Comments on: Bert 'n' Osama

Bert 'n' Osama

Kafkaesque — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 18:43:11 -0800

Bert 'n' Osama As near as I can figure it, the guy who made the Osama poster everyone is waving happened to download from the "Bert is Evil!" site...look behind Osama's left ear. Sorry, but I had to post this.

By: Kafkaesque

Kafkaesque — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 18:44:01 -0800

and here it is again.

By: quonsar

quonsar — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 18:46:47 -0800

wtf?!?!?!?!?!?!

By: solistrato

solistrato — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 18:48:59 -0800

That's goddamned amazing.

By: boaz

boaz — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 18:49:02 -0800

Strange, I always figured Ernie to be the one to become a terrorist. BTW, the link is Bert is Evil.

By: Kafkaesque

Kafkaesque — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 18:49:03 -0800

I think they maybe downloaded the pic from here.

By: hipstertrash

hipstertrash — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 18:50:54 -0800

ok ... i take back some of the things that i've said in the past about 'culture jammers' ... most of them may be smug, self-righteous bourgeois pomo lifestyle radicals, but at least they aren't all humourless ... i'd like AdBusters a helluva lot more if they did things as clever as this. someone in the news bureaus must be doctoring photographs ...

By: Karl

Karl — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 18:50:56 -0800

Holy shit! Is it mentioned in the article? Can anyone here read...er...moon-man language?

By: joemaller

joemaller — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 18:52:07 -0800

Maybe bert is a double agent? Please, let me hope. This is gonna have me smiling for days. Great post Kafkaesque.

By: raysmj

raysmj — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 18:54:01 -0800

Thank you. I laughed for a full five minutes, I think, and am still finding it hard to stop.

By: Kafkaesque

Kafkaesque — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 18:56:03 -0800

I cannot take credit. It was found by a coworker of my wife's. I think it's real....all the news sites show the same pic.

By: nicwolff

nicwolff — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 18:59:35 -0800

I want one of those posters so badly!

By: sherman

sherman — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 19:05:09 -0800

Can anyone here read...er...moon-man language? You mean Dutch? :-) Not me, and neither can babelfish, apparently. I don't see the word "Bert" (or for that matter "muppet" or anything) in the article; but you'd think someone would have noticed. That Yahoo link doesn't mention it either -- but he is harder to spot in it at least.

By: hellinskira

hellinskira — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 19:06:27 -0800

Moon-man language? Isn't this just your everday German?

By: Yogurt

Yogurt — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 19:07:44 -0800

The Germans have taken over the Netherlands! Again! ;)

By: anathema

anathema — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 19:09:19 -0800

the best post in ages...hands down.

By: hipstertrash

hipstertrash — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 19:09:50 -0800

i've just done a quick search of the major news sources, and so far it doesn't seem as though anyone has noticed. Once again, the scoop might just go to MeFi

By: Neale

Neale — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 19:11:50 -0800

I'm trying to track down more photos of the posters, but there is CERTAINLY no mention of Bert on the news sites.

By: rebeccablood

rebeccablood — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 19:14:03 -0800

it's a hoot, but it really illustrates the tremendous gulf between our culture and theirs, doesn't it? on an information front, this isn't going to be an easy one to win. the frames of reference are so very different.

By: Kafkaesque

Kafkaesque — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 19:15:17 -0800

information front?

By: Optamystic

Optamystic — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 19:18:01 -0800

Muppet Propaganda.

By: anathema

anathema — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 19:18:18 -0800

I just ran a LexisNexis search and got a hit from the Washington Post final edition for 10/9 Cant link it but it is from the STYLE section page C01 "BYLINE: Teresa Wiltz, Washington Post Staff Writer BODY: ... jaws, reassuring us with grand promises: "Our responsibility to history is already clear -- to answer these attacks and rid the world of evil." Were it only so simple. Because glaring at us from across the other side of the divide is Osama bin Laden, declaring that "we must use punishment to keep your evil away from Muslims, Muslim women and children." Them vs. Us. Good vs. Evil. There's nothing like witnessing a national horror to ... ... word that those who fancied themselves sophisticates used ironically; it was too old-fashioned a concept to be taken seriously. Plug "evil" into the Google search engine, and the first item to pop up is the Web site "Bert Is Evil." Bert as in "Sesame Street's" Ernie and Bert. Bert in doctored-up photos "documenting" his inherent "evilness," from cavorting with Hitler to corrupting Ernie to whispering in the ear of O.J. Simpson. " sorry about the formatting.

