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Template:Infobox Sesame Street character Cookie Monster is a fictional Muppet character on the children's television show Sesame Street. He is best known for his voracious appetite and his famous eating phrases: "Me want cookie!", "Me eat cookie!", and "Om nom nom nom" (said through a mouthful of food). He often eats anything and everything, including danishes, donuts, lettuce, apples, bananas, as well as normally inedible objects such as salt and pepper shakers, signs, napkins, pencils, typewriters, telephones, motorcycles, Peabody Awards, trucks, a safe, and the Letter of the Day. However, as his name suggests, his preferred food is cookies. Chocolate chip cookies are his favorite kind; oatmeal cookies are his second favorite. In a song in 2004, Cookie Monster revealed that, before he ate his first cookie, he believes his name was Sid.^[1] Showing awareness of healthy eating habits for children, since 2006 he has said that cookies are "a sometimes food" and that he also likes fruits and eggplant.

He is known to have a mother, a younger sister, and an identically-designed cousin, who all share his characteristic blue fur and "googly eyes". He also has a father, who appeared in a Monsterpiece Theater sketch promoting energy conservation, water conservation and environmentalism. Both Cookie Monster's mother and father have his enormous appetite. He and his Sesame Street friends are popular motifs on t-shirts, and he has also appeared as a guest star on The Martha Stewart Show. Naturally, he was overjoyed at the fact they were making cookies. He also appeared in a 2008 episode of The Colbert Report.

Origin

The book Jim Henson's Designs and Doodles explains Cookie Monster's origin as follows: "In 1966, Henson drew three monsters that ate cookies and appeared in a General Foods commercial that featured three crunchy snack foods: Wheels, Crowns and Flutes. Each snack was represented by a different monster. The Wheel-Stealer was a short, fuzzy monster with wonky eyes and sharply pointed teeth. The Flute-Snatcher was a speed demon with a long, sharp nose and windblown hair. The Crown-Grabber was a hulk of a monster with a Boris Karloff accent and teeth that resembled giant knitting needles.

"These monsters had big appetites for the snack foods they were named after. Each time the Muppet narrator, a human-looking fellow, fixes himself a tray of Wheels, Flutes and Crowns, they disappear before he can eat them. One by one, the monsters sneak in and zoom away with the snacks. Frustrated and peckish, the narrator warns viewers that these pesky monsters could be disguised as someone in your own home, at which point the monsters briefly turn into people and then dissolve back to monsters again."

As it turns out, these commercials were never aired — but all three monsters had a future in the Muppet cast. The "Crown-Grabber" was used in a sketch on The Ed Sullivan Show, in which he ruins a girl's beautiful day. Known from then on as the Beautiful Day Monster, he made a number of appearances on Sesame Street and The Muppet Show. The "Flute-Snatcher" turned into Snake Frackle, a background monster from The Great Santa Claus Switch and The Muppet Show.

In 1967, Henson used the "Wheel-Stealer" puppet for an IBM training film called Coffee Break Machine. In the sketch, the monster (with frightening eyes and fangs) devours a complex machine as the machine describes its purpose and construction. At the end of the sketch, the talking machine explains that its primary purpose is to produce the greatest explosion known to man. The monster promptly explodes. This sketch was also performed in October, 1967 on The Ed Sullivan Show. It was also later performed on the George Burns episode of The Muppet Show using the Luncheon Counter Monster.

Two years later, Henson pulled the puppet out of the box again for three commercials selling Munchos, a Frito-Lay potato chip. This time, the puppet was called Arnold, the Munching Monster. After the three ads were produced, Henson had the opportunity to renew the contract. He chose not to, because at that point he was working on Sesame Street — and that monster puppet was moving on to the next stage in his career.

Cookie Monster, still unnamed, made his Sesame Street debut in the first episode, interfering with Kermit the Frog's "famous W lecture" by eating a model "W" bit by bit. He turns it into an "N", a "V", and finally an "I", to Kermit's frustration. He then tries to eat Kermit.

In his early appearances on the show, Cookie Monster seemed somewhat scary to younger viewers, as he personified the childhood fear of "being eaten by a monster".^{[original research?]} However, this fearsome image did not last long, and Cookie Monster quickly became one of the most popular and beloved characters on the show.^{[original research?]} Cookie Monster's theme song, "C is for Cookie", is one of the most famous songs from Sesame Street.

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Casting history

Main Performers

Frank Oz – From 1969 to present
David Rudman – From 2001 to present

Alternate Performers

Jim Henson – in The Ed Sullivan Show^[2]
Joe Raposo – in "Everyone Likes Ice Cream"^{[citation needed]}
Eric Jacobson – occasionally in 2001 and 2005^{[citation needed]}

David Rudman officially became Cookie Monster in Sesame Street's 2002 season (taped 2001), but the year before that, Rudman shared the part with Eric Jacobson. Once Jacobson was cast as Grover and Bert, Sesame Workshop chose Rudman as Cookie Monster to allow for more interaction between Cookie Monster and Bert/Grover. Frank Oz still performs Cookie Monster and his other Sesame Street characters a couple of times per year.

Merchandise

File:CookieMonsterToys1.JPG

Cookie Monster merchandise

Various toys and other icons of the Cookie Monster have been produced over the years. The most obvious is a cookie jar, of which several types have been offered.

