'Sesame Street' creates first Muppet to have a parent in jail

[meegbear]

Those friendly, fuzzy Muppets from “Sesame Street” have helped kids open up about all sorts of serious subjects, from hunger and divorce to military deployment.

But they’re now tackling a much more unexpected issue: incarceration.

Meet Alex, the first Muppet to have a dad in jail. According to a Pew Charitable Trusts report, one in 28 children in the United States now has a parent behind bars -- more than the number of kids with a parent who is deployed -- so it’s a real issue, but it’s talked about far less because of the stigma.

That’s why the Sesame Workshop says it created the “Little Children, Big Challenges: Incarceration” initiative, an online tool kit intended to help kids with a parent in prison find support and comfort, and provide families with strategies and tips to talk to their children about incarceration.

<snip>

Alex is blue-haired and green-nosed and he wears a hoodie – you might think he’s just another carefree inhabitant of Sesame Street. But there’s sorrow in Alex’s voice when he talks about his father.

“I just miss him so much,” he tells a friend. “I usually don’t want people to know about my Dad.”

It’s easier for kids to hear such things from a Muppet than an adult, creators of the initiative noted.

“Coming from a Muppet, it’s almost another child telling their story to the children,” said Jeanette Betancourt, vice president of outreach and educational practices at the Sesame Workshop.

Alex will not be part of the regular cast on “Sesame Street,” but he’s playing a central role in the online tool kit.

<snip>

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/sesame-street-creates-first-muppet-have-parent-jail-6C10345061

A tough topic and bravo to them for takling it.

[Cooley Hurd]

1. Kick and rec

[FirstLight]

2. ...

WHAT would a Muppet possibly do to get thrown in jail!?


sorry, that was my first thought... *snort*

[pinboy3niner]

3. Alphabet trafficking--unloading boosted items such as letters U and O

Although Sesame Street is meant to represent a child-friendly, and somewhat idyllic, New York City street, the neighborhood has a network of seedy underground criminal organizations. These groups are run by an assortment of suspicious characters, most commonly for the purpose of shady and illegal activities such as alphabet trafficking, black marketeering and robbery. Comprised mainly of Anything Muppets, these gangs are typically composed of a crime boss and his lackeys (often named Lefty).

The most commonly seen criminal on Sesame Street is Lefty, a shady-looking salesman in a trench coat, who appeared in several recurring Sesame Street sketches discreetly selling hot items to passersby (usually Ernie). Lefty spoke in a whispery voice as he attempted to unload such boosted items as the letters U and O, an invisible ice cream cone, and even exotic elephant artwork. These sketches can be found on Lefty's own page. Lefty's boss (a Fat Blue Anything Muppet performed by Jerry Nelson) appeared in a few sketches with his lackey, often in a dark alley or abandoned warehouse after dark.

http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Sesame_Street_Gangsters

[Pelican]

5. ... and sometimes Y

[MynameisBlarney]

10. heh

O U.

[Rod Walker]

4. Ever see "Avenue Q"? Any number of things come to mind...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avenue_q

[tclambert]

6. If Republicans had their way, Bert and Ernie would go to jail.

And the Count sounds kinda foreign. Bet he doesn't have a green card.

[Initech]

7. Sneaking drugs into rehab?

[meegbear]

8. +1

[lpbk2713]

9. More ground breaking for Sesame Street

Hats off to SS

[HappyMe]

11. They did a great job

when my sons were little, and they are still doing a great job.

[HiPointDem]

12. i haven't like sesame street since i learned joan cooney was married to neoliberal social security

privatizer pete peterson.

it's people like peterson pushing the policies -- offshoring of jobs, pushing down wages, 'ethnic cleansing' of our big cities, three strikes laws, drug war, destruction of the safety net - *responsible* for our high incarceration rate, and cooney & other purveyors and funders of sesame street profit.

but now kids can talk about their incarcerated fathers. wow. such is what passes for 'liberalism' these days.

[Aristus]

13. Careful, Alex; you have colored skin and you're wearing a hoodie.

You could become the first Muppet to get shot to death by a gun-crazed, self-appointed executioner with Rambo fantasies...