Sesame Street generation

generation x. people born between 1962 and 1975, for whom the original “sesame street” children’s television program was invented. if during your childhood, the original version of “sesame street” was in its original run (i.e., not re-runs), and if you were of the correct age for it to be relevant to you, and to learn from it, you are a member of generation x. if you were in childhood when “sesame street” was being re-run on pbs, or watched it on vhs or dvd, you are generation y. despite his surprised claim to the contrary, pretending to not know what it means, daily show host jon stewart is a generation x’er, as is his former senior correspondent, stephen colbert.

claims that generation y and not generation x gets “most of its news from” the daily show and the colbert report are not true. generation y prefers to get its news via online and text sources. generation x, famously scornful of everything and distrustful of anything, is daily show’s primary audience and shares its cynicism.

similarly, if you can remember seeing idi amin dada actually alive on television and are not over the age of fifty, you are a generation x’er. if he was deposed and dead by the time you first heard about him, you are generation y. for those unsure, idi amin dada was the 1970’s version of osama bin laden and was reviled and feared in the media exactly as frequently as bin laden is today. the difference between the two is, dada was never an ally of the bush administration and was an actual threat to democracy somewhere (actually, uganda).

thirdly and finally, if you were around to see the premiere episode of “sat-rday night live” in 1975 on nbc, and if you remember jim henson’s muppets making frequent appearances on the show, and you are not over the age of fifty, you are indeed a generation x’er.

this condition similarly applies to remembering the “sesame street” era when oscar the grouch was orange in color and grover was brown.

if you remember these moments, you are a generation x’er. bert and ernie, by the way, are not having s-x with each other, and it was never suggested by henson and oz that they were. contrary to popular opinion, men can actually live together and share a friendship as roommates. gay men can also – “gasp” – be platonic friends. to -ssert that ernie and bert are not platonic is actually kind of an attack on male friendship… which does exist. ernie and bert were based on “the odd couple”, a neil simon-penned play that became a hit television sensation similar in popularity during the late sixties to “s-x and the city” during the aughties. henson and oz intended no gay innuendo in the characters, and today’s preoccupation with the s-xual activities of two children’s show mascots is a sad commentary on the world we x’ers have to live in.

viva x.
“i hate the term ‘generation x’. i prefer to be called ‘the sesame street generation’. it’s less trendy.”