Who Is My Favorite Sesame Street Character?

Who is my favorite Sesame Street character? My daughter asked me this question last night. I answered her quickly, Grover. This morning when she asked me again and I had a different answer, Oscar. How could I like two such seemingly opposite characters? In reality I posted the comment on Facebook that I can’t decide between Grover and Oscar for my favorite and one of my friends (my cousin actually) made the comment that they were complete opposites and that made me think. Why do I like these characters who have so many traits that are opposite?

First we have Grover. Grover is a happy go lucky kinda monster, who is still afraid of monsters and the dark. He’s cute and bathes. He’s innocent and more than a little naïve. You might even call him slow. He’s very happy; you might say cheery (almost annoyingly so).

Then there’s Oscar who pretty much says the first thing that comes to mind, which is usually “Scram!”. He rarely bathes and when he does he probably uses scummy water. He lives in a garbage can with an elephant and a worm. He might possibly be a Time Lord (how else would he get all of that stuff into one trash can, it it weren’t a TARDIS. And he’s smart. OK at this point I figure out why I like Oscar so much; he’s a really grouchy smart guy.

Would they have to have one or more traits in common for me to like them both? Not really, but in my gut I had this feeling that they weren’t so different. That there was a common factor between them that made it difficult for me to choose my top favorite from the two.

What is that commonality?

Yes, they’re both great characters.

I'm still not sure what the common factor is, nor am I sure that there really is one. But for some reason I seemed to think there was this morning.

How about sharing your thoughts?