Video: Big Bird on Saturday Night Live October 6

[Facebones]

My favorite part was Seth Myers telling a more raunchy joke after that segment, then looking off stage and asking "Big Bird left already, right?"

 

[WebMistressGina]

I missed this last night, but yay for Big Bird! Just like the Muppets themselves, BB was never really out of the spotlight and we can see by the millions (and it was like millions) of people who set Twitter ablaze on Thursday that PBS is a station that has literally helped to teach millions of kids to count, to read, to discover places they may never go to, science, etc.

While I'm not gonna go political about this, I think Neil DeGrasse Tyson had the best quote to explain the utter stupidity that cutting funding to such an educational station is like -

"Cutting funding from PBS is like removing text files off your 500GB hard drive"

It's basically the notion that cutting funds from PBS does nothing to cut down any type of budget that our (US) government spends. It's the equivelent of taking text files (which are incredibly small) off a 500GB HD in order to save space instead of, oh I don't know, removing the 420GB of files and applications that aren't being used.

 

[mbmfrog]

Ha, I'm glad it was SNL that got Big Bird to say its piece instead of the news media.

I must say I'm glad to see Sesame Workshop staying above all this political stuff and staying true to the message it delievers each day to the families of the world.

 

[JR]

PBS doesn't need the money though, especially Sesame Street which pulled in 140 million in merchandising sales on its own! Removing the government subsidy would not affect anything at all except removing the strings of government from its productions.

I don't like seeing Big Bird used as a political tool, and it was a poor example to use when discussing taxpayer subsidy of PBS. I don't think they should've allowed Big Bird on SNL. I like the publicity, but I would much rather it was in some kind of viral video than being a ludicrous political football.

 

[mr3urious]

I was long asleep when this aired, but this is very funny! Good for Carroll for staying politically neutral, too!

 

[Briarosethorn]

PBS doesn't need the money though, especially Sesame Street which pulled in 140 million in merchandising sales on its own! Removing the government subsidy would not affect anything at all except removing the strings of government from its productions.

This may be true for Sesame Street, but for other educational shows trying to get off the ground it isn't. It specifically isn't for the station itself.....the PBS stations may not be able to afford to get Sesame Street aired on their channel. They cut the budget a few years ago and a lot of stations had to cut their programming. if funding is cut, Sesame Street may have to be aired on Nickelodeon or Disney channel where instead of the government who "controls" them, its corporations who only want your money. I don't think Sesame Street will be as effective with commercials.

I don't think this will have anything to do with Mitt Romney winning or losing. This fight for PBS has been going on for a long time. If we all care about PBS, then we can all stop it from happening either by calling our congressmen, or by simply donating to our local stations.

 

[FloydxJanice776]

 

[Plaid Fraggle]

That was capital A-dorable

 

[ivanova]

It was a great appearance, loved it.

 

[jvcarroll]

PBS doesn't need the money though, especially Sesame Street which pulled in 140 million in merchandising sales on its own! Removing the government subsidy would not affect anything at all except removing the strings of government from its productions.

I don't like seeing Big Bird used as a political tool, and it was a poor example to use when discussing taxpayer subsidy of PBS. I don't think they should've allowed Big Bird on SNL. I like the publicity, but I would much rather it was in some kind of viral video than being a ludicrous political football.

I don't like Big Bird being used as a political tool either. You're right in that Sesame's slice of federal funds is so small that it isn't really needed. However, PBS is needed to distribute the commercial-free program and they do need federal funds even though it only makes up less than 15% of their budget.

Big Bird's performance on SNL was sweet and exactly what was needed to keep things in perspective. I don't see why anyone but an Oscar the Grouch would want to humbug at it.

It is important for a successful society to fund the arts, sciences and education. This means privately, commercially and yes, some federal funding too. It's another form of America's infrastructure. These areas are just as important to our landscape as roads and bridges. They give us the next generation of innovators. The federal investment is incredibly small, yet needed. Complete privatization of everything is not the answer. America is a blending of ideas and methods and should remain so. We shouldn't surrender everything to private industry.