March to Save Big Bird’s Welfare Check

Ever since the first presidential debate, there have been those—from President Obama on down—who have tried to make hay of Mitt Romney’s pledge to defund PBS. The Obama campaign produced one of the stupidest pieces of political advertising ever, an ad so bad it was panned by the Democratic party operatives talking heads at MSNBC. The candidate himself, has featured Big Bird prominently in his speeches in the days since, apparently convinced that Americans think the future of the republic hinges on whether Sesame Workshop gets to continue to feed at the public trough. Now, in the ultimate expression of silliness in the face of a very important election, there’s this piece of planned street theater:

Sesame Street fans are gearing up for a political fight.

Following Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s pledge to cut the federal government’s subsidy to PBS ( the home of Sesame Street), fans of the show are planning a “Million Muppet March” in response.

The puppet protest, which is set to go down Nov. 3 at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., is being held in an effort to save Big Bird and the rest of the gang from losing federal funding.

Animation executive Micheal Bellavia and university student Chris Mecham came up with the idea and planned the event together after getting riled up by Romney’s now infamous comment.

“I figured, why just make it a virtual show of support,” Bellavia told Reuters. “Why not take this opportunity because it seemed like there was already some growing interest in it and actually make it an active, participatory event. I literally just said, ‘It’s happening.’”

“Romney was using Muppets as a rhetorical device to get rid of public broadcasting, which is really so much bigger than Sesame Street,” Mecham added. “While he was still talking, I was thinking of ways I could express my frustration at the argument. Before the debates were over, I had already put up the Million Muppet March Facebook page.”

Even in a time when the best adjective to describe most political discourse is “inane,” this really takes the cake.