Bert and Ernie

Ernie and Bert are two Muppets on the long-running PBS children's television show Sesame Street. The two appear together in numerous skits, forming a comic duo that is one of the centerpieces of the program. In the tradition of many movie comic duos, notably Abbott and Costello, the interplay forms between the mischievous innocent (Ernie) and the world-weary partner (Bert).

Ernie was originally performed by Muppets creator Jim Henson until his death in 1990. Muppeteer Steve Whitmire inherited the character. Bert was originally performed by now-director Frank Oz. The puppets were built by Don Sahlin from a simple design scribbled by Henson. According to Frank Oz, Sahlin also defined their characters on the basis of their physical appearance.

A typical Bert and Ernie skit follows one of two similar patterns, both beginning with Ernie devising a hare-brained idea and Bert calmly attempting to talk him out of it. Usually this ends with Bert losing his temper and Ernie remaining oblivious to his own bad idea. Sometimes Ernie's dumb idea miraculously turns out to be correct, much to Bert's evident frustration.

When Henson died, Frank Oz commented that he "couldn't imagine doing Bert and Ernie without Jim." Eventually, however, Oz would perform Bert opposite Steve Whitmire's Ernie. Beginning around 2001, Eric Jacobson began to be phased in as Bert's primary performer, and Jacobson now exclusively performs the character.

Throughout the history of the duo, a number of internet urban legends have claimed that one (usually Bert) would die somehow (whether by accident or illness). More outlandishly, a number of websites claim "Bert is Evil", and display him in a number of doctored photographs (implicating the hapless puppet in crimes ranging from the Kennedy assassination to those of Jack the Ripper).

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Characters named Bert and Ernie appear in the film It's a Wonderful Life as a cop and a taxi driver, respectively, though the use of the names by Henson is said to be a coincidence.