By: hellinskira

hellinskira — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 19:18:45 -0800

Okay, Dutch then. Can't sleep....Bert will eat me.

By: lotsofno

lotsofno — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 19:21:29 -0800

this is f-ing hilarious... i considered making one of my own a while back, when i thought of all the tragic events listed on the bert is evil, but held back.. how can anyone not notice the huge glaring bert?!

By: Yogurt

Yogurt — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 19:22:26 -0800

I think what this shows is that the terrorist networks might not be as difficult to infilitrate as we think. The CIA needs to begin a massive Muppet recruitment drive.

By: rebeccablood

rebeccablood — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 19:22:32 -0800

information front? as we try to communicate with them, win them over with our propaganda, reasonably explain our perspective on things. we have an entirely foreign frame of reference to theirs, and them to us. it's going to be easy for both sides to make unconscious assumptions that simply don't exist for the other.

By: whatnotever

whatnotever — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 19:27:30 -0800

More sources of the Bert & Osama photo... It's been around for a while. The first site on the list removed it "out of respect for those who died on 9/11/2001." It's *definitely* that image in the posters, though. Truly hilarious. So who's their photoshop lackey? Someone has *got* to get to the bottom of this!

By: rushmc

rushmc — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 19:27:46 -0800

::: waits for the email from the news agency thanking Metafiles for noticing this error and chastising us for being mean about it :::

By: suprfli

suprfli — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 19:42:04 -0800

i'm not trying to burst the "metafiles saw it first" bubble but a few people sent me a link to this site early today so it's apparently this find has already been posted to other sites.

By: Hildago

Hildago — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 19:46:29 -0800

Someone in Afghanistan is already dead or will be killed for this, probably.. too bad.. I hope they have a sense of humor.

By: shinybeast

shinybeast — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 20:06:18 -0800

This woman's theory (scroll down the blog to October 6th) is that the photo was doctored by ANP, the Dutch equivalent of the Associated Press.

By: smt

smt — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 20:09:48 -0800

Dutch to English translation here.. It's not the clearest translation in the world (okay, it's mostly gibberish.."the lodge within prickly within sting with everyone who the late king [Mohammad] [Zaher] [Shah] prop, thus [meldde] the wireless service with the [Taliban] Thursday. ") but I think the general idea is that Bert has threatened that war will continue until he can be sure there will be no more violence against his pigeon friends. Or something like that.

By: davidfg

davidfg — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 20:10:08 -0800

The caption on the Dutch site indicates that the photo was taken in Bangladesh, which is a bit more wired than Afghanistan. Someone probably did an image search and threw together whatever they found, muppet and all. This makes the sighting only slightly less great. (See also Usama Bert Laden. What an odd meme.)

By: marknau

marknau — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 20:10:41 -0800

For the doctored-photo theory to make any sense, the Reuter's photo from a different angle would have to be doctored, too. That seems unlikely, since the photos presumably came from different sources. Different press agencies. I think it's more likely that the maker of the montage poster grabbed the Bert-n-Osama pic from the internet.

By: xowie

xowie — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 20:16:23 -0800

Cache of the (original?) B is E page.

By: skallas

skallas — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 20:17:40 -0800

The scary part is the Bert actually looks pissed off in the photo. Like he and Osama sit around and bitch about westerners.

By: davidfg

davidfg — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 20:19:41 -0800

Bert/bin are #12 on this search. GOOGLE IS A TOOL OF ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALISM.

By: th3ph17

th3ph17 — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 20:21:15 -0800

truly, truly, precious.

By: Kafkaesque

Kafkaesque — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 20:23:01 -0800

Oh rebeccablood. Didn't get ya there. Yes, I think you're right. Our reaction is "How could they not see a friggin muppet?" but they wouldn't know what it is. Very good point.

