Sesame Street Funding, One of the creators of Sesame Street, Lloyd Morrisett, rushed to the defense of Big Bird, calling Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s threat to stop funding for the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) ‘silly’. Morrisett said he was baffled that Romney made the yellow-feathered bird a talking point in the presidential debate with President Barack Obama at Denver.
“I rolled my eyes. I thought to myself, ‘What the hell is this?’” Morrisett told the New York Daily News.
According to the report, during the debate, Romney said he liked Big Bird, but not enough to borrow money from China to fund him and his Sesame Street pals during an economic crisis.
“To argue that’s going to save much money is a stretch of the truth,” Morisett said, adding: “I think it’s sort of silly.”
The Daily News took the issue to the streets, sending a reporter to Washington Square Park dressed in a Big Bird costume to get reaction from fans.
After spotting Big Bird, Wendy Saltzstein’s two kids clamored for a photo and she expressed dismay that Romney would want to pluck his feathers.
“If elected, I wouldn’t be surprised if Romney went through with it,” Saltzstein said.
A PBS spokeswoman said that only 15 percent of its 475 million dollars budget comes from the government, the report said.
“If you don’t vote Obama, Mitt Romney is going to be eating me by the end of November,” tweeted @BigBirdRomney, one of many parody accounts on Twitter.
During a campaign stop in Colorado, Obama too supported his opponent’s deficit-closing concept. “Thank goodness someone is finally getting tough on Big Bird!”