The climate crisis, economic woes and conflict in the Middle East were all put into perspective on Twitter this week when the world suddenly faced a genuine crisis. Big Bird from Sesame Street was small.
People didn't even know what to call the much-loved character any more as, normally measuring 8ft 2in, he was now smaller than a ladybird. It was the biggest crises involving a fictional character since the disappearance of the M&Ms last year. But unlike that case, we've been left mystified as to what it was all about.
It all began when the famous yellow-feathered puppet published a cry for help on his official X.com account (yes, Big Bird has an X account). he said that he was now small and needed help to get big again. For five days, he repeatedly shared posts documenting the tribulations of being small as he continued to plea for assistance.
Other Sesame Street characters tried to help out, and those that didn't were pulled up for their lack of empathy by concerned fans. And fans were really very concerned.
The world breathed a sigh of relief last night when Big Bird announced that he was now big again, without much of an explanation of what had made him small not how he had grown.
Now, I have to admit that I lost track with the comings and goings on Sesame Street at around about the age of seven. In fact, it's news to me that the characters have their own individual social media accounts. I initially presumed the shrinking of Big Bird was a marketing stunt for something, but the resolution was a bit of an anticlimax.
Apparently, the adventure was a Twitter retelling of a 2005 TV episode The Adventures Of Little Big Bird, but it's not clear why the Sesame Street Workshop decided to run with it now. It may have been an experiment to see how they could make the brand and characters more relevant to today's world, and perhaps to test how they public would engage. Or maybe it really was all intended to get us to #HelpEachOther. Whatever the aim, it had some success, with the original post picking up 17m views.
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