Sesame Street‘s YouTube channel was littered with pornography after falling victim to hackers Sunday afternoon:

The show’s channel was taken offline Sunday afternoon, and visitors were greeted with a message from the video website informing them it had been shut down “due to repeated or severe violations of our community guidelines.” Users who accessed the account earlier had found explicit sex videos instead of Muppets.

“We apologize for any inconvenience our audience may have experienced yesterday on our Sesame Street YouTube channel,” read a message on the channel’s home page, which appeared to have been restored around 11 a.m. ET.

“Our channel was temporarily compromised, but we have since restored our original line-up of the best classic Sesame Street video clips featuring Cookie Monster, Big Bird, Grover, Oscar the Grouch, and the rest of the fuzzy, feathered, and googly-eyed friends you remember from childhood.”

YouTube, which routinely declines to comment on individual user accounts, issued a brief statement Sunday noting that the Google-owned video site prohibits graphic content and removes inappropriate posts as soon as they become aware of them. A spokeswoman referred to the same statement on Monday.

A message posted on the page before the content was removed claimed responsibility in the names of two YouTube users, one of whom denied involvement in a statement on his own page.

“I did not hack Sesame Street. I am an honest YouTuber,” the user, identified as “MrEdxwx,” posted on his account. “I work hard to make quality gameplay videos, and most important I respect the community guidelines.”

The message on “Sesame Street’s” page also noted that parents who want to watch videos with their children “in a safe, child-friendly environment” can also do so on the show’s website.

[CNN]

According to some reports, it took YouTube around 20 – 30 minutes to notice that their child-friendly Sesame Street channel was filled with graphic porn … so that means a few (it not, more) little kids actually saw this!

Boy, oh boy, would we have LOVED to be in the room to see the reaction on some of those children’s (and their parents) faces!

According to a viral online petition signed by over 7,000 people (and counting), Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street are closeted homosexuals who should just go on ahead and get married.

The petition, started by a guy from Illinois named Lair Scott, was created because Scott feels as though Sesame Street needs to marry the famous roommates to promote tolerance and quality to children.

He thinks that promoting Bert and Ernie, two of Sesame Street’s most iconic characters, as a married couple instead of BFFs will show kids that there is noting wrong with being gay.

The petition letter reads:

In this horrific age of LGBT kids taking their own lives, they need to know that they ARE BEAUTIFUL and their lives are worth living. Aside from those that are committing suicide, the bullies that facilitate these tragedies need to learn that homophobia is NOT okay. They need to know that acceptance of their fellow human beings would indeed plant a seed of peace that will reverberate throughout the world. We are not asking that Sesame Street do anything crude or disrespectful by allowing Bert & Ernie to marry. It can be done in a tasteful way. Let us teach tolerance of those that are different. Let Sesame Street and PBS Kids be a big part in saving many worthy lives.

Bert and Ernie have long been rumored to be a gay couple, though the Children’s Television Workshop denies the rumors.

Reactions to Scott’s petition so far have been mixed, but once Sesame Street heard about them, they immediately put an end to all of the speculation regarding the pair of puppets’ sexuality.

“Bert and Ernie are best friends,” Sesame Street posted on its Facebook account. “They were created to teach preschoolers that people can be good friends with those who are very different from themselves. Even though they are identified as male characters and possess many human traits and characteristics … they remain puppets, and do not have a sexual orientation.”

So there you have it. Bert and Ernie are NOT gay … because they are frikkin’ puppets!

We’re mad Sesame Street even had to go there. SMH…

The red-haired “Sesame Street” star recently made an appearance on “Good Morning America” to weigh in on the controversy of he and Katy Perry’s play date (Katy was wearing a low-cut dress — pictured to the right), and said that because Katy’s episode was being pulled, he and the Pop star will have another play date someday because he loves her so much and they “had a good time!”

“We’ll have another [play date]. Elmo loves Ms. Katy and we had a good time,” Elmo said. “So we’ll have another play date! Yes Miss Katy, come, come, come, come — we’ll have another play date!” Elmo said excitedly.

Check out video footage of the funny GMA interview by clicking below…

Tyra Banks‘ talk show, “The Tyra Banks Show,” won a Daytime Emmy Award in the “informative” category for daytime talk shows Sunday night (Aug 30) at the 2009 Daytime Emmy Awards, held this year in Los Angeles at the The Orpheum Theatre. Other folks at the annual event, hosted by Vanessa Williams this year, were Wendy Williams, Tatyana Ali, Ellen DeGeneres and more.

Continue reading for more pics!