Bert is Evil

1997Photoshop / parody websitedead

Also known as: Evil Bert · Bert is Evil

Bert Is Evil! was a parody website created by Dino Ignacio in 1997 that used Photoshopped images to "prove" that Bert from Sesame Street was secretly connected to history's worst people and events. The site won a Webby Award and spawned dozens of mirror sites, but its strangest moment came in October 2001, when a Bert-and-Bin-Laden image from one of those mirrors showed up on a real protest poster in Bangladesh, making international news and forcing Ignacio to shut the project down.

sesame street memespersonal homepage memesmuppets memessingle serving site memeschildrens media memes

Overview

Bert Is Evil! was a website that presented digitally manipulated images of Bert, the grumpy Muppet from Sesame Street, alongside infamous historical figures and disaster scenes5. The images showed Bert hanging out with Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein, Kim Jong-il, and Osama bin Laden, or present at events like the JFK assassination and the Oklahoma City bombing5. Each image came with a short, deadpan "backstory" offering fake evidence of Bert's supposed dark side3.

The humor worked because of the contrast between Bert's wholesome children's TV persona and the deeply dark scenarios he was dropped into. The site played it completely straight, treating each Photoshop as hard evidence that Bert "is not the lovable harmless geek he so successfully makes us think he is"3.

Dino Ignacio, a Filipino-American artist based in California, launched Bert Is Evil! on March 30, 19975. The site lived at fractalcow.com and featured Bert's "mug shot" alongside a collection of doctored images and fake documents3. The format was simple: take a photo of a real atrocity or villain, paste Bert into it, and write up a tongue-in-cheek explanation.

The original site included fake intercepted emails between Bert and Jeffrey Dahmer, a staged "Jerry Springer Show" appearance, and references to the Pamela Lee tape scandal3. Ignacio actively solicited tips from visitors, asking them to submit more "information about Bert" if they had it3.

The site exploded in popularity. By 1998, it had built such a cult following that Ignacio, along with Wout J Reinders and Jasper Hulshoff Pol, accepted both the Webby Award and People's Voice Award for Best Weird Website at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco4.

Origin & Background

Platform
Personal website (fractalcow.com)
Creator
Peter Morsi
Date
1997

Dino Ignacio, a Filipino-American artist based in California, launched Bert Is Evil! on March 30, 19975. The site lived at fractalcow.com and featured Bert's "mug shot" alongside a collection of doctored images and fake documents3. The format was simple: take a photo of a real atrocity or villain, paste Bert into it, and write up a tongue-in-cheek explanation.

The original site included fake intercepted emails between Bert and Jeffrey Dahmer, a staged "Jerry Springer Show" appearance, and references to the Pamela Lee tape scandal3. Ignacio actively solicited tips from visitors, asking them to submit more "information about Bert" if they had it3.

The site exploded in popularity. By 1998, it had built such a cult following that Ignacio, along with Wout J Reinders and Jasper Hulshoff Pol, accepted both the Webby Award and People's Voice Award for Best Weird Website at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco4.

How It Spread

The site's popularity created a problem: bandwidth costs. By summer 1998, traffic had grown too expensive for Ignacio to handle on his own5. Rather than kill the site, he made an unusual decision. He offered anyone who wanted to mirror the site permission to host their own copy4.

Dozens of mirrors popped up almost immediately. The first major mirror, run by Dennis Pozniak, kept the spirit going by adding new "evidence" of Bert's evil nature, including connections to the Ramsey family and Jack the Ripper5. At the end of 1998, Pozniak posted a contribution from humorist J Roen: a doctored image showing the then-obscure terrorist Osama bin Laden posing with Bert5.

That image sat on Pozniak's mirror for nearly three years without much attention. Then came September 11, 2001.

In October 2001, during pro-Bin Laden protests in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Reuters photographers captured demonstrators carrying large collage-style posters of Bin Laden1. One poster had a small image of Bert tucked over Bin Laden's right shoulder. It was the same Bert-Bin-Laden image from Pozniak's mirror5.

Mostafa Kamal, the production manager at Azad Products (the Dhaka print shop that made the posters), told AP that he'd grabbed the images from the internet without noticing anything unusual1. His company had sold about 2,000 of the posters to demonstrators angry about US military strikes on Afghanistan2.

The photo went global. Western audiences immediately recognized Bert and the story became a strange, dark punchline during an otherwise grim news cycle.

