Bert (Sesame Street)

Bert
Sesame Street character
Ernie and his rubber duckie with Bert in Sesame Street.
First appearance	Sesame Street Test Pilot (1969)
Portrayed by	Frank Oz (1969–present; occasionally since 1997) Eric Jacobson (1997–present)
Information
Species	Human Muppet
Gender	Male

Bert is a yellow Muppet character on the long-running children's television show, Sesame Street. Bert was originally performed by Frank Oz. Since 2000, Muppeteer Eric Jacobson has been phased in as Bert's primary performer, although Frank Oz still performs Bert occasionally. Bert has also made cameo appearances within The Muppets franchise, including The Muppet Show, The Muppet Movie, and The Muppets Take Manhattan.

He and his roommate Ernie form a comic duo that is one of the program's centerpieces, with Bert acting as the world-weary foil to Ernie's naive trouble-making.

Bert, though kind and intelligent, is also grumpy, boring, and easily frustrated. His catchphrase is "Yes, I do mind!" He enjoys activities such as paper clip and bottle cap collecting, cooking oatmeal and watching pigeons. Producer Arlene Sherman has called Bert "everyone's idea of a blind date". In one sketch, Bert reads a book called Boring Stories and chuckles, "Wow! These boring stories are really exciting!" In the book Sesame Street Unpaved, Frank Oz says, "I was never really happy with Bert's character until about a year in, when I realized... that he was a very boring character, and I'd use that weakness as a strength for him."

Bert has very boring foods as his favorites. He loves oatmeal, unflavored fizzy water, and other bland related foods. In one episode when Ernie is hired to sub for Mr. Hooper, he makes Bert an unflavored fizzy water but adds syrup, ice cream and whipped cream to it angering Bert who eventually screams a memorable phrase: "I hate ice cream sodas!" Bert's appearance and clothing contrast markedly with Ernie; he is the taller and thinner of the two, wears a turtleneck under a shirt with vertical stripes (as opposed to Ernie's horizontal ones), and has a head that is narrower than it is high. In addition, Bert has visible eyebrows (actually a unibrow), while Ernie doesn't.