Hoots The Owl
Hoots the Owl, the bird who plays the saxophone, first appeared on Sesame Street in 1985. Played by Kevin Clash, Hoots has a deep singing voice and a deep appreciation for music, especially the saxophone. The talented owl spreads his love of music to other Sesame Street pals, especially Ernie. Hoots’ most famous song is Put Down the Duckie, which he wrote to encourage Ernie to play the saxophone without clinging to his rubber duck.
A 1988 Sesame Street special featured a star-studded performance of Put Down the Duckie with Itzhak Perlman, Danny DeVito , and the New York Giants singing along.
While Hoots is a rare bird on the show these days, he appeared during the show’s 36th season to explain to Cookie Monster that he can eat fruits and vegetables anytime but cookies only sometimes. To illustrate his point, he sang A Cookie is a Sometime Food, which parodied the Porgy and Bess hit, A Woman is a Sometime Thing.