By: kokogiak

kokogiak — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 20:34:33 -0800

"... how can anyone not notice the huge glaring bert?!" - that's the funniest thing I've read in days, thanks lotsofno. And thanks to kafkaesque for posting (regardless of who saw what first)

By: rcade

rcade — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 20:51:05 -0800

Here's a third Osama 'n' Bert sighting in legitimate media. Even if Sesame Street hasn't reached Bangladesh, I don't think there's any chance the protesters would fail to see a puppet. This has got to be a photo editor or hacker prank.

By: Kafkaesque

Kafkaesque — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 20:53:43 -0800

Well rcade, if you think about the protesters, they might see it as the kind face of Bin Laden, being photographed with a children's puppet. I don't know, but maybe. And I definitely believe it's in the poster. It's pretty obviously downloaded from here.

By: hipstertrash

hipstertrash — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 20:56:01 -0800

hmmmm ... even if they had no idea who/what a muppet was, wouldn't that just be more reason to crop it out? bert seems to be the only non osama image on the whole poster ... they may not have our cultural reference points, but i find it hard to believe that these people would be so clueless as to find a photo on the internet and throw it into their propaganda without a second thought. there had to be some planning and logistics that went into these signs these people are fundimentalists, critical and particular enough to become vehement and even violent about slightly differing interpretations of scripture, or how many millimeters of flesh is exposed on a woman's body, etc. To think that a man could catch a glimpse of his sister-in-law's ankle across a busy marketplace and not see a glaring foreign image on posters that probably cost a small fortune to make ... its ludicrous.

By: Kafkaesque

Kafkaesque — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 20:59:11 -0800

hmm yeah hipster. curiouser and curiouser.

By: quercus

quercus — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 21:01:16 -0800

Well they say Osama uses secret codes...perhaps Bert is fraught with significance

By: tamim

tamim — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 21:03:00 -0800

From Bush for Dummies:

By: Kafkaesque

Kafkaesque — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 21:11:52 -0800

hmm interesting giant bandwidth sucking image that's been plastered all over the net, tamim

By: davidfg

davidfg — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 21:19:47 -0800

Apparently, Sesame Street has been shown in Bangladesh. From here via Google: But perhaps the most fascinating example of Faisal parents' foresight was the fact that while raising their son in Bangladesh, they made sure his first language was English... "My first language was English, not Bengali," Faisal said as a matter-of-fact. "I grew up on English-language TV shows like Sesame Street..." What if the poster's creator left Bert in just for fun?

By: quonsar

quonsar — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 21:27:06 -0800

What if the poster's creator left Bert in just for fun? or as an example of how the west ridicules them?

By: skallas

skallas — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 21:28:56 -0800

What if the poster's creator left Bert in just for fun? Exactly. I don't see why Bangladeshi graphic designers can't have a sense of humor. The 'foreign frame of reference' argument goes a lot deeper than the 'they don't know its a muppet' assumption.

By: crasspastor

crasspastor — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 21:41:59 -0800

Isn't it also interesting that a character from the one show in America that taught peace and multiculturalism to children is found on poster in a presumably anti-american protest? In a way, speaking of "the good things about America", that we can rally round, Sesame Street is one of them. Hating America also means hating all those here who don't make the decisions for which our country is hated most. Which makes a case, that if the poster's creator did have a sense of humor--why don't all of us who do have one, all get together and well tell our respective leaders to fuck off? If you disagree, you haven't a sense of humor.

By: hipstertrash

hipstertrash — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 21:45:07 -0800

Take a look here. The ANP seems to get many images from larger networks. The European Pressphoto Agency's intro slideshow contains images like Britney w/ the big snake and Jordan's comeback press conference, the same photos that we saw in the States from Reuters and the AP. I couldn't find anything on the Reuters site about other agency sources. News agencies talk quite a bit about their clients, but stay fairly silent regarding sources, so its proving tough to find a link between the two agencies. I still find it tough to believe, however, that both agencies were scrambling to make sure that they had an exclusive source in Bangladesh. Occam's razor - The interconnected and increasingly electronic western media gets 'jammed' once again, or fundimentalist Islamic protesters, for whatever reason, let a stern faced, oblong headed, vaguely human image share space with a cultural and religious folk hero. Keep in mind that Bert has become a cult phenomenon among the kind of people who get off on image manipulation. Which explination is simpler and requires less explanation or fewer logical gymnastics? Would serious rally organizers here print up posters that put the latest cute character from japanese animation next to Martin Luther King or John F Kennedy? Or Princess Diana? For better or for worse, bin Laden is, in some segments of the Islamic world, a figure of comparable stature. anyway, enough with the seriousness. because this is damn funny ...