Numerous children's books featuring Cookie Monster have been published over the years:

Happy Birthday, Cookie Monster
Cookie Monster's Kitchen
Cookie Monster's Christmas
A Cookie Gone Wrong - Monster's Story
Biggest Cookie in the World
Cookie Monster and the Cookie Tree
Cookie Monster's Good Time to Eat
Cookie Monster's Blue Book
Cookie Monster, Where are You?
Cookie Monster!
Cookie Monster's Activity Book
Cookie Monster Mammoth Color
Cookie Monster's Book of Cookie Shapes
Monster and the Surprise Cookie
Sesame Street: Wanted, the Great Cookie Thief

Cultural references

An article in The Wall Street Journal notes that the guttural singing style in death metal bands is called "Cookie Monster singing".^[3]
In the Star Wars spoof Hardware Wars, Chewchilla the Wookie Monster (the spoof's version of Chewbacca) is an obvious takeoff on Cookie Monster.
Trekkie Monster in Avenue Q is loosely based on Cookie Monster.^[4]
In 1990 U.S. Budget Director Richard Darman wrote an introduction to the federal budget with a section "Green Eyeshades and the Cookie Monster" in which he called enormous budget "the quintessential consumer... the Ultimate Cookie Monster".^[5]^[6]
In the Fox animated series Family Guy episode "Model Misbehavior", Cookie Monster is shown in rehab. He is a patient in a psychiatric hospital, apparently trying to kick his cookie addiction. He is caught hiding a plate of cookies under his sheets, and denies having them by blaming it on a person who made his bed, named Derek. Later, Lois finds him in the women's bathroom, trying to cook a spoonful of cookie dough with a cigarette lighter in the same manner as a heroin addict.
In the Food Network program Good Eats episode "Three Chips for Sister Marsha" (first aired December 13, 2000), a puppet named Maj. Wilfred D. Cookie who looks like a green version of Cookie Monster appears. Asked about his well-known "brother", he responds, "I told you never to mention that ruffian. All he knows about cookies is how to shovel them into his face."^[7]

References

^ "Cookie Monster curbs cookie habit". BBC News. 2005-04-11. Retrieved 2008-03-02.
^ Jim Henson at IMDb
^ Fusilli, Jim (2006-02-01). "That's Good Enough for Me". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2008-03-02.
^ Pincus-Roth, Zachary. Avenue Q: The Book. Hyperion. pp. p.84. ISBN 140130298X. Trekkie Monster is much like the Sesame Street character Cookie Monster—but with a more adult weakness... Marx: We wanted his name to indicate that he was obsessed, like Cookie Monster is obsessed with cookies. So we used 'Trekkie' both because it sounded like 'cookie' and because Trekkies are, by definition, obsessive fanatics. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
^ "The 1991 Budget: Excerpts from Darman". The New York Times. 1990-01-27. Retrieved 2008-03-29. As all monsters are, Cookie Monster is initially intimidating. His manner is gruff. His clumsiness occasionally causes damage. But quickly, Cookie Monster comes to be seen as benign - indeed, downright friendly. He has a few bad habits. He cannot resist gobbling up anything and everything that might be consumed, especially cookies. And he cannot quite control the way he spews forth crumbs. He is the quintessential consumer... the Ultimate Cookie Monster... [The budget] might be understood as little more than a compilation of cookies received, cookies crumbled, and crumbs spewed forth. Yet, apt though the Cookie Monster perspective may be, it does not suffice...
^ Light, Paul Charles (1999). The President's Agenda (3rd ed.). JHU Press. pp. p.235. ISBN 0801860660. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
^ "EA1C05: Three Chips for Sister Marsha". Good Eats Fan Page. Retrieved 2008-03-29.

External links

Cookie Monster on Muppet Wiki

Template:Imdb character

[bbc-1] "Cookie Monster curbs cookie habit". BBC News. 2005-04-11. Retrieved 2008-03-02.

[2] Jim Henson at IMDb

[3] Fusilli, Jim (2006-02-01). "That's Good Enough for Me". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2008-03-02.

[4] Pincus-Roth, Zachary. Avenue Q: The Book. Hyperion. pp. p.84. ISBN 140130298X. Trekkie Monster is much like the Sesame Street character Cookie Monster—but with a more adult weakness... Marx: We wanted his name to indicate that he was obsessed, like Cookie Monster is obsessed with cookies. So we used 'Trekkie' both because it sounded like 'cookie' and because Trekkies are, by definition, obsessive fanatics. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)

[5] "The 1991 Budget: Excerpts from Darman". The New York Times. 1990-01-27. Retrieved 2008-03-29. As all monsters are, Cookie Monster is initially intimidating. His manner is gruff. His clumsiness occasionally causes damage. But quickly, Cookie Monster comes to be seen as benign - indeed, downright friendly. He has a few bad habits. He cannot resist gobbling up anything and everything that might be consumed, especially cookies. And he cannot quite control the way he spews forth crumbs. He is the quintessential consumer... the Ultimate Cookie Monster... [The budget] might be understood as little more than a compilation of cookies received, cookies crumbled, and crumbs spewed forth. Yet, apt though the Cookie Monster perspective may be, it does not suffice...

[6] Light, Paul Charles (1999). The President's Agenda (3rd ed.). JHU Press. pp. p.235. ISBN 0801860660. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)

[7] "EA1C05: Three Chips for Sister Marsha". Good Eats Fan Page. Retrieved 2008-03-29.

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Revision as of 21:25, 13 March 2009

Origin

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Casting history

Merchandise

Cultural references

See also

References

External links