In case you haven’t been keep tracking of how Republicans in the United States are handling the Covid pandemic, they are currently banning Sesame Street characters from their annual political conference.
We wish we were making this up.
On Thursday, the Conservative Political Action Conference moved to ban Big Bird, Elmo, Bert and Ernie – all characters, and more importantly, muppets – from the long-running children’s show Sesame Street from attending CPAC.
#NotInvited #CPACFlorida pic.twitter.com/cSQwov3dUw
— CPAC 2022 (@CPAC) November 17, 2021
Big Bird & Big Gov. Mandates?
— CPAC 2022 (@CPAC) November 18, 2021
NO 👏🏼 THANK 👏🏼 YOU 👏🏼 pic.twitter.com/JK3efVPQnK
Why? Because a few weeks ago Big Bird – who we should remind you is a giant yellow (and we can’t emphasise this enough) fictional bird – tweeted that he had just gotten his Covid vaccine.
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This immediately ignited the US right-wing with the likes of Ted Cruz calling it ‘propaganda’ for children.
It’s fair to say that this is a slight overreaction from Republicans who can’t get their head around a popular TV show promoting a good a noble cause, designed to keep people safe from a deadly virus.
CPAC’s completely surreal and absurd decision to ban four puppets from their event – not that they were ever likely to turn up anyway – has inevitably seen them mocked.
somehow this appears to not be parody https://t.co/pjWPAeuBT2
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 18, 2021
one would think a group of tantruming toddlers would appreciate the Muppets https://t.co/zubNu9gXH5
— shauna (@goldengateblond) November 18, 2021
the conservative political action conference is still mad at the education puppets https://t.co/UA7BVkuUHs
— Hbomberguy (@Hbomberguy) November 18, 2021
Going puppet free this year?
— Thee Dara Does Deep State (@daralynn13) November 18, 2021
Bold move, CPAC
Bold move https://t.co/tSzBnY3FWe
As opposed to all the previous years in which Big Bird, Bert, and Ernie WERE invited to CPAC? https://t.co/tsvir4CwQN
— The Volatile Mermaid (@OhNoSheTwitnt) November 19, 2021
The Great Muppet War of 2021 will continue into next year, it appears https://t.co/B2j26UfbMO
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) November 18, 2021
I don't think Sesame Street appreciates the urgency of this situation. If they don't add at least one conservative muppet to the cast, these seething 68yo reactionaries WILL stop watching the show. https://t.co/mxKr9UIthq
— David Roth (@david_j_roth) November 18, 2021
Here's Ernie and Bert and a big bird.🖕 https://t.co/2SaTlDqwBs pic.twitter.com/Tlko04Mt2H
— John Pavlovitz (@johnpavlovitz) November 18, 2021
It should be noted that this is the same event that housed a giant gold statue of Donald Trump less than five months ago...
CPAC appears to have a real bee in their bonnet over Sesame Street at the moment after the event’s organiser Matt Schlapp accused the show of injecting “woke politics” and “race” into the program following the announcement that an Asian-American puppet had been added to the cast.
