Overview

#OccupySesameStreet is a Twitter hashtag used to parody various slogans associated with the Occupy movement by incorporating characters and themes from the American children's TV series Sesame Street.

Background

On September 30th, 2011, during the first weeks of the Occupy Wall Street protests, a rumor surfaced on Twitter that the British alternative band Radiohead would be hosting a surprise performance at Zuccotti Park, the home base of the New York City protesters. However, the rumor was debunked within an hour by a tweet from a Wall Street Journal reporter and another confirmation from the official Occupy Wall Street Twitter account.

Approximately 20 minutes before the hoax was confirmed by @OccupyWallSt, Twitter user NonStopDemo^[1] of Brooklyn, New York tweeted an image of Kermit the Frog with the caption "Skip Class, Radiohead is here, dawg!" and the hashtag #OccupySesameStreet, intended to parody the ongoing outreach efforts of Occupy Wall Street protests.

Urgent phone call to roommates #occupysesamestreet twitter.com/nonstopdemo/st…

— DEMO (@nonstopdemo) September 30, 2011

Notable Development

Patton Oswalt's Tweet

The hashtag #occupysesamestreet remained mostly dormant until the following day on October 3rd, when American comedian Patton Oswalt^[2] utilized it in a joke about Sesame Street character The Count. That same day, Oswalt’s joke was retweeted more than 524 times and spurred dozens of responses, many of which were puns intended to mirror the language of news reports on Occupy Wall Street protests. As of September 2012, the hashtag has been used 6079 times.^[5]

"The counting vampires are destroying America!" #OccupySesameStreet

— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) October 4, 2011

The hashtag #occupysesamestreet remained mostly dormant until the following day on October 3rd, when American comedian Patton Oswalt^[2] utilized it in a joke about Sesame Street character The Count. That same day, Oswalt’s joke was retweeted more than 524 times and spurred dozens of responses, many of which were puns intended to mirror the language of news reports on Occupy Wall Street protests. As of September 2012, the hashtag has been used 6079 times.^[5]

Photoshop Fad

On October 6th, Tauntr^[14] featured a series of photoshopped images remixing photos from Occupy Wall Street with Sesame Street characters. The same day, the photos were reposted to Uproxx^[13] and Reddit^[15], followed by coverage on Buzzfeed^[16], BoingBoing^[17] and the Huffington Post^[8] over the next few days.

Twitter Feed

Search Interest

External References