From Muppet Wiki

Gay people often joke about Ernie and Bert being a couple, as seen in this photo from a 2005 rally for gay marriage.

It has long been rumored that Sesame Street's Ernie and Bert are a gay couple. Sesame Workshop has denied this rumor, claiming Ernie and Bert are just puppets and don't exist offscreen. Even onscreen, moreover, Ernie and Bert's bedroom is shown as having two single beds, not a double or larger bed. Officially, Ernie and Bert are good friends who share an apartment.

Rumor Sources

The cover of Love, a 1980 album.

Bert and Ernie conduct themselves in the same loving, discreet way that millions of gay men, women and hand puppets do. They do their jobs well and live a splendidly settled life together in an impeccably decorated cabinet.

- The Real Thing by Kurt Andersen, 1980

Bert and Ernie are two grown men sharing a house and a bedroom. They share clothes, eat and cook together and have blatantly effeminate characteristics. In one show Bert teaches Ernie how to sew. In another they tend plants together. If this isn't meant to represent a homosexual union, I can't imagine what it's supposed to represent.

- Rev. Joseph Chambers, 1994 radio show in attempt to get the characters banned [1]

Official Statements

Bert and Ernie, who've been on Sesame Street for 25 years, do not portray a gay couple, and there are no plans for them to do so in the future. They are puppets, not humans. Like all the Muppets created for Sesame Street, they were designed to help educate preschoolers. Bert and Ernie are characters who help demonstrate to children that despite their differences, they can be good friends.

- Sesame Workshop's consumer response prepared statement, 1993

Other Quotes

• "They're puppets. They don't exist below the waist!"

- Steve Whitmire to students in a Q&A session at Carnegie Mellon University, September 10, 1997 [2]

• "All that stuff about me and Bert? It's not true. We're both very happy, but we're not gay."

- Ernie (Steve Whitmire) to students at Carnegie Mellon University, September 10, 1997 [3]

• "Oh, you had to ask that question. No, no. In fact, sometimes we are not even friends; he can be a pain in the neck."

- Bert (Eric Jacobson) to Spencer Howson when asked if he and Ernie are "more than just good friends" in an ABC Brisbane radio interview, March 7, 2005 (sound bite)

Parody and References

• Family Guy
• Avenue Q
• Ernest & Bertram
• Daryl Cagle's 2003 editorial cartoon on gay marriage

Sources

• Tough Pigs - Muppet Sexuality
• Snopes.com Bert & Ernie's Relationship
• Answers.com Bert & Ernie
• Gay Today Quotes
• ABC Brisbane - Eric Jacobson interview