The Daily Show on the Sesame Street Brawl

"I see. So, Fox News is upset that empty-headed puppets are trying to brainwash and indoctrinate Americans." – Jon Stewart

Coverage continues with Che Grovera and George Snuffleupagus after the jump.

The Daily Show airs Monday through Thursday at 11/10c.

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Tags: Debates, Energy & Oil, Fox News, John Oliver, Jon Stewart, Lou Dobbs, Mitt Romney, Money, Muppets, PBS, Sesame Street, The Daily Show, Video, Wyatt Cenac

Stephen Colbert on Rick Santorum's Wild Southern Night

This sure must be an exciting time in the Santorum campaign HQ. I doubt anybody seriously thought he could pick up wins in states with ideologies so much more progressive than their candidate!

Coverage continues with chief swampland political analyst Kermit the Frog after the jump.

The Colbert Report airs Monday through Thursday at 11:30/10:30c.

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Tags: Alabama, American Samoa, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, Mitt Romney, Muppets, Newt Gingrich, Primaries, Republicans, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul, Stephen Colbert, The Colbert Report, Video

Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy Respond to Fox News Allegations

In case you've somehow managed to forget this incredibly important bit of news from last month — in its unfaltering quest to blur the line between journalism and parody — Fox News decided to take a brave and well-thought-out stance against the new Muppets movie and its overtly "anti-corporate message." Why? Only Roger Ailes and Roger Murdoch can answer that definitely.

At any rate, while promoting their film at a press conference in London recently, spokesmuppets Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy were finally given their chance to respond…

http://youtu.be/Y8YhED4IgQA

This is funny and all, but I don't really think this was a smart play on the Muppets' part. A hand-controlled felt amphibian and hog answering questions like this just lends a little too much dignity to the news network.

Tags: Energy & Oil, Fox News, Movies, Muppets

Meet Lily, A Sesame Street Muppet for Our Times

With the U.S. Department of Agriculture calculating that nearly 50 million Americans — including nearly 17 million children — live in households that can be characterized as insecure due to "insufficient money or other resources for food," the producers of Sesame Street have created Lily, a new Muppet representing children dealing with food insecurity, as part of a special on hunger…

"We thought long and hard about how do we really represent this from a child’s point of view?" Jeanette Betancourt, Sesame Workshop’s senior vice president for outreach and educational practices, said on Monday morning in a telephone interview. "We felt it was best to have this new Muppet take this on in a positive way and a healthy way."

Ms. Betancourt said that she and her colleagues spent time considering all the elements of Lily's character that would make her realistic but empathetic to young viewers: her style of dress, her voice performance and even mannerisms, like her tendency to look down at her feet rather than make eye contact when she is speaking to other characters.

I think you have to applaud Sesame Street's insistence on dealing with complex reality — the show has previously addressed economic stress and the problems facing military families — but there's always room for more realism.

For example, there is already a Grover, so why doesn't he explain to Lily that cuts to capital gains taxes are the key to economic prosperity, which will eventually trickle down even to the Section 8 apartments on Sesame Street? And where is Rand, the Senator Muppet, eager to explain to Lily that, sure, she's hungry now, but compared to the wealthy in America, she has it positively made, since "the rich are getting richer, but the poor are getting richer even faster?"

And what about Edwin, the Heritage Foundation Muppet? Who but him could explain, in terms even a child could understand, that the grumbling in Lily's stomach can't be because her parents are poor — for how can you be poor and own a refrigerator?

Photo by Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

Tags: Muppets, Poverty, Unemployment

Jon Stewart on Michael Steele's Afghanistan Comments

I don't have to tell you the unemployment news continue to be bleak out there. According to new statistics released last week, the number of so-called "discouraged workers" has more than doubled since this time last year. Of course the really interesting part is the workers aren't nearly as discouraged that they don't have a job as they are that Michael Steele does.

The Daily Show airs Monday through Thursday at 11pm / 10c.

Tags: Afghanistan, Jim DeMint, Jon Stewart, Lindsey Graham, Michael Steele, Muppets, Republicans, RNC, The Daily Show, Wyatt Cenac