Me Want Cookie! Cookie! Cookie! Cookie!

When I was in college, my niece lived near my parents and when I went home for vacations, she spent a lot of time at our house. She was the cutest and one of the smartest little girls I had ever seen. I think she was about five or six at the time. Her favorite show was Sesame Street. The show having premiered when I was in 8^th grade, I had never seen it before my niece began to watch it but I enjoyed watching with her. I found it entertaining and educational. My favorite character was Cookie Monster and I could not understand why my niece would start crying and leave the room whenever Cookie Monster came on the screen. I guess it was something about him being a “monster” that sent her running in a panic whenever Cookie graced the screen.

When my own kids were little, they enjoyed the show which gave me an excuse to watch Cookie Monster, one of my favorite characters. I also liked The Count and Oscar the Grouch. My girls had stuffed Cookie Monsters more than any of the other characters, probably because he was MY favorite and I’m the one who bought them the toys! I still love Cookie Monster.

Today, when I opened iTunes, it began to download some of the podcasts that I subscribe to. One of them, NPR Driveway Moments, featured Cookie Monster today. I listened to it as soon as it was finished downloading then I went to NPR’s website for more information and a video—a very cute video. I found out more about Cookie from listening to an interview with puppeteer Frank Oz, who was the voice of Cookie Monster (as well as Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Sam the Eagle, and Bert). Frank Oz summarizes that one of the reasons that Cookie was so well liked and so successful is that his character is sweet, sensuous, and tactile. All he wants is his cookie. When he gets it, he’s satisfied. And, in Frank Oz’s words, “…he is not going to knock anyone down to get his cookie; he’ll go around someone to get it but he won’t knock them down. He cares about others even if all he wants is his cookie…” Yeah, I think he’s right. Cookie’s a sweet guy. That must be why I like him so much!

I thought I would share the website info with you. To hear the interview, you will need iTunes, which is a free download if you don’t already have it. If you have it, you need to go to Podcasts and search for NPR. The program this interview was on is called “Driveway Moments” and it is the most recent podcast in the series. It’s a seven minute program. Once you’re done listening to the program, you can go to the website to watch the short and entertaining video of the “in studio interview” of Cookie Monster. The site is: http://www.npr.org/blogs/incharacter/2008/02/cookie_monster_comes_to_npr.htm