Platforms

Websiteearly forumsemailearly blogs

Timeline

1997

Bert is Evil website launches

1998-2000

Images spread across early internet

1999-01-01

Bert is Evil reached mainstream popularity and media coverage

2000-01-01

Brands and companies started using Bert is Evil in marketing

2001

Bert is Evil images appear alongside actual controversial photos

2001-2002

Reaches mainstream attention and coverage

2002-01-01

Bert is Evil entered the broader pop culture conversation

2003

Website taken down, meme declines

View on Google Trends

How to Use This Meme

The Bert Is Evil format is straightforward:

1

Find a historical photo, disaster image, or picture of a notorious person

2

Photoshop Bert (specifically Bert, not Ernie) into the scene

3

Write a deadpan explanation treating Bert's presence as real evidence of his sinister nature

Create Your Own

Cultural Impact

The Bert-Bin-Laden poster incident triggered real consequences. Sesame Workshop, the producers of Sesame Street, said they were "considering all legal avenues to prevent the misappropriation of Bert in the future"1. Ignacio received a DMCA takedown notice and pulled the Bert Is Evil section of his website5.

"Reality is imitating the Web!" Ignacio said in a statement. "I am honestly freaked out!"1 He followed up by explaining his decision to shut down: "I am doing this because I feel this has gotten too close to reality and I choose to be responsible enough to stop it right here"2.

Pozniak's mirror, which had hosted the original Bert-Bin-Laden image, was also bombarded by international media seeking interviews. He shut his mirror down too5.

The incident became a widely cited example of how content can travel across the internet in unpredictable ways, jumping from an inside joke on a niche humor site to a real-world political protest on the other side of the planet. BBC News covered the story extensively1, and it was picked up by news outlets worldwide.

Despite the takedowns, the original site was archived on Archive.org3, and several other mirrors survived on platforms like AngelFire and BertisEvil.tv4.

Fun Facts

The site's homepage claimed to be "brought to you by the letter H" and recommended it was "best seen with your eyes open"3.

Ignacio campaigned for votes in the Webby Awards directly on the site, writing "If you like this site, please vote for us for Weird in the Webby Awards, we need your support, Bert must be exposed!"3

The Dhaka poster maker sold roughly 2,000 Bert-Bin-Laden posters before anyone noticed the Muppet1.

Google search interest for "bert is evil" was already in steady decline by 2004, when Google Insights began tracking search data4.

Derivatives & Variations

Mirror sites

After Ignacio opened the site for mirroring in 1998, dozens of independently maintained copies appeared, each adding their own Bert-and-villain pairings[4].

Updated "evidence"

Mirror operators like Dennis Pozniak added new images connecting Bert to figures and events not in the original site, such as Jack the Ripper and the Ramsey family[5].

Frequently Asked Questions

Bert is Evil

1997Photoshop / parody websitedead

Also known as: Evil Bert · Bert is Evil

Bert Is Evil! was a parody website created by Dino Ignacio in 1997 that used Photoshopped images to "prove" that Bert from Sesame Street was secretly connected to history's worst people and events. The site won a Webby Award and spawned dozens of mirror sites, but its strangest moment came in October 2001, when a Bert-and-Bin-Laden image from one of those mirrors showed up on a real protest poster in Bangladesh, making international news and forcing Ignacio to shut the project down.

sesame street memes personal homepage memes muppets memes single serving site memes childrens media memes

Overview

Bert Is Evil! was a website that presented digitally manipulated images of Bert, the grumpy Muppet from Sesame Street, alongside infamous historical figures and disaster scenes5. The images showed Bert hanging out with Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein, Kim Jong-il, and Osama bin Laden, or present at events like the JFK assassination and the Oklahoma City bombing5. Each image came with a short, deadpan "backstory" offering fake evidence of Bert's supposed dark side3.

The humor worked because of the contrast between Bert's wholesome children's TV persona and the deeply dark scenarios he was dropped into. The site played it completely straight, treating each Photoshop as hard evidence that Bert "is not the lovable harmless geek he so successfully makes us think he is"3.

Dino Ignacio, a Filipino-American artist based in California, launched Bert Is Evil! on March 30, 19975. The site lived at fractalcow.com and featured Bert's "mug shot" alongside a collection of doctored images and fake documents3. The format was simple: take a photo of a real atrocity or villain, paste Bert into it, and write up a tongue-in-cheek explanation.

The original site included fake intercepted emails between Bert and Jeffrey Dahmer, a staged "Jerry Springer Show" appearance, and references to the Pamela Lee tape scandal3. Ignacio actively solicited tips from visitors, asking them to submit more "information about Bert" if they had it3.

The site exploded in popularity. By 1998, it had built such a cult following that Ignacio, along with Wout J Reinders and Jasper Hulshoff Pol, accepted both the Webby Award and People's Voice Award for Best Weird Website at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco4.

Origin & Background

Platform
Personal website (fractalcow.com)
Creator
Peter Morsi
Date
1997

Dino Ignacio, a Filipino-American artist based in California, launched Bert Is Evil! on March 30, 19975. The site lived at fractalcow.com and featured Bert's "mug shot" alongside a collection of doctored images and fake documents3. The format was simple: take a photo of a real atrocity or villain, paste Bert into it, and write up a tongue-in-cheek explanation.

