7. Telly Monster (Sesame Street)
Big Bird taught us about curiousity, Bert and Ernie taught us about tolerance, and Oscar the Grouch taught us that being a hobo could actually be kind of cool, as long as you had a space-faring worm for company. But then there were the... 'other' Muppets that resided on Sesame Street. Snuffy the tuberculosis-riddled depressive and Baby Bear, who is constantly stuck in a state of arrested development, and seeing as he is sometimes filmed in a diaper, probably has very little bowel control. And the fact that Baby Bear is best friends with a freakazoid like Telly Monster should come as a surprise to nobody. Telly Monster was originally envisioned by Henson and Co. to be a little puppet obsessed with television, hence his name, however, they soon rethought their theory, considering that the mascot for their chosen medium was a frazzled haired, frequently hysterical neurotic with a great big orange scrote for a nose. Perhaps not the greatest advert for the medium, after all... And so they changed the object of Telly's obsession to triangles. Triangles. So Telly is not only nightmare-inducing, he's also a nerd. A rare Henson misstep.
Amy Maynard
Amy Maynard is a PhD candidate by day, and a pop culture pundit by night. She enjoys drinking red wine, and reeks of Burberry perfume and cigar smoke.
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