‘Saturday Night Live‘s cold open featured a sendup of Senator Ted Cruz‘s ongoing feud with Sesame Street that included parodies of Marjorie Taylor Greene and Joe Rogan, who fed Big Bird horse de-wormer.
Cruz, played by cast member Aidy Bryant, decides to put together his own version of the show, called Cruz Street.
‘I’m Texas Senator and last one invited to Thanksgiving, Ted Cruz,’ Bryant’s Cruz said. ‘For 50 years I stood by as Sesame Street taught our children dangerous ideas like numbers and kindness.’
‘But when Big Bird told children to get vaccinated against a deadly disease, I said enough! And I created my own Sesame Street called Cruz Street. It’s a gated community where kids are safe from the woke government.’
Cruz’s first guest is Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, played by an AR-15-toting Cecily Strong.
‘Today’s episode is brought to you by Q,’ said Strong’s Greene.
Aidy Bryant as Senator Ted Cruz on an SNL parody of Sesame Steet
Cecily Strong playing Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene
Cruz is then joined by Big Bird, who has regrets about getting vaccinated.
‘My feathers fell out, my nuts got huge and my doink don’t work!”
Pete Davidson arrives on the scene as comedian and podcaster Joe Rogan in an attempt to help Big Bird.
‘I used to host Fear Factor and now doctors fear me,’ said Davidson’s Rogan, before gifting Big Bird with some Zinc, Ayahuasca and ‘horse medicine.’
The sketch goes on to feature parodies of other Sesame Street favorites, including a recently-engaged Bert and Ernie and a government-assistance loving Oscar the Grouch.
Pete Davidson’s Joe Rogan offers Big Bird horse de-wormer
Mikey Day and Alex Moffat play a recently engaged Bert and Ernie
Chris Redd checks in as Oscar the Grouch
The sketch abruptly ends with Chloe Fineman as Britney Spears
The sketch then comes to an abrupt end when Cruz announces the show is sponsored by freedom and brings out the recently freed Britney Spears, played by Chloe Fineman.
Cruz and other conservatives have blasted Sesame Street favorite Big Bird for claiming to have gotten a COVID vaccine in what they say is propaganda to encourage kids to get the shot.
The fictional bird, who, according to Sesame Street lore, is eternally 6-years-old, tweeted his vaccination status last Saturday, writing: ‘I got the COVID-19 vaccine today! My wing is feeling a little sore, but it’ll give my body an extra protective boost that keeps me and others healthy.’
He added that CNN journalist Erica Hill ‘even said I’ve been getting vaccines since I was a little bird. I had no idea!’
But Cruz was among those unhappy with Big Bird’s medical disclosure, and quote tweeted the comment with ‘Government propaganda for your 5 year old.’ Big Bird issued the tweet days after the FDA approved Pfizer’s COVID vaccine for children aged five to 11, with critics accusing the character of trying to foist shots on kids.
In his tweet, Big Bird said the vaccine will ‘give my body an extra protective boost that keeps me and others healthy’
Cruz called the tweet ‘government propaganda for your 5 year old’
Big Bird, who is eternally six-years-old, according to Sesame Street lore, tweeted on Saturday that he received the COVID vaccine
Sen. Ted Cruz, of Texas, was one of several conservatives who took to Twitter to criticize the Bird for getting the vaccine
COVID is generally believed to pose little risk to children, with CDC statistics showing that just 680 of America’s 745,000 COVID fatalities are aged between 0 and 18.
Vaccines, while generally very safe, can also cause side effects including heart inflammation among kids, with some experts questioning whether the protection they give outweighs the risk of side effects, or the likely harmless nature of a COVID infection for young children.
The tweets also sparked criticism from other conservatives, like FOX News host Lisa Boothe who said it was ‘brainwashing children who are not at risk from COVID,’ and Newsmax host Steve Cortes, who wrote: ‘This kind of propaganda is actually evil.
‘Your children are not statistically at risk, and should not be pressured into a brand new treatment. Do not comply!’
Cruz’s comment was itself the subject of criticism, including from Parkland school massacre survivor turned gun control advocate David Hogg.
Hogg wrote: ‘Ted Cruz is doing the job of our enemies by spreading more disinformation that’s killed over 200,000 Americans this year.
‘I can not believe an actual sitting senator would tweet this,’ he added.
Hogg also responded directly to Cruz’s tweet, recalling the senator’s controversial trip to Cancun, Mexico as Texas endured a deadly winter storm.
‘At least it’s acceptable for birds to fly south for the winter – unlike some senators who left millions of their constituents to f****** die in the cold.’
Rep. Eric Swalwell, a Democrat from California, also wrote: ‘Imagine coming down harder on a fictional bird than the man who called your wife ugly,’ referring to former President Donald Trump, who Cruz campaigned for after losing the Republican nomination in 2020.
And Walter Shaub, a former head of the Office of Government Ethics, reminded Cruz: ‘You are vaccinated.’
Many parents who’ve themselves been vaccinated say their desire not to vaccinate young children is not an anti-vax position, but instead the result of weighing up the potential benefits and pitfalls of getting the shot.
Others pointed out that Sesame Street now airs on HBO, not public access channel PBS as it used to, while some noted that Big Bird has been active in child immunization campaigns stretching back to the 1970s.
Sarah Wire, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, added that Sesame Street has helped children understand the COVID pandemic.
‘Sesame Street has spoken to kids about the pandemic in ways they understand since the beginning, explaining how to wash hands and wear a mask or why they couldn’t go to preschool or see grandma,’ she wrote.
‘Kids seeing six-year-old Big Bird get a shot helps them understand what is happening.’
In response to the criticism, Cruz again tweeted: ‘Liberals are weird.
‘They don’t care about open borders. Or rising inflation. Or schools covering up sexual assaults. Or the disaster of Afghanistan. Or tyrannical Dems violating medical pricacy and freedom.
‘But criticize Big Bird? And they lose their s***.’
Cruz soon received backlash for his tweet attacking Big Bird
In response to the criticism, Cruz wrote that ‘liberals are weird’
The controversy over Big Bird’s vaccination status comes days after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s advisory committee officially recommended Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine for children aged five to 11.
The members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted unanimously on Tuesday that pediatric doses be distributed in this younger age group.
CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky then signed off on the vote, meaning that approximately 28 million children in the US are now eligible for the shots.
It was the final step in the process that would allow injections in young children to begin in the United States, with President Joe Biden issuing a statement calling the decision ‘a turning point’ in the battle against COVID-19 and saying they had secured enough vaccines for every child in America.
With the decision, the United States became one of the first countries to approve vaccinations for children.