Oscar The Grouch - Appearances in Other Media

Appearances in Other Media

Oscar made what he called "a very brief cameo" in the 1981 Jim Henson movie The Great Muppet Caper. When Miss Piggy threw a truck driver (played by Peter Ustinov) into a pile of boxes and a pile of trash cans, Oscar emerged from his trash can and demanded "Hey, what's all the racket?" The driver asked him, "What are you doing here?" Oscar replied, "A very brief cameo." The driver muttered, "Me, too." Oscar also appeared in the Jim Henson holiday special, A Muppet Family Christmas, when the Sesame Street Gang comes to the Grizzly Farm House for the holidays, in the film he befriends Rizzo the Rat (whose name parodies that of the Midnight Cowboy character Ratso Rizzo) who asks the Grouch if he could stay in his trash can for the night. Oscar agreed saying that he'd never had a rat in his trash can before.

Oscar could be seen among many villains in the South Park episode "Imagination Land III".

• His second favorite dessert is Mashed Bananas with Ice Cubes and Cold beef Gravy; he went to Bert and Ernie's apartment in one episode when Bert and Ernie are arguing over whether or not the disgusting dish is chocolate ice cream; to trade them a chocolate ice cream cone Mr. Hooper gave him but trades his second cone he was given for the bizarre dish much to Ernie and Bert's disgust.

• His first favorite dessert is spinich sardine chocolate fudge sundaes.

Oscar was on an episode of Scrubs imagined as the new Chief of medicine.

Oscar was one of numerous PBS personalities chasing after Homer for not being able to pay a pledge in a Simpsons season 11 episode, "Missionary: Impossible". Oscar crashes through the window of the church Homer is hiding in, and demands the money while Elmo, who was hiding in the trash can with him, tells Homer he knows where he lives. He also appeared in "Trash of the Titans".

Oscar inspired an Apple Macintosh INIT written by Eric B. Shapiro and shown at the 1989 MacHack conference, featuring a singing animated Oscar that appeared from the trash can when the trash was emptied. The hack was so popular that some parents lost the entire contents of their hard disks to preschoolers wanting to see more of Oscar, prompting Shapiro to create a stand-alone application using the same animation and sounds. The software was discontinued after Children's Television Workshop sent Shapiro a cease and desist letter.

Oscar first appeared on the January 11, 2008 episode of the television game show 1 vs. 100 as a member of the mob. He was eliminated on both games, but was so popular he continued to appear for the remainder of the season as a regular member of the mob until the program's cancellation, but didn't win much money. Oscar has made appearances on Canadian public broadcasting advertising "childhood diabetes awareness days" at the Montreal Canadiens hockey games.

The fumetti comic Twisted Toyfare Theater once featured Oscar in an issue in which he sings a variation of his "I Love Trash" song about Wesley Snipes' movies. In the end Wesley Snipes (as Blade) unfortunately decapitates him.

Oscar was adopted as the mascot for Waste Reduction Week in Canada, an environmental campaign that took place October 19–25, 2008.

In an episode of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, an Oscar-like character emerges from a dustbin and instructs the viewer that it's "not cool" to play with scythes (in response to Irwin's stealing and misuse of Grim's scythe) and instructs viewers to "tell an adult immediately" if they find one.

In Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian Oscar has an appearance with Darth Vader, trying to become part of Kahmunrah's team - only to be discovered that he's not evil, just "vaguely grouchy." This Oscar puppet that was used in filming is on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

On May 29, 2009, Oscar the Grouch appeared in an ABC television special on economics called Un-broke: What You Need To Know About Money. He appeared showing the viewers what investing stocks means. It's shown that he has investment filings with Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, and Washington Mutual even though they are bankrupt companies, but he then says that they're not really his filings. The press kit for the special reveals that Oscar was popular with the crew for the special even during filming.

On October 11, 2009, Oscar appeared on the CBC Radio One show, Q, hosted by Jian Ghomeshi. Beyond talking about his time on Sesame Street, his love for trash and recycling, Oscar revealed that his father is actually from Saint David, New Brunswick and his mother grew up in Nova Scotia, thus making him of Canadian descent. He further went on to suggest that he had cheated on Grundgetta, his long-time girlfriend.

On November 12, 2009, Oscar appeared on CNN to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street. In an interview with Anderson Cooper, Oscar reveals that he would still be orange if he bathed; his green exterior is apparently moss.

Oscar the Grouch also appeared in the Cartoon Network show MAD, in the episode "WALL-E-Nator", Wall-E from Disney/Pixar's film WALL-E cubes Oscar the Grouch for too much garbage, then the girl exclaims "A square!", and Oscar says "Shut up, kid!" and the boy starts crying.

In 2010, this comic strip purported to explain Oscar's origins.