Sesame Seeds (Episode 9): Mr. Snuffleupagus

 

Hi everyone! And welcome back to Sesame Seeds, the series where we look at the progression of a Sesame Street character from humble beginnings to the present day.

Today we’re looking at someone who definitely makes Sesame Street as weird and diverse as it is, and the character who got the least amount of votes on my poll, Mr. Aloysius Snuffleupagus.

The only main character larger than Big Bird, Snuffy has been a regular for years, going through life at his own pace, but how did he start? Let’s find out.

The Snuffleupagus was a full bodied creature that was created for season 3 in 1971. In that episode Big Bird wants to water some flowers, but he doesn’t have a watering can to water them with. Just then, he sees and feels a brown tube thing, and he follows it to find this:

Yeah, for those of you not in the know, this is what Snuffy originally looked like, and as you can clearly see, his appearance was not really what you’d call, comforting.

But, back to the story, Snuffy introduces himself and tells Big Bird that he’s sad. Big Bird offers to cheer this newcomer up, by letting him help water the flowers, so Snuffy uses his snuffle to drench them. After that, Big Bird excitedly rushes off to tell his grown up friends about his new friend and introduce him to them.

But when Big Bird rallies Gordon, Susan, David and Rafael and brings them back to his nest, Snuffy has disappeared without a trace. The grown ups, who were already skeptical of this creature (for some reason), tell Big Bird that Mr. Snuffleupagus must be an imaginary friend he made up, and leave.

And so began a seemingly endless string of misunderstandings, coincidences and frustration.

For what seemed like lightyears, Snuffy was this elusive figure that all of the grown-ups on Sesame Street assumed was just Big Bird’s imaginary friend. Most of the time Snuffy would be right in front of a character, but would leave as soon as they looked up to see him.

This is how scenes with Snuffy would usually go:

1. Big Bird wants his adult friends to meet Snuffy and they don’t believe him.

2. Big Bird finally does manage to convince them to come see him.

3. Through some comedic reason, Snuffy leaves just as the adults come to see him.

4. The adults chastise Big Bird for wasting their time on his imaginary friend and leave both him and the audience in frustration.

5. Rinse and Repeat for 14 years.

I should also probably mention that Big Bird and Snuffy weren’t free of this flaw themselves. Big Bird hypocritically scoffed at the grown ups on a few occasions when they saw Snuffy, but he wasn’t exactly how he described them, and even Snuffy refused to believe Big Bird one time when he had witnessed Mr. Rogers judging the race they were having at the time.

But anyway, that’s the type of thing that can really take a toll on a bird. But despite this, Big Bird always cherished the moments he and Snuffy shared together, and they soon became the best of friends. Probably even bester friends then Ernie and Bert, but I’ll get into that at the end.

But now, I should probably talk about Snuffy himself.

Because Snuffy is so huge, it actually takes two people to puppeteer him. One goes in the front to work the mouth, eyes, snuffle, front feet and voice. The other goes in the back and operates the back feet. In his first few years, Snuffy was performed in front by Jerry Nelson, and in back by various other puppeteers, until getting a concrete back end in Bryant Young in 1979.

Now for some context on Snuffy’s personality at the time. Snuffy started out the series being rather similar to Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh. He always moved around slowly, and his voice always seemed to sound gloomy. I don’t know if it was all of the constant misses, or issues at home, or whatever, but the big lug always seemed sad about something. Eventually in season 4, the puppet builders realized their mistakes and gave Snuffy a rebuild so he’d look less creepy, but that didn’t make him that much happier. It got to a point where Snuffy would go on to sing this rather depressing song.

But despite Snuffy’s lack of positivity, he still appreciated the friend he had in Big Bird and the two were really close.

Also for those of you still wondering if Snuffy was real or not, this scene I’m about to describe to you should provide the answer:

When the grown-ups tell Big Bird that Snuffy isn’t real again, Big Bird decides that he should listen to them, so he goes and tells Snuffy that he can’t be friends with him anymore, since the grown-ups say he’s just imaginary. Needless to say, the two are both sad about this, so they start crying and hugging each other. And as Snuffy cries, his tears drop onto Big Bird’s feathers, and this makes Big Bird realize that Snuffy is real and they can still be friends.

Snuffy would continue to make more appearances as the show went on, he joined the gang on their trip to Hawaii, participated in the NYC marathon, helped Big Bird with a Santa experiment in Christmas Eve On Sesame Street, helped Big Bird get Sahu back to his parents in Don’t Eat The Pictures, and kept an eye on Big Bird’s nest while he was gone in Follow That Bird. Eventually Jerry Nelson stopped doing Snuffy until 1978, where a new guy named Michael Earl took over for three more years, and then handed the reins over to a newer guy named Martin P Robinson, who became his concrete performer.

But now we move on to the best part of Snuffy’s existence: His reveal.

Now, as I’ve previously mentioned, none of the grown up cast members on the show believed that Snuffy actually existed. But that didn’t mean there weren’t others who did.

• Many of the kid extras saw Snuffy with no problem, and often joined the two on certain adventures they were having.

• A selection of the other muppets had their own encounters with him. Including Grover, Bert, Ernie, Telly and Oscar.

• Some celebrities had a chance to be with him.

• Even Buffy St. Marie and Bob’s Uncle Wally, who were both cast regulars, decided to believe in Snuffy, despite not seeing him.

But after season 15, the crew came to a realization:

“We can’t keep doing this anymore.”

