Alas, Cookie Monster falls prey to healthy eating

[Ponine]

My heart weeps for you Cookie.
Does this mean even I have to make healthy eating choices now?

Has Cookie Monster Given Up Sweets?

An excerpt:

First PBS announced that "Sesame Street" would kick off its 35th season this week with a multiyear story arc about healthy habits. No problem there; childhood obesity rates are soaring. Then I learned of changes that turned my "Sesame Street" world upside-down.
My beloved blue, furry monster -- who sang "C is for cookie, that's good enough for me" -- is now advocating eating healthy. There's even a new song -- "A Cookie Is a Sometimes Food," where Cookie Monster learns there are "anytime" foods and "sometimes" foods.

"Sacrilege!" I cried. "That's akin to Oscar the Grouch being nice and clean." (Co-workers gave me strange looks. But I didn't care.)

Being a journalist, I did the only thing I knew how to do. I investigated why "Sesame Street" gave Cookie Monster a health makeover.

[tracilicious]

I really, really love watching Sesame Street. I've only seen one show this week and the entire freaking thing was about bananas. I almost expected them to say "Sesame Street was brought to you today by the letter M and the Dole banana company." I'm also sad to see cookie monster change, but on the other hand, kids eating habits are really bad, and I think that it is great that Sesame Street is being proactive to change that.

Through much of the last season Cookie Monster ate the letter of the day and not cookies. That was pretty funny. My favorite cookie monster bit was when they were doing the letter K and whoever the start guest was was naming words that started with K and Cookie named "kowabunga." The star said that it wasn't a word and Cookie replied, "Yes it is. Is esoteric." I cracked up.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

I remember when I was a kid and there was a big movement to fix the way Cookie talked. The claim was that his bad grammar was screwing up the way kids speak. I'm serious.

Poor Cookie, the most put-upon of Muppets. Perhaps he's got a learning disability AND an eating disorder?

It is true though that our kids are getting way too fat. But something tells me that if they eat a big plate of cookies like our Monster friend does, it's not Cookie's fault, it's THE PARENTS' FAULTS GOD FVCKING DAMN IT!!!! DON'T GIVE YOUR KIDS CRAP TO EAT AND THEY WON'T BE FAT FVCKS!!!! Maybe that's the song Cookie should sing, "Parents, don't give your kids crap to eat, and they won't be fat fvcks."

Sorry about that. I'm a big Sesame Street fan.

[tracilicious]

Originally Posted by Cadaverous Pallor

I remember when I was a kid and there was a big movement to fix the way Cookie talked. The claim was that his bad grammar was screwing up the way kids speak. I'm serious.

I'm LOLing at your new song!

I actually know a few parents that won't watch Sesame Street because of this. I watched it today and I didn't notice a big change with Cookie, thankfully. The show seems kind of boring this season. I hope they go back to learning about things other than healthy habits throughout the season.

You're right about parents role in nutrition, BUT I also think it is good for kids to be getting the message about healthy habits from other places as well. It's easy to control what your kids eat at home, but maybe not so easy to help them make good choices when they are at school, or at a friends house, or wherever. It's a lifelong thing, so I think the more they hear a healthy message the better. If Elmo says to eat veggies and exercise it's a lot more fun to hear than if Mom says it.

It's sort of like offering better choices in kids meals. Of course the best solution is just not to get kids freaking Happy meals, but there is bound to be a time when you are on the go all day and need some quick food. So at least if you have to you can get apples instead of fries (but caramel sauce? Come on! How healthy is that?) and juice or milk instead of soda.

I'm glad that they aren't taking cookies away from Cookie monster totally. They are just teaching him moderation. Today he only ate the letter E. Which I'm assuming is a healthy food. The cool thing I noticed today is that they are using some of the very old songs with new animations. I also learned from watching The Incredibles special features that the guy that did Boundin' worked as an animator on Sesame during it's early years. He's responsible for the lady bug picnic.

CP, I meant to PM you for weeks to remind you to watch the rerun of the 35th anniversary show, but put it off because I was going to look it up and find out exactly what date it was on. Before I knew it the new season started. I'm sorry. It was a great show.