Oscar the Grouch is no longer the crankiest Muppet on the friendly block known as “Sesame Street.” Introducing Stan, whose hobbies include grooming his Hitler-esque coiffe and moustache… and attacking mainstream media on the internet. That’s right, he’s the first Muppet to identify as alt-right.
Not in a million years would that happen!
Stan is not a product of the fine folks at “Sesame Street” but rather by those crazies at Funny or Die.
“Sesame Street,” the 46-year-old, iconic children’s show that has won 167 Emmys and 8 Grammys, is known for their inclusive line of thinking, and Stan is, well, not. The Funny or Die team says he was created as a “means of introducing children to the alt-right movement at a young age and to let them decide how terrifying it really is.”
Stan’s backstory is that he ran away from his “liberal snowflake” parents and was drawn to Sesame Street because its initials are SS, just like Hitler’s paramilitary organization in Nazi Germany. Big Bird’s first encounter with him has the giant yellow guy asking what Stan’s “Lock Her Up!” T-shirt means, to which Stan answers, “Where are the emails?”
“The arc of his first episode features Stan attempting to illustrate to Elmo how Barack Obama is not only a reptilian alien posing as a human, but also a reptilian alien born in Kenya,” FoD teases.
Debra Thompson, the puppeteer who controls Stan, studied up on the alt-right movement in order to get the Muppet’s movements down. “Being alt-right means that Stan often flails his arms around when someone refutes his bullshit with facts. His back is often hunched also, as if even gravity hates him and wants to push him directly to hell where he belongs. It’s very interesting to control Stan and it also makes me hate myself.”
If you buy all of this, you lose, because there is no “debut episode” or Stan the Alt-Right Muppet. Funny or Die is just playing with you. But, if you’re at all curious about the rest of Stan’s story, click here.