By: rcade

rcade — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 21:52:33 -0800

Well rcade, if you think about the protesters, they might see it as the kind face of Bin Laden, being photographed with a children's puppet. The Taliban storm into homes and arrest people for listening to music. What are the odds they would turn a blind eye to the evils of puppetry? What if the poster's creator left Bert in just for fun? I can't imagine a worse place to exhibit a sense of whimsy than the printing office of a jihad. However, it's certainly a possibility, along with the notion that someone at Reuters is having a lot of fun with PhotoShop.

By: DragonBoy

DragonBoy — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 21:56:40 -0800

It should be noted that the pictures are from Bangladesh, which is not Afganistan. Also, two of the photos that were linked above are from the same rally and probably the same photographer. They show many of the same people in them. I think this is a case of someone wanting to have a little fun. It's like an easter egg that we in America can enjoy.

By: ktheory

ktheory — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 22:00:06 -0800

This is totally excellent. After this, I'd have to agree with the Islamic fundamentalist on one point: American culture really is infiltrating their culture.

By: rcade

rcade — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 22:17:50 -0800

Here's another link, this time from an AP/Reuters photo archive on Excite.

By: realjanetkagan

realjanetkagan — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 22:18:20 -0800

other possibilities--- 1) slip-shod art director on a rush job, 2) let's steal all our art from the web, 3) artist who hates bin Laden but needed the money & compromised by dissing him in stealth mode kafkaesque, please thank your source for us all---and we all thank you for posting this!

By: crasspastor

crasspastor — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 22:23:57 -0800

Yeah kafkaesque if you were one of the first to break this, I hope you get all the credit!

By: Dreama

Dreama — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 22:34:38 -0800

I blogged the image from the Dutch news site last week, on Thursday or Friday (forgive me for not double checking) after a friend brought it to my attention. I really don't think I want to know the hows or whys anymore. I'm just very, very afraid.

By: Aikido

Aikido — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 22:37:39 -0800

What the fuck... my eyes.... they are melting, MELTING. THE MADNESS, THE MADNESS I TELL YOU!

By: hincandenza

hincandenza — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 23:25:22 -0800

Just as an aside: it's THIS kind of link that originally drew me to Metafilter- quirky, often funny, something I wouldn't likely have ever stumbled across unless I read a hundred sites and blogs every day.

By: mrben

mrben — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 23:53:15 -0800

he's a puppet dictator

By: endorwitch

endorwitch — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 00:06:55 -0800

this made me giggle. thanks for spotting itand sharing...i showed all my friends at work. :)

By: alex3005

alex3005 — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 00:13:40 -0800

Some guy in Bangladesh probably used photoshop to make a collage of Osama bin Ladin photographs. He probably did what we would do: go on Google picture search for "Osama Bin Ladin"... the 12th picture happens to be Osama with Bert. Either he didn't notice or didn't care, but he put the bert picture in his collage, and quickly printed it out to give to his friends (the protestors). Skip a few days: some photographers working for Reuters or Associated Press, focused on taking pictures of demonstraters in general, took a nice shot of the Bert poster. This poster, being a mass-produced media, naturally popped up in a few pictures.

By: timothompson

timothompson — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 00:20:06 -0800

I saw it on Filepile earlier today, but thought that someone had doctored the image.

By: Zurishaddai

Zurishaddai — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 00:34:18 -0800

Not to inject an unpleasant note from the real world, but... Many of the most ardent anti-American Islamists are well-educated (often Western-educated) English-speakers, even in the Arab world, not to mention in Bangladesh, where English (and Sesame Street) are more widespread. I think it is quite plausible (however disheartening it may be) that the same poster designer who in all sincerity lent his craft to the pro-Binladin rally grew up with and has retained an affection for Bert and other goofy Americana. If you will, this poster is a pictorial encapsulation of the forces tragically pulling many educated Muslims (concerned for the future of their peoples, often disenchanted by their countries' corrupt, often secular, and sometimes pro-American dictatorial regimes) in the two opposite directions of Americanization and anti-Americanism.

