Big Bird has had such a bad week worrying about his pension should Mitt Romney win the presidential election that he appears to have lost his sense of humor.
Or at least his bosses have at Sesame Workshop, makers of Sesame Street, the kids' show where the goggle-eyed yellow bird has starred for the past 42 years. They have asked the Obama campaign to take down an election advert featuring Big Bird on the grounds that the show is non-partisan and does not participate in political campaigns.
Shame on you Sesame Workshop! In an election year distinguished by a blitzkrieg of TV ads that have been almost universally ugly and grim, this one is actually quite funny. Invoking such titans of financial wrong-doing as Bernie Madoff, Ken Lay and Dennis Kozlowski, it identifies the "evil genius" who towered over them.
"Big. Yellow. A menace to our economy. Mitt Romney knows it's not Wall Street you have to worry about, it's Sesame Street."
No-one was more surprised than Big Bird himself when he became the Joe the Plumber of the 2012 presidential election. Over the past four decades has shown more interest in unicycles than in politics.
But last week he was suddenly propelled into the center of the White House race when Romney vowed to cut federal funding for the public TV network PBS. "I love Big Bird," the Republican nominee said, flashing a smile that made him look just like the Big Bad Wolf.
