Frank Oz weighs on 'Same Street' wrer sayg Bert and Ernie are gay

Contents:

• BERT AND ERNIE ARE ED A GAY UPLE, 'SAME STREET' WRER CLAIMS
• SAME STREET SAYS BERT AND ERNIE 'DON'T HAVE A SEXUAL ORIENTATN' AFTER LONGTIME WRER CLAIMS THEY'RE GAY
• FRANK OZ WEIGHS ON 'SAME STREET' WRER SAYG BERT AND ERNIE ARE GAY
• THE FIGHT OVER SAME STREET’S BERT AND ERNIE AS A GAY UPLE, EXPLAED
• ARE BERT AND ERNIE A GAY UPLE? FALLY, THE ANSWER

BERT AND ERNIE ARE ED A GAY UPLE, 'SAME STREET' WRER CLAIMS

A former wrer for Same Street said a recent terview that he nsired Bert and Ernie to be gay — but the show rebutted this claim, sayg the puppets “do not have a sexual orientatn. “I always felt that whout a huge agenda, when I was wrg Bert & Ernie, they were [gay], ” Saltzman said. ’ But those two… you had characters that appealed to a gay dience.

Frank Oz is voice of dozens of puppets and muppets as one of Jim Henson's earlit llaborators — and now the storied puppeteer is lendg his voice to the bate over whether or not "Same Street" characters Bert and Ernie are gay.

SAME STREET SAYS BERT AND ERNIE 'DON'T HAVE A SEXUAL ORIENTATN' AFTER LONGTIME WRER CLAIMS THEY'RE GAY

Mark Saltzman was asked if Bert & Ernie are gay.

Why the need to fe people as only gay? There's much more to a human beg than jt straightns or gayns. "Director/producer/puppeteer Frank Oz pos for a portra at the "Muppet Guys Talkg - Secrets Behd the Show the Whole World Watched" at the 2017 SXSW Wkelmeyer / Getty Imag for SXSW fileOz ntued to go back-and-forth wh people rpondg to his tweet who asked why the lorful puppets uldn't be gay.

Bert and Ernie were created to be bt iends, and to teach young children that people n get along wh those who are very different om themselv, " the workshop said a statement emailed to NBC ntued to take to Twter, tellg followers he felt he uldn't ll Bert and Ernie gay bee his md wasn't asked why he felt the need to intify the puppets as "not gay, " Oz replied: "The same need I would feel if Bert were intified as a lebacker for the Colts. Next time I would be very terted to know: If Bert and Ernie were ed gay, would they be different than they are now? Are Bert and Ernie gay?

FRANK OZ WEIGHS ON 'SAME STREET' WRER SAYG BERT AND ERNIE ARE GAY

Same Street has always had one nsistent official answer (no, they’re not), but that hasn’t stopped the two famo felt roommat om beg gay ins and occupyg a unique role the queer rights movement. Controversy over their perceived homosexualy has raged termtently for s, spearhead by both alli and adversari — and a new flare-up shows that ’s not gog away anytime soon.

The official negatn was echoed by puppetmaster Frank Oz, who origally performed Bert oppose Jim Henson as Ernie, and who stated on Twter that “They’re not [gay], of urse. For those queer fans lookg for narrative subtext, there’s plenty to be found the personas of Bert and Ernie; after all, there’s a reason we as a culture have been discsg their relatnship for s, a reason that they ntue to be held up as gay ins across generatns — and a reason people have spent s beg hoppg mad about . It’s all pretty gay!

Among homosexuals, Bert and Ernie of Same Street are the real thg. Bert and Ernie nduct themselv the same lovg, discreet way that lns of gay men, women and hand puppets do.

THE FIGHT OVER SAME STREET’S BERT AND ERNIE AS A GAY UPLE, EXPLAED

“I don’t believe there was much public discsn, ser or otherwise, about the crypto-gayns of The Odd Couple the 1960s and ’70s, ” he wrote an email. “That kd of disurse only appeared ncerng work about straight characters by gay wrers — most famoly, whether Who’s Aaid of Virgia Woolf was somehow ‘really’ about a gay uple, ” he add.

“In 1980, when I published my Bert & Ernie thg, there were still no out gay characters mass media.

ARE BERT AND ERNIE A GAY UPLE? FALLY, THE ANSWER

The piece of the zegeist I was rpondg to was, jt a after Stonewall (which BTW occurred a few months before Same Street premiered) and the first pri march, the hly ‘normalized’ nature of out gayns plac like New York. The nversatn between Saltzman and terviewer Reddish is illumatg and poignant, equently returng to Saltzman’s experience as a young gay man the early ’80s, one fdg his way out of the closet jt as the AIDS epimic was begng to be wily unrstood.

“I n remember pchg to the tn partment, the gatekeepers of the curriculum, gay ntent, jt to get off my nscience. But there was one place Saltzman was able to sert his own lived experience as a gay man to his wrg, and that was through the personas of Bert and Ernie.