By: Coda

Coda — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 01:46:59 -0800

Just when I thought it couldn't possibly get any weirder... I'm not sure how to deal with this. Seriously. Life has gone from boring to bizarre in the space of a month. We get plopped right in the middle of a Tom Clancy book from hell, then 3 weeks of nothing, now bombs and anthrax and fucking Bert showing up at pro-Osama rallies in Bangladesh. Perhaps a nice long lie-down will help.

By: sylloge

sylloge — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 03:15:49 -0800

Imagine how the creator of the original Bert 'n' Osama image must feel. Must be like winning the web irony powerball. What could be better?

By: RavinDave

RavinDave — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 03:59:12 -0800

This does make an odd sort of poetic sense. The Sesame Street versions were named after Bert (the bartender) and Ernie (the cab driver) from "It's a Wonderful Life". Ward Bond (the guy who played "Bert") was (by most all accounts) a low-brow, ignorant, arrogant, ultra-rightwing Archie-Bunker-patriot, who gleefully supported the opportunistic red-baiting of McCarthy and the concomitant Hollywood blacklisting (guess he had too much competition and wanted to thin the herd at audtions). Seems appropriate.

By: Optamystic

Optamystic — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 04:14:11 -0800

Minor correction: Burt was the cop. Ernie was the taxi driver. "Martini" was the bartender. (What else could he have been, with a moniker like that). I dig the point, though.

By: ParisParamus

ParisParamus — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 04:16:32 -0800

Maybe it means the next act of terrorism will be bio-terrorism via Sesame Street toys? Kind of like the Tylenol taintings??? How will this effect CTW sales?

By: Optamystic

Optamystic — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 04:28:03 -0800

This just in: The creature known as "Big Bird" is, at present, unaccounted for and should be considered winged and dangerous. Still wanted for questioning regarding the infamous "Mr. Hooper Incident". Is believed to travel with mysterious, overweight, gravelly-voiced character known either as "Snuffalupagous", or "Harvey Fierstein". In contrast to Big Bird, this mysterious sidekick is considered harmless, and quite amusing at times. That is all.

By: internook

internook — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 05:38:47 -0800

Today's Holy War was brought to you by the letter 'A' and the number '7'.

By: frednorman

frednorman — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 05:51:18 -0800

Here's some more info, and the high-res versions of the photos.

By: rushmc

rushmc — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 05:53:47 -0800

Today's Holy War was brought to you by the letter 'A' and the number '7'. ROTFL

By: Berend

Berend — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 06:28:06 -0800

Holy shit! Is it mentioned in the article? Can anyone here read...er...moon-man language? posted by Karl at 6:50 PM PST on October 9 OK, as some have already mentioned, the moon-man language in question is Dutch. In the article there is absolutely no reference to the fact that Bert is in the picture. The caption under the photo says "After the weekly friday prayers in Bangladesh, people convene for a joint protest and expression of support for Bin Laden". Under the article there are three reactions of readers, all pointing to the fact that Bert is in the picture. Tubantia is a regional newspaper, as far as I know a pretty respectable one. If the photo is fake, I would assume they put up there it in good faith, and just didn't notice Bert. I will try and contact the newspaper and ask them if they know more about the whole story. Berend

By: RavinDave

RavinDave — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 06:42:31 -0800

I'm dyin' here ... From that same same link: is that a bottle of johhny walker whiskey in bin laden's hands in the picture just above berts? willem [Hengeveld] Thanx, frednorman -- !!!!

By: thewittyname

thewittyname — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 06:48:43 -0800

First, Kafkaesque, thank you. Second, go to site frednorman posted (this one), then check out a hi-res scan of the poster in question here (warning: large file) Notice how some of the other Bin Laden photos used are odd choices for propoganda. In the picture above Bert, it looks like Osama's holding a bottle of liquor....sweet sweet liquor. And, directly across from that picture, on the other side of Bin Laden's huge head, notice the background of the image: Hell?....Osama's in Hell? I'm going to have to agree with realjanetkagen's option number 3. I just hope the artist doesn't wake up dead when somebody notices.

