Entertainment | October 28, 2010 | 4 comments

Is Bert on Sesame Street gay or not?

After months of speculation that Bert on Sesame Street is gay, the famous childrens' show has now publically come out to state the opposite.

As so many in-jokes gone wrong it all started on Twitter. On June 11 Bert (or his puppet master) tweeted about the recent "A-Team" remake by comparing himself to A-Team star Mr-T, saying:

"Ever notice how similar my hair is to Mr. T's? The only difference is mine is a little more 'mo,' a little less 'hawk.'"

To some his comment was just a cheeky quip about hairstyles, but to others more in the know "mo" is short for "homo" and this was Bert's way of coming out of the closet.

For anyone in tune with their gaydar the clues were always there, Bert and his best friend Ernie were clearly more than just that. They have been happily living together for 31 years, they like to wear “his & his” pyjamas, and they have been sharing a bed for as long as we can remember.

It didn’t help matters that June is the month of global Pride marches, so it didn’t take long before the AfterElton.com’s and AfterEllen.com’s started to pass on the good news that Bert and Ernie might be the US’s new hot gay couple.

Nearly four months after the "in joke" was publicised it is even more out than Bert, as media organisations across the globe (including Current.com) speculating if Bert really did out himself on Twitter?

The answer to that question is “No” said Ellen Lewis, spokeswoman for "Sesame Street's" production company, Sesame Workshop.

"Our writer had no intention of implying anything by the tweet, no agenda and no idea that it would be interpreted any other way except that the 'A-Team' movie was out and Bert has, like, a mini-mohawk, so her intention was just a fun way to split up the word just to imply that his hairstyle is a shorter derivative of a longer Mohawk that Mr. T in the A-team wore," Lewis told FoxNews.com.

But this is hardly the first time Bert or Ernie has been accused of being gay, in his book The Real Thing (1980) Kurt Andersen writes:

"Bert and Ernie conduct themselves in the same loving, discreet way that millions of gay men, women and hand puppets do. They do their jobs well and live a splendidly settled life together in an impeccably decorated cabinet."

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