Ernie vs Bert
— Round 6 —
Achtung Ernie
This is a little sidestep for the Anthology, but I’ve gotta know: What is up with Ernie and Bert in Germany?
While I’ve been working on this Ernie vs Bert thing, I’ve been doing web searches for Ernie and Bert pictures — and I found out that German people are just mad for Ernie and Bert. Here, for example, is Exhibit A: the many, many Ernie and Bert videos currently available at Amazon.de, the German version of Amazon:
At Amazon, they list 22 Sesamstrasse videos — and all but 3 of them have either Ernie, Bert or both Ernie and Bert on the cover. (The other three have Elmo, Cookie Monster and Big Bird — and the Big Bird one is a UK import.)
And that’s just Exhibit A. Here’s Exhibit B, which is pictures of a parade with a whole bunch of German people dressed up as Ernie and Bert. I can’t explain this one, it just is what it is.
That doesn’t prove anything? Well, how about the Netwear.de online store, which offers tons of Sesamstrasse merchandise — toys, t-shirts, bathrobes, glassware — and almost all of it is Ernie and Bert? In fact, they list “Sesamstrasse” and “Ernie/Bert” interchangeably.
Now, this is the clincher for me. This is the best I got. In Germany, apparently, not only do they watch the videos, dress up like Ernie and Bert, and buy Ernie and Bert merchandise by the truckload… they also create enormous graven images of Ernie and Bert, and erect them in public places.
So, this is my question for Germany: What the hell? (Or, as they say in German, que pasa?) Why Ernie and Bert, and not Grobi, or Oskar, or die Kr?ºmelmonster? This just mystifies me.
So I would love it if anyone out there, German or otherwise, could write in and explain to me the particular German fascination with Ernie and Bert. Seriously. I’ve just got to know.
By Danny Horn
