Big Bird

Since Sesame Street began, the world's most famous 8 foot 2 inch big yellow bird, Big Bird, has entertained millions of pre-school children and their parents with his wide-eyed wondering at the world. more...

Originally performed by Caroll Spinney, this big yellow bird can roller skate, ice skate, dance, sing, write poetry, draw and even ride a unicycle — pretty talented for a character described in the TV show's writer's guide as a 6-year-old. But despite this wide array of talents, he is prone to frequent misunderstandings, on one occasion even singing the alphabet as one big long word, pondering what it could ever mean (see ABC-DEF-GHI). He lives in a large nest behind the 123 Sesame Street Apartment and he has a teddy bear named Radar (a nod to Walter "Radar" O'Reilly of M*A*S*H, who had a teddy bear).

This character helps children feel okay about not knowing everything because he himself does not know everything, and encourages them to inquire: a common Big Bird phrase in recent years has been: "Asking is a good way of finding things out!". He also teaches other life, alphabet and numerical lessons: "I guess it's better to be who you are. Turns out people like you best that way, anyway."

For many years his best friend Mr. Snuffleupagus ("Snuffy" for short) was deemed as imaginary by the human cast. Every time Snuffy would visit, he would coincidentally leave just before the adults arrived. Despite not being believed by the adults, Big Bird continued to assert that Snuffy was real. In the early 1980s a string of high-profile child sexual abuse cases caused Sesame Workshop (then The Children's Television Workshop) to eliminate this running gag, fearing that children would take to heart the message that, if adults don't believe something out of the ordinary, they'd be just as well off to remain silent.

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