What's a guy like Bert doing with Osama bin Laden?
That question was raised after an image of the beloved Sesame Street character showed up in a protest poster featuring pictures of bin Laden and carried by anti-US demonstrators in the streets of Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Monday.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Photographs of the protest transmitted by news agencies around the world show an image of the fuzzy little yellow Muppet over bin Laden's left shoulder.
The poster actually is a collage of eight bin Laden images, and Bert is near the largest of them. Other bin Ladens are seen nuzzling up to a bottle of liquor or shown near with what could be a ham. Muslims are prohibited by Islamic law from eating pork or drinking alcohol.
Mostafa Kamal, production manager of Azad Products, the Dhaka shop that made the posters, said the images were from the Internet.
The much-maligned Bert is the grumpy bosom buddy to Ernie on the popular US children's show that runs in syndication around the world -- though not in Bangladesh.
Sesame Workshop, which produces the show, was not amused.
"Sesame Street has always stood for mutual respect and understanding," the company said in a statement. "We're outraged that our characters would be used in this unfortunate and distasteful manner. ... We are exploring all legal options to stop this abuse and any similar abuses in the future."
Part of the mystery can be traced to California. A San Francisco artist, Dino Ignacio, in 1998 started a conspiratorial spoof site called "Bert is Evil," in which Bert is inserted into famous historical photos. He has appeared alongside Adolf Hitler and amongst a crowd in Dallas as John F. Kennedy's motorcade passes.
Ignacio put a statement on his site, www.fractalcow.com, Wednesday denying he was the creator of the Bert and bin Laden image.
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