Sesame Workshop Is Suing Amazon, Walmart, and eBay Over Counterfeit Merchandise

If you’ve ever been to a boardwalk, you’ve seen Elmo or Big Bird doing some questionable things on t-shirts (I’m sure such images exist elsewhere, but it’s a boardwalk staple). The favorite furry and feathered friends can be seen ripping bongs, wearing baggy clothes, or standing next to Calvin as they all pee on a piece of paper with “YoUr FeElInGs” scribbled on it. People who are not The Sesame Workshop have made plenty of money on merch with the famed characters, but it doesn’t stop at t-shirts.

A weird dude dating my aunt once gave me a burned CD with a comedy sketch called Sensimilla Street where Kermit and Big Bird were getting stoned and joking around. I was 12 (maybe 13) and the whole thing went over my head, but it was easily my first introduction to the characters being used for something beyond their wholesome purposes. I would later graduate to seeing people in dirty Elmo costumes standing outside the Times Square Toys R Us, trying to force people into paying for pictures and occasionally stopping Batman from fighting a tourist.

Sesame Street has long been perverted by others and has likely had little recourse. That is all changing. If you are a parent to young kids, there is a decent chance you’ve purchased something Sesame Street-related for them on Amazon. I certainly have and the results have been mixed at best. While I have avoided buying anything counterfeit, I’ve had to scroll through pages of fake merch before getting to the real stuff. That’s on me for not just buying straight from the source, but I’m weak. Weak, I tells ya! Regardless, the flow of shoddy merch may soon come to an end.

The Sesame Workshop has filed a lawsuit against e-commerce sites like Amazon, eBay, and Walmart to prevent them from hocking knockoff wares, according to The Wrap. The famed children’s programmer is seeking a full stop or $150,000 per knock-off. That’s one way to make up for HBO kicking them to the curb! Whether or not it will be successful is another story. Given the current administration’s blatant disregard for the courts, I wouldn’t be surprised if Bezos doesn’t follow suit.

People will never stop doing whatever they want with the Monsters of Sesame Street (as long as they can get away with it). Still, the things I mentioned before are small potatoes compared to mass market fraud that happens at these e-commerce sites. They don’t care what they’re selling as long as it sells. Now, they may have to drop big bucks if they don’t comply because the word of the day is: retribution.