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Nigeria is getting its own edition of Sesame Street. You know, for the kids. And if there’s one thing that kids love it is AIDS. From CNN:
Big Bird and the Cookie Monster have some new friends, but they’re a long way from “Sesame Street.”
One of America’s best-loved children’s shows, which began life on a fictional New York street over 40 years ago, is about to land in Nigeria under the title of “Sesame Square” — bringing with it some distinctly West African twists.
The show stars Kami, a girl muppet who is HIV-positive, has golden hair and a zest for adventure; and Kobi, an energetic, furry, blue muppet whose troublesome escapades help others learn from his mistakes.
Ugh. “Distinctly West African twists.” Classic journalism. The Pulitzers were probably canceled this year because there was no point, since everyone agreed CNN should get all of them. AIDS: such a twist. The ULTIMATE twist? (Also, how do you casually go from describing the puppet with AIDS to the puppet who has troublesome escapades?)
Twists and escapades aside, the article does point out that there are currently 278,000 (278,000!) HIV-positive children in Nigeria. Eek. Kind of wish we were sending them some doctors to fix their AIDS instead of a puppet WITH AIDS. But I guess kids with AIDS need to learn how to count all the cookies on the dish, too. Woof.
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Puppets always be singing about AIDS.
[IMG]http://i56.tinypic.com/154twtc.jpg[/IMG]
Nothing can stop Super Grover, except for Leukemia
I’m worried for the most at-risk muppet
A glimpse into our married life, Huckahusband…
I myself am worried that Snufalufagus might contract Big Bird Flu
I bet the Rent on Sesame Square is really expensive.
Oh yeah, I like it raw
AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS… Uh-Huh… Uh-Huh
Meant to put in the two aliens. Don’t know how to insert pictures anymore. Curses!
Too bad then that the US is stuck with Ke$ha, the mangy herpes puppet.
Right, doctors to help with aids? PFFT look at Gabe’s stupid ideas> He is Whining incessantly about “curing aids” Just because we give children Aids.-TMZ*
*TMZ does not give children Aids, but they do make baby Jesus cry
Not to get all muppetgum, but there’s already a Muppet with AIDS on the South African version of Sesame Street:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kami_%28Takalani_Sesame_character%29
Yeah! Didn’t we all go out and see the fantastic documentary, “The World According to Sesame Street”? About all the different Sesame productions around the world and how they are really (seriously, really) helping children learn and get a head start on their education by creating worlds specific to them?
Speaking of education-centered documentaries, everyone should go out and see Waiting for Superman.
I believe it is the same character. She came around in 2002. I feel like this is OK…?
To be fair, Oscar the Grouch clearly has hepatitis.
PTSD?
other “distinctly west african twists” include oscar the grouch’s trash can being stolen and sold for scrap, big bird will be killed by a 6 year old within the first segment and served for breakfast, and bert and ernie will be stoned to death after elmo accuses them of “eating the poo poo.”
But…Ghana’s very nice! And Liberia isn’t very great right now, but they’ve got a stable government and are trying really hard to repair basically the entire country. Plus there are hundreds of thousands of Chinese immigrants living in West Africa now, so they’ll have to make Chinatowns, and shops full of cheaply made knickknacks imported from China.
There are 53 televisions in Nigeria for every thousand people. Just sayin’. The kids who would identify with a HIV-positive character probably won’t be watching this.
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Sure, if there are twenty people in your household.
Not to get all seriousgum here, but Kami and Sesame Street are actually being used as a teaching tool in some classrooms in Nigeria, where they will bring televisions in to help reach students who may not have a TV at home. I had the opportunity to see a bunch of elementary school students go through a lesson about Kami’s visit to the doctor, where she helped Big Bird realize that going to the doctor wasn’t so scary after all.
So maybe upliftinggum?
That’s great!
Thanks so much for what you’re doing and for taking the time to shed some light on this to ill-informed people like myself.
I really hope HIV doesn’t become as much of a fad as Spaghetti Tacos.
I wonder if Kami was born with HIV, or if it was maybe due to her zest for adventure?
I’ve missed you around here, Godsauce. Never leave again.
Thanks, huckabeast! My schedule is a bit unforgiving, but I’ll try my best to visit when I can find time.
what Huckabeast said.
Hmmm…I see the resemblance!
That explains the email I just got from “Dr. Mr. Elmo” telling me about all this money he has tied up at a US bank.
I feel like i read about this years ago
right? literally years ago. not even in internet-years (which is, like, a week). in real years.
Glad im not the only one. I swear i read about the aids elmo a long time ago. maybe they had a plan to do it and just waited a long ass time.
just looked it up. 2002. she’s been around since 2002.
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Obligatory Haley Joel Osment/Walker Texas Ranger clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdsTUcuD7YA
Uh, Kami’s been around since 2002! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kami_%28Takalani_Sesame_character%29
That.
i can’t scroll down two comments to read things. dear oldnews, i hope that you comment on every post from now on explaining old news.
Since the comment was repeated twice, I feel obliged to repeat my response twice:
SOUTH AFRICA ≠ NIGERIA
KAMI = KAMI though… i think that was the point that was being made. that “omg hiv muppet” isn’t as crazy to me because i already dealt with my thoughts on it in 2002.
You know, between everyone making jokes about a guy who just died and making jokes about AIDS in Africa, I think I’m gonna take a little break.
Seriously. It is a bad day for videogum
I feel dat. I really don’t get why Gabe is ragging on this Sesame Street initiative and I didn’t even look at the comments on Gordon Levitt (a sweet guy RIP).
I didn’t read this post until this morning, but I’m also pretty disappointed in the tone of the original post and a lot of the comments here. Why is it a problem to start HIV education young in a country where HIV infection is a serious problem?
I heard that since HIV means a “distinct African twist” to the Sesame Street writers, they’re going to give Oscar an Italian accent to explain why he smells bad.
whoops, looks like someone missed the “which one of these is not like the other?” sesame street skit about the difference between “negative racial stereotypes” and “epidemiological information”.
And I feel kind of weird because videogum is now straying into my real life, but rest assured, Gabe, Nigeria’s getting doctors and drugs and other types of support to address their HIV/AIDS epidemic, not just Muppets (although Muppets who teach positive health behaviors and decrease stigma are important too!)
I think I’m too gay ever to get used to Gabe’s use of “woof,” without thinking of something more like Which is maybe appropriate in this case, since the “AIDS came from gays in the west” rhetoric is still surprisingly prominent in many parts of Africa. Or that (gay) bears are like muppets with all that fur?
I don’t know from html anymore. “more like this (NSFW)”.
I hate to be a buzzkill and downvote me if you wish but HIV and AIDS are not the same thing, are not interchangeable terms and it’s important to make the distinction.
What he said. Or she, as the case may be.
Mmmmmmmmm….Sesame Squares.
Ha ha ha!! these are really very funny pictures…..
MojoBlast