2012 United States presidential election debates

Mitt Romney Loves Big Bird - Presidential Debate

Mitt Romney plucks Big Bird

A CNN segment.

Mitt Romney Protect Big Oil, Fire Big Bird

A selection of media stories about the Big Bird comment.

During the 2012 United States presidential election debates, presidential candidate Mitt Romney referenced Big Bird in relation to funding for PBS, when addressing moderator Jim Lehrer: "I'm sorry, Jim, I'm going to stop the subsidy to PBS. I'm going to stop other things. I like PBS, I love Big Bird. Actually like you, too. But I'm not going to -- I'm not going to keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for. That's number one."

U.S. Presidential incumbent Barack Obama commented on the remarks at multiple stops. First, in Denver after the debate, on October 4th, he jokingly commented "Thank goodness someone is finally getting tough on Big Bird. We didn't know Big Bird was leading the federal deficit." In Fairfax, Virginia on October 5, he addressed the issue again in similar language. "For all you moms and kids out there, don't worry: somebody is finally getting tough on Big Bird. Rounding him up. Elmo's got to watch out too. Governor Romney plans to let Wall Street run wild again, but bring the hammer down on Sesame Street." (YouTube)

Romney clarified that, "I'm not going to kill Big Bird, but there's going to be ads on PBS, to pay for Big Bird." He also commented "He's going to have to get used to Kellogg's Corn Flakes."

Romney has mentioned Big Bird (as well as Bert and Ernie) in his campaign remarks as early as December 28, 2011.

Sesame Workshop and PBS response

Big Bird alluded to Romney's remark in an official Sesame Street tweet.

thumb|right|300px|Big Bird commented on all the attention in an appearance on Saturday Night Live. Sesame Workshop released a blog post in response:

“Sesame Street has been a proud partner of PBS for 43 years, and is dependent on PBS to distribute our commercial-free educational programming to all children in the United States. At a time when improvements in school readiness are recognized as being much needed for a significant number of America’s preschoolers, PBS’s ability to connect Big Bird and Friends to these children is essential. We highly value that connection. Sesame Workshop is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, educational organization. We do not comment on political campaigns, but we’re happy we can all agree that everyone likes Big Bird.”

Sherri Westin of Sesame Workshop appeared on CNNThursday morning, October 4th, to clarify:

“Sesame Workshop receives very, very little funding from PBS. So, we are able to raise our funding through philanthropic, through our licensed product, which goes back into the educational programming, through corporate underwriting and sponsorship. So quite frankly, you can debate whether or not there should be funding of public broadcasting. But when they always try to tout out Big Bird, and say we’re going to kill Big Bird—that is actually misleading, because Sesame Street will be here.”

Big Bird himself indirectly referenced the remarks on Twitter: "Big Bird: My bed time is usually 7:45, but I was really tired yesterday and fell asleep at 7! Did I miss anything last night?"

Saturday Night Live, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Piers Morgan, Today, and Good Morning America all offered appearance spots to Big Bird. While it was said that Sesame Workshop declined all offers, Big Bird did make a surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live on October 6, 2012. Avoiding any direct political statement, the bird discussed all of the tweets he got and his sudden fame (how everyone now looks at him when he goes down the street, when he used to be able to blend in like any other eight-foot tall talking bird) and made one non-partisan political joke (about how debates are really enjoyed by "de fishes").

On October 9, in response to the Obama campaign ad using Big Bird, Sesame Workshop issued a second statement:

“Sesame Workshop is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization and we do not endorse candidates or participate in political campaigns. We have approved no campaign ads, and, as is our general practice, have requested that both campaigns remove Sesame Street characters and trademarks from their campaign materials.”

Editorial cartoons

Arizona RepublicSteve Benson

Arkansas Democrat GazetteJohn Deering

Atlanta JournalMike Luckovich

Augusta ChronicleRick McKee

The Buffalo NewsAdam Zyglis

Colorado Springs GazetteChuck Asay

The Columbus DispatchNate Beeler

Hoover DigestTaylor Jones

Houston ChronicleNick Anderson

Investors Business DailyMichael Ramirez

Los Angeles TimesJeff Danzinger

Los Angeles TimesDavid Horsey

Media MattersRob Tornoe

Neues Deutschland

Omaha World-HeraldJeff Koterba

Ottawa CitizenCameron Cardow

Pioneer PressEric Allie

Pittsburgh Tribune-ReviewRandy Bish

Pittsburgh Tribune-ReviewRandy Bish

Savannah Morning NewsMark Streeter

Savannah Morning NewsMark Streeter

Scranton Times-TribuneJohn Cole

SegaChristo Kormarnitski

State Journal-RegisterChris Britt

The Times-PicayuneSteve Kelley

Toronto Star

Utah Standard-ExaminerCal Grondahl

VultureBill Day

Chip Bok

Chip Bok

Ken Catalino

Bill Day

Dave Granlund

Milt Priggee

Tom the Dancing Bug

Other responses

Big Bird - Obama for America TV Ad

Big Bird Doesn't Stand A Chance Against Mitt Romney - CONAN on TBS

From Conan

See also The Million Puppet March

• The Obama campaign released an ad on YouTube, titled "Big Bird", focusing on the comments versus the "Wall Street" issue. The video features two actual Sesame Street clips: one of Big Bird stating "It's me, Big Bird" and another of him sleeping in his nest.
  • The ad prompted a response from Sesame Workshop, asking for its removal and reitierating its nonpartisan stance: "Sesame Workshop is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization and we do not endorse candidates or participate in political campaigns. We have approved no campaign ads, and as is our general practice, have requested that the ad be taken down."
  • In turn, the Republican National Committee, on the official GOP blog, has referred to the Obama campaign's reactions to Romney's comment as "Big Bird Backfire," suggesting he should be spending more time on more important issues.
• During the debate, "Big Bird" was one of Google's top four rising search terms (the others were "Simpson Bowles", "Dodd Frank", and "Who is winning the debate").
• Social media responses cited in the media included a Facebook campaign to elect Big Bird president, an Indiegogo campaign, and @FiredBigBird, a parody account with over 31,000 followers. According to USA Today, "the Twitter Government account, @gov, tweeted that the phrase "Big Bird" had generated about 17,000 tweets per minute."
• The controversy was referenced and lampooned on such shows as The Daily Show, Conan, The Colbert Report, The Tonight Show, The Late Show, Late Night, The Late Late Show, Ellen, and Jimmy Kimmel Live, among others.