gay. Maybe. But really, who cares if they are?
Sesame Street writer Mark Saltzman talked to Queerty about the relationship between the two puppets and how it reflected his partnership with film editor Arnold Glassman.
“ And I always felt that without a huge agenda, when I was writing Bert & Ernie, they were [gay].
I didn’t have any other way to contextualize them. The other thing was, more than one person referred to Arnie & I as Bert & ErnieI was Ernie. I look more Bert-ish. And [Arnold] as a film editor — if you thought of Bert with a job in the world, wouldn’t that be perfect? Bert with his paper clips and organization? And I was the jokester. So it was the Bert and Ernie relationship, and I was already with Arnie when I came to ‘Sesame Street.’ I don’t think I’d know how else to write them, but as a loving couple”
Sesame Workshop denied the comments in a tweet, stating that the two were just friends.
Man, the “just friends” tweet. We’ve all been there.
Saltzman then got threatened by Oscar the Grouch because he backtracked on his comments (via the New York Post).
“They are two guys who love each other. That’s who they are.”
Again, who cares? If they are gay, they are gay. The fact that this is a big controversy in 2018 tells us that we still have a long way to go as a society.
Bert and Ernie are gay. Big Bird is actually a chicken. Cookie Monster is a selfish prick. Oscar the Grouch is just a misunderstood homeless man. Sesame Street was the first Legal Drug Zone before The Wire ripped them off. This is Sesame Street in 2018 and what they’ve always been. Accept it or watch Barney.