Big Bird and Cookie Monster on Sesame Street (Photos: Max)
It’s at all times a sunny day on Sesame Street, however for a lot of the week, issues weren’t A-OK within the land of the Muppets.
On January 24, Big Bird, the present’s eight-foot-tall, anthropomorphic canary, shocked followers when he revealed he’d shrunk right down to the scale of a paper clip, prompting questions concerning the bodily mechanics of his transformation and its affect on his psychological well being. As his identification disaster worsened, Big Bird — now simply “Bird,” as he described himself — sought assist from his associates, however he was so tiny that they couldn’t even see him. He languished in his emotional jail till January 30, when he introduced his return to big-dom. “What an journey the final 7 days have been,” he posted on Twitter/X. “I realized a lot by seeing the world from a special perspective.”
Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit behind Sesame Street, did not present an evidence for Big Bird’s shrinkage — which The A.V. Club famous was a nod to a 2005 storyline involving the Amazing Mumford — however Big Bird’s publish suggests it was a part of the corporate’s ongoing dedication to educating youngsters the facility of group assist. “Thank you to all that checked in to #HelpBigBird. Today and on a regular basis, let’s #HelpEachOther,” it reads. Replies from the opposite Muppets echoed that sentiment, with Elmo writing, “Everybody on @SesameStreet is right here to assist, that’s what associates are for!”
Elmo might now be basking within the glow of mutual assist, however he had an existential disaster of his personal earlier within the week. On January 29, he posted a seemingly harmless query — “Elmo is simply checking in! How is everyone doing?” — that instantly become a viral meme as customers divulged their deepest traumas and anxieties. The group remedy session continued when Elmo reminded fans that “it is very important ask a pal how they’re doing,” whereas Sesame Street inspired mindfulness and shared a hyperlink to additional mental health resources for youngsters and households.
“Elmo is the lovable furry monster audiences have a deep reference to. The energy of this tweet is the distinction between a coworker asking you ‘how are you doing?’ and a very good pal asking you,” Aaron Bisman, VP of Audience Development at Sesame Workshop, informed Primetimer in a press release. “Leveraging the curiosity in Elmo’s tweet to posting the quote tweet from Sesame Street with assets is precisely what Sesame Workshop was created to do.”
While we now know the reasoning behind Sesame Street‘s shrinkings — Big Bird’s literal one, and Elmo’s therapeutic one — the timing proved curious. The weeks earlier than the Super Bowl have grow to be synonymous with large-scale advertising and marketing stunts, a lot of which veer into prank territory, like Planters’ decision to “kill” Mr. Peanut in 2020 or Tubi’s 2023 commercial that tricked viewers into considering they sat on their remotes. By this logic, it is solely attainable that the Big Bird debacle and Elmo tweet may have been a part of a Super Bowl promoting marketing campaign from Sesame Workshop, notably as Paramount’s funding in kid-friendly NFL programming grows.
Barring any last-minute appearances from the Muppets, Big Bird’s return to type severs the potential tie between Sesame Street and Super Bowl LVIII, guaranteeing that the feel-good, pro-mental well being message of the stunt is not overshadowed by consumerism or any Taylor Swift-related controversies. But that is not the one optimistic consequence right here. With the Sesame Street gang bowing out of the Big Game, Cookie Monster has been spared from struggling a merciless destiny by the hands of Kris Jenner and her brood.
Excuse the tinfoil hat, however there was reputable motive to worry for Cookie Monster’s welfare, particularly with the remainder of the Muppets going via it in such a public style this week. In mid-January, Oreo launched a teaser for its Super Bowl business with Kris Jenner, who’s seen standing in her kitchen fastidiously stacking cookies in a glass jar, a method popularized by Khloé Kardashian years in the past on Keeping Up With the Kardashians. “How did we get right here? Well, to reply that, I’d have to return to the start,” she says. As she twists the highest off an Oreo, she laughs that she’d “higher go warn the children — of what, she would not specify, however given her sly chuckle, it will probably’t be good.
If there’s something the Cookie Monster would hate, it is the Kardashian-Jenners’ cookie-stacking approach. Beyond the apparent hygienic considerations (who needs another person’s soiled mitts throughout their Oreos?) watching them fastidiously switch cookies out of the packaging and into a big glass container — after which closing the jar with a lid and inserting it out of sight within the pantry — is the ultimate tease. Doubly so if Jenner plans to inform an extended, winding story about why cookies have been so instrumental in her household’s rise to fame (or no matter). Though he will be aggressive about his love of sweets, Cookie Monster is not a violent entity, however being compelled to sit down via an expertise like this simply would possibly tip him over the sting.
Would or not it’s thrilling to look at Cookie Monster battle a Kardashian? That’s an emphatic “sure.” But an Oreo-fueled cage match would additionally chip away on the notion that the characters of Sesame Street characterize one of the best of humanity, regardless of not really being human themselves. As the overwhelming response to Big Bird’s and Elmo’s plights makes clear, the Muppets are a beacon of positivity in a world stuffed with darkness and trauma. In the curiosity of our collective emotional wellbeing, it is best they keep that manner.
Sesame Street is streaming on Max.
Claire Spellberg Lustig is the Senior Editor at Primetimer and a scholar of The View. Follow her on Twitter at @c_spellberg.
