Things are quite heady these days on a lot of fronts. Our country seems polarized politically, economically, and socially like never before, and now the Internet may have given us the most explosive, potentially divisive issue to date.
Did Grover the Muppet say “fuck” on “Sesame Street?”
Yes, that’s right, in a world where refugee children are still separated from their parents and put into concentration camps detention centers, Flint still doesn’t have clean water, and Puerto Rico still has not recovered fully from being devastated by Hurricane Maria, denizens of the Internet have found the intellectual bandwidth necessary to dissect, debate, and decide whether or not a puppet on a kids show said the F-word.
the new Yanni v. Laurel? — some people swear they hear Grover saying, “that’s a f**king excellent idea.”
i’m one of those people and i can’t stop laughing pic.twitter.com/b3OdPpvtYn
— J.D. Durkin (@jiveDurkey) December 27, 2018
According to HuffPost, the Grover F-Bomb controversy started on Reddit, when a user posted the clip. Almost immediately the debate started — what was Grover saying about the idea? Was it an excellent idea, or the idea a little extra excellent…so much more excellent that it warranted an expletive as an extra adjective?
Redditor u/schrodert posted the clip on Thursday to the platform’s r/funny subreddit. According to the post, the parent stumbled upon the auditory illusion “thanks to my daughter’s obsession with Elmo.” U/schrodert said they initially heard the R-rated version, but believe the actual line is, “Yes, yes, that sounds like an excellent idea.”
The producers and creators behind “Sesame Street” have not, as of yet weighed in on the topic. However, all kidding aside, it seems incredibly unlikely that somehow one of the most beloved characters in children’s TV would slip an f-word in and no one would catch it. “Sesame” has been on the air for decades, and something like this happening is of course possible, but pretty unlikely.
That being said, this Twitter user is thinking outside the box on the issue, and has a good point about whether Grover’s earned the right to cuss every now and then.
First listen: OMG WHAT HAHAHA
Second listen: Ah, definitely “sounds like an”
Third listen: You know what, after all these years if Grover wants to drop an F-bomb then he’s damn well earned the right. https://t.co/TUbhS11UDE— (@henrikmeng) December 27, 2018
Some folks believe he definitely said it.
**PARENTAL WARNING**
After several rounds of listening VERY closely, I am now SURE Grover just dropped the “F” bomb!
Tell me what you hear…@Local12 https://t.co/19SZ2vhMR0— Duane Pohlman (@DUANELOCAL12) December 27, 2018
For my money though, I think this Twitter user has the right idea. Grover is too sweet and innocent to be sexually active. But Gonzo? Well, anyone who’s seen his way with Camilla the Chicken knows that Gonzo knows how to party.
Grover has never said fuck. He doesn’t even know what it means. Grover has never fucked. He won’t fuck. Grover cannot fuck now or ever.
Gonzo can fuck though. Gonzo fucks a lot. Gonzo is a degenerate.
— FFS.GRIDMAN (@Joe_Hunter) December 29, 2018
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
And of course it took no time at all for parody accounts to pop-up, capitalizing on the meme.
Why is everyone tripping about me cussing? Fuck all y’all. #Grover
— GroverStreetThug (@GroverThug) December 27, 2018
The parallels between Grover’s F-Bomb and the “Yanni vs. Laurel” thing are pretty readily apparent. Except of course that, again, it seems pretty unlikely that the f-word would slip through the cracks like this.
I can’t believe the new “Yanny or Laurel?” is “did grover just drop the f-bomb on Sesame Street?” 2018 is cutting it close to the wire with this one.
— 2019 will be bedder (@itgetsbedder) December 27, 2018
What do you hear in the clip? Is Grover dropping f-bombs, or are people hearing what they want to hear? Let us know in the comments.
Writer/comedian James Schlarmann is the founder of The Political Garbage Chute and his work has been featured on The Huffington Post. You can follow James on Facebook and Instagram, but not Twitter because he has a potty mouth.