By: Benway

Benway — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 06:53:58 -0800

From Frednorman's link...is that a bottle of johhny walker whiskey in bin laden's hands in the picture just above berts? willem Hmmmm....more going on with these photos?

By: jeremias

jeremias — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 06:59:17 -0800

Here's what i don't get; it appears to me as if the main large image in the foreground is the same one as with Bert. Presumably the photoshop lackey (using someone else's words here) had access to an original high resolution version of the pre-Bert picture. Clearly he didn't crop out the small low-rez version of Bin Laden and Bert and blow him up to poster size. As someone who's made these size posters before there's no way you could take a small 72 dpi picture from the web and enlarge it to that size. (Well you could but there would not be decent detail) So imo this adds fuel to the fire that this was intentional, not a mistake. This crumpled poster basically proves that Bert is on the original. Those versions on the web w/out Bert most likely have him edited out, not the other way round.

By: cCranium

cCranium — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 07:05:59 -0800
(closing tags)

By: gen

gen — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 07:08:41 -0800

I wonder if this meme will ever see the light of day in the mainstream news. That's when it'll really go over the top. I hope Nikke Lindquist is shopping for some big bandwidth ^_^

By: asok

asok — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 07:14:43 -0800

deja vu, surreal activities, cannot compute, system error. they have put jam in my culture and it's going tetsuo (body hammer and akira style) on me. surely it is a bottle of johnnie walker red label, surely?

By: boaz

boaz — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 07:18:15 -0800

Notice how some of the other Bin Laden photos used are odd choices for propoganda. In the picture above Bert, it looks like Osama's holding a bottle of liquor....sweet sweet liquor. And, directly across from that picture, on the other side of Bin Laden's huge head, notice the background of the image: Hell?....Osama's in Hell? And the one below that. Osama's singing Karaoke?

By: xiffix

xiffix — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 07:38:49 -0800

Actually, the "Johnnie Walker bottle" looks to be the business end of OBL's trusty Kalashnikov, also seen in the upper righthand corner of the poster.

By: xiffix

xiffix — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 07:40:48 -0800

~~righthand~~ lefthand

By: th3ph17

th3ph17 — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 07:59:13 -0800

the story has gone online at Wired--complete with the whiskey bottle reference i hope PBS doesn't pull Bert episodes or anything...

By: wsfinkel

wsfinkel — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 08:05:02 -0800

Here's the link that th3ph17 was talking about from wired.

By: y2karl

y2karl — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 08:07:44 -0800

Meme to Memepool

By: thijsk

thijsk — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 08:25:17 -0800

My dad works at the paper that the first poster links to (and it's very respectable, thank you very much). I called to ask if they were noticing any increased traffic on their machines, but it seems that (at least outside the internet dept.) nobody is aware of the global spotlight they're under.
As Berend already told you, the article is about Afghanistan in general, does not pertain to Bert's role and the photo is stock material.

By: Vek

Vek — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 08:36:28 -0800

Great post! Thanks Kafkaesque. Weird, this link is already dead: http://www.geocities.com/freethoughtmecca/disney.html

By: Vek

Vek — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 08:38:14 -0800

Oops, nevermind on the link being dead... probably just overloaded.

By: xiffix

xiffix — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 08:59:20 -0800

The original photo with the 'whiskey bottle' is from CNN circa last January. Without the cropping it's a little more obvious he's sitting down with a gun between his legs. enterprising web researchers indeed

By: realjanetkagan

realjanetkagan — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 09:05:16 -0800

I'm pretty sure the "karaoke" Osama on the left is actually this photo from Calcutta On-Line. You'll have to scroll down to see it.

By: tamim

tamim — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 09:08:52 -0800

Here is the FARK thread on Bert 'n Osama.

By: Scotch

Scotch — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 09:47:02 -0800

Of possible interest (by the person who appears to be the Photoshop artisan at the root of this story): The Bert n' Osama Photoshop Tutorial.

By: msacheson

msacheson — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 10:24:43 -0800

Best. Thread. Ever.

