The Sesame Street COVID 19 Special: Most Difficult Issue Tackled So Far?

Given that what the scientific community knows about the COVID 19 threat is still evolving, is this the “most difficult issue” being discussed by Sesame Street to date?

By: Ringo Bones

The COVID 19 pandemic is probably one of the most difficult issues confronting humanity to date that since the global lockdown, the folks at the Children’s Television Workshop had worked in conjunction with CNN already made two COVID 19 Sesame Street specials. Even though Sesame Street had made episode tackling difficult social issues since it started back in 1969 ranging from LGBT issues to parents not around due to the ongoing War on Terror during the first few years of the 21^st Century, it seems that social distancing could be the most difficult issue that kids around the world will be confronting and, fortunately, Sesame Street once again will allay the fears experienced by kids with regards to the COVID 19 pandemic.

With experts like Dr. Sanjay Gupta explaining why social distancing is necessary to slow down the spread of the virus before an effective vaccine is found, the two specials managed to teach the kids to adapt to the so-called “new normal”. Let’s just hope that the latest generation of Sesame Street’s fans will be the beneficiaries of an effective coronavirus vaccine.

Sesame Street Versus Donald J. Trump?

Even though the show has been largely “politically agnostic” since it first aired back in 1969, did Sesame Street managed to got itself to be the focus of U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s ire? 

By: Ringo Bones 

Even though he never “Tweeted” it out loud, many people believe that Donald J. Trump has a long-standing beef with Sesame Street way before he became – albeit not via popular vote – the president of the United States. Under the Trump Administration’s budget that was published back in May 2017, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting would be one of many nonprofit corporations across the United States that would lose funding despite that it makes up only a tiny portion of the annual federal spending. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting provides funding to thousands of radio and television stations in the United States, but is best known for its ties to both PBS and NPR. 

And some – mostly Sesame Street viewers who had been watching the show for at least since the early to mid 1970s – believe that President Trump’s disdain for public broadcasting stems from an old grudge against Big Bird, Elmo and Cookie Monster. Sesame Street viewers could trace it back when a character named Ronald Grump which was parodying the then real-estate mogul Donald J. Trump in the 1980s.

Ronald Grump’s first appearance on Sesame Street came in 1988 when he convinced Oscar the Grouch to replace his spot on the street with a building called “Grump Tower”. In exchange, Oscar got a free room in the tower and three bags of trash even though his friend tried to talk him out of the rotten deal. Oscar and Grump eventually got into an argument over pets being allowed in the “duplex can-dominium”, which almost cost Oscar 40 bags of trash – or as he put it, his entire “trash savings” – to get out of the deal. 

Ronald Grump’s second appearance came in 1994 when Sesame Street celebrated its 25^th Anniversary. Played by famed actor Joe Pesci, Grump announced his plans to destroy Sesame Street to build a high-rise “Grump Tower.” Following a lot of hostility – Grump said Sesame Street will be a luxurious boutique called “If You Have To Ask, You Cannot Afford It” – Grump’s plans ended up falling through the cracks due to Oscar’s can being government property. 

When Ronald Grump made his final appearance in 2005 for the episode “Grouch Apprentice”, he was back to puppet form. In search of a helper to sort through all of his trash, several muppets auditioned to be his assistant by going through a series of contests. Grump ended up firing one of them (one being called Omagrossa, which was clearly based on The Apprentice star turned Trump political aide Omarosa Manigault) and hiring two of them, Oscar and Grundgetta, because they were the most incompetent. Sadly, give Sesame Street’s apolitical nature, Ronald Grump won’t be returning anytime soon to parody President Trump. Grump just got on Sesame Street as a bad example of greediness in a values lesson episode. And the top brass of the Children’s Television Workshop were probably very thankful that Ronald Grump wasn’t grabbing any pussy on the set of Sesame Street during his final appearance back in 2005.

Should Sesame Street Do A Donald J. Trump Episode?

Famed for doing difficult issue episodes tailored for children to understand, should Sesame Street do another difficult issue episode explaining the election of Trump to the White House? 

By: Ringo Bones 

For over forty years, Sesame Street has made Emmy-worthy episode on difficult issues tailored for young children to understand. Most notable are the episodes explaining gay marriage and the deployment of those with family members who are in the military to Afghanistan in Iraq during the post 9/11 period of the George W. Bush administration. But this time around, should the creative team at the Children’s Television Workshop do an episode explaining to kids the election of the “unsavory” billionaire and reality show proprietor Donald J. Trump to the White House? 

Folks who grew up during the past forty years or so are probably taught in school that being the president of the United States is a special job that only those qualified should be chosen to do so are probably now scratching their heads on why a bully, sexist and paedophile billionaire like Donald J. Trump got elected to the White House. Undoubtedly, many children are, now too, asking their parents to what tantamount to be the existential question on “why good things happen to very bad people?”

