# Big Bird is retiring from "Sesame Street"
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bird-is-retiring-from-sesame-street/823113
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [October 17, 2018, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bird-is-retiring-from-sesame-street/823113 "2018-10-17T22:57:18Z")
**Posts on this page:** 17
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2018, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bird-is-retiring-from-sesame-street/823113/1 "2018-10-17T22:57:18Z")
Or, at least the original one is. Carroll Spinney is 84 years old, and he also voiced Oscar the Grouch.
> **[After 50 Years On 'Sesame Street,' The Voice Of Big Bird And Oscar Is Retiring](https://www.npr.org/2018/10/17/658140053/after-50-years-on-sesame-street-the-voice-of-big-bird-and-oscar-is-retiring)**
>
> Caroll Spinney, 84, has performed the roles since the show's very first episode. "I will always be Big Bird," he said. "And even Oscar, once in a while!"
A wonderful documentary was made about him a few years ago. Have a box of Kleenex ready when Big Bird shows up at Jim Henson’s funeral.
[http://www.iambigbird.com/](http://www.iambigbird.com/)
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### Author:  [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2018, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bird-is-retiring-from-sesame-street/823113/2 "2018-10-18T13:14:27Z")
Spinney was Big Bird from the beginning of Sesame Street. What a run!
It won’t be the same without him.
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### Author:  [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2018, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bird-is-retiring-from-sesame-street/823113/3 "2018-10-18T14:18:58Z")
I wish him the best in retirement. Hopefully, he has a pretty big nest egg.
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2018, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bird-is-retiring-from-sesame-street/823113/4 "2018-10-18T14:54:10Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#):
>
> I wish him the best in retirement. Hopefully, he has a pretty big nest egg.
Hopefully he didn’t invest in any shell companies.
They’re not all they’re cracked up to be.
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### Author:  [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2018, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bird-is-retiring-from-sesame-street/823113/5 "2018-10-18T15:16:25Z")
This is a sad occasion, I don’t think it is appropriate to be making yolks.
mmm
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2018, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bird-is-retiring-from-sesame-street/823113/6 "2018-10-18T15:35:32Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#):
>
> Spinney was Big Bird from the beginning of Sesame Street. What a run!
Indeed! And Oscar the Grouch, don’t forget.
The thread title isn’t technically accurate. It’s not that Big Bird is retiring from Sesame Street; it’s that Spinney is retiring from Big Bird.
And at 84, he’s entitled to; but it’s still the End Of An Era.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2018, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bird-is-retiring-from-sesame-street/823113/7 "2018-10-18T15:56:38Z")
Personally, I’m impressed that he’s been able to keep doing it for this long. Even in my prime of life, I’d have found it tiring to go around with my arm raised straight up for hours at a time. Or have they changed the design of the suit so that’s no longer needed?
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### Author:  [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2018, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bird-is-retiring-from-sesame-street/823113/8 "2018-10-18T16:35:59Z")
Did Spinney get an allergy to feathers?
😉
Congrats for a wonderful and long career on Sesame Street.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2018, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bird-is-retiring-from-sesame-street/823113/9 "2018-10-18T17:59:45Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> Personally, I’m impressed that he’s been able to keep doing it for this long. Even in my prime of life, I’d have found it tiring to go around with my arm raised straight up for hours at a time. Or have they changed the design of the suit so that’s no longer needed?
Not sure, but he’s had an apprentice/understudy for a while now, and has only been doing the voices for the last couple of years.
> [@NYT article that the OP's article links to](#):
>
> But in recent years, Spinney said, the physical requirements of performing the characters had become difficult for him, and he had developed problems with his balance. He stopped doing the puppeteering for Big Bird in 2015 and has since been providing only the voices for him and Oscar.
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### Author:  [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2018, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bird-is-retiring-from-sesame-street/823113/10 "2018-10-18T18:18:08Z")
> [@](#):
>
> …Spinney…had developed problems with his balance.
I’d just assumed Big Bird had gotten into the Wild Turkey.
mmm
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2018, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bird-is-retiring-from-sesame-street/823113/11 "2018-10-18T18:35:02Z")
OK, so he was still inside the suit at age 81. That’s still very impressive.
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### Author:  [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2018, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bird-is-retiring-from-sesame-street/823113/12 "2018-10-18T20:07:58Z")
I just clicked in to make sure this wasn’t a #MeToo story.
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### Author:  [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2018, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bird-is-retiring-from-sesame-street/823113/13 "2018-10-23T17:31:40Z")
I just got done playing Big Bird…
and boy is my arm tired
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### Author:  [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2018, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bird-is-retiring-from-sesame-street/823113/14 "2018-10-23T17:51:37Z")
Surely he had some sort of arm support or brace inside that suit to help him hold one arm in the air for long periods of time.
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### Author:  [@RadicalPi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RadicalPi)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2018, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bird-is-retiring-from-sesame-street/823113/15 "2018-10-23T20:20:48Z")
> [@teela\_brown](#):
>
> Surely he had some sort of arm support or brace inside that suit to help him hold one arm in the air for long periods of time.
Perhaps. But the Muppet Wiki doesn’t show anything like that.
> **[Big Bird](https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Big_Bird)**
>
> Big Bird is an 8'2" yellow bird who lives on Sesame Street. Since Sesame Street premiered in 1969, Big Bird has entertained millions of preschool children and their parents with his wide-eyed wondering at the world. The world-famous bird has been a...
There’s also a bit of detail here:
[ ](https://i.imgur.com/Zk74fIG.jpg)
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2018, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bird-is-retiring-from-sesame-street/823113/16 "2018-10-23T20:49:11Z")
Wait, am I reading that right that he wasn’t even actually seeing out of the suit, but just seeing a feed of the camera’s point of view? That must take a lot of training to be able to pull that off.
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### Author:  [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2018, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bird-is-retiring-from-sesame-street/823113/17 "2018-10-23T22:24:52Z")
Big Bird doesn’t move about a whole lot - usually only walking a short distance in a relatively straight line, so it wouldn’t really be **that** different for Spinney (or Matt Vogel, who’s been running the puppet at least part of the time since 1997) than it is for the performers who sit behind walls or under floors… Memorize his route with the head off, then watch the monitor mostly to be sure he knows where the other performers and props are, just like the other muppeteers.