Audio By Carbonatix
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The devil’s puppet — Perhaps it’s that thick, black-as-the-devil’s-soul monobrow that lurks above his beady little eyes. Or is it was his constant, cantankerous bitching and killjoy demeanor? Maybe it’s just that ugly-ass striped sweater — whatever it is, Sesame Street’s Bert is most definitely evil. Eeeeee-vil!
He’s also a testament to the tenacity, hilarity and just plain fucked-upness of the Internet.
In 1998, a Web geek by the name of Dino Ignacio created a site devoted to the inherent evilness of Ernie’s curmudgeonly housemate. It featured Photoshopped images of Bert consorting with the likes of Hitler and the Ku Klux Klan. The site immediately became a cult hit, and has prevailed far longer than a mere 15 minutes of fame. You can see a current incarnation at bertisevil.tv; an older mirror site can be found at welcome.to/Evil-Bert (evilbert.com now leads to a defunct mirror and a link to a porn site).
The site truly rocketed to international notoriety when, in 2001, Evil Bert actually turned up at an Osama bin Laden protest in Bangladesh. The nefarious muppet appeared lurking over the shoulder of Osama on a poster carried by a member of the crowd; it was assumed that the protester had downloaded the image from Web, and not knowing who Bert was, slapped it on a collage of Osama images.
After that incident, Ignacio pulled the plug on the site, but it was heavily mirrored, and images of Evil Bert are scattered across the Web to this day.
Heil Bert!
Know of an interesting, bizarre or educational Web site you’d like to see featured here? Send it to backslash@metrotimes.com
