Beloved children’s show Sesame Street has announced that fuzzy favorites like Elmo, Grover and Abby will be joined by their newest Muppet pal, Serenity, who is a member in the church of Scientology. As part of an initiative to encourage awareness of all types of people, Serenity will join the Sesame Street world as the first Muppet who vigorously and sincerely believes mankind has been brainwashed by a genocidal alien named Xenu.
With Serenity’s presence on the show, characters won’t shy away from issues of Scientology as they all endeavor to accept and empathize with their pal’s belief that the only effective way to treat long term drug abuse is to sit in sauna for five hours.
“There are so many people who inspired this role,” says veteran puppeteer Ilana Schuster. “But mostly my mother, who we lost to the Sea Org many years ago. We miss you, Mom. Please come back.”
In a groundbreaking first episode, Elmo politely refuses Serenity’s attempt to convert him while remaining open to her point of view. And when she requests $5,000 from Bert and Ernie to pay for “church counseling,” they generously pool together their retirement funds so she won’t get harassed via snail mail by her reverend. Future storylines will include an episode where Elmo watches “Going Clear” and cannot look Serenity in the eye, as well as a ten-episode arc in which Serenity herself joins the Sea Org and must leave her friends for one billion years.
The introduction of Serenity is a revolutionary way to educate people of any age, children or adults, on the best way to interact with their Scientologist peers. Members of the church of Scientology just want to share in the joy of playing and laughing and loving like everyone else, and that’s the common ground Sesame Street seeks to find with Serenity – even as flu season rolls around and she insists none of her friends are allowed to get sick, or else she will use her “knowledge of the human mind” to crush them to their knees.
