proto-Cookie Monster

IBM machine-eater

Jim Henson and an early version of the puppet

The character that would become Cookie Monster first appeared as a sharp-toothed monster that ate snack foods and other objects. Through the early years, the puppet would go through significant development before ever appearing on Sesame Street.

The hungry monster originated as the Wheel-Stealer in 1966 for an unaired General Foods commercial for Wheels, Flutes and Crowns. In 1967, Jim Henson used the puppet, then dark green, for an IBM training film called "The Coffee Break Machine." In the sketch, the monster devoured a machine. This sketch was also performed in October 1967 on The Ed Sullivan Show.

Arnold, a smaller version of the Wheel Stealer puppet, was created for several 1969 Munchos commercials. The puppet lost its teeth and had light purple fur, appearing closer to the Cookie Monster that would debut on Sesame Street.

The monster appeared throughout the first season of Sesame Street as one of the show's monster ensemble, with scripts generally not specifying which puppet would be used as "Monster" (and thus rotating with the likes of Beautiful Day Monster and the prototype for Grover).

While he was a ravenous omnivore from the start, his affinity for cookies surfaced as early as Episode 0011. By the second season premiere, the name and persona of the Cookie Monster had been fully-established; the name is used in the "What's My Part?" segment and "I Whistle a Happy Tune."

Cookie Monster's origin stories

Milk and Cookie

Many sources cite a season one sketch with Ernie as the origins of the monster's cookie fixation. In the sketch that first appeared in Episode 0011, the monster manifests in Ernie and Bert's apartment (neither for the first nor last time). He continually consumes Ernie's snack and waxes rhapsodic at the prospect of Ernie bringing him his own "milk and cookie."

Jeff Moss wrote the sketch for the fuzzy blue monster with googly eyes. The script had the monster saying only two words, milk and cookie, and thus Cookie Monster was born. The story is noted in several interviews and profiles of Moss, some citing him as "the creator" of Cookie Monster.

“Well Cookie Monster - Jim and his people had created the physical monsters before Sesame Street, but they had always been quite scary and they never spoke and - but they were such wonderful puppets that I went into somebody's office one day and said "Well how about that furry blue one with the boggly eyes, could he maybe talk?" And they said "Well, y'know, the puppeteers don't talk very much and [the monsters] they're scary." So I said "What if he doesn't talk very much, and I try to make him funny" and they said "Well, go ahead and do it" and I wrote a bit for him in which he had two words, and one of them was milk and the other one was "COO-KIE!" and we were in the studio and Frank Oz performed him just so brilliantly. We all fell off the seats, and I went back and started writing more.”
—Jeff Moss, NPR interview, 1994 (audio, story begins at 03:52)

“I remember going into Dave Connell's office and saying "Is it okay if one of the monsters talks?" And he said, "Well, they haven't ever talked before, and they're scary" And I said "Well, what if they talked very little and I try to make it funny?" He said, "Well, go ahead - but don't have them talk very much."”
—Jeff Moss, quoted in Sesame Street Unpaved page 67, 1998

“He [Moss] became the original head writer of "Sesame Street" where he developed ideas for characters in the manner of a fiction writer. In the case of Cookie Monster, he studied one of Mr. Henson’s Muppets, then known only as Boggle Eyes. He began to see the character as humorous, with a childlike obsession. At Cookie Monster’s debut rehearsal, the Muppet, played by the puppeteer Frank Oz, said just two words: "Milk and COOOOOKIIIIEEEEEE." And from there he became one of the world’s beloved Muppet friends.”
—Festivalattractions.com, Jeff Moss biography (archived)

