Is Bert evil?

[hippie]

I read in a mag that Bert was evil. Is he? Hee hee!

Peace & love from me!

 

[Ryan]

Uh, No...why is this in the puppetry section?

 

[Thijs]

Will you stop that!

 

[hippie]

Uh, No...why is this in the puppetry section?

uhh.. I don't know? I'm new here I don't know how to do all the things... Sorry Hugs from Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

 

[Phillip]

Moving discussion to Sesame Street...

By the way, the "Bert Is Evil" Web site is closed. The owner decided to end it "because I feel this has gotten too close to reality and I choose to be responsible enough to stop it right here. ... I want to thank all the fans who laughed with me all these years."

You can read more about that here...

http://www.fractalcow.com/bert/bert.htm

 

[hippie]

Thank U Tracy Chapman


Goodbye Ruby Tuesday.

 

[Krazedmuppet]

Ive seen that

Kids at my school used to pull up all the crazy scary sites and pictures that make fun of Sesame Street charators, just to make me mad, and I do remember seeing the one on Bert, someting about how hes a terrorist and it was a picture of him in a jail suit (with the black and white stripes) holding up is ID card, and he has the most evil look on his face. there were also ones of Kermit but in a totaly diffrent way, wich Im not going to get in to... they were bad... but then again thats Jason for you...

 

[D'Snowth]

I bet you guys, if Jim Henson was still alive, he would be very hurt to see websites like this about his characters. I know I would if I saw any of my own puppet characters like that on the web.

 

[Buck-Beaver]

Dino Ignacio shut down the site after the Bert/Osama Bin Laden scandal. In case anyone missed this little Muppet controversy, in the aftermath of 9/11, Osama Bin Laden supporters were making up T-shirts and Posters with his (Osama's) picture and most of these photos were downloaded from the net, likely found using something like Google's Image Search engine. One of the photos they found (this one I think) was a doctored image of Osama Bin Laden and Bert from Dino's "Bert is Evil" homepage.

Dino originally started the spoof site because he thought the idea of Bert being the source of all evil in the world was so rediculous it was funny (the idea of Elmo being the source of all evil in the world was apparently too plausible to be funny ). The site really took off after it was mentioned in several Web magazines in the mid-90s and won a Webby Award. People started making their own images and videos for it and submitting them to Dino to be posted.

After Western media ran a photo of Osama's supporters with a poster containing the photo of Bert it created a lot of media attention (there's probably a thread or two about it on the old Delphi Board somewhere) and Dino made the decision to take the site down. Dino is apparently a big Muppet fan and part of his reasoning behind pulling down the site is that he was concerned with all the media attention young children might see the site and he felt that was inappropriate.

Thing is though, lots of people were allowed to create Bert is Evil mirror sites (I believe Dino used to encouraged this) and some of them didn't bother to shut down. The main mirror site now is http://www.bertisevil.tv and I think they have been adding new material on their own lately.

I know alot of Muppet fans are horrified by this site. It's a parody, albeit a fairly "adult" one. I personally "get" the joke (and think it's kind of funny), but I respect Dino's decision, especially in the context of the negative media attention and his being an American in the immeadate aftermath of 9/11.

Please note that I don't know Dino personally and all of this information is based on his posts and media stories that have about the site over the years.

Though Sesame Workshop claimed no direct knowledge of the site at the time of the Osama Bin Laden story (and were kinda freaked out by it if I recall), to their credit they never threatened Dino or asked that the site be taken down. I think they should be commended for that. Most big companies break out the lawyers at the slightest sign of possible trademark infringement (Walmart anyone?). Sesame Workshop seemed to respect the site for what it was, a parody and exercise in free speech. That is after all one of the freedoms that terrorism is being fought to protect.

 

[Buck-Beaver]

I bet you guys, if Jim Henson was still alive, he would be very hurt to see websites like this about his characters. I know I would if I saw any of my own puppet characters like that on the web.

Who knows? Jim Henson did a lot of parody himself - he might have appreciated the creativity (OK, twisted creativity) behind the site. Wonder what Frank Oz thinks?