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Most of the Healthy Wage social media posts are inspiring. Usually it’s winners showing their before and after posts. On the weekends they do funny memes. And sometimes they do this, which is pretty cool because we see lots of people invited to participate.
But this one… good Lord…
See, I grew up with Cookie Monster. This was when Elmo was a generic red monster instead of the primary face of the Sesame Street franchise. This was when Jim Henson and Kermit were still there. I have a Cookie Monster piano with 8 numbered keys on it that still mostly works—the numbers are faded and only one googly eye googles when you bang on the keys, but it’s still musical.
I also have a son, 4; and a daughter, 3. Most parents of 3- and 4-year-olds today grew up with Elmo out front at Sesame Street. I was watching it when Match Game was still on the air. This is one reason why I started the weight loss journey. I’d like to actually retire and walk my daughter down the aisle and hold my grandkids and see them grow a bit. I don’t want to burden my kids with my health issues when they are too young.
Because they are 4 and 3, we watch the Toy Story movies a lot. I have gotten accustomed to viewing toys as actual salient beings when humans are not around. My son lost a Beanie Baby today when we were making a Sunday day of it. We bought a replacement, but there may be a Lost Toy somewhere in the shrubs along Main Street in Frankenmuth, Michigan right now. Or it could have fallen into the street and gotten smashed under a truck tire.
Of course I realize it’s a $4 foam thing and not a living creature with a soul and a conscience. And the same goes for what is depicted in Healthy Wage’s ad—it’s just a toy in a glass jar and not like those videos ISIS used to put out showing dissidents getting tortured and killed.
But while Sid Phillips might stick Cookie Monster in a ceramic cookie jar, I don’t think he’d put him in a transparent one with the cookies on the outside right next to the jar. Or maybe Sid works for the Healthy Wage marketing department.
But that aside, in my view the ad is wrong because it asserts that Cookie Monster is a human being with an overeating problem. He does not.
He’s a monster who eats cookies—and everything else. He’s 50 years old and has maintained his size perfectly over that time.
He may have a problem with self-control, but he doesn’t have a problem with weight. He’s not on Healthy Wage. YOU may have a weight problem and cookies may be your downfall, but not Cookie Monster.
That’s how I see him. He is a true friend who saves us from ourselves. He is an anti-enabler. And we all need folks like him—especially with the holidays coming up.
We need him around at Thanksgiving to say, “Don’t worry—me got this. You get on treadmill and watch football game. I clean up table and kitchen. Ahhh, num num num…
“Oh, me sorry, hope you didn’t like turkey platter that much. Nice one at Black Friday sale at Kohl’s tomorrow!”
Chill out, y’all—I’m not that serious here. I am just getting into making memes now and I really like it!
Check out my favorite Cookie Monster bit here.
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