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I'm not imploring people to feel compassion for a muppet, I actually just think it's kind of disgusting for a bunch of North American computer nerds to sit around yukking it up about children whose parents have died of a wasting disease. I mean, why is it so funny that someone would want to do something to help explain to these kids what happened to their parents? Is it inherently humorous because they are AFricans? Is that the deal?

I have a good friend whose parents both died within months of each other (of lukemia and cancer, respectively) when he was nine, and actually, it was quite devastating for him, not at all humorous as you seem to think. Of course, he was fortunate, he was able to go to foster home in Canada, he not simply sent to fend for himself on the streets as most of these kids are. But, color me humorless I guess, I am not able to find much joy in the contemplation of such things.

Why do you have so much trouble distinguishing making fun of a puppet with making fun of a real live person?

I have not made fun of a single person with this devasting disease.

I have made fun of a puppet. Her orange fur should have clued you in.

Why not have an orphaned muppet who's parents were butchered in a tribal blood bath by an aggressive warlord?

Said muppet could be afraid to reveal his heritage for fear of being slaughtered. Would explain to kids not to pick on one another because of their backgrounds.

I mean, why is it so funny that someone would want to do something to help explain to these kids what happened to their parents?

I don't think there is humor in any of this. My question is: Are they explaining to the AIDS kids that their mommy or daddy or both did something very bad that caused them to get sick?

And are they using Seasame Street to educate the kids not yet infected to embrace abstinence to avoid getting fatally sick?