Bert and Ernie are two muppets on the popular U.S. children's television show Sesame Street. The two appear together in numerous skits, forming a comic duo that is one of the centerpieces of the program. Originated by Frank Oz and Jim Henson, the characters are currently performed by Muppeteers Eric Jacobson and Steve Whitmire, with Oz performing Bert occasionally since 2000. Ernie is orange and Bert is yellow.
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Ernie and Bert were built by Don Sahlin from a simple design scribbled by Jim Henson, creator of The Muppets. In a classic pairing, Ernie appears chubby while Bert appears quite skinny (in a similar way to Abbott and Costello or Laurel and Hardy).[1] They were originally intended to show that people can be friends, even though they are very different.[2]. The two were named after the cop and taxi driver characters in the movie It's a Wonderful Life.
Initially, Henson performed Bert and Oz performed Ernie, but after just one day of rehearsal, they switched characters. According to writer Jon Stone, the relationship between Ernie and Bert reflected the real-life friendship between Henson and Oz.[3]
According to A&E's Biography, Ernie and Bert were virtually the only Muppets to appear in the Sesame Street pilot episode, which was screen tested to a number of families in July 1969. Their brief appearance was the only part of the pilot that tested well, so it was decided that not only should Muppet characters be the "stars" of the show, but would also interact with the human characters, something that was not done in the pilot.
Ernie and Bert were designed by Don Sahlin based on two fruits. Bert was based on a banana and Ernie was an orange.[4]
Bert was initially performed by Frank Oz. Since 2001, Muppeteer Eric Jacobson has been phased in as Bert's primary performer after Oz retired. (Oz, however, does continue to perform the character occasionally.)
Bert is a hand-rod puppet which means that while the puppeteer's right arm is inserted into Bert's head to control the mouth, the puppeteer's left hand uses rods to control the arms of the puppet. Other versions of this puppet include Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy. Bert is known for his expressive eyebrows.
Bert has a major role in the movie Sesame Street Presents: Follow that Bird when he and Ernie go to search for Big Bird in an airplane. Eventually Bert and Ernie find Big Bird nearby a farm field, but just before they can reveal themselves to Big Bird, Ernie turns the plane upside down and begins to sing "Upside Down World" with Bert eventually joining in singing. Just when Bert finally begins to enjoy himself, Ernie turns the plane back up, finds Big Bird gone, and blames it all on Bert.
Bert is intelligent, though a "boring" character. He enjoys very boring activities such as paper clip and bottle cap collecting (especially the rare 12 ounce Figgy Fizz), cooking oatmeal and watching pigeons. In one sketch, Bert reads a book called Boring Stories and chuckles, "Wow! 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 is often the mature half of the pair, and is easily frustrated at things that are not neat and tidy, including his roommate, Ernie. Things that bother Bert are being untidy, Ernie continuing to wake him up at night to ask stuff like "What are we going to do tomorrow?" or to ask him to play a game. There is only one sketch in the classic sketches where Bert triumphs over Ernie when showing off his bottlecap collection to Ernie who finds bottlecaps very boring.
Bert is good friends with a pigeon named Bernice (purely platonic), and has even created a dance called "Doin' the Pigeon." Bert serves as President of the National Association of W Lovers, a club dedicated to the letter W. Two conventions held by the W Lovers have been shown on the show. Bert also has pet goldfish, two of whom are named Lyle and Talbot, a reference to the actor Lyle Talbot. A third goldfish is Talbot's wife, Melissa. Bert has a twin brother, Bart; a nephew, Brad; and an Aunt Matilda.
Ernie was originally performed by Jim Henson. Since 1993, Muppeteer Steve Whitmire has taken on the role of Ernie (following the death of Henson in 1990).
Ernie is well-known for taking baths with his Rubber Duckie, and for having trouble trying to learn to play the saxophone because he would not "put down the duckie".
In the special Christmas Eve on Sesame Street, Ernie decides to buy Bert a cigar box from Mr. Hooper's store, to put his paperclips in, but since Ernie has no money, he has to trade his Rubber Duckie for it. However Bert at the same time tries to buy Ernie a soap dish for his Rubber Duckie, but has to trade in his paperclip collection, but Mr. Hooper understands that they do not really want to give up their prized possessions so he gives them back to them as gifts.
In the movie Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird, Ernie and Bert go to search for Big Bird in a plane. When Bert spots Big Bird, nearby a farm field, Ernie turns the plane upside down and begins to sing Upside Down World with Bert beginning to join in singing. However when Ernie turns the plane back up, Big Bird is gone and Ernie blames it all on Bert.
A running gag for the series involves Ernie presenting a hare-brained idea and Bert trying to dissuade him. Bert loses his temper while Ernie refuses to listen, and some element of truth in Ernie's idea adds to Bert's frustration. Another Ernie gag is that he refers to his bathtub and bath time as "Tubby time" before his performance of his song Rubber Duckie. His catchphrase for his comic duo with his roommate Bert, is "Hi Bert!"
Ernie is a "live-hand puppet", meaning that while operating the head of the puppet with his right hand, the puppeteer inserts his left hand into a T-shaped sleeve, capped off with a glove that matches the fabric "skin" of the puppet, thus "becoming" the left arm of the puppet. A second puppeteer usually provides the right arm.
Ernie's performance of "Rubber Duckie," wherein he sings affectionately about his squeaking toy duck and the joy it brings him during bathtime, became a modest mainstream hit, reaching No. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 in September 1970.[5]
A typical Ernie and Bert skit follows one of two similar patterns, both beginning with Ernie devising a hare-brained idea and Bert calmly attempting to talk him out of it. Usually, this ends with Bert losing his temper and Ernie remaining oblivious to his own bad idea. Sometimes, Ernie's idea miraculously turns out to be correct, much to Bert's evident frustration.
One example Ernie and Bert skit is the popular "banana in my ear" joke:
Part One: Bert attempts to tell Ernie that he has a banana in his ear, but Ernie cannot hear him because he has a banana in his ear.
Part Two: Bert comes back and Ernie reveals to him that he uses the banana to keep the alligators away. He uses Bert's denial of there being alligators on Sesame Street as proof that his method works.
(Later Bert comes back, while Ernie still has the banana in his ear.)
In 1997, the parody website "Bert is Evil" displayed Bert in a number of doctored photographs, implicating him in crimes ranging from the John F. Kennedy assassination to those of Jack the Ripper. A similar image from another source and featuring Bert conferring with Osama bin Laden was mistakenly included by a Bangladeshi print shop on a series of protest signs in late 2001 and 2002.[6]
Characters named Ernie and Bert appear in the film It's a Wonderful Life as a taxi driver and a policeman, respectively, but those behind Sesame Street claim that it is merely a coincidence. Jerry Juhl, a writer on many Henson-related projects, said, "Despite his many talents, Jim had no memory for details like this. He knew the movie, of course, but would not have remembered the cop and the cabdriver."[7]
Despite speculation about Bert's and Ernie's relationship and sexuality, Sesame Workshop states that the two "do not have a sexual orientation."[8] Ernie and Bert live together in an apartment in the basement of 123 Sesame Street. Ernie and Bert sleep in separate beds, though they still share a bedroom. Some of Bert's interactions with female characters appear to show that he is attracted to women: serenading Connie Stevens in the Some Enchanted Evening segment of a first-season episode of The Muppet Show, and recording a song about his girlfriend, I Want to Hold Your Ear, which was released on several albums.