June 21, 2001

7:30 AM

Cookie Monster Plan Crumbled-- Your regular idiot assault story, but with some fabulous quotes.

"People started yelling at me that I should be ashamed of myself for hitting Cookie Monster. I did not kick or punch Cookie Monster," says the man arrested for shoving and kicking the 21-year-old woman who played Cookie Monster. A Seasame Street spokeswoman denied the man's allegations that Cookie Monster started the violence: "It is an honor to be Cookie Monster."
posted by jennak (12 comments total)

Screw cookie monster. He should have beat the crap out of Elmo.
posted by dogmatic at 7:46 AM on June 21, 2001

Basic theory of comedy: some dude beating up some other dude wearing children's television character costume is always HILARIOUS.

Can anyone else think of other costume-character assaults? Mallrats? An episode of 'Fresh Prince'? The Simpson's Itchy and Scratchy island?
posted by Keener at 7:48 AM on June 21, 2001

"L" is for lawsuit. That's good enough for me....
posted by jpoulos at 8:00 AM on June 21, 2001

I once smacked the Tim Horton's "timbit" guy upside the head. Lightly. In kind of a "hey buddy, how's it going" way. Then then Wendy's girl with the red yarn hair yelled at me.
posted by Succa at 8:42 AM on June 21, 2001

The segment off of "Nine Months", where Hugh Grant and Tom Arnold beat the crap out of that dinosaur was hilArious!
posted by prototype_octavius at 8:46 AM on June 21, 2001

Our local coverage. I Love living in this area: you're never too far from the mouth of madness.
posted by Perigee at 8:58 AM on June 21, 2001

Brr, that comment reminded me of the worst movie I've ever seen perigee...
posted by DiplomaticImmunity at 10:37 AM on June 21, 2001

Where was Big Bird and the Count to get cookie monsters back..!!?
posted by racer271 at 10:37 AM on June 21, 2001

Best mascot fight scene: The Cheers episode when Eddie LeBec calls Carla from the ice-show where the skating animals are ex-hockey players, and a fight breaks out among the costumed skaters (remember the panda's heading spinning around after a blow?).
posted by Avogadro at 10:57 AM on June 21, 2001

Man, this is great! *sigh* Good times, good times... I find it hilarious that both linked stories (the Salon story, and the phillyburbs story) found it necessary to make the "Cookie crumbled" pun. Ha ha! Those wacky journalists- what will they think of next!?
posted by hincandenza at 11:46 AM on June 21, 2001

My Dad used to work at Six Flags Over Texas as the amusement park's only clown. This was some fifteen or twenty so years ago now. He shared a dressing room with all the Looney Tunes costume characters. I can recall at least one time I witnessed it, and he had other stories to tell, where older teens or even full-blown adults would approach him and be rowdy or cruel to him or the other costume character employees. Oftentimes the excuse was easily that the customer(s) just had had too much to drink. Sometimes they were just hateful people. In worst case situations, security would come to the aid of the costume characters, and escort troublemakers to the front gate.

It's part of the deal with being a costume character. The park owners respect and appreciate the extra effort it takes to perform under the hot sun in those outfits, and their safety is of a high concern. Employees in costumes are also always escorted by a fellow worker in "normal" uniform or sometimes even civilian clothing. So there was at least one witness there with the costume character. It wasn't just McNelis' word against McPhatter.

I can understand when Mr. McPhatter said, "The cop did not want to hear my side of the story." McPhatter will have his day in court of course, but in such situations the safety of the lady in the costume is more important than whether or not McPhatter's 3 year old girl knows he's an asshole.
posted by ZachsMind at 9:05 PM on June 21, 2001

LOL hahahaha
posted by monkeyJuice at 1:59 AM on June 22, 2001