Though he’s been a mainstay on Sesame Street for decades, Big Bird said getting name-dropped by Mitt Romney this past week made him feel like he’s famous.

“I was walking down the street and I felt like everybody recognized me,” he said during a rare nighttime sojourn, an appearance on Saturday Night Live. “It’s so weird to think that just a few days ago, I could just blend in like any other normal eight-foot-tall talking bird.”

Big Bird and his show’s network, PBS, became a hot topic after the Oct. 3 debate between Romney and President Barack Obama, when Romney said he would end the subsidy to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting as a means to trim the national deficit.

“I like PBS. I love Big Bird. I actually like you, too,” Romney told moderator Jim Lehrer. “But I’m not gonna keep on spending money on things to borrow from China to pay for.”

Romney’s specific targeting of PBS attracted criticism, given that the $444 million subsidy accounted for .037 percent of the $1.2 trillion deficit. However, Sherrie Rollins Westin, executive producer of Sesame Workshop, the non-profit group behind the show, recently told CNN’s Soledad O’Brien the bulk of the show’s funding comes through sales of licensed products, sponsorships and donations.

“Quite frankly, you can debate whether or not there should be funding of public broadcasting,” Westin said. “But when they always try to tout out Big Bird and say, ‘We’re going to kill Big Bird,’ that actually is misleading. Because Sesame Street will be here. Big Bird lives on.”

Big Bird didn’t directly address Romney’s threat to fire him, but he did tell “Weekend Update” host Seth Meyers he got a lot of tweets on the subject — just not the social media kind.

“No, I’m a bird,” he said. “Tweeting is how we talk.”

Watch Big Bird’s appearance on SNL, posted Sunday on Hulu, below.

Enjoy this piece?

… then let us make a small request. Like you, we here at Raw Story believe in the power of progressive journalism. Raw Story readers power David Cay Johnston’s DCReport, which we've expanded to keep watch in Washington. We’ve exposed billionaire tax evasion and uncovered White House efforts to poison our water. We’ve revealed financial scams that prey on veterans, and legal efforts to harm workers exploited by abusive bosses. And unlike other news outlets, we’ve decided to make our original content free. But we need your support to do what we do.

Raw Story is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. Unhinged from billionaires and corporate overlords, we fight to ensure no one is forgotten.

We need your support to deepen our investigative reporting. Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Invest with us in the future. Make a one-time contribution to Raw Story Investigates, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click to donate by check.

Enjoy this piece?

… then let us make a small request. Like you, we here at Raw Story believe in the power of progressive journalism — and we’re investing in investigative reporting as other publications give it the ax. Raw Story readers power David Cay Johnston’s DCReport, which we've expanded to keep watch in Washington. We’ve exposed billionaire tax evasion and uncovered White House efforts to poison our water. We’ve revealed financial scams that prey on veterans, and efforts to harm workers exploited by abusive bosses. We need your support to do what we do.

Raw Story is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. Unhinged from corporate overlords, we fight to ensure no one is forgotten.

We need your support to keep producing quality journalism and deepen our investigative reporting. Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Invest with us in the future. Make a one-time contribution to Raw Story Investigates, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you.