If Rosita says "Hola!"...

...does that mean Telly Monster says "Yasoo!"?

Thanks to a trip to Sesame Place and a daughter who loves Elmo more than Jesus, I've been thinking a lot about Sesame Street these days -- more than the average human adult should be, I'm sure! My latest burning question has been whether the purple chronic worry-wart Muppet named Telly was in fact a monster of Hellenic ancestry, just as the spunky Rosita (who joined the cast in 1993) supposedly emigrated from Mexico. Where else to find a definitive answer than Wikipedia, which contains not only a very comprehensive entry for Sesame Street but sub-entries for all of the show's characters, both human and monster.

As it turns out, Telly Monster got his name from the British slang word for television and not the Greek diminutive for the name Aristoteles (a la Telly Savalas). When he was first introduced in 1979 he was portrayed as a kind of T.V. junkie, a image that they softened somewhat when they realized that this might not be the best sort of role model for children, although from time to time Telly does still manifest the personality traits of an addict in desperate need of his fix.

Too bad, although I think the Greeks should adopt him anyway!

Another fun fact from Wikipedia -- Rosita's full name is Rosita, La Monstrua de las Cuevas ("The Monster of the Caves"), since apparently she's supposed to be a Muppet version of a Mexican fruit bat. Who knew?