“Jeff Moss wrote the first script for Cookie Monster. So you can imagine it says "cookie." Well, how many different ways can you say that? It could have been British; (in British accent) "well, I'll have a cookie." You know, or (in falsetto) "cookie!" I mean, but it wasn't. It was Frank, and Frank said (in deep, gruff voice) "COOKIE!" and that was it. It's this dance that goes on between all the pieces of this puzzle - this team of incredibly creative people. Hopefully the writing is good but it'll just be on the page if all these other people are not as brilliant as they are, and they were, and I'm so happy they were because I wouldn't be here today sitting here.”
—Norman Stiles, 2014 interview with The Archive of American Television (YouTube)

The Mr. and Mrs. Game

Another oft-cited origin story for Cookie Monster is The Mr. and Mrs. Game sketch also produced in the first season and first seen in Episode 0072. While the sketch gives birth to the premise of the cookie-obsessed monster, the initial depiction uses a different monster puppet albeit with Frank Oz performing the character with a similar voice and persona to what would become the Cookie Monster.

According to Jon Stone, the character was born of necessity. "Jerry Juhl (the chief writer) had written a sketch about a quiz show, but it had no ending in the studio; at the end of the contest the master of ceremonies said, 'You have your choice of $10,000, a new house, a three-week vacation in Hawaii, or a cookie.' The character starts thinking and can't make up his mind. He says to his wife, 'You'd like the vacation.' She says, 'Well, yeah, but you know how you like cookies.' He screams, 'Cookie,' and the whole place goes crazy. That puppet was actually different from Cookie Monster, but we liked the idea so much we took another puppet out of Jim's trunk and made him Cookie Monster."

Stone's quote appears in the 1994 book The Importance of Jim Henson. The story is also reiterated in Jim Henson: The Works (pages 67, 69) and Street Gang (pages 246-7, with quotes from Stone's unpublished memoir).

“Well, characters have come about from many different ways. Some of the characters were puppets that we had before Sesame Street, and […] they became personalities, y'know, they took on a personality. Cookie Monster certainly was that. We had used Cookie Monster before - in The Ed Sullivan Show, we were doing sketches on The Ed Sullivan Show - and he was this monster that ate a computer, for instance. And […] then when he became part of Sesame Street, he became a monster, and then there was a sketch, that, in which - it was another monster, actually […] who ate the cookie - who got a cookie as a reward for a game show. […] And then, that became a cookie monster, but then, it wasn't "our" Cookie Monster, who sort of evolved into that. So Cookie Monster evolved, and a great deal of that was through Frank. You know, Frank has taken each of his characters, and they have grown a great deal and changed as he's worked with them.”
—Jim Henson, filmed interview, 1980s. Included as a bonus feature on the DVD 40 Years of Sunny Days.

“Cookie originally was a different physical monster than you see now - a different puppet. […] Jim had a two-minute routine we did for The Ed Sullivan Show called 'Beautiful Day,' and a monster was part of it.”
—Frank Oz, quoted in Sesame Street: A Celebration - 40 Years of Life on the Street page 41, 2009

“The truth is, Cookie Monster, in the beginning, he was not the Cookie Monster. He would eat anything. He'd eat tables, ukuleles… and when he became a cookie monster, it was when Jon Stone or Jeff Moss - I forgot - wrote a routine where Guy Smiley was the host of a quiz show and Cookie Monster won the show. And he was given the choice of $10,000 in cash, a new car, a trip to Hawaii or a cookie. And he took the cookie. And from that point on, he became the Cookie Monster.”
—Frank Oz, NPR excerpt of Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, 2015 (audio, story begins at 03:39)

Early naming

"The Cookie Monster"

In his earliest named appearances, Cookie Monster was sometimes referred to as "the cookie monster" with the definite article "the" before the title. This was used occasionally as late as the opening announcement to the Muppets' 1971 The Dick Cavett Show appearance, and even later, by most of the narration and several characters in the 1977 book Cookie Monster and the Cookie Tree. Below are some of the earliest known uses of "Cookie Monster."

