FLIRT & ERNIE?

Bert and Ernie are gay says writer – but Sesame Street insist they’re just ‘non-sexual puppets’

Telly fans have been convinced for years that the lovable pair who share a basement apartment on the long-running kids' show - but sleep in different beds - are lovers

Jay Akbar
Ben Graham for news.com.au

Published: 14:50, 18 Sep 2018
Updated: 23:23, 18 Sep 2018

THE true nature of Bert and Ernie's very special friendship has been a hotly-debated mystery ever since the iconic children's show first aired in 1969.

Many were convinced the two lovable characters who shared a basement apartment on 123 Sesame Street - but slept in different beds - were gay lovers.

A Sesame Street writer has revealed that live-in pair Bert and Ernie were gay loversCredit: Alamy

With their adorable bickering and easy chemistry, every TV series from Friends and The Simpsons to Family Guy lovingly painted them as partners too.

Now, after decades of speculation, one of the show's writers has lifted the lid on its most famous and beloved characters.

Mark Saltzman, who joined the Sesame Street team in 1984, has revealed he did indeed write Bert and Ernie as a gay couple.

with film editor Arnold Glassman at the time.

He added: "I remember one time a preschooler [in San Francisco] turned to her mum and asked, 'are Bert and Ernie lovers?' and that, coming from a preschooler, was fun.

"That got passed around, and everyone had their chuckle and went back to it.

Bert and Ernie lived together in a basement apartment on 123 Sesame Street - though they slept in different bedsCredit: Peter Bischoff - Getty

Saltzman said he wrote the two characters as gay because he did not know 'how else to contextualise them'

The puppet pair also found themselves at the heart of a fierce debate about discrimination and religious beliefs in 2015.

A baker in Northern Ireland refused to bake a cake advocating gay marriage with their faces on it.

Saltzman told Queerty that he would tell people the duo were based on him and Glassman, adding: "I was Ernie.

"I look more Bert-ish. And Arnie as a film editor — if you thought of Bert with a job in the world, wouldn’t that be perfect? Bert with his paperclips and organisation?

"And I was the jokester. So, it was the Bert and Ernie relationship, and I was already with Arnie when I came to Sesame Street.

"So I don’t think I’d know how else to write them, but as a loving couple. I wrote sketches... Arnie’s OCD would create friction with how chaotic I was. And that’s the Bert and Ernie dynamic."

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