Bert (Sesame Street)
Bert is a Muppet character on the Public Broadcasting Service's long-running children's television show, Sesame Street. He and his friend and roommate Ernie form a comic duo that is one of the program's centerpieces, with Bert acting the world-weary foil to Ernie's naïve trouble-maker. A characteristic physical feature of Bert is his monobrow.
Bert is intelligent but also grumpy, boring, and easily frustrated. He enjoys such dull activities as paper clip collecting, oatmeal cooking and watching pigeons. He created a song and dance called "Doin' the Pigeon".
Bert was originally performed by Frank Oz. Since 2001, Muppeteer Eric Jacobson has been phased in as Bert's primary performer.
A typical "Bert and Ernie" skit has Ernie coming up with a hare-brained idea and Bert attempting to talk him out of it, ending with Bert completely losing his temper and Ernie remaining oblivious to his own bad idea. The most famous of such routines is the Banana in my ear sketch.
Bert has a brother, Bart, a nephew, Brad, and an Aunt Matilda. Brad (presumed to be played by Richard Hunt) had a voice like Beaker, but slightly deeper, and while he still made baby-like noises, he was able to talk. Brad is presumed to be Bart's son. Ernie brought a toy shark with him in one skit; Brad was scared by it, not realising it was a toy.
Bert's sexuality
Ernie and Bert share an apartment in the basement of 123 Sesame Street. Although they sleep in separate beds, this has led to the occasional rumor that they are representations of gay lovers. This has been denied by Children's Television Workshop, the corporation that owns the show and the characters.
In an early song, "I Want to Hold Your Ear", Bert recalls how when he confessed his love for his girlfriend, she "walked right out the door" on him. Thinking she wants a sign of more commitment than just holding her hand, he warbles about how he want to hold her ear, eyes, nose, shoot (mouth), and hair. This skit can be used as evidence that Bert is heterosexual, and just has had a decades-long run of bad luck with the ladies. The song on the show was done differently. A AM boy put a face on a blank girl muppet but then rejects him. The boy sings this song while removeing her face so she can change her mind. She dosen't but the face on the wall comes to life and says the boy is cute.
Bert in culture
A humor website "Bert is Evil" hosted digitally manipulated images and satiric articles as "evidence" of Bert being evil. The site depicted the Muppet consorting with Adolf Hitler, Osama bin Laden, and the KKK. It drew worldwide attention in 2001 when a photo of a Bangladeshi street protest was distributed by the Reuters news agency; the photo included a protest sign that depicted Bert with Osama bin Laden. The website owner then took down the site, but mirror sites still exist.