Hoots the Owl was a character on the children's television program, Sesame Street, performed by Kevin Clash. He was an owl that plays a saxophone. Perhaps his most famous song was "Put Down the Duckie" in 1988, a song inspired to help Ernie to play the saxophone properly (without holding his rubber duck).
Hoots debuted on Sesame Street for the 16th season (1985), but was retired from the show in the 32nd season (2001). Hoots has a saxophone solo in a well known segment with "Little Richard" in that aired in 1993. His last skit was appearing in the Birdland, with the Squirrel Nut Zippers.
Hoots returned in the 36th season (2005) to show Cookie Monster that a cookie is a sometimes food, and fruits and vegetables are anytime foods. This information was presented in the song "A Cookie is a Sometimes Food", a parody of the song "A Woman is a Sometime Thing", from the opera Porgy and Bess.
He made a brief appearance in the film Sesame Street Presents Follow That Bird as a member of the Feathered Friends group. He was the only one skeptical of Big Bird's supposed sadness.
Famous quotes containing the word owl:
“For sounds in winter nights, and often in winter days, I heard the forlorn but melodious note of a hooting owl indefinitely far; such a sound as the frozen earth would yield if struck with a suitable plectrum, the very lingua vernacula of Walden Wood, and quite familiar to me at last, though I never saw the bird while it was making it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)