\n<\/p>\n
Years ago, a reader wrote probing for details on a mystery that had vexed him: What\u2019s the deal with the cookies that Cookie Monster eats?<\/p>\n
The email said nothing else. I chuckled and filed the note in the cupboard of my brain where such things go. Until I realized something: Me want cookies. And me want answers.<\/p>\n
Cookie Monster, for those of you who skipped childhood, is a classic muppet on \u201cSesame Street.\u201d He is a scraggly, blue fellow with bulging eyeballs, who has for decades been singularly obsessed with chaotically chowing down on cookies. The crumbs end up almost everywhere except his mouth, an effect that looks like a high-speed blender without a top.<\/p>\n
The character was created in the 1960s by Jim Henson, the creator of the Muppets<\/a>, for a General Foods Canada commercial<\/a>. Cookie eventually moved to \u201cSesame Street,\u201d where he presumably found a good rent-stabilized apartment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n It turns out the cookies are real \u2014 sort of.<\/p>\n They are baked at the home of Lara MacLean, who has been a \u201cpuppet wrangler\u201d for the Jim Henson Company for almost three decades. MacLean started as an intern for Sesame Workshop in 1992 and has been working for the team ever since.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The recipe, roughly: Pancake mix, puffed rice, Grape-Nuts and instant coffee, with water in the mixture. The chocolate chips are made using hot glue sticks \u2014 essentially colored gobs of glue.<\/p>\n The cookies do not have oils, fats or sugars. Those would stain Cookie Monster. They\u2019re edible, but barely.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cKind of like a dog treat,\u201d MacLean said in an interview.<\/p>\n Before MacLean reinvented the recipe in the 2000s, the creative team behind \u201cSesame Street\u201d used versions of rice crackers and foams to make the cookies. The challenge was that the rice crackers would make more of a mess and get stuck in Cookie\u2019s fur. And the foams didn\u2019t look like cookies once they broke apart.<\/p>\n For a given episode, depending on the script, MacLean will bake, on average, two dozen cookies. There\u2019s no oven large enough at Sesame\u2019s New York workplace, so MacLean does almost everything at home.<\/p>\n This leads to the occasional awkward interaction, such as when MacLean once had to make huge batches of cookies for a series of Cookie Monster film spoofs.<\/p>\n \u201cMy landlord came in my apartment at that time and I had all these cookies around and I was like, \u2018I\u2019m really sorry, I can\u2019t offer you a cookie.\u2019 And he probably just thought I was really mean,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n On set, when Cookie is shooting, MacLean said the \u201cbest-case scenario\u201d was for the crumbs to end up all over the place.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Sal Perez, the executive producer of \u201cSesame Street,\u201d said, \u201cYou\u2019ve got to be careful for the shrapnel that comes out when he\u2019s munching on the cookie.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Cookie has been portrayed since 2001 by David Rudman, who took over the role from Frank Oz. Rudman\u2019s right hand moves the mouth, which is eating, and his left hand holds the cookies. Both work in concert to break the cookies, which means the cookies have to be soft enough to fall apart.<\/p>\n Jason Weber, the workshop\u2019s creative supervisor, recalled Rudman complaining about a tough batch: \u201c<\/em>My hands are so sore. Don\u2019t make them like this ever again.\u201d<\/p>\n Rudman said soft cookies are best, adding, \u201cThe more crumbs, the funnier it is.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf he eats the cookie, and it only breaks into two pieces if it\u2019s too hard, it\u2019s just not funny,\u201d he said. \u201cIt looks almost painful. But if he eats a cookie and it explodes into a hundred crumbs, that\u2019s where the comedy comes from.\u201d<\/p>\n MacLean has perfected a recipe that is \u201cthin enough that it\u2019ll explode into a hundred crumbs,\u201d Rudman said. \u201cBut it\u2019s not too thin that it\u2019ll break in my hand when I\u2019m holding it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Sometimes shoots don\u2019t go as planned. Cookie appeared on \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d in 2010 when Jeff Bridges was hosting. During the opening monologue, Bridges sang a duet with Cookie. The cookie that Bridges was supposed to offer Cookie broke in Bridges\u2019s pocket, so when he took it out, he only had half the cookie. So Bridges pulled out the other piece and improvised.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cNot only a half, but a whole cookie!\u201d Bridges said.<\/p>\n Rudman responded as a delighted Cookie: \u201cTwice as good!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Cookie doesn\u2019t just eat the cookies. He eats the plate they are on and has recently expanded the menu to include fruits and vegetables. Occasionally he devours inanimate objects like mailboxes. There is a small gullet in his mouth, so Cookie can actually eat something the size of a small fist. Bananas, apples and small hats go down easy, but most of the cookie crumbs end up outside his mouth.<\/p>\n Not everyone realizes that the cookies aren\u2019t meant to be eaten. Adam Sandler appeared on a 2009 episode of \u201cSesame Street\u201d and decided to share in Cookie\u2019s delight by spontaneously eating a cookie with him on set.<\/p>\n \u201cAs soon as the cameras cut, he was like, \u2018Bleeeech<\/em>,\u2019\u201d MacLean said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Rudman said he told Sandler not to eat the cookies: \u201cI think he got caught up in the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s hard not to. The 54th season of \u201cSesame Street\u201d just premiered on Max. Cookie is almost 60, but the core of his character endures.<\/p>\n \u201cHe has sort of this base instinct that I think all of us have, even the youngest of us have,\u201d Perez said. \u201cOne of our first instincts is like: \u2018We see a cookie. We see a thing that we love and we just want it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n