The Letter B

When I find I can't remember/What comes after A and before C/My mother always whispers/Letter B

Bert

The Felix to best friend Ernie's Oscar (not Grouch), Bert is the much more serious of the classic pair of friends (AND NOTHING MORE). Bert loves argyle, oatmeal, reading Boring Stories, collecting paper clips, and learning about his favorite animal, the pigeon.

In addition to his serious demeanor, he frequently tries to make sense of his much wackier pal, but usually to little or no avail as Ernie rarely stays serious for a second. He's also the current chairperson for the National Association of W Lovers, leading the group in activities such as reciting W words and drawing letter Ws.

Jim Henson has commented that Frank Oz initially didn't like Bert as he was too dull of a character for him to enjoy. Eventually, of course, Oz was able to turn Bert's boring personality into an outlet for his own dullness and found a way to make it entertaining and a great foil to Henson's Ernie.

Bunsen Honeydew

Dr. Bunsen Honeydew is head researcher and resident scientist of all facets of the world-renowned Muppet Laboratories. Originally alone in his experiments, he soon found the perfect guinea pig in the near-indestructible Beaker.

Always excited to show off his new invention (including a gorilla detector, a banana sharpener, and exploding clothes) his love of science tends to get in the way of the progress of his experiments, leaving Beaker to suffer. Over and over again.

Dr. Bunsen Honeydew is a terrible person.

Beaker

Beaker would certainly agree. As the unfortunate assistant of Honeydew, Beaker is subjected to one torturous experiment after another. Speaking in only "meep"s, Beaker's pain is more than apparent during the projects of Muppets Labs, as his screams of horror continually emit any time danger springs fully formed in front of him.

He's been shrunken, deflated, blown up, had acid poured on his head, yet he keeps coming back for more. Is it because he simply needs work, or is there a co-dependant relationship between doctor and assistant?

Big Bird

8 feet tall, bright yellow, and 6 years old, Big Bird lives in a giant nest right behind the 123 Sesame Street apartment building. The essence of childhood, Big Bird always lets children feel at ease with not knowing everything, because he doesn't either. He'll be confused by the alphabet, and he can easily be tricked by Oscar (who commonly refers to the big canary as a turkey).

With the possible exception of Elmo, Big Bird is the most popular character on Sesame Street, starring in the first Sesame Street movie "Follow That Bird" (which is awesome) and being probably one of the most marketable muppets. It may seem impossible for a person to puppet someone like Big Bird and, well, you would almost be right. Caroll Spinney (and a few others who have played the role) has to work the puppet by extending his right hand far above his head to move the neck and mouth while his left hand control the left wing (the right wing is stuffed and hangs loosely from the puppet).

Big Bird has made me cry at two different moments, both teaching about death. The first one was when actor Will Lee's death forced the Sesame Street writers to explain why Mr. Hooper wouldn't appear anymore. They decided to come out and say that Mr. Hooper died and have Big Bird (and all children) taught that death is a permanent occurence and we should learn to remember all the good things we experienced with that person.



The second happened at Jim Henson's actual funeral. As the giant bird, dressed formally for the event, walked down the aisle, there was a look of worry in his eyes. Making his way down to the center, he sang Henson's infamous "Bein' Green," a song extolling how it's not so bad to be different. With Caroll Spinney actually tearing up during the performance (both this and the Mr Hooper one, actually), Big Bird's own sadness came through so realistically. As the song concludes, Big Bird looks up into the sky and says, voice breaking, "Thank you, Kermit."