By: whatnotever

whatnotever — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 10:28:32 -0800

One more thing to note: The picture of Osama used in the Bert image is the exact same photo that is used for the large Osama face occupying the middle of the poster. So even if Bert weren't there, why put a duplicate-but-mini version of the main item on the side like that?

By: tamim

tamim — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 11:20:14 -0800

And just for referential purposes: Free Republic threads on Bert and Osama:

By: dness2

dness2 — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 11:27:47 -0800

Could maybe some brilliant graphics person cut out that poster to page-size so I could print it out (without the angry people)? It's so funny I'm peeing my pants, and I think a source of ready amusement hanging in my cubicle would be a good thing in days to come. I'm not so brilliant graphically.

By: walrus

walrus — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 11:58:44 -0800

dness2: Could maybe some brilliant graphics person cut out that poster to page-size so I could print it out (without the angry people)? I'm not sure how big your page size is, and I'm no kind of brilliant graphics person, but you could try this if you don't mind a 600k image.

By: dness2

dness2 — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 12:21:58 -0800

Thank you much! I pasted it into Word and it looks fine. It has the whole office in stitches and is distracting everyone from the work I haven't done. Thank you Evil Burt!

By: Nauip

Nauip — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 12:22:33 -0800

here's one @ 28k ~300x400 Right Click Save As a .jpg

By: m2bcubed

m2bcubed — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 12:25:29 -0800

strange dark hair, strange colored skin, thick uni-brows...maybe it's possible that bert is...one of them? :)

By: Nauip

Nauip — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 12:25:35 -0800

dangit - don't know how I messed that up. This should work. Same right-click procedure as above.

By: anathema

anathema — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 12:39:02 -0800

Another LexisNexis search turned up this odd coincidence. Sorry I cant link to it: St. Petersburg Times, September 30, 2001 BYLINE: ROGER MILLS BODY: Bucs Pro Bowl center Jeff Christy is in his ninth NFL season, second with the Bucs. ...[unimportant sports talk]... "RM: Are you Ernie or Bert? JC: I would say Ernie. It seems like more of the stupid stuff happens to Ernie. I always have stupid stuff happen to me. Unprovoked stuff. Like dislocating a finger, just stupid injuries. ... RM: How has President Bush come across to you in light of the recent events? JC: I think he's handled it right. He took things slow at first, to make sure he gets everything right, everybody lined up, before he does something that the country might regret. That's why he's taking his time and giving them every chance to hand over Osama bin Laden. RM: Is war the answer, and if not, what is? " not entirely on point but really strange nonetheless. BEST THREAD OF THE YEAR!

By: RavinDave

RavinDave — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 12:44:01 -0800

> And the one below that. Osama's singing Karaoke? We had joy, we had fun! We had seasons in the sun, But the hills that we climbed were just seasons out of time. Works for me ... Looking forward to Osamapalooza, featuring the Rolling Stoners, the SandMonkees and the Tali-Band.

By: coudal

coudal — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 13:55:45 -0800

maybe this whole thing works the other way too..

By: mr_crash_davis

mr_crash_davis — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 14:53:29 -0800

Now the mainstream media has picked up the story. My favorite quote? When asked about Bert's current whereabouts, however, the spokeswoman replied: "No comment."

By: rebeccablood

rebeccablood — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 15:40:53 -0800

snopes verifies it.

By: videodrome

videodrome — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 16:01:16 -0800

Sad to see that while the original link is still active, the photo has been sharply cropped on the right side - Bert's gone.

By: walrus

walrus — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 16:36:46 -0800

Sad to see cowards ...

By: RavinDave

RavinDave — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 17:45:52 -0800

From mr_crash_davis's Fox Link: "Sesame Workshop issued a statement saying it was very unhappy ... 'We are exploring all legal options to stop this abuse and any similar abuses in the future'." Translation: "The widely beloved "Bert is Evil" website has the life expectancy of Bin Laden himself."

By: metrocake

metrocake — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 19:46:38 -0800

Yeah, I was worried about "Bert is Evil" getting caught in the crossfire...

By: rory

rory — Thu, 11 Oct 2001 02:11:24 -0800

"Islam has always stood for mutual respect and understanding," a spokeswoman said. "We're outraged that our characters would be used in this unfortunate and distasteful manner. This is not at all humorous.The people responsible for this should be ashamed of themselves. We are exploring all legal options to stop this abuse and any similar abuses in the future."

