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Biff-Photo
PERFORMER Jerry Nelson
DEBUT 1973
PATTERN Large Lavender Live Hand
Biff-Sully
BiffDebut

In his debut appearances in Season 4, Biff sports a wool cap rather than his usual hardhat.

BiffSully
BiffPortrait
BiffandRoxie

Biff and his niece, Roxie Marie.

Biff is a construction worker on Sesame Street who speaks with a gruff New York accent. His partner is Sully. Biff first appeared in Season 4.

Biff often asks for Sully's opinion, but interrupts him before Sully gets a chance to even make a sound. He also tends to ask him questions and then eggs Sully on by repeating, "Huh? Huh? Huh?," a reference to the taxicab routine by comedy duo Burns and Schreiber. As performer Jerry Nelson said in an interview, "Sully wasn't so much Schreiber, but Biff was the Jack Burns character."[1] Biff often has trouble figuring out how to perform various tasks, and by the time he's figured it out, Sully has already finished it. Biff would then take the credit. While Biff normally interrupts Sully, on occasion (such as episodes 3333 and 3387) he also interrupts his niece, Roxie Marie, though she's at least able to get out some words when he does.

Besides his niece Roxie Marie, Biff's family includes his wife, Celeste (although in prior episodes, Biff says his wife's name is Ethel). According to Episode 2608, he also has four kids - Timmy, Tommy, Tammy and infant Mary-Biff. In Episode 1737, he mentions having a dog named Tuffy. In Episode 2870 he works on the sink in Hooper's Store, claiming his father was a plumber and that kind of work runs in the family.

According to episodes 1955 and 2294, Biff grew up and lives in Canarsie (a neighborhood in Brooklyn). Biff mentions in Episode 3087 that he attended P.S. 186, where he was the self-proclaimed counting ace. He is also a Republican, as mentioned in Sing Along.

He has sung songs such as "We Coulda," "Think of Your Fingers," "This Song is For the Birds," and appeared in "Do De Rubber Duck." He also appeared with Judy Collins in the song "One Thing Leads to Another," and with Johnny Cash in "Five Feet High and Rising." Like Sully, Biff sometimes plays the piano, though he doesn't play it as well as Sully. In one segment, he recalls when he'd play piano scales as a kid and, as an adult, has difficulty playing the most basic of scales. (First: Episode 0911) In another episode, Biff and Sully go to Bob for piano lessons. When Biff plays, poorly, Bob assumes the lessons are for him, only for Biff to reveal that he wants Sully to play like him so he can keep up with Biff. In another episode, when Biff has his thumb stuck inside a bowling ball, he does his daily piano practice regardless, playing it along with a recording of himself playing the piano without the bowling ball. After asking Telly if his piano playing sounds different with the bowling ball, Telly confirms that it sounds the same.

In Elmopalooza, Biff uses a jackhammer to get Jon Stewart and Prairie Dawn out of the dressing room, but when he puts it on full throttle, it shakes him all the way to the stage. Later during "One Small Voice," he and Sully appear in the audience at the talent show.

The duo made background cameos in episodes 4204 (performed by John Kennedy) and 4712. In season 50, he made his first new speaking appearances in Episode 5017 and 5033, now performed by Matt Vogel.

A similarly named construction foreman, Bif, exists off-screen. Two construction worker Anything Muppets who looked similar to Biff and Sully made background appearances in the "Outrageous Makeover: Home Addition" sketch. (First: Episode 4132)

Filmography[]

See also Biff and Sully Sketches

Episodic appearances[]

0950-BiffSully

Album appearances[]

Book appearances[]

BiffHouse

The House That Biff Built.

Toolboxbook2

Biff and Sully in The Tool Box Book.

See also[]

Sources[]

  1. Nelson, Jerry Tough Pigs interview
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