Frank Oz and Bert | Photo: Wiki/Sesame Workshop
Frank Oz, an iconic puppeteer who worked on Sesame Street, has denied Bert and Ernie are gay.
The actor and director took to Twitter yesterday to say ‘I created Bert. I know what and who he is.’
The star was responding to the debate around the characters’ sexualities after one of the show’s old Emmy-winning writers Mark Salzman said he felt the pair were gay because he had no other way to ‘contextualise’ them.
Referring to his late partner, documentary filmmaker Arnold Glassman, Salzman told Queerty ‘more than one person referred to Arnie and I as “Bert & Ernie”. […] I was already with Arnie when I came to Sesame Street. So I don’t think I’d know how else to write them, but as a loving couple.’
While Sesame Workshop released a statement saying Bert and Ernie are friends because they are puppets and ‘do not have a sexual orientation’, Oz also weighed in.
‘They’re not, of course’
‘It seems Mr. Mark Saltzman was asked if Bert & Ernie are gay,’ he said. ‘It’s fine that he feels they are. They’re not, of course.’
‘But why that question? Does it really matter? Why the need to define people as only gay? There’s much more to a human being than just straightness or gayness.’
One Sesame Street fan replied saying: ‘Uh, because we exist. I’m gay. 100% gay.’
He then prompted ridicule by replying to a critic: ‘I created Bert. I know what and who he is.’
Today, he furthermore clarified: ‘When I write that I created Bert, I didn’t mean I created the physical Bert Muppet. The brilliant workshop people did that. I meant that, with input from the writers, I created the character of Bert.’
Oz has enjoyed a glittering career working on The Muppets, Sesame Street, Little Shop of Horrors and Labyrinth.
He is also known for providing the role of Yoda in the Star Wars series.