Was Sesame Street’s Mr. Hooper Jewish?

The answer is he – the Sesame Street character – definitely was, but the better question to ask would be: “when did you found out that Mr. Hooper is Jewish?  

By: Ringo Bones 

Of all the human casts of the iconic children’s educational TV series, those who were there since the show first aired back in 1969 would probably cite Mr. Hooper as the most fascinating. The most probable reason is, is that the “powers-that-be” at the Children’s Television Workshop allowed his character to slowly evolve and reveal since he first appeared in 1969. Kids who were closely following Sesame Street since 1969 to about the mid 1970s would probably notice that Mr. Hooper – like the Children’s Television Workshop advisor Gerald S. Lesser made him out to be – as someone who is “slightly mean and abrasive but with a poorly hidden nice streak”. This was largely due to Big Bird’s inability to say storekeeper Mr. Hooper’s name properly. 

Even though it was only around the mid 1970s until towards the end of the 1980s that Sesame Street was gradually building up for world wide recognition, these were by no means politically stable times when it comes to television viewing when compared to the first decade of the 21^st Century. Most viewers in the Philippines despite lucky enough to view that Big Bird Went To China special just a week after it aired in the United States, most Sesame Street fans here didn’t manage to watch aspects of Mr. Hooper’s life on Sesame Street well until 1991 onwards via VHS and Betamax tapes. 

That Sesame Street special where it was explained with honesty to kids that Mr. Hooper had passed away that won a daytime Emmy only became general knowledge here in the Philippines at about the same time when a post Operation Desert Storm euphoria was sweeping around the globe back in 1991. On Mr. Hooper being Jewish – probably around 1993 and it wasn’t until 1994 that I saw that official CTW book “Christmas Eve On Sesame Street” being displayed in our neighborhood’s second hand book store that I managed to read first hand that Mr. Hooper is Jewish and celebrated Chanukah. By the way, the official Children’s Television Workshop book was based on the 1978 special Christmas Eve On Sesame Street were Mr. Hooper’s was revealed to be Jewish. But in actuality, Mr. Hooper’s performer – the actor Will Lee who passed away back in 1982 of a heart attack – isn’t Jewish. 

When It comes to Mr. Hooper’s full name, it wasn’t until the advent of Web 2.0 that I saw that episode where Mr. Hooper got his GED certificate from attending night school that his full name was revealed as Harold Hooper. Maybe we should be thankful of the modern internet for without it, most obscure Sesame Street trivia will remain a mystery to most of us.   

Mitt Romney Versus Big Bird: Education Versus Demagoguery?

 Even tough US Republican Party presidential hopeful Mitt Romney won the first round of the 2012 US Presidential Debates so far, should he have antagonized Sesame Street’s Big Bird?

By: Ringo Bones

Since 2010, the TEA Party movement has been attacking every American taxpayer funded education and arts programs that don’t cater to their draconian and literal interpretation of White Anglo Saxon Evangelical Christianity. Eager to capitalize on the “conservative American vote, US Republican Party presidential hopeful Mitt Romney quickly seized the moment to denigrate the public money used to fund PBS. Sadly, Romney's rather harsh "political smack-down" on the most beloved of all children's  educational characters had most baby boomers and generation Xers wondering if Mitt Romney is nothing more than a demagogue mouthpiece of the right-wing ultra-conservative branch of the US Republican Party. But is his decision to antagonize Sesame Street’s Big Bird just a bit over the top?

Mitt Romney got the obligatory political flack during the past few weeks after that notorious hidden camera footage of him denigrating the 47% of America as “freeloaders” who are too dependent on US government handouts in his own private fundraiser ceremony went viral on the internet. Already in trouble for being a “rich aloof” and uncaring towards the poor, this is something Mitt Romney doesn’t need so close to November’s elections. But should the Republican presidential hopeful pick a fight on Big Bird too? Would Romney use his Mormon faith to justify the "Children of Ham" reasoning and logic - thus making racism the next step? 

To American voters aged 60 and younger, Sesame Street’s Big Bird is seen as an revered and venerable educator and an entertainer that had been with them during the tumultuous years of their childhood. Given the recent unrest in the Muslim world over that notorious anti-Islam film denigrating the Prophet Mohammad, it seems like the US Republican Party presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is trying to incite a riot among America’s late baby-boomers and generation X-ers. Given that the long time residents of Sesame Street - especially Big Bird - are already not amused, will this political gaffe eventually hurts his prospects for the 2012 US Presidency?

Should Sesame Street Lead The Campaign Against Xenophobia?

Given that America’s leading conservative pundits are placing the blame on ethnic minorities as the leading cause of America’s current problems, should Sesame Street lead the campaign against xenophobia?


