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Comment count is 10
fluffy - 2015-02-02

CooOOoookie MONSTER is talking quite a lot like Mojo Jojo lately


RocketBlender - 2015-02-02

Way to go, Chris.


Cena_mark - 2015-02-02

I remember this rumor. Right wingers were trying to prop it up as one of those political correctness run amok stories. "Now our favorite Sesame Street character is a veggie eating sissy. Thanks Obama!"


EvilHomer - 2015-02-02

Were they wrong? He *is* a veggie eating sissy. You can say that he still eats cookies "sometimes", you can say that he's had a varied diet for decades, you can say that his recent behavior is not Obama's fault. You can even say that he's BETTER OFF being a veggie eating sissy, particularly in light of his position as a role-model for young children, or that Americans in general are so fat and stupid that they need to be talked down to by a big blue monster with a white-collar job. But you can't say he's not eating vegetables, and you can't say that there hasn't been a change in his characterization since 2005, because there has. Sesame Street has never denied that they wanted to revamp Cookie Monster's image; in fact, the writers and producers have been perfectly frank and up-front about it!

The more extreme versions of this story - namely, that Cookie Monster is being renamed the Veggie Monster, or worse, is getting written off the show entirely - are obviously false. But the core controversy - that Sesame Street has been trying to whitewash a character whose behavior has become somewhat of an embarrassment - is unequivocally true.


Hailey2006 - 2015-02-02

Here's a clip from the 80s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBMxpDbp51A

He eats everything!


EvilHomer - 2015-02-02

Again, "you can say that he's had a varied diet for decades". My go-to example of this would be the book, 'Vegetable Soup', first published in... 1980, I believe.

However, despite isolated instances of past healthy-food eating behavior, the core premises of the Veggiegate controversy are inarguably true. Consider the following passage from Snopes (emphasis added to a particularly apropos quote given by one of the producers):

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In 2005 Sesame Street began to focus more strongly on delivering positive health messages to children, a process that involved introducing segments on the values of good nutrition, exercise, and proper sleep habits into the program. It also involved expanding Cookie Monster's diet to encompass other foods beyond just his beloved cookies. His newfound nutritional awareness was expressed in his new anthem, "A Cookie Is a Sometime Food" (which was modeled upon the Porgy and Bess song, "A Woman is a Sometime Thing").

Cookie Monster still eats cookies, just not nearly as many of them as he once did, and he is now also seen eating and enjoying fruit. As to the reasons behind the shift towards a more healthy lifestyle for this rascally Muppet, Cookie Monster is, after all, the idol of many a wide-eyed tot, so Sesame Street's producers hope that altering his diet will incline his young audience to take a healthier path themselves.

**Says Sesame Street producer Carol-Lynn Parente: "Childhood obesity is an epidemic. We feel we have a responsibility to do what we can to address it." That means fewer cookies for the venerable blue-furred spokescreature and more fruit.**
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The claim that he ONLY eats vegetables is false. The claim that his behavior is the result of Obama's meddling is also false (it's actually a Bush-era initiative, so if you must blame someone, blame Dubya). However, the claim that the Sesame Street crew has, knowingly and for reasons of public health, made a concentrated effort to rewrite Cookie Monster's image and personality, is demonstrably true. Furthermore, I put it to you that any attempts to poo-poo the issue and sweep the whole torrid affair down the memory hole are not just willfully ignorant, but actually highly disrespectful and belittling to the nutritional cause which, for better or worse, Ms Parente et al were trying to champion.

It's a serious issue with serious ramifications, and it's frankly a little shocking to me that Sesame Street would wuss out like this on their own platform.


infinite zest - 2015-02-02

So if the Republicans had their way, the cookies would just be a desert for Two-KFC-Double-Downs-and-Drinks-a-Large Mountain-Dew Monster..


Scrimmjob - 2015-02-02

DId Sesame Street always have so many retarded pop culture references? I'm completely open to the idea that I was just too dense to notice it as a child.


Cena_mark - 2015-02-02

They did. I didn't catch them when I was a kid either. I guess its for the parents or because its what the writers know.


infinite zest - 2015-02-02

There were a few zeitgeisty pop culture references, like Sesame Street Fever and of course Rebel L and some other pop music songs, but the one I remember the most was when C3PO and R2D2 got lost in Sesame Street. Parents had a problem because Star Wars was obviously a PG film with death, "adult" situations and plenty of violence, and even though the droids were just trying to get back home or whatever, it was still encouraging the target fanbase to see (or at least want to see) the film. Just like if Cookie Monster was your favorite character, and like any kid liked cookies, temper tantrums at the dinner table could result with green beans and brussels sprouts.

But now they have so many R-rated pop culture references (like James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano and even John Oliver, who doesn't kill people for a living on his show, but definitely swears and even Penn and Teller.) I'd be surprised if they didn't do a Wolf of Wallstreet or Pulp Fiction parody at some point too. Sure, it makes it funny for parents who get the references and for the writers, but it also instills something in the kids like "I need to find out who or what this is," and especially now that we have toddlers with iPhones, they probably already know all about Tony Soprano, but are too young to make the distinction between good and bad, or fantasy vs. reality..


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