By: Berend

Berend — Thu, 11 Oct 2001 02:48:55 -0800

Sad to see that while the original link is still active, the photo has been sharply cropped on the right side - Bert's gone. posted by videodrome at 4:01 PM PST on October 10 That's very sad indeed. Looks like I have to retract my statement of Tubantia being a "pretty respectable" newspaper. This is major weak. Sorry Thijs.

By: Berend

Berend — Thu, 11 Oct 2001 03:04:41 -0800

I am getting very confused... http://www.tctubantia.nl/CDA/regioportal/1%2c2078%2c1654__772741_%2c00.html (with Bert) http://www.tctubantia.nl/CDA/regioportal/1,2078,1654__772741_,00.html (without Bert) Does Tubantia have a "No Sesame Street" option these days?

By: ParisParamus

ParisParamus — Thu, 11 Oct 2001 06:02:27 -0800

Tubantia may have reformated that page to reduce server demand.

By: Outlawyr

Outlawyr — Thu, 11 Oct 2001 06:14:05 -0800

Kafkaesque, you have caused many good people to pee in their pants laughing. You are to be commended.

By: elvissinatra

elvissinatra — Thu, 11 Oct 2001 06:17:21 -0800

That lindqvist.com site is down. I wonder if he used up all his bandwidth...

By: Outlawyr

Outlawyr — Thu, 11 Oct 2001 06:42:36 -0800

Hey, I just realized, in the Karaoke picture Osama is singing "One of these things just doesn't belong here . . . "

By: KnitWit

KnitWit — Thu, 11 Oct 2001 08:11:56 -0800

wow look another version of the poster has been released! (it got forwarded to me I hope ya don't mind I had to add it to the discussion)

By: owillis

owillis — Thu, 11 Oct 2001 09:55:28 -0800

E! is covering Bert & Bin-Laden too...

By: mr_crash_davis

mr_crash_davis — Thu, 11 Oct 2001 13:04:04 -0800

Well, if this thread isn't completely dead yet... This should kill it.

By: judith

judith — Thu, 11 Oct 2001 13:29:38 -0800

cnn joins in: http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/10/11/muppets.binladen/

By: thc

thc — Thu, 11 Oct 2001 14:15:45 -0800

and they just mentioned it on NPR as well.

By: skibird

skibird — Thu, 11 Oct 2001 14:35:12 -0800

ABC News is carrying an AP story, with an explanation: Mostafa Kamal, production manager of Azad Products, the Dhaka shop that made the posters, told the AP he had gotten the images off the Internet. "We did not give the pictures a second look or realize what they signified until you pointed it out to us," he said. The company had printed about 2,000 posters, and they were snapped up by the demonstrators, who were angry over the U.S.-led attacks on Afghanistan. Kamal said he would leave out the controversial images from his next posters. Wow, pretty good detective work. Those protesters have valuable limited editions <g>. Was Kamal afraid of PBS reprisals?

By: tippiedog

tippiedog — Thu, 11 Oct 2001 14:47:59 -0800

So, here's my definitive theory: The graphics shop in Bangladesh employs a graphic artist who's aware of the Bert is evil meme and who is against Islamic fundamentalism. Said photoshop jockey resents having to make posters for these folks, so he gets 'em by putting in images of Bert, OBL with a bottle of whiskey and OBL in hell. For the sake of said photoshop jockey, let's hope said fundamentalists don't believe this theory, too.

By: harrycaul

harrycaul — Thu, 11 Oct 2001 21:37:10 -0800

"We did not give the pictures a second look or realize what they signified until you pointed it out to us," he said.

A second look!?! There is a picture of a muppet next to Bin Laden! Did you even give it a first look?

By: timyang

timyang — Thu, 11 Oct 2001 23:16:33 -0800

I hope we give that photoshop artist instant asylum and citizenship! He can make his living for the next year just on primetime interviews alone!

By: Berend

Berend — Fri, 12 Oct 2001 01:06:08 -0800

He can make his living for the next year just on primetime interviews alone! + Limited signed and numbered editions of course.