By: Ringo Bones

As Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and their ilk had recently grown rich by placing the blame squarely on ethnic minorities as the leading cause of America’s current problems – i.e. the runaway deficit spending of the Obama Administration’s “socialist policies”. Is it already high time for Sesame Street – like it had always been – to lead the fight yet again against xenophobia?

I am now starting to wonder if history is now repeating itself, when American conservatives think that the problem of runaway deficit spending can be solved in one fell swoop by adopting xenophobic policies. Like what Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh did in the few years before America got involved in World War II. And it even created an impression to the not-so-historically-savvy that then US President Franklin D. Roosevelt had been flirting with “isolationist policies”. Does xenophobia ever foster peace?

Ever since the show aired 40 or so years ago, Sesame Street has always had that special way of educating the impressionable minds of kids. So special that if anyone – like what Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh did before, or what Richard Butler, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh did later – tries to indoctrinate xenophobia to our kid’s impressionable minds will have to work harder at it. Those basic Spanish lessons that Sesame Street shoehorned into their shows are not only good for learning Latin, they also allowed the Latino and Hispanic community to be seamlessly integrated into the larger American community. Given that my generation that grew up during the 1970s has more or less has a working knowledge of the Spanish language.

Should Sesame Street spearhead the fight against xenophobia especially now that the conservative White Anglo-Saxon Americans are confusing the xenophobic outlook of Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh as patriotism? Given that it is more and more likely that American kids today are more and more likely to meet ethnic groups face to face that their grandparents and parents only read about in National Geographic, Sesame Street wold be doing these kids a big favor. Like it did to my generation. Cultural diversity doesn't cost a single cent, unlike current conservative pundits rhetoric that America cannot afford cultural diversity in times of recession.

Snuffleupagus Becoming Real: Anti-Child Molestation Measure?

At the start, it was only Big Bird who can see his elephantine pal / imaginary friend, but was later retooled so that everyone at Sesame Street can see him. Is this an example of an anti-child molestation measure?


By: Vanessa Uy


For those who were there when the show was still an untested pilot back in July of 1969, Sesame Street, a TV series aimed at kids that combines entertainment with education was seen by most as pioneering. During the first regular season of Sesame Street, probably way before Elmo was even born. Young audiences were fascinated, delighted, and even perplexed every time Big Bird’s “imaginary friend” the elephantine character Snuffleupagus – first appeared in a November 8, 1971 episode - came to visit him while everyone at Sesame Street fail to notice or even see Big Bird’s pal. Even the grown-up human characters don’t believe that Big Bird’s elephantine friend is real. Because of this, the friendship between Big Bird and Snuffleupagus flourished under a climate of secrecy, which within the confines of an idyll utopia like Sesame Street seems innocent enough.

Sadly, in the real world of you and me, child molesters actively cultivate a climate of secrecy between themselves and their potential victims. This bond of secrecy is probably most child molester’s only means of an “exit strategy” to make and allow them to commit their crimes on a regular basis. The writing staff and focus groups at the Children’s Television Workshop probably took note of this and took the measure to make Big Bird and the company he keeps more transparent.

The move was mostly due to a rash of high-profile – sometimes graphic - child molestation / sex abuse / paedophilia cases being aired on prominent and respected news shows such as 60 Minutes and 20/20 throughout the 1970’s on through the early 1980’s. This burning issue probably reached it’s climax when a much publicized “alleged” sexual abuse scandal at a Bronx daycare center resulted in the airing of a documentary titled: “Sesame Street Unpaved”. Given that the “fictitious idyll” that we call Sesame Street is probably only a comfortable walking distance away from the urbane egalitarianism of the Bronx, Big Bird’s imaginary friend Snuffleupagus was retooled under relentless social and political pressure. Because of this, Mr. Snuffleupagus finally made his “official” debut on Sesame Street in November 18, 1985.

Aloysius Snuffleupagus – his full name – is more commonly known on Sesame Street as Mr. Snuffleupagus or “Snuffy” as he is called by those who had grown attached to him resembles a wooly mammoth without any tusks. Although the absolute correct spelling of Big Bird's elephantine friend is still subject to dispute, some variations of his name includes: Snufflupugus, Snuffleluffagus among others. My older acquaintances that were regular viewers of Sesame Street back in the 1970’s used to believe – when they were little kids of course – that corned beef came from Mr. Snufflupugus’ fur which does resemble corned beef.

In my opinion, Mr. Snufflupugus is probably the closest thing Sesame Street has of ever having a “Rock Star” or a political activist that supports an unpopular cause as a resident. Because of this, Sesame Street has indeed been supporting one of its core missions since the beginning by supporting the cause of an egalitarian ideal regardless of nationality, color or creed. They even incorporated Spanish lessons since the 1970’s.