Sesame St S1: Bert & Ernie
A similar messy apartment sketch, “Ernie Cleans Up,” involves Bert complaining about the clutter and threatening to move in with Oscar, until Ernie cleans the whole place up beautifully. Bert is awestruck at how great it looks, until Ernie tells him he has only one thing left to clean–his toybox! He then proceeds to empty out the entire thing all over the formerly neatified floor.
And here’s another great example of Ernie driving Bert bonkers without even meaning to or realizing why:
A very short and simple but very funny sketch, in which Ernie is simply telling Bert about his day at the zoo, saying nothing much happened other than getting a tiny scrape on his finger. A sincerely (and very sweetly) concerned Bert asks Ernie how it happened, and Ernie responds with a huge chain of events, involving various animals breaking loose, bus crashes, flying saucers, and more. But to Ernie, that doesn’t really add up to much, other than the little scrape he got on his finger, causing Bert to faint in frustration. They’re such different people, Bert so tightly strung and Ernie so come-what-may that sometimes it’s like Bert just can’t understand Ernie on a fundamental level, and this is one of those times!
Another example of this, the other way around, is “Egg on the Counter,” in which Ernie finds an egg Bert left on the counter, and Bert asks him to put it away because he wants to eat it later. Ernie, however, simply can’t understand why Bert would want to put it away when he’s just going to have to take it out again when he wants to eat it. Why not just leave it there? Eventually his persistent questioning annoys Bert so much, he tells Ernie, “DROP IT!” And so Ernie does. Right on the floor. While in some cases, Ernie might follow that up with a laugh, here he doesn’t, indicating that he possibly really did misunderstand him.
Whether or not Ernie realizes what he’s doing is similarly up for debate in “Bert’s Nap,” in which Ernie stumbles upon a sleeping Bert, explains to the audience how he can tell that Bert’s asleep–another clue-gathering sketch of sorts–but, in incessantly prodding Bert in order to demonstrate his lack of consciousness, he eventually wakes him up. A half-asleep and particularly irritated Bert asks him why he woke him up, and Ernie innocently tells him that he’s just letting him know that it’s time for his nap! This is one of those cases where it’s hard to tell if Ernie is being deliberately mischievous or genuinely doesn’t see the problem here. He doesn’t laugh or make any sign to indicate he meant to bother Bert, and sometimes I think he really doesn’t. But you could also make the case that he’s just being extremely deadpan.
The same goes for “Ernie Interrupts Bert Reading the Newspaper,” which is about Ernie trying to patiently wait for Bert to finish reading his newspaper before asking him a question but finding himself incapable of keeping still or quiet. At first, he stage whispers to the audience about not wanting to interrupt Bert, eventually begins singing and humming, and finally takes out his rubber duckie and has a conversation with it about the need to keep quiet, squeaking it in response after each sentence. Finally, Bert is at his wits’ end and asks Ernie to please just ask him the question. Ernie asks if he’s sure, because he really doesn’t want to disturb him, and after he answers in the affirmative numerous times, Ernie finally agrees. And the question is…could he please borrow Bert’s newspaper? Ba dum dum siss. He really doesn’t seem to be deliberately torturing Bert. He may genuinely be doing his best, and yet there’s the slightest room for doubt.
Ernie has lost his ice cube collection!
But there really isn’t any doubt in “Ernie’s Ice Cubes,” a fun sketch about Ernie’s “ice cube collection,” which he unfortunately chooses to store in a box in the middle of the room under a hot water bottle, which he placed there because he was concerned that they were getting too cold. Of course, Bert is unsurprised to find that Ernie’s ice cubes are gone when he goes to look for them, yet Ernie can’t figure it out. When he spots the puddle of water, he instantly assumes that that clue must indicate that a fish had stolen them!
Bert then painstakingly tries to explain to him that the ice had melted into water, hoping against hope that Ernie will finally get it. And he does…a fish must have melted his ice, he declares, before rushing off to find the culprit! And I swear, you can practically see Bert’s eyes roll. But what’s additionally fun is that Bert doesn’t get a chance to set Ernie straight. They trust the kids in the audience to follow Bert’s lesson and to realize Ernie is just being silly. No over-explanation or condescension.
But again, as far as Ernie is concerned, it seems he actually is that naive here. And that’s a major reason that, despite basically tormenting Bert a lot of the time, Ernie doesn’t lose his lovability. Because often, it really is just that either Ernie truly doesn’t understand and is doing his best, with the help of his active imagination, whereas other times, it’s clear there’s no meanness or deliberate cruelty behind his actions. He largely joshes Bert because he’s trying to bring some fun into his life, whether he likes it or not!
Tomorrow: Part 2 of my Bert & Ernie Season 1 coverage!
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