--- title: Sesame Street Desert Island Challenge Debate Rages on description: People have very strong opinions about which Sesame Street character they would want with them stranded on a desert island canonical: https://time.com/5554152/sesame-street-characters/ author: Ashley Hoffman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-03-19T13:53:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:58:10.685Z og:title: The 'Sesame Street' Desert Island Challenge Is Controversial og:description: People are waging war og:url: https://time.com/5554152/sesame-street-characters/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The 'Sesame Street' Desert Island Challenge Is Controversial twitter:description: People are waging war twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # The Sesame Street Desert Island Challenge Has Sparked Heated Debate by [Ashley Hoffman](/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Mar 19, 2019 1:53 PM CUT by [Ashley Hoffman](/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Mar 19, 2019 1:53 PM CUT [_Sesame Street’s_](http://time.com/5478902/homeless-sesame-street/ "undefined") Twitter account opened up the week by posing a burning question to the internet: who would you want with you if you were stranded on a desert island? Whether you want [Cookie Monster](http://time.com/5424588/cookie-monster-cat/ "undefined"), Elmo, Grover, or Oscar the Grouch to help you survive when you’re marooned says a lot about your perspective on the events of life. “The whole adorable lot” is not an acceptable response, so suffice it to say that people got ruthless with their opinions on the characters from the iconic show for kids. Weighing in on this debate requires knowledge of what each muppet could bring to the table when it comes to an extreme test of the human spirit. > [](https://twitter.com/sesamestreet/status/1107728937239621634) > [](https://twitter.com/NYCFC/status/1107752583874138112) Some chose Oscar for his resilience. > [](https://twitter.com/TimRunsHisMouth/status/1107751411364839425) Some celebrities like Paul F. Tompkins and Joss Wheedon felt Elmo was the only companion who could make the grade. > [](https://twitter.com/joss/status/1107757033682583553) > [](https://twitter.com/PFTompkins/status/1107753858581725184) Gauntlets were thrown. > [](https://twitter.com/justinkirkland4/status/1107756076399759361) Rules were broken. > [](https://twitter.com/hitRECordJoe/status/1107749484992225281) Ground was stood. > [](https://twitter.com/Grover/status/1107756870129864707) > [](https://twitter.com/alexplitsas/status/1107990952524873730) Words were not minced. > [](https://twitter.com/oneunderscore%5F%5F/status/1107800539914555392) Who would you want with you? ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5554152/sesame-street-characters/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5554152/sesame-street-characters/"},"headline":"The Sesame Street Desert Island Challenge Has Sparked Heated Debate","datePublished":"2019-03-19T13:53:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:58:10.685Z","description":"People have very strong opinions about which Sesame Street character they would want with them stranded on a desert island","url":"https://time.com/5554152/sesame-street-characters/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Books"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ashley Hoffman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5554152/sesame-street-characters/","name":"The Sesame Street Desert Island Challenge Has Sparked Heated Debate"}}]}] ```