From Muppet Wiki: Ernest & Bertram is a 2002 short film by Peter Spears spoofing Sesame Street characters Ernie and Bert. The film ran at the Sundance Film Festival, but kept from further distribution when its director was served a cease and desist order by Sesame Workshop's lawyers.
When the film starts, Miss Piggy has discontinued a romantic relationship with Bert when rumors of the roommates being gay hit the media. Ernie comes home, and through conversation reveals that he does love Bert "that way." Bert seems not to share this sentiment, resulting in Ernie's suicide.
The film makes no effort to hide the fact that they're using Sesame Workshop's characters. The blatant use of copyrighted characters is no doubt what initiated legal action on the part of the owners. This includes the two main characters, their likenesses and an arrangement of the Sesame Street theme song.
13 Comments
dystopianfuturetodaysays...Fucked up and strangely moving. Bloody brilliant. The Aimee Mann tune at the end is perfect.
dystopianfuturetodaysays...*gay
siftbotsays...Adding video to channels (Gay) - requested by dystopianfuturetoday.
therealblankmansays...Really touching and terribly moving. Even though I think laws protecting freedom of expression- read parody- would protect the film-makers from legal action, I totally wouldn't want kids seeing this. It's hard enough for a grown, mentally mature adult like myself to deal with someone messing with my childhood icons.
Oh, and fuck the religious right for making Ernie hate himself, and for their hateful self-righteousness when condemning people who need love and support.
nibiyabisays...*dark
siftbotsays...Invocations (dark) cannot be called by nibiyabi because nibiyabi is not privileged - sorry.
12451says...Seasame Street meets the Children's Hour.
Sarzysays...*dark
*shortfilms
siftbotsays...Adding video to channels (Dark, Shortfilms) - requested by Sarzy.
critical_dsays...*length=00:08:04
siftbotsays...The duration of this video has been updated from unknown to 8:04 - length declared by critical_d.
antsays...*nsfw
siftbotsays...This video has been flagged as being Not Suitable For Work - declared nsfw by ant.
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