The original site included fake intercepted emails between Bert and Jeffrey Dahmer, a staged "Jerry Springer Show" appearance, and references to the Pamela Lee tape scandal3. Ignacio actively solicited tips from visitors, asking them to submit more "information about Bert" if they had it3.

The site exploded in popularity. By 1998, it had built such a cult following that Ignacio, along with Wout J Reinders and Jasper Hulshoff Pol, accepted both the Webby Award and People's Voice Award for Best Weird Website at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco4.

How It Spread

The site's popularity created a problem: bandwidth costs. By summer 1998, traffic had grown too expensive for Ignacio to handle on his own5. Rather than kill the site, he made an unusual decision. He offered anyone who wanted to mirror the site permission to host their own copy4.

Dozens of mirrors popped up almost immediately. The first major mirror, run by Dennis Pozniak, kept the spirit going by adding new "evidence" of Bert's evil nature, including connections to the Ramsey family and Jack the Ripper5. At the end of 1998, Pozniak posted a contribution from humorist J Roen: a doctored image showing the then-obscure terrorist Osama bin Laden posing with Bert5.

That image sat on Pozniak's mirror for nearly three years without much attention. Then came September 11, 2001.

In October 2001, during pro-Bin Laden protests in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Reuters photographers captured demonstrators carrying large collage-style posters of Bin Laden1. One poster had a small image of Bert tucked over Bin Laden's right shoulder. It was the same Bert-Bin-Laden image from Pozniak's mirror5.

Mostafa Kamal, the production manager at Azad Products (the Dhaka print shop that made the posters), told AP that he'd grabbed the images from the internet without noticing anything unusual1. His company had sold about 2,000 of the posters to demonstrators angry about US military strikes on Afghanistan2.

The photo went global. Western audiences immediately recognized Bert and the story became a strange, dark punchline during an otherwise grim news cycle.

Platforms

Websiteearly forumsemailearly blogs

Timeline

1997

Bert is Evil website launches

1998-2000

Images spread across early internet

1999-01-01

Bert is Evil reached mainstream popularity and media coverage

2000-01-01

Brands and companies started using Bert is Evil in marketing

2001

Bert is Evil images appear alongside actual controversial photos

2001-2002

Reaches mainstream attention and coverage

2002-01-01

Bert is Evil entered the broader pop culture conversation

2003

Website taken down, meme declines

View on Google Trends

How to Use This Meme

The Bert Is Evil format is straightforward:

1

Find a historical photo, disaster image, or picture of a notorious person

2

Photoshop Bert (specifically Bert, not Ernie) into the scene

3

Write a deadpan explanation treating Bert's presence as real evidence of his sinister nature

Create Your Own

Cultural Impact

The Bert-Bin-Laden poster incident triggered real consequences. Sesame Workshop, the producers of Sesame Street, said they were "considering all legal avenues to prevent the misappropriation of Bert in the future"1. Ignacio received a DMCA takedown notice and pulled the Bert Is Evil section of his website5.

"Reality is imitating the Web!" Ignacio said in a statement. "I am honestly freaked out!"1 He followed up by explaining his decision to shut down: "I am doing this because I feel this has gotten too close to reality and I choose to be responsible enough to stop it right here"2.

Pozniak's mirror, which had hosted the original Bert-Bin-Laden image, was also bombarded by international media seeking interviews. He shut his mirror down too5.

The incident became a widely cited example of how content can travel across the internet in unpredictable ways, jumping from an inside joke on a niche humor site to a real-world political protest on the other side of the planet. BBC News covered the story extensively1, and it was picked up by news outlets worldwide.

Despite the takedowns, the original site was archived on Archive.org3, and several other mirrors survived on platforms like AngelFire and BertisEvil.tv4.

Fun Facts

The site's homepage claimed to be "brought to you by the letter H" and recommended it was "best seen with your eyes open"3.

Ignacio campaigned for votes in the Webby Awards directly on the site, writing "If you like this site, please vote for us for Weird in the Webby Awards, we need your support, Bert must be exposed!"3

The Dhaka poster maker sold roughly 2,000 Bert-Bin-Laden posters before anyone noticed the Muppet1.

Google search interest for "bert is evil" was already in steady decline by 2004, when Google Insights began tracking search data4.

Derivatives & Variations

Mirror sites

After Ignacio opened the site for mirroring in 1998, dozens of independently maintained copies appeared, each adding their own Bert-and-villain pairings[4].

Updated "evidence"

Mirror operators like Dennis Pozniak added new images connecting Bert to figures and events not in the original site, such as Jack the Ripper and the Ramsey family[5].

Frequently Asked Questions