That Sesame Street Muppet with HIV thing

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You know. The one on all the news. Talk about it if you want. I have the following questions:

a) How did it get HIV?
b) Is it an adult muppet (like Kermit, Scooter and to some extent Bert & Ernie) or a child muppet (Elmo)? Will this affect question a).
c) Is the point to remove the stigma from being a child with HIV or educate about HIV?
d) What are they going to do about all the children currently coping with the stigma of having HIV also having to cope with the stigma of having anickname of a muppet.
e) Will the character later develop AIDS or he be a Mark Fowler?
f) Will all the shows with this character in it be bought to us by the letter HV and the number 1?

― Pete, Friday, 12 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I think the answer is probably C, but I've not heard about this.

― jel --, Friday, 12 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

C was a question not an answer. But this short article may explain a bit more.

― Pete, Friday, 12 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I think the world has finally gone completely and utterly insane.

― Matt DC, Friday, 12 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I agree - 1 in 9 people in South Africa being infected with HIV and no decent public health education.

― Pete, Friday, 12 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Incidentally, is this a first for social realism in Sesame Street? Assuming Oscar the Grouch isn't highlighting the plight of America's homeless, that is. Is there a gay muppet or a disabled muppet in this day and age?

― Matt DC, Friday, 12 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Is there a gay muppet or a disabled muppet in this day and age?

A. Bert and Ernie, OBVIOUSLY.

B. Elmo = developmentally disabled

― Nicole, Friday, 12 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Then there's Big Bird and his imaginary friend, of course. And the Count suffers from a disease called 'Mortiistheria.'

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 12 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Incidentally, is this a first for social realism in Sesame Street?

What about when Mr. Hooper died?

― rosemary, Friday, 12 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Was he really dead though.

― Pete, Friday, 12 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

This doesn't surpirse me at all. Sesame St was always first on the block with stuff like this - adults and kids talking and swapping stories, blacks and whites and latinos all hanging together. It was like a window into a much realer world than the one you lived in, except with giant talking birds and monsters who lived in trash cans. They were always talking about hard stuff like who to talk to when you were angry, or how to treat someone you thought was different from you, etc.

I have a question: was the HIV muppet around for awhile before s/he got HIV? It would be pretty stupid if s/he showed up one day and was like "hi, I'm the new muppet! I've got HIV!" like REAL muppets you know and love don't actually get it...

― Tracer Hand, Friday, 12 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

It looks like it will be a new muppet. It might be difficult to explain the sex bit with puppets made of carpet. It will be female and she will be a very bold, and active character.

― Pete, Friday, 12 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

(Before anyone fails to check the link and gets all tirade-y, I think it's important to note somewhere in the thread that this is happening for South Africa.)

― nabisco%%, Friday, 12 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The SA govt. now admits HIV causes AIDS so now they can start educating children with muppets, but meanwhile the govt. has only (and can afford only) authorized treatment for the groups it deems morally virtuous -- i.e. children and women who were raped. This is to say that if you get HIV because you had unprotected sex, you are still an unredeemed sinner and must therefore die. Muppets with HIV mean little when condoms are still viewed with extreme suspicion by a huge precentage of the population.

― Sterling Clover, Friday, 12 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I think it's a good idea to prevent kids from not interacting differently with those who have HIV, especially since so many of the South African mothers have the disease and infect their children. And the more information the children have on how to prevent it's spread through blood, the better

― Jo, Friday, 12 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I think it's great. Given the high percentages of children orphaned due to AIDs, HIV positive population, and the stigma involving with being so, it can only help. It should be one of the cool puppets though.

― Jordan, Friday, 12 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Then there's Big Bird and his imaginary friend, of course.

You mean Snuffleupagus? He's been visible to everyone, adults included, since the late eighties, I think. At some point, the show's producers that by having all the adults on the show regularly doubt the existence of something that was clearly there, kids might conclude you shouldn't confide in adults because they won't believe you -- not the kind of message you want a kid to remember if, say, they're being sexually abused. It was a really stupid conceit anyway.

― Michael Daddino, Friday, 12 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I was going to make the point Michael made about Snuffleupagus. I didn't think having him only visable to Big Bird was stupid though. Then again, I was 5 years old.

― Sean, Friday, 12 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I didn't think having him only visable to Big Bird was stupid though.

Yeah, but it sure was frustrating.

― felicity, Friday, 12 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

It was sorta fun, I thought. I did remember the name, I was being cryptic. ;-) Having not followed the Sesame Street world since the late seventies, I was unaware of Snuffleupagus's new status.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 12 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

So - will every child be asking for the "Please Don't Tickle Me Elmo" toy for Christmas?

― C J, Saturday, 13 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

But what about Mr. Cooper?! Is he really dead? :(

― Leee, Saturday, 13 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Leee, I have it on good authority that Mr. Hooper went to live on a farm with my 16-year-old toy poodle. :)

― felicity, Saturday, 13 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Well well, some people don't waste any time!

― Matt DC, Sunday, 14 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

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