Ernie | |
Sesame Street character | |
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f1/Bert_and_Ernie.JPG/290px-Bert_and_Ernie.JPG Ernie (pictured on left) with his rubber ducky alongside Bert on Sesame Street in 1978 | |
First appearance | Sesame Street Test Pilot (1969) |
Portrayed by | Jim Henson (1969–1990) Steve Whitmire (1993–2014) John Tartaglia (2003) Billy Barkhurst (2014–2017) Peter Linz (2017–present) |
Information | |
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Aliases | Caveman Ernie, Sir Ernie |
Species | Human Muppet |
Nationality | American |
Ernie is an orange Muppet character on the long running PBS and HBO children's television show Sesame Street. He and his roommate Bert form the comic duo Bert and Ernie, one of the program's centerpieces, with Ernie acting the role of the naïve troublemaker and Bert the world weary foil.
Character
Ernie has a distinctive, chuckling laugh (a trait he shares with his baby cousin, Ernestine). His appearance and clothing contrast noticeably with Bert, as he is the shorter and stouter of the pair, wears a shirt with horizontal stripes as opposed to Bert's vertical ones, and has a head that is wider than it is high. In addition, Ernie has no visible eyebrows, while Bert displays a unibrow.
Ernie is well known for his fondness for baths with his Rubber Duckie, and for trying to learn to play the saxophone. Ernie is also known for keeping Bert awake at night, for reasons such as wanting to play the drums, wanting to count something (like sheep), to observe something like a blackout, or even because he is waiting for his upstairs neighbor to drop his shoes.
Many Ernie and Bert sketches involve Ernie wanting to play a game with Bert, who would much rather do something else (like read). Ernie keeps irking Bert with the game until Bert joins — and usually, by the time Bert starts enjoying the game, Ernie is tired of playing the game and wants to do something else.
Other sketches have involved them sharing some food by dividing it equally, only for one of them to have a bit more than the other, leading Ernie to make it even by eating the extra piece. Ernie makes appearances without Bert, usually within the framework of another double act. He has regularly appeared in skits with Grover, Cookie Monster, Sherlock Hemlock and Lefty the Salesman.
From Season 33 (2002) until Season 36 (2005), he and Big Bird starred in a daily segment called "Journey to Ernie". Ernie was one of the hosts of the show Play with Me Sesame. One regular segment that he hosted was "Ernie Says", a variation of "Simon Says".
Movies, songs and specials
Ernie sang about his affection for Rubber Duckie in a skit, which aired during the first season of Sesame Street. The song from that skit – titled "Rubber Duckie" – became a modest mainstream hit, reaching No. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 in September 1970.
Ernie has appeared in both of the Sesame Street movies. In Follow That Bird, he and Bert searched for Big Bird by plane. Ernie piloted the plane, and eventually, after they found Big Bird, he flew the plane upside-down, singing "Upside Down World". However, after they lost Big Bird, Ernie blamed Bert.
In The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland, Ernie and Bert served as hosts, interrupting the movie whenever it looks like something bad is about to happen. Bert was worried about the bad bits, but Ernie reassured him by saying "Bert, nothing bad is going to happen!". Ernie reveals in Sesame Street Episode 257 that his favourite activities include watching parades, circuses and going to birthday parties.
A typical Bert and Ernie skit has Ernie coming up with a hare brained idea, and Bert trying to talk him out of it ending with Bert losing his temper, while Ernie becomes oblivious to his own bad idea. Other sketches have involved Bert and Ernie sharing a snack by division, but finding that one of them has a bit more; Ernie humorously decides to try to make it even by eating the extra piece, which goes forth until the entire snack is all eaten up.
Others have also involved Ernie eating part of Bert's snack he prepares for himself, and when Bert comes back from somewhere, Ernie tries to make several attempts to cover up the crime in front of Bert, which is not successful mostly. Some other plotlines involved Ernie wanting to play a game with Bert who wants to do something else; he continues playing until he gets Bert in, but when Bert finally wants to continue playing the game, Ernie is tired of playing, and wants to do something else.
In Christmas Eve on Sesame Street, Ernie decided to buy Bert a cigar box to store his paper clips in. However, as he did not have any money, he traded his own Rubber Duckie for it. At the same time, Bert decided to get Ernie a soap dish to put his Rubber Duckie in, so that it wouldn't keep falling into the tub, but had to trade his paper clips for it. However, Mr. Hooper could tell that neither of them really wanted to give up their prized possessions, so Mr. Hooper gave them their things back as presents.
Ernie and Bert introduced a montage of Sesame Street clips in The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years. Ernie also narrated a Christmas pageant, 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, in A Muppet Family Christmas. In that same special, Ernie and Bert had a conversation with Doc, making them the only Sesame Street characters (not counting Kermit the Frog) to have interacted with Doc.
In Sesame Street... 20 Years & Still Counting, he and Bert got a new video camera, and he talked Bert into using the camera to record footage of Sesame Street so that they could watch Sesame Street on television.
International
Sesame Street is localized for some different markets, and Ernie is often renamed. For instance, in episodes that are aired in Portugal, Ernie's name has been changed to Egas, in Brazil, his name is Ênio, in Spain, he is renamed "Epi", in Latin America, his name is "Enrique", on Egyptian Alam Simsim (Sesame World) Ernie's name is given as "Shadi" (rhyming with Bert's which is "Hadi"), in Russia, he also known as Yenik (Еник), in Turkey, he is named "Edi", in Israel, he is called "Arik" (אריק) and in Norway, he is known as "Erling".