Sesame Exec: Bert and Ernie Are Gay, if You Want Them to Be
An executive at Sesame Workshop has confirmed that Bert and Ernie are gay...but only if you want them to be.
"People can think whatever they want [about Bert and Ernie]," Brown Johnson, the executive vice president of the Sesame Workshop, told The Hollywood Reporter. "You want to think they’re gay? OK. You want to think they’re not gay? They’re not gay."
While the debate goes back decades, it gained renewed interest when longtime Sesame Street writer Mark Saltzman said in an interview that he always wrote Bert and Ernie as a gay couple, based on his own real-life relationship.
Sesame Workshop released a statement denying they were more than friends, saying they "remain puppets, and do not have a sexual orientation."
After a backlash, which included many noting Miss Piggy and Kermit's on-again, off-again affair, and Oscar the Grouch's girlfriend, Grundgetta, they released a revised statement, which still called them "best friends."
While this doesn't exactly do much to clarifying things, it at least demonstrates that the company has listened to the feedback and has begun to understand it doesn't have to flinch every time someone suggests Bert and Ernie could be a couple.
