Bert and Ernie of “Sesame Street” have always had a little something-something going on. Like Spongebob and Patrick, Ren and Stimpy, Betty Rubble and Wilma Flintstone, possibly Timone and Pumbaa, this famous duo capture the sexual imagination of TV audiences everywhere.
Or not. In fact, there are only a slim number of viewers out there contemplating these things, and they can all be found on Twitter. Are Bert and Ernie actually a couple and not just asexual roommates living in a cardboard apartment at 123 Sesame Street?
In an interview with Queerty, Mark Saltzman claims to give us the answer. Saltzman, who worked on the show starting in 1986 as a script and songwriter, told Queerty that he wrote the duo in the context of his experience as a gay man.
“I always felt that without a huge agenda, when I was writing Bert and Ernie, they were,” Saltzman said when asked if the two characters were gay. “I didn’t have any other way to contextualize them.”
Naturally, this sort of thing provokes strong reactions within the Bert and Ernie fanbase.
[Related: Sesame Workshop confirms Bert and Ernie ‘best friends,’ after former writer said they were a couple]
OFFICIAL: “Sesame Street” writer acknowledges Bert and Ernie are a “loving couple”.https://t.co/94L1fXbIr7
— Charlotte Clymer?️? (@cmclymer) September 18, 2018
Are there really people who didn’t know Bert and Ernie were gay?
— andy lassner (@andylassner) September 18, 2018
The problem is, Mark Saltzman did not create Bert and Ernie, nor does he control the canon of “Sesame Street.” Frank Oz, the esteemed puppeteer behind Bert, Cookie Monster, Grover, and even Yoda of “Star Wars,” took to Twitter to set the record straight. Oz gently reminded the Twitterverse that he created Bert, and that Saltzman as a writer for the show is free to leverage his personal experiences to influence his writing, but that does not make Bert and Ernie gay.
It seems Mr. Mark Saltzman was asked if Bert & Ernie are gay. It’s fine that he feels they are. They’re not, of course. But why that question? Does it really matter? Why the need to define people as only gay? There’s much more to a human being than just straightness or gayness.
— Frank Oz (@TheFrankOzJam) September 18, 2018
I created Bert. I know what and who he is.
— Frank Oz (@TheFrankOzJam) September 18, 2018
Initially, Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit behind Sesame Street, also delivered a statement in response to Saltzman. They claimed the pair have no sexuality and are simply puppets. Who knew? But then they deleted their tweet and replaced it with something more “inclusive.”
Please see our most recent statement regarding Bert and Ernie below. pic.twitter.com/gWTF2k1y83
— Sesame Workshop (@SesameWorkshop) September 18, 2018
Responses to Oz were characteristic of Twitter in that they conjured a malicious motive by Oz to correct the record on Bert and Ernie, accusing him of being “disgusted” and harboring ill will towards the LGBTQ community calling for “honesty” in the sexuality of his characters.
How odd you see my feelings as disgust
— Frank Oz (@TheFrankOzJam) September 18, 2018
The call by Oz for honesty when dealing with the representation of LGTBQ couples on screen is an important one. J.K. Rowling, who wrote the “Harry Potter” series, was once cheered as a progressive hero when she announced in 2007 that Dumbledore was gay. Ten years later, the mood in the progressive movement shifted away from “retroactive inclusion” and to calling on representation to be canonically clear and visible. This has been a positive change in how the Left thinks about enhancing diversity in media. You don’t have to steal away the identity or image of pre-existing characters to move towards an inclusive future, you only need to tell new stories. You could call this transformation in the representation debate the “Dumbledore Effect.”
Oz held up surprisingly well in his defense of Bert and Ernie’s true identities without giving an inch to haters. It is rare to see a Hollywood creative go more than a few hours without issuing a public apology when they challenge fellow liberals. In this case, Oz might have dodged severe blowback because of the “Dumbledore Effect” and it’s lasting impact on how the entertainment world thinks about gay characters on screen.
Oz made a powerful point in saying “there’s much more to a human being than just straightness or gayness.” He couldn’t be more correct.
Stephen Kent (@Stephen_Kent89) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner‘s Beltway Confidential blog. He is the spokesperson for Young Voices and host of “Beltway Banthas,” a Star Wars and politics podcast in D.C.
