Culture

Too Soon? Tinky Winky's words to Jerry Falwell

by Kaitlin | May 16, 2007 at 08:47 am

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On the eve of the death of ultra-conservative, ultra-vocal TV evangelist Jerry Falwell, many of the--shall we say "entities"--whose...lives...he touched have come out of the woodwork for their final say. Among them are Hustler publisher Larry Flint and Teletubby Tinky Winky, whose reputation was damaged when Falwell called him a gay symbol in a 1999 National Liberty Journal article. Here, Tinky Winky speaks out about Falwell (in a well-tooled piece of satire, of course). Is it too soon to skewer Falwell? Salon.com doesn't seem to think so.

The star never has clarified his sexual orientation, insisting on his privacy and denying rumors over the years that he had affairs with two of his costars on the 1997-2001 show, the male Dipsy and the female Po.

"We love each other very much," he says. "Big hug. But it's not like that. It was a kids show, know what I mean? And this Falwell guy and his followers wanted to turn us into something else. We weren't modeling a gay lifestyle and we weren't trying to corrupt anyone's kids. We were just kids ourselves, really. Give us a little Tubby toast or custard and a film of some kids washing clothes or something, that's all we needed. We didn't give a shit about modeling a lifestyle."

Tinky Winky sounds angry. The wounds are still raw.