Speaking of Germany, anyone ever seen those weird Ernie & Bert parodies "Bernie and Ert"? Unfortunately I won't post any clips because they are really TV-MA. lol But still really funny. These parody puppets of Ernie & Bert with one eye. And they're formatted like a typical Ernie & Bert sketch where Ernie tricks Bert into something except it's more dark humor and obscene subject manner. Though still very slapstick. Bernie gets in trouble with the police and sets up Ert and runs away, stuff like that. lol My favorite is the voodoo one, I don't think it's that obscene but I don't know German much and I have no idea what they're saying in the dialog so just to play it safe, I'll describe the sketch. Bernie of in this sketch has a crystal ball and tries to call Ert's father's spirit then has a Darth Vader kind of voice, Ert fants on the floor then gets back up. Bernie curses Ert with a Voodoo doll and starts poking it, Ert reacts to it. Bernie gets bored and throws it over the ledge and suddenly the Ert puppet is thrown in the air, over the ledge. No legs, just the waist - up puppet with the rod still attached to the arm. Me and a friend of mine where laughing like crazy on how cheap that was. lol
I guess these sketches were for some late night Germany comedy show, like SNL but darker and more satirical I guess. They did a bunch of these but I'm not sure if any of them ever seen the light of day of DVD release because I guess they either got in trouble with Sesame Workshop or feared they would so they slowly stopped the sketches. The final ones, they dressed the characters in leather suits (covering their whole face and shirts so they could get away with the parody more so without copyright infringement) outside a nightclub and that's that. lol
I've read something about how Ernie & Bert are really popular in Germany. I love Ernie & Bert, they are my favorite Muppets of Sesame Street.