While you were a child watching Sesame Street did you ever stop to wonder exactly what race Bert and Ernie are? Was your mind ever captured with thoughts of where exactly the Grouch Family first immigrated to New York from? Well, apparently the good folks down at Sesame Workshop think you probably were because they've been on a mission of racial inclusion with new Muppets representing different races and ethnic groups. First came Rosita all the way back in 1991, a Mexican Muppet fluent in both Spanish and English and now it seems that Sesame Street will be home to its first Italian-American Muppet if this post from Hardcore Italians is to be believed.
Meet Joey. The first Italian-American Muppet in history! He lives above Hooper’s Store with his dad, who bond by cooking together.
— Hardcore Italians (@HardcoreItalian) November 12, 2023
"This was part of the bio given to me when I auditioned for Joey over two years ago. Finally, I can share with you all the immense amount of fun… pic.twitter.com/mYpzJ2pYas
The full text reads:
Meet Joey. The first Italian-American Muppet in history! He lives above Hooper’s Store with his dad, who bond by cooking together. "This was part of the bio given to me when I auditioned for Joey over two years ago. Finally, I can share with you all the immense amount of fun I’ve been having. My first season puppeteering on Sesame Street (Season 54) and if you watch the first episode carefully (and squint your eyes and tilt your head) you’ll spot Joey in the back of the laundromat. Sort of insane to be working my childhood dream job. Though it doesn’t quite feel like working. Man, my dad would be losing his marbles right now. Stay tuned for more, paisanos "
So... yeah. Apparently, Joey is explicitly Italian and lives above Mr. Hooper's store and cooks with his dad, cooking with your dad being a uniquely Italian-American experience we guess. If there's one group that is screaming for media representation it's Italian Americans, of course!
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— The Major 🇺🇸 🇮🇱 (@saltymarine80) November 13, 2023
Itsa me, Joey
— . (@LoneStarTexian) November 13, 2023
This is so dumb. I grew up on sesame Street. Never did I ever feel left out.
— Conservs of TikTok (@TheGoodJack2) November 13, 2023
You're dividing, you're not uniting.
There's nothing wrong with a Muppet's family having been from someplace, of course... It's just unnecessary trivia. Rosita at least served the function of having a Spanish-speaking Muppet around to start teaching your kids Spanish, but were there really great throngs of people demanding that their kids be exposed to Italian from a young age?
Apparently, a lot of people thought Gonzo was Italian already, it seems.
Was he not Italian? https://t.co/n1tK5hGSr0 pic.twitter.com/KfSPIfVPLA
— Jarvis (@jarvis_best) November 13, 2023
Itsa me, gonzo!
— Brother Seamus (@WaynePelota) November 13, 2023
Gonzo's not Italian? https://t.co/r56GFgf3kr
— Jose R. Gonzalez ✍🏼 (@JRGzzTX) November 13, 2023
Again, there's nothing intrinsically wrong here, but when does it end? Will they have an Austrian-American Muppet open up a Schnitzel House/Beer Hall on the street? Maybe a foppish English dandy Muppet will move in and start trying to convince everybody that baked beans are an appropriate breakfast food? The whole thing was so silly we actually did some digging to make sure it wasn't a joke and found even more photographs on Instagram, as well as a link to the page for the apparently very real employee of Sesame Workshop, Sebastiano Ricci, who will be voicing Joey. So this is a thing that's happening.
What a time to be alive.
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