Over the decades, Sesame Street has established a reputation for taking great care in addressing difficult topics in ways that children can understand, but a recent episode suggests that they’re not above occasionally phoning it in: Sesame Street has announced that they’re not going to do a whole episode about it, but they want everyone to know that Grover is addicted to shopping.
Huh. This isn’t exactly groundbreaking or helpful, but we guess it’s good to know.
In press release earlier this week, Sesame Workshop reached out to fans to explain that, while they don’t have any ideas for fun songs or cute animations about it, they want families across America to know that the character Grover is currently buried in $36,000 of credit card debt due to an addiction to online shopping.
“We honestly have a lot of other storylines queued up for the season, so we don’t have time to deal with this onscreen, but please note that Grover has spent the entirety of the Covid-19 pandemic on the couch with his iPad, purchasing vintage cufflinks from eBay, as-seen-on-TV kitchen gadgets, and dozens of hyper absorbent microfiber towels he finds in the sale section on Macys.com,” the press release read. “Grover shops compulsively as a coping mechanism to deal with his deep dissatisfaction over the fact that he is unmarried. You can’t tell on the show because he does everything in his power to appear upbeat and hide the issue from his closest friends, but the truth is that he is profoundly lonely and desperate to find a soul mate.”
“We’re not going to have a kid whose parent has a shopping addiction come on the show or anything, but we hope that kids in that situation feel comforted by the knowledge that anytime their parent struggles with the urge to hit ‘purchase’ on yet another pair of holiday pajama pants they don’t need, Grover is probably struggling with the same thing, albeit offscreen in the privacy of his room at the halfway house where he lives,” the release continued. “Though Grover has been receiving cognitive behavioral therapy for his condition, he recently relapsed and purchased a $7,000 Cartier bracelet. He is too ashamed to wear it in public, which is why viewers won’t notice it when they watch Sesame Street.”
Hmm, okay. That’s pretty sad, but we’re not sure if talking about it like this is going to help children at all.
After over 50 years on the air, we suppose it was inevitable that Sesame Street would half-ass it at some point. Still, we can’t help but wonder how many children could’ve benefited from an episode that addressed Grover’s shopping addiction with care and compassion. Here’s hoping those kids can find the support they need elsewhere, as Sesame Street has really left them out to dry.
