Were Sesame Street Songs Used In Bush Era Extraordinary Renditions?

As the premier educational “English language” ambassador to the Islamic world for a few decades now has Sesame Street’s reputation been tarnished by its use in torturing 9/11 era terror suspects and detainees?

By: Ringo Bones

Since it started back in 1969 – the educational children’s TV show Sesame Street by the Children’s Television Workshop has more or less served as the “ad hoc” educational English language ambassador for America and the rest of the Western world to the Islamic world, but will the newly uncovered evidence that Sesame Street songs that were primarily composed to teach children from non-English speaking countries to master its everyday use had been used to torture 9/11-era terror suspects in the Bush administration’s “extraordinary renditions” program primarily in Guantanamo Bay prison interrogation of “terror suspects” tarnish the reputation of this much beloved children’s education program? And if did, can it ever claim it back again?

The Al Jazeera film “Songs of War” which was released a few years ago alleges that Sesame Street songs were used on 9/11 era terror suspect detainees The Guantanamo Bay terror suspect inmates were “tortured” by being forced to listen to songs from Sesame Street at uncomfortably high volumes for days on end. Christopher Cerf, who has worked as a composer on Sesame Street for more than four decades first said upon hearing the allegations that: “My first reaction was that this just can’t possibly be true”. The Grammy and Emmy award winning composer said.

The Al Jazeera produced documentary’s claims are backed up by a 2008 Associated Press report which found that several songs, including the Sesame Street opening theme song, were used as part of the Bush administration era 9/11 terror suspect detainee interrogation process at the US detention facility back in 2003. Christopher Cerf and other composers working for the Children’s Television Workshop were utterly appalled upon hearing this. Will the Islamic world now see Sesame Street as a “tool of American imperialism”?

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's Bert and Ernie Be Married?

Given the recent legalization of same-sex marriage in New York State, should Sesame Street's Bert and Ernie - given they are both New York state residents - get married?

By: Ringo Bones

Thanks to the recent legalization of same sex marriage in the New York state, there has been a petition demanding that New York states' most famous - though fictitious - gay couple named Bert and Ernie get married. Even though there's totally nothing wrong with it and the two had been living together - even taking baths together - for the past 40 years, is there any reason that Sesame Street's Bert and Ernie should not get into a same-sex union?

According to Sesame Street's creators in the Children's Television Workshop, Bert and Ernie are just close friends and the two are - according to the "overlords" at the Children's Television Workshop - are not or never had been gay. Given that creative people have the right to their own intellectual properties, it haven't prevented most of America - and the rest of the world - to conclude that Bert and Ernie are a bona fide gay couple. If Children's Television Workshop bows to social pressure, then maybe it could be used as a ploy to launch a Lunachincks reunion tour on Sesame Street during the festivities of Bert and Ernie's same-sex nuptials.

Are Sesame Street’s Bert and Ernie Gay?

Even though there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it, does the impression of Bert and Ernie practicing an allegedly “Gay Lifestyle” eventually turned into a thorny issue of some staunchly conservative parents and viewers?


By: Ringo Bones


When I first saw Sesame Street – probably the second season in the early 1970s – I’ve always thought of Bert and Ernie as two brothers were Bert acting in a babysitting capacity because he is older and wiser, as in before both of their parents arrived home during their very busy working lives. But after not seeing their parents during the 40 plus years of the iconic children’s educational TV series, I did start to wonder if the Bert and Ernie gay rumors were true – not that there’s anything wrong with it.

They may bathe in the bathtub together, but they sleep in separate beds in the same room – surprisingly without their “parents” ever tucking them in. Bert and Ernie even bicker like a genuine 1990s era gay couple. Unlike other Western TV icons like The Simpsons where Homer and Marge seems to have a revolving door temporal zeitgeist about the time that they decided that both of them were in love – like from the Nixon era early 1970s to the Post Cobain Grunge Era of the mid 1990s, Bert and Ernie seems to be caught in a “time warp” that seems their parents never returned from work. And it didn’t help with regards to the two being allegedly a gay couple living together.

Given that society is now less homophobic than it used to be when Sesame Street first aired (I hope), maybe it is about time for Bert and Ernie to come out of the proverbial closet and become Sesame Street’s beacon of tolerance. As Sesame Street has managed to present difficult contemporary issues in a context that children aged 5 to 12 can easily understand – i.e. their parents being sent to die in the Bush administration’s malfeasantly run War on Terror – maybe Bert and Ernie being a gay couple could provide a way of tackling societal overtly conservative white Anglo-Saxon Protestant homophobia.

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.

40 Years of Sesame Street: Still a Lot to Teach?

After first airing back in November 1969, does the world’s most beloved children’s educational show Sesame Street still has something left to teach to the world’s children?


By: Ringo Bones


Back in November 2009, the world’s most beloved children’s educational show – the Children’s Television Workshop’s Sesame Street – celebrated its 40 years on the air by having the current US First Lady – Michelle Obama – as the special guest. But after continuously teaching the world’s children during the past 40 years, everyone – including the show’s first generation fans – are now probably thinking if Sesame Street still has any wisdom left to teach the world’s children?

Ever since the show’s inception, Sesame Street’s raison d’être has always been teaching the kids as low as 5 years of age to acquire the wisdom to handle “complicated” issues at their own reading and learning level. From the passing of Sesame Street’s beloved storekeeper Mr. Hooper back in 1982, where it was the first time that a children’s educational show on network TV tackled the subject of death of a close associate, to the topic of détente when Big Bird goes to the People’s Republic of China during the time when Ronald Reagan ruled the free world. Sesame Street even tackled the “thorny” topic about military deployment of US Armed Forces to Afghanistan and Iraq during the turbulent days of the Bush Administration – especially those whose kids are Sesame Street fans.

Does Sesame Street still has some of its timeless wisdom to dispense in the supposedly more enlightened Obama Administration-era America? Fortunately, Sesame Street still has a lot to do when it comes to the understanding of other ethnic groups that had became naturalized American citizens like it did 40 years ago. Especially now when someone like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh and their ilk - who mimic the pre World War II Nazi Ideology of Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh – are gaining more popular support, especially when the catchphrase “Can we even afford cultural dive5rsity in times of recession” is now used in contemporary American society to belittle ethnic groups who had recently been naturalized into American citizens. Even Oscar the Grouch had grown sick of watching the “POX News Network”.

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.