Over the years, Sesame Street has proven itself to be a bastion of inclusivity, introducing a wide range of new characters representing a broad spectrum of different backgrounds and identities. However, the show’s most recent new cast member isn’t necessarily their biggest success on this front: Sesame Street just introduced and then immediately killed off its first pagan puppet.
All in all, this one is kind of a wash for inclusivity.
The new character, an orange monster with blue pigtails named Hypatia, made her first and only appearance on last week’s episode of Sesame Street. In the episode, several Sesame Street regulars, including Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Bert and Ernie, and Grover are all walking to Mass when they see Hypatia kneeling at a shrine to Ceres, Goddess of Agriculture. Grover says, “Who are you and why does your statue of Christ the Lord look so bizarre?” and Hypatia replies, “I’m Hypatia, and this isn’t Christ, it’s Ceres, one of many deities whom I worship since I’m a pagan.” Big Bird looks at her for a few moments before saying, “I’m not crazy about that.”
Over the course of the episode, Hypatia teaches her new friends all about her pagan culture. She helps Bert and Ernie sacrifice an ox to Jupiter and then sings a song about how you can read the future by examining its entrails. Later on, she and the Count get together to count up to 17, which is the number of times per year Hypatia says she must pour libations to the sea god Neptune in order to avoid his wrath. Things seem to be going relatively well for the new pagan monster until Oscar the Grouch asks her point-blank what church she goes to and she says, “I don’t go to church, because I’m a pagan.” When Hypatia says this, Ernie screams at the top of his lungs and starts ripping his hair out, and Grover throws up. Big Bird yells, “She is a heretic!” and the Sesame Street regulars tie Hypatia to a stake and set it on fire.
The episode concludes with Elmo and Cookie Monster standing over Hypatia’s ashes and reciting the Lord’s Prayer in Latin together while Cookie Monster sweeps the ashes into a shoebox labeled “Bound For Hell.” At the end of the day, Hypatia’s storyline was one step forward and one step backward as far as religious tolerance on Sesame Street is concerned. Here’s hoping the next time the show introduces a new character with a different cultural viewpoint than the rest, they can survive for more than just one episode!
