Cookie Monster is a popular Muppet character on the children's TV show Sesame Street. He is covered with blue hair, and he is known for his "googly eyes", but he is especially known for his voracious appetite. He can (and often does) eat anything and everything, but his favorite choice of food above everything else is cookies.
Cookie Monster was based off of a Muppet who appeared on an episode of The Ed Sullivan Show. A short sketch depicted a monster that greatly resembled Cookie Monster (albeit with frightening eyes and fangs) who devoured a complex machine. After being informed that the machine was a bomb, the monster promptly exploded.
In his early appearances on the show, Cookie Monster seemed somewhat scary to younger viewers, as he personified the childhood fear of "being eaten by a monster." However, this fearsome image did not last long, and Cookie Monster is known as one of the most lovable and huggable monsters on Sesame Street. Cookie Monster's theme song, C is for Cookie, is one of the most famous songs from Sesame Street.
Cookie Monster has a deep, growly voice, and speaks in primitive diction. ("Me want cookie!") Cookie Monster has been performed from his earliest performances by Frank Oz, and in Oz's absence by David Rudman.
Since Sesame Street's major reformat in 2002-2003, Cookie Monster has hosted a regular segment called "Letter of the Day". In each episode, he comes up with a hair-brained scheme to not eat the cookie with the letter of the day written on it in icing. Despite best intentions, it always fails.
His mom appeared in a Letter of the Day segment in 2003.
Numerous children's books featuring Cookie Monster have been published over the years.
Books
See also: Cookie Monster Munch, Sesame Street- Cookie Monster's Best Bites, Monster Hits- Cookie's Best Bit
External link
The Jargon File 2.4.2 has this entry for "Cookie Monster" (used by permission):
[from the children's TV program "Sesame Street"] Any of a family of early (1970s) hacks reported on TOPS-10, ITS, Multics, and elsewhere that would lock up either the victim's terminal (on a time-sharing machine) or the console (on a batch mainframe), repeatedly demanding "I WANT A COOKIE". The required responses ranged in complexity from "COOKIE" through "HAVE A COOKIE" and upward. Folklorist Jan Brunvand (see FOAF) has described these programs as urban legends (implying they probably never existed) but they existed, all right, in several different versions. See also wabbit. Interestingly, the term 'cookie monster' appears to be a retcon; the original term was cookie bear.