Bert explains the goodness of Swiss cheese to Ernie
The cheese that is not Mr. Handford in Episode 3016
Cheese, lower left, is a member of The Super Foods, with the same puppet used in other dairy contexts
Cheese is a major dairy product, perhaps not the world's second greatest gift, but still a versatile food and source of calcium and proteins. It is a frequent ingredient in pizza and sandwiches. Cheese in popular culture is the food of choice of rats and mice, and Rizzo the Rat and Tutter frequently express that preference. While cheese can be both singular and plural, when referring to different kinds of cheese assembled together (in a market or performing in a Muppet variety show), they're known as cheeses.
Over 1,000 different cheeses exist in the world, with particular varieties often named for the region where they originate, differeing in size, shape, color, and texture. In cartoons, comic strips, and the Muppet realm, however, they are often reduced to a generally yellow or orange cheese, sometimes meant to be cheddar but often adorned with holes (implying Swiss origin). Versions closer to the whiter color of actual Swiss cheese have also been used as both props and Muppet characters. In an early Ernie and Bert sketch, Bert explains to Ernie that the taste of Swiss is improved by the holes (although in fact the holes were originally viewed as imperfections).
The Muppet Show featured the first cheese as a character, sort of, in Yolanda, Gonzo's dance partner in episode 208. Described by Gonzo as a gorgonzola, Yolanda appears as a basic prop cheese despite her impressive flamenco abilities. Two seasons later, episode 422 (pronounced "cheesy" at the start) features several different cheeses as fully sentient, talking Muppet characters, making puns based on their type. The named varieties include gouda, cheddar, Roquefort, and according to Scooter, one is a limburger. Muppet cheeses would later manifest on Sesame Street and on Muppets Tonight (usually as a group or associated with the rats).
Telly and Cheese[]
Telly bonding with cheese
Telly Monster has had an intermittent and sometimes complicated history with cheese. He tried to use a storebought package of cheese as a mneomic device to remember piano "keys" in Sesame Street Episode 2441. He goes further in Episode 2691, empathizing with how the cheese is left out in the song "The Farmer in the Dell." He keeps a large cheese company throughout the episode, takes it clothes shopping, and consults it for advice.
When asked to pretend to be a cheese in Episode 3016, Telly fondly recalls his prior cheese chummery: "I even made friends with one once. I mean, we were buddies." After playing "Beauty and the Cheese," however, both Telly and Rosita think that Mr. Handford has been turned into a wheel of cheese. The encounter leaves them reluctant to consume any more dairy edibles.
Ben Stiller, singing "The People in Your Neighborhood" with Telly, decides to play a cheese himself and sings an ode to the amiability of the versatile food. (First: Episode 3812) Despite having both befriended cheese and worried that a friend had become cheese, Telly is initially critical of the notion of a cheese as a neighborhood person, but comes round. Later, Telly would himself don cheesy costumes on more than one occasion.
Cheese characters[]
The Muppets[]
Sesame Street[]
My Abby: Dancing
Word on the Street: Awful
Episode 3832
Word of the Day: Vote
"Watermelons and Cheese"
Elmo's Magic Cookbook
Episode 4717
Cheese impersonators[]
Sesame Street Episode 4095
