(2006-02-07) — A spokesman for the Children’s Television Workshop (CTW), producers of Sesame Street, today said that global riots in response to Danish editorial cartoons connecting the prophet Mohammad with terrorism have nothing to do with the teachings of Islam, but are the “natural legacy of a generation raised on violent cartoons like Bugs Bunny and the Road Runner.”

“If you expose children, even peaceful Muslim children, to thousands of hours of Looney Tunes, you produce a generation of desensitized brutes,” according to the unnamed CTW spokesman. “They can’t comprehend the real impact of their violent acts, because animated victims of firebombings, gunshots and beheadings always immediately appear, clean and unharmed, in the next scene. The rioters are innocent victims of exported American cartoon culture.”

In order to combat the effects of violent TV, and unwarranted prejudice against Muslims, CTW will introduce a new peace-loving Islamic Muppet character to its flagship Public TV show.

Proceeds from the sales of the new Sesame Street plush toy, ‘Tickle Me Imam’, will go to the United Nations Fund to Aid Islamic Respectability.