Origins: Eh? Is that really Bert, the irascible muppet partner of Ernie on TV's Sesame Street, peering over the left shoulder of Osama bin Laden in the poster shown below? How did he get there?
- Dino Ignacio, a San Francisco artist, started Bert is Evil!, a long-time favorite humor site on which, as a running joke, he attempted to prove the muppet Bert was "evil" by inserting him, Zelig-like, into photographs with notorious people and infamous historical scenes.
- Although Ignacio stopped updating his site few years ago, several mirror sites have kept the gag going, and "Bert is Evil!" enthusiasts have continued to create and post new pictures, including an image of Bert posing with Osama bin Laden:
- The picture of muppet Bert with Osama bin Laden was inadvertently picked up by someone in Bangladesh scouring the web looking for photographs of Osama bin Laden to use in a collage-like poster:
- The Osama bin Laden poster — with the muppet — was displayed at rallies by pro-bin Laden protesters and appeared in photographs carried by news agencies such as Reuters and Associated Press.
Mostafa Kamal, production manager of Azad Products, the Dhaka shop that made the posters, told the AP he had gotten the images off the Internet.
"We did not give the pictures a second look or realize what they signified until you pointed it out to us,'' he said
The company had printed about 2,000 posters, and they were snapped up by the demonstrators, who were angry over the U.S.-led attacks on Afghanistan.
Kamal said he would leave out the controversial images from his next posters.
"We did not give the pictures a second look or realize what they signified until you pointed it out to us,'' he said
The company had printed about 2,000 posters, and they were snapped up by the demonstrators, who were angry over the U.S.-led attacks on Afghanistan.
Kamal said he would leave out the controversial images from his next posters.
Additional Information:
Bin Laden's Felt-Skinned Henchman? (FOXNews.com)
The Bert-Bin Laden Connection? (E! Online)
Osama Has a New Friend (Wired News)
Bert working with bin Laden? (lindqvist.com)
Last updated: 7 March 2008
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Sources:
Associated Press. "'Sesame Street' Character Depicted with bin Laden on Protest Poster." The [San Jose] Mercury News. 11 October 2001. Kaplan, Don. "Osama's 'Muppet' State." New York Post. 11 October 2001. Warner, Bernhard. "Sesame Street's Bert Joins Bin Laden on Posters." Reuters. 11 October 2001. CNN.com. "'Muppet' Producers Miffed Over Bert-bin Laden Image." 11 October 2001.