Bert

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For other uses, see Bert (disambiguation).
Bert hosting a convention of the National Association of W Lovers meeting
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Bert hosting a convention of the National Association of W Lovers meeting

Bert is a fictional character, a Muppet on the Public Broadcasting Service's long-running children's television show, Sesame Street.

Bert was originally performed by Frank Oz. Since 2001, Muppeteer Eric Jacobson has been phased in as Bert's primary performer.

He and his friend and roommate Ernie form a comic duo that is one of the program's centerpieces, with Bert acting the world-weary foil to Ernie's naïve trouble-maker. A characteristic physical feature of Bert is his unibrow.

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[edit] Characteristics

[edit] Personality

Bert, though intelligent, is also grumpy, boring, easily frustrated and yellow. He enjoys activities such as paper clip and bottle cap collecting, cooking oatmeal and watching pigeons. In one sketch, Bert reads a book called "Boring Stories" and chuckles, "Boy, these Boring Stories are really exciting!" In the book Sesame Street Unpaved, Frank Oz says, "I was never really happy with Bert's character until about a year in, when I realized... that he was a very boring character, and I'd use that weakness as a strength for him."

Bert has a pet pigeon named Bernice, and he created a dance called "Doin' the Pigeon".

A typical "Bert and Ernie" skit has Ernie coming up with a hare-brained idea and Bert attempting to talk him out of it, ending with Bert completely losing his temper and Ernie remaining oblivious to his own bad idea.

Trying to do a pigeon bird call, Bert mistakenly attracts a tiger.
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Trying to do a pigeon bird call, Bert mistakenly attracts a tiger.

Bert has a twin brother, Bart, a nephew, Brad, and an Aunt Matilda. Brad (presumed to be played by Richard Hunt) had a voice like Beaker, but slightly deeper, and while he still made baby-like noises, he was able to talk. Ernie brought a toy shark with him in one skit; Brad was scared by it, not realising it was a toy. Bart looks exactly like Bert—Ernie once mistook Bart for Bert—but Bart wears a suit and fedora and is a salesman ("Bart's the name and selling's my game!").

The age of Bert and Ernie is regularly discussed on forums. Nothing official has ever been said, but most consider the duo adults, as they do not appear to be highly dependent on others. Helping suggestions of the characters being young is a comment by Sesame Street Live performer Taylor Morgan. Morgan said to the Macon Telegraph that "I just kind of try to think like a 6-year-old or 7-year-old, because that's how old Bert is." [1]

[edit] Sexuality

Ernie and Bert share an apartment in the basement of 123 Sesame Street. Although they sleep in separate beds, this has led to the occasional suggestion that they are representations of gay lovers. Sesame Workshop, the corporation that owns the show and the characters, denies this and is occasionally compelled to point out that Bert and Ernie are made from cloth and other materials, and have no sexuality whatsoever.

Despite this, some continue to insist that the relationship between Bert and Ernie are more than "just friends." A number of individuals have used this suggestion as fodder in popular culture parodies, including:

  • Family Guy — Bert and Ernie were featured as gay lovers in the episode "Mind over Murder," as part of a parody called "Homicide: Life on Sesame Street" (which also satirized Homicide: Life on the Street). Bert—a gruff, foul-mouthed, hard-drinking detective—is called at 3 a.m. to the scene of a homicide in front of Hooper's Store. He scolds Ernie for eating cookies in bed (a parody of a classic skit).
  • Mad TV — The fourth episode of season 12 of Mad TV that aired on November 4, 2006 had a parody of Sesame Street that depicted Bert as an internet predator on a Myspace parody website called Myplace.

[edit] Cultural impact

A humor website "Bert is Evil" hosted digitally manipulated images and satiric articles as "evidence" of Bert being evil. The site depicted the Muppet consorting with Adolf Hitler and the Ku Klux Klan and present at the Hindenburg disaster. The site drew worldwide attention in 2001 when a photo of a Bangladeshi street protest was distributed by the Reuters news agency; the photo included a protest sign that depicted Bert with Osama bin Laden, an image that had been inadvertently placed there by the owner of a poster shop in Dhaka.[2] Although the Bert-with-Osama image never appeared on "Bert is Evil," owner Dino Ignacio took the site off-line anyway.

The song and dance "Doin' the Pigeon" inspired an end zone dance by San Francisco 49ers defensive back Merton Hanks.

In Germany the TV comedy show "Freitag Nacht News" featured a series of sketches with "Bernie und Ert" as two puppets in leather gear entering a sex club. These episodes were highly popular and are still a sought item for filesharers. German comic artist OL made several parodies about Ernie and Bert as gay workmen from Poland.

[edit] Trivia

According to Henson, Bert and Ernie were not named after characters of the same name from the classic Christmas movie It's a Wonderful Life.

Bert scared silly by the "Beautiful Day" monster.
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Bert scared silly by the "Beautiful Day" monster.

[edit] Discography

As the duo often sing in their skits, several albums were released containing studio-recorded versions of their songs. Bert's best-known song is Doin' the Pigeon. Additionally, he and Ernie both had their own video, The Best of Ernie and Bert, and their own album, Bert and Ernie's Greatest Hits . He also has a few of his own albums, such as Bert's Blockbusters and The Best of Bert).

[edit] International

Sesame Street is localised for some different markets, and Bert is often renamed.

[edit] External links

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