Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Snow Day

True sign that I am becoming a grown up: There is a snow day at the University but I still had to go to work. Sadness.

Monday, February 05, 2007

Thank you Wikipedia

Friends...our debate is solved. Read this exerpt from Wikipedia and rest assured that in the end we were ALL right.

"For many years, Big Bird was the only character on the show who saw him (he only came along when Big Bird was alone). The main adult characters teased Big Bird when he said he had seen the Snuffleupagus, because they didn't believe there was such an animal, often despite evidence to the contrary (such as an oversized teddy bear that Snuffy had left behind or segments in which Snuffy interacted with other characters, such as a street scene where Snuffy was seen playing London Bridge with some of the neighborhood kids). This was modeled in part on the imaginary friends some young children have.

By the late-1970s, the storylines had the adult characters becoming increasingly frustrated with Big Bird using Snuffleupagus as a scapegoat whenever something went wrong while they were out of the room. In one episode, newspapers on Sesame Street carried the front page headline, "Snuffy's got to go!"

Revelation

This running gag ended with the November 18, 1985 episode of Sesame Street, which was also episode 2096 and the 17th season premiere, when the adults finally met Snuffy. Big Bird is sick and tired of not having the grown-ups believing him when he tells them about Snuffy. So he decides to arrange for them to come to his nest when he yells the signaling word, "Food". When Big Bird calls out the word, Snuffy runs off to tell his mother about it, so once again the grown-ups just miss him. Gordon tells Big Bird he needs someone to help him keep Snuffy in his nest and Elmo offers to be the one. So when Snuffy returns, Elmo holds on to his snuffle so he can't go, Big Bird yells, "Food", and one by one the adults come and see Snuffy for the first time ever. After Snuffy introduces himself, Big Bird does an "I told you so" routine, prompting the adults to apologize profusely.

The Children's Television Workshop decided on this storyline largely after high-profile (and sometimes, graphic) stories on pedophilia and sexual abuse of children on shows such as 60 Minutes and 20/20. Concerns were raised that the running Snuffleupagus gag, where the adults refused to believe in Snuffleupagus despite Big Bird telling them about it and despite the fact that Snuffy had already been revealed to other Muppets, children, and even a few celebrity guest stars, could make children fear that they would similarly not be believed and therefore make them reluctant to tell an adult if they have been sexually abused."

So there you have it.

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Imaginary Friend

After I got back from dinner last night I mindlessly turned on the tv and started flipping channels. "Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird" caught my attention. This is the movie where the bird social worker thinks it's in Big Birds best interest to go live with a bird family- the Dodos who live in Illinois. Big Bird dislikes it there and decideds to walk home (he/she also decides that it should only take three hours since it took two hours to fly there). While Big Bird starts walking home the Sesame Street crew divide up into groups and travel different routes to see if they can find Big Bird. The point of this post is not to talk about how great this movie is or about the cameos in it that you only get when you are older, but rather the point is to discuss a very important question that hit me while watching a scene in the move: is Snuffalupagus Big Bird's imaginary friend?

I'll admit. The thought never crossed my mind that Snuffalupagus was imaginary until someone informed me about it very matter-of-factly about a year ago. They told me in such confidence that I didn't dare think that I was right. Now, though, I am not so sure. As I was watching the movie I texted a very important question to some friends: If Snuffalupagus was Big Bird's imaginary friend then how come he couldn't follow Big Bird to Illinois? Some of the responses I got were:

"I'm peeing"

"Thought Snuffy was real"

"R u sober?"

"He wasn't imaginary and the bird was advised that he/she was on a one bird mission."

"Imaginary friends...unlike invisible friends need two forms of id to cross state lines and Oscoar was always hiding the dmv shit because he was difficult...obviously"

Through these comments I re-affirmed my original childhood assumption that Snuffy was real and that everyone could see him. Then I thought about a little to long and fell into another trap. If everyone could see Snuffy then when a letter from Big Bird came why didn't anyone tell Snuffy? Instead he overheard the letter through a wall. If I sent a letter to everyone on the block I know someone would holler to my best friend to let them know about it. Also, if I remember correctly, Snuffy wasn't divided up into one of the groups to go find Big Bird. Now that could be just because he already decided to go visit Big Bird (he wrote Big Bird a post card which a mailman delivered...which is proof towards the idea that Snuffy is real). So is Snuffy real or not?

Some light was shed onto the subject by a friend's girlfriend who said that snuffy was imaginary in the beginning but eventually the character changed so that everyone could see him. So a child psychologist is to blame for the confusion. Someone at some point thought it was unhealthy for Big Bird to have an imaginary best friend and changed him to so that everyone could see him. This is the theory that lets me sleep at night and I am sticking to it.