Bert and Ernie, what’s wrong?
We’ve all seen it before. Messy relationship breakups and makeups, labels causing drama, and everything in-between. This is all common on social media. But, between Sesame Street characters?
According to The Advocate, some Twitter users are concerned with the discrepancies between Bert & Ernie’s official Twitter bios. A Twitter user named Valondar or @VK_HM, tweeted screenshots of the characters’ official Twitter accounts. Ernie’s bio says that he is the “friend” of Bert. Meanwhile, Bert’s account states that he is Ernie’s “roommate.”
“Brutal,” Valondar wrote in his tweet.
Brutal pic.twitter.com/qiwVbp5may
— Valondar (@VK_HM) December 6, 2020
Other Twitter users then joined the conversation.
“Wait, poor Ernie thinks he’s in a friendship, while Bert thinks he’s just going halfsies on the rent?” One user summarized before commenting, “How sad.”
The conversation then shifted to whether or not the two could be considered dating and whether children are aware enough to tell the difference.
“PBS: Gay rat wedding,” one user quipped. “Also PBS: aggressively insists two unrelated men who live together and say they love each other aren’t gay.”
PBS: Gay rat wedding
also PBS: aggressively insists two unrelated men who live together and say they love each other aren't gay
— Ancient-Onyx (@AncientOnyx) December 6, 2020
“As a kid, I only thought they were buddies because I didn’t have sexual thoughts that young. And I thought Bert was a jerk and Ernie was way cooler,” another wrote.
“I bet you understood relationships. We gay people aren’t constantly fucking, you know,” someone wrote in response to the prior comment.
“They’re boyfriends and even the little kids watching Sesame Street know it,” said another.
They’re boyfriends and even the little kids watching Sesame Street know it.
— M Healy (@MOfHealy) December 6, 2020
The relationship between Bert & Ernie of Sesame Street has been a question among modern adults. Are they really just friends and roommates or are they more? Then, Emmy Award-winning writer Mark Saltzman, who worked on Sesame Street, shared the perspective that he always wrote Bert & Ernie as a gay couple.
He shared, “I always felt that without a huge agenda, when I was writing Bert and Ernie, they were [gay].”
He elaborated that while working on the show, he was in a relationship with film editor Arnold “Arnie” Glassman, and his relationship influenced some of his writing.
“The things that would tick off Arnie would be the things that would tick off Bert,” Saltzman explained.
Despite those words, there’s no mistaking the fact that they are the words and intentions of one writer. They are not the words and intentions of the full writing team or the PBS network itself. So, are Bert & Ernie friends, roommates, or more? The world may never know.
Source: The Advocate,
