A (Cookie) Monstrosity

Ben Franklin once said that the only certain things in life are death and taxes. In my years, I’ve considered the fact that Cookie Monster really only eats cookies among these as well, which makes his recent eccentricity—for health considerations, he now calls cookies a “sometime food”—seem all the more curious.

Is there really a problem with this? Do I actually take issue with the furry blue puppet’s pushing for better nutrition? It’s not the character inconsistency of this childhood icon, but rather the reasoning behind that change, that’s troubling.

This country certainly is facing an obesity epidemic, across all ages, but the notion that the solution is the defilement of a popular character’s sole characteristic is pointless and ineffective. Following this same line of thinking, Oscar the Grouch ought to go through a happy streak, one that would hopefully overcome childhood depression, (for that matter Oscar needs to stop living in a trash can; the number of kids following his example there is on the rise, too).

The worst part of Cookie Monster’s metamorphosis into a more sensible eater is that it actually is worse for the children that tune into Sesame Street these days. Just as important as exemplary role models are their negative counterparts, characters kids can learn not to emulate. Watching Cookie Monster’s effect on the viewer, it seems obvious that what he was really providing was an example of gluttony to be avoided.

The larger problem is that this specific example of retooling a classic show is just one of many paternalistic changes starting to take over children’s media and culture. Before producers and writers start presenting all-positive programming to youth, they should consider the fact that the world these children will enter will contain some negative realities in it. Young people must be prepared to identify and react to these experiences.

And there is something troubling about the willful distortion of a hallmark of American childhood just to get a message across. Cookie Monster may not have been as dynamic as Big Bird or Snuffleupagus, but his calling card’s—these cookies, of course—comic consistency was worth even the questionable influence on viewers’ eating habits.

Cookie Monster loves to eat cookies, and nothing else. Even the best intentions shouldn’t be grounds to repeal that law of the universe. Regardless, the few certain things in my life are dwindling, so Tiger Woods better keep winning and Quadded freshmen better keep rationalizing. Otherwise, I’ll have no other way to keep my grasp on reality.


Marcel E. Moran ’11, a Crimson editorial editor, lives in Pennypacker Hall.