Two-Headed Monster

PERFORMER	various
DEBUT	1978
DESIGN	Jim Henson designer
	Caroly Wilcox builder

The monster in 2011, rebuilt with much shaggier hair

The monster working at the Newsstand added to the set in season 46.

The Two-Headed Monster is, as the name implies, a monster with two heads. He speaks gibberish that resembles baby talk, and many of his skits have to do with either cooperation or sounding out parts of words that suddenly show up. Skits with the Two-Headed Monster usually take place with the monster behind a brick wall.

Jerry Nelson remembered that he and Richard Hunt came up with the idea for the monster while playing around on the Sesame Street set, recalling in a 1999 interview:

“We were just goofing around on the set one day, without a puppet even, and one of the writers was there and said, "What's that you're doing?" And we said, "One monster with two heads!" And they decided to do that.^[1]”

While right-handed performers use their right hands to perform the heads of characters and their left to perform left hands, whoever performs the left half of the monster performs the head with the left hand, and the right hand with their right hand.^[2]

Although the heads don't normally go by names, they have been identified on occasion. In their debut Sesame Street sketch, Olivia reads a story to The Count about cooperation starring the monster, who are given the names Horn and Hardart. They were again called by these names in the end credits for YouTube's 2013 end-of-year video, entitled "YouTube Rewind: What Does 2013 Say?" (YouTube) In The Sesame Street Treasury Volume 13, the pair are featured in a photo answering phones. Their phones are labeled "Frank N." and "Stein" (Frankenstein).

From 2003 to 2006, the Two-Headed Monster made an appearance in each "Journey to Ernie" segment, with Big Bird asking both heads if they'd seen Ernie, and the monster pointing in both directions.

In Season 46, the monster was given a regular space on the street, maintaining a newsstand by the Subway Station.

The question of whether the monster is a singular being or not has led to semantic confusion, typified by this exchange between Bert and Ernie in A Muppet Family Christmas:

Bert:	Now, who let the Two-Headed Monster be Santa Claus?
Ernie:	Yeah, but, Bert, he said he'd never been in a play before... I mean they said it... um... both of him said it.

On at least one occasion, during the "Ugga Wugga Lullabye" song, the horns-up head refers to the horns-down side as "me" (both in the script and in dialogue).

Casting history[]

Primary Performers

Jerry Nelson and Richard Hunt • (1978-1992)
Jerry Nelson and David Rudman • (1998-1999)
Joey Mazzarino and David Rudman • (2001-2016)
Eric Jacobson and David Rudman • (2016-present)

Alternate Performers

Richard Hunt and Peter Friedman • (Episode 1121, 1978)
Jerry Nelson and Adam Hunt • (Let's Make a Word!, 1995)
Martin P. Robinson and Joey Mazzarino • (Episode 4024, 2002)
Matt Vogel and David Rudman • (Episode 4030, 2002)
Stephanie D'Abruzzo and David Rudman • (Episode 4733, 2017)

Sketches[]

Notes[]

An altered version of the Two-Headed Monster puppet, with different facial features and no horns, appears as a background monster in The Furchester Hotel.