At this point, the writers had used every “Just missed him” joke there was. It had gotten to a point where even the puppeteers were getting tired of the schtick.

But it was more than that. Stories about pedophilia crimes were being reported at the time, and the crew felt that by constantly not having the grown-ups believe Big Bird about something that he was 100% honest about, kids might pick up the idea that the grown-ups in their lives wouldn’t believe any dangerous stuff they told them and they’d be better off not saying anything. So it was decided that Snuffy would be revealed…  but not right then and there.

The first seed was sown in the premiere of season 16, where Big Bird gives the grown ups a speech, saying that he knows what differentiates reality and imagination, and that Mr. Snuffleupagus was part of this reality. Once he finishes, Gordon, Maria and Linda all step forward and tell Big Bird they believe that Snuffy is real.

So now ⅜ of the cast was on Big Bird’s side, which provided for some very nice and entertaining street stories for the rest of the season.

But then, in the season 17 premiere, which aired in 1985, it was time.

Here’s how the story went:

Big Bird declares to Snuffy that today is the day every grown up is finally gonna meet him once and for all, and this is how: When the time is right, Big Bird will shout a secret word to the grown ups (food), the grown-ups will hear the word come running into the nest and see Snuffy for the very first time.

But the plan fails on his first attempt, as Snuffy leaves to tell his mom about the plan just as the grown ups come in. Gordon then suggests that Big Bird get someone to make sure that Snuffy doesn’t leave, and Elmo volunteers to be that someone.

And then, after a debate on silly secret words and a test drill, the moment happens…

(SIDE NOTE: As satisfying as this episode was, not everyone was there. Buffy had long retired her character, Mr. Hooper died two seasons ago, and Olivia, for some reason, wasn’t present for the filming of this important event.)

After that experience, Snuffy was now officially a member of Sesame Street, making friends with all of the characters as the show continued. It’s also noticeable that now, Snuffy was starting to cheer up considerably more than before. Probably because of Mr. Robinson’s much more cheerful performance.

But we didn’t just get more Snuffy, we actually got more snuffleupaguses in general. We got to meet his mother and his little sister Alice (Played by Judy Sladky), we also got to see the certain types of food they like, where they go to school, where they live, how they get around and how different they are from elephants.

Yeah, forgot to mention that, despite some similarities, elephants and snuffleupaguses are not the same. Elephants have trunks, snuffleupaguses have snuffles. Elephants have wrinkled, grey skin, snuffleupaguses have shaggy, brown fur. Elephants have short, thin tails, snuffleupaguses have long, thick tails. Two different species.

In the 90s, not much changed for ol’ Snuff, but in 1992, he was actually supposed to be the center of another topic the CTW wanted to discuss.

You see, the staff was planning to talk about divorce by making an episode where Snuffy’s parents get one, but after showing it to test audiences, they didn’t like it, so it was scrapped and never saw the light of the day.

Moving on to the 2000s, Snuffy was still around, though significantly less than before. He turned invisible in a 2 part episode, he was lifted into the sky courtesy of 40 balloons, was a brief waiter at Hooper’s, and was the lead singer of Big Snuffy and the Alphatones.

When the show transferred to HBO, things were more or less the same. Even though Snuffy wasn’t that much of a regular anymore, he still made appearances in one or two episodes per season, and also drove the central conflict in the 50th anniversary special.

And then COVID-19 happened.

Snuffy was not present for any Sesame Street production shot during the pandemic. The reason for this is possibly because he’s a muppet who requires two people to operate, and I don’t know how you could pull off just performing his front half by itself. Doesn’t help that the whole puppet is so humongous, that the only way to store it is by hanging it from the ceiling.

And so far, Snuffy hasn’t been seen in any season 51 episodes. But the season isn’t over yet, so, we’ll see what happens.

Now, before I give my final words, I have something I wanna say…

I have absolutely no idea why anyone who grew up in the 70s and the 80s, would enjoy or tolerate the whole Snuffleupagus-is-imaginary charade. I mean, what part of that is supposed to be enjoyable? The fact that the grown-ups would never let Big Bird talk about the real adventures he went on? The fact that they could believe in a giant yellow bird, a bunch of monsters and a vampire who counts stuff, but not in Snuffy? The fact that Snuffy would never wait for a few minutes so Big Bird could get everyone? The fact that it spanned for 14 years? That fact that most of the time they could definitely see Snuffy if they just did what Big Bird said and freaking turned around?!

I think it goes without saying that I grew up watching Sesame Street way after Snuffy was revealed to everyone, and I could not be more thankful for that, cause as I have stated multiple times, if I had to endure all of the nonsense most of you reading this had to as a kid, I would have had to be thrown into an insane asylum. And no, I am not exaggerating with that.

But anyway, on to Snuffy himself. I think Snuffy is important to the show, because, like I said in the beginning, he and the other snuffleupaguses are some of the characters who help make Sesame Street as weird and wacky as it is.

Snuffy also shows us how good it can be to take things slow every now and then. Snuffy is nowhere near the fastest being on Earth, but he makes up for it in dedication and determination.

But more importantly, Snuffy and his big pal have a great relationship. Ernie and Bert may have been the first best friend duo on the show, but Big Bird and Snuffy are the one with the most heart. Throughout the series, these two gentle giants have been through so many adventures, trials and tribulations, and they always get through them with the help of each other. They bring out the best in one another, and learn from their experiences.

As long as people know that, there’s a good chance Snuffy will stick around for a good long time. We believe in you, Snuffy.

Well, that concludes another episode, so Imma head out. Hit it!