Jonah Goldberg has an amusing column on Cookie Monster. Who else but Goldberg would invoke Marcus Aurelius and Hannibal Lecter in defense of a muppet? I particularly liked this point:
The whole point of the Cookie Monster character was to have a character who was silly because he ate so much. If Cookie Monster were a Greek god, he’d be the god of gluttony. Wouldn’t it have been more honest and simply better to implore kids not to be too much like the Cookie Monster rather than make the Cookie Monster like everyone else? We all understand we shouldn’t be like Oscar the Grouch.
Who says that making Cookie Monster into moderate eater will improve kids’ behavior anyway? Indeed, for years, Cookie Monster has devoured not only cookies, but things which merely look like cookies, including plates, Frisbees, and the moon. If Cookie Monster is so influential, why haven’t I heard more about kids going to the hospital after trying to eat plates?
Frankly, it doesn’t take a very bright 4-year-old to grasp that Cookie Monster’s behavior is not acceptable. But it’s funny.