# Sesame Street Cancer Mystery-Burt!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-cancer-mystery-burt/33771>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 19, 2000, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-cancer-mystery-burt/33771 "2000-09-19T19:43:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Beetle99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@Beetle99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beetle99)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2000, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-cancer-mystery-burt/33771/1 "2000-09-19T19:43:42Z")

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Ok, I remember back in the late 80’s being told that Burt was killed off on Sesame street, having died of leukemia. This was like in honor of Jim Henson diing and teaching kids about death. Then kids were all traumatized and they resurrected Burt…now I can’t figure out if this really happened…lots of people say they never heard of it and I cant find anything on the web about it.

So, did they kill off Burt? And if not why not?

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**Author:** ![Trout\_Mask\_Replica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a88e57/32.png) [@Trout\_Mask\_Replica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trout_Mask_Replica)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2000, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-cancer-mystery-burt/33771/2 "2000-09-19T20:01:15Z")

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[According to Snopes, this is an urban legend.](http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/deadmupp.htm)

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**Author:** ![jb\_farley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9d8465/32.png) [@jb\_farley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jb_farley)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2000, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-cancer-mystery-burt/33771/3 "2000-09-19T20:01:56Z")

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no, this is total bullshit. The original story was that Ernie was to have come down with leukemia, but recovered. That was bullshit too. Or that it would never be referred to by name, but would be assumed to be AIDS.

the only true story I have heard regarding sesame street and puppet tragedy was Snuffy’s parents getting divorced. But the test kids freaked out, so they nixed it.

jb

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2000, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sesame-street-cancer-mystery-burt/33771/4 "2000-09-19T20:28:03Z")

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Also, back when Mr. Hooper died, they did say that his character died, too. They’re not afraid to confront the issues; they just didn’t decide to, in the case of Ernie.