A writer for the longstanding children’s show “Sesame Street” has finally settled the great debate regarding the sexuality of two beloved characters: puppet duo Bert and Ernie.
Ever since the iconic show came onto the scene in 1969, mystery has always swirled around whether or not Bert and Ernie were a homosexual pair, being that they shared a basement apartment, though slept in separate beds, on 123 Sesame Street.
According to The Sun, writer Mark Saltzman, who began work on “Sesame Street” in 1984, has confirmed that Bert and Ernie indeed swing that way, and even reflect his own relationship at the time with film editor Arnold Glassman.
“I remember one time a preschooler [in San Francisco] turned to her mum and asked, ‘are Bert and Ernie lovers?’ and that, coming from a preschooler, was fun,” Saltzman told Queerty. “That got passed around, and everyone had their chuckle and went back to it.
“And I always felt that without a huge agenda, when I was writing Bert and Ernie, they were,” he continued. “I didn’t have any other way to contextualize them.”
As to which puppet Saltzman intended himself to be, the writer fancied himself as Ernie with Glassman as Bert.
“I was Ernie,” he said. “I look more Bert-ish. And Arnie as a film editor — if you thought of Bert with a job in the world, wouldn’t that be perfect? Bert with his paperclips and organization? And I was the jokester. So, it was the Bert and Ernie relationship, and I was already with Arnie when I came to Sesame Street.”
“So I don’t think I’d know how else to write them, but as a loving couple,” he concluded. “I wrote sketches … Arnie’s OCD would create friction with how chaotic I was. And that’s the Bert and Ernie dynamic.”
The enigma that is Bert and Ernie’s relationship has been the source of much satire throughout the years, with episodes of “The Simpsons,” “Family Guy,” and “Friends” all lampooning their not-so-open sexuality.
Confirmation or no confirmation, the LGBT community has long adopted the puppet duo as gay icons. Following the defeat of traditional marriage in New York, fans of the show even petitioned the creators to have Bert and Ernie tie the knot on screen. In 2015, a baker in Northern Ireland faced a lawsuit for refusing to bake a pro-LGBT cake with their faces on it.
The onscreen marriage never happened, prompting “Sesame Street” to release a statement clarifying that Bert and Ernie were “best friends” and were “created to teach preschoolers that people can be good friends with those who are very different from themselves.”
The statement added: “Even though they are identified as male characters and possess many human traits and characteristics, they remain puppets and do not have a sexual orientation.”