Production sources

• In Episode 0059, Gordon refers to "the cookie monster" during a scene with Oscar (aired January 7, 1970).
• The script and final airing of Episode 0087, broadcast March 10, 1970, refers to a cookie-eating monster.
• Album credits for The Sesame Street Book & Record, first issued in early summer 1970, credits Frank Oz as simply "Cookie Monster," referring to one of the singers of "Up and Down" (credited to just "Two Monsters").
• The earliest known mention of Cookie Monster's name formally in dialogue with the character present (as well as in the script) is Episode 0131: the What's My Part? segment and "I Whistle a Happy Tune."

Press and publicity

• The Sunday News Magazine, dated May 31, 1970 (pictured here, and here) identifies him as "the Cookie Monster."
• A Fairyland flyer from August 1970 advertises "the Cookie Monster"
• "The Cookie Monster" is mentioned as a popular character in a KPIX report on Sesame Street in San Francisco on September 1, 1970. Ron Magers states "It was the kind of a program where even mention of the Cookie Monster received a hand from the kids. And if you don't know who the Cookie Monster is, then your house may be suffering from a Sesame Street gap."

"Boggle Eyes"

At least two early scripts, albeit after the first use of "the cookie monster," use descriptions of the character's eyes to specify the puppet: "boggle" or "bobble."

production sources

• "Boggle-eyed monster" appears in the script for Episode 0117 for "Monster Tag."
• "Bobble-eyes" is used in the script for Episode 0184 for "Monster Finds the School."

press and other uses

• An article in South Carolina's The Columbia Record on April 23, 1970 describes him as "Bobble-Eyes the Monster." Similarly, a picture from "If I Knew You Were Coming I'd've Baked a Cake." is captioned "Muppets Bobble-Eyes and Ernie Learn to Cook."
• The May 1970 edition of The Sunday News Magazine uses "Bobble Eyes" as well as "Cookie Monster."
• "Boggle Eyes" appears in some Moss biographies which describe his contribution in developing Cookie Monster.
  • Festival Attractions, Inc. website
  • The Poetry Foundation
  • The Independent obituary

Early Sesame Street appearances

Season 1 appearances of the character prior to his name, persona and identity being fully established. Many of these segments feature Frank Oz as the monster's performer unless otherwise noted.

Kermit Lecture: W
(First: Episode 0001)

Kermit Lecture: More/Less
(First: Episode 0004)

Kermit Lecture: B
(First: Episode 0006)

Eraser sketches
(First: Episode 0008)

Balls and boxes
(First: Episode 0008)

Milk and cookies
(First: Episode 0011)

Kermit Lecture: Rectangle
(First: Episode 0017)

Kermit Lecture: Same/Different
(First: Episode 0018)

Kermit Lecture Jellybeans / Marbles
(First: Episode 0022)

"A, You're Adorable"
(First: Episode 0023)

"Everyone Likes Ice Cream" (voiced by Joe Raposo)
(First: Episode 0026)

Cookie Monster and Ernie: What Will Happen?
(First: Episode 0031)

Ernie's pillow sketch
(First: Episode 0035)

Kermit Lecture: K
(First: Episode 0044)

Street scenes moving in with Oscar (and wanting cookies)
Episode 0044

Q, A and U sketches
(First: Episode 0047)

Cookies and eggs
(First: Episode 0054)

Magic glasses
(First: Episode 0055)

Phone call sketches
(First: Episode 0064)

Kermit Lecture: Happy
(First: Episode 0066)

Kermit Lecture: Empty/Full
(First: Episode 0081)

A
(First: Episode 0083)

Counting (performed by Jim Henson)
(First: Episode 0084)

G
(First: Episode 0085)

C (performed by Caroll Spinney)
(First: Episode 0089)

Y
(First: Episode 0091)

Kermit Lecture: Sorting
(First: Episode 0094)

Here and There
(First: Episode 0111)

Cookie Bookie
(First: Episode 0117)

Kermit Lecture: R
(First: Episode 0129)

See also

• Cookie Monster Through the Years
• proto-Elmo
• proto-Grover