Oscar the Grouch is a character on the television program Sesame Street. He has a green body (during the first season he was orange), has no visible nose, and lives in a trash can. His favorite thing in life is trash, as evidenced by the song "I Love Trash". A running theme is his compulsive hoarding of seemingly useless items. "The Grouch" aptly describes his misanthropic interaction with the other characters, but also refers to his species. His birthday, as noted by Sesame Workshop, is on June 1. The character is performed by Caroll Spinney, and has been performed by him since the show's first episode. Since 2015, Eric Jacobson is the understudy for the character.
During the first season of Sesame Street, the street set was arranged in such a way that Spinney, who is right-handed, was forced to operate Oscar's head with his left hand. A subsequent redesign of the set allowed Spinney to switch hands.
As of Season 46, Spinney no longer puppeteers Oscar full-time on the show. Eric Jacobson has become Spinney's understudy for Oscar; sometimes lip-syncing to a prerecorded vocal track by Spinney, and other times doing the voice himself. Jacobson performed Oscar for his Sprout appearances on February 21, 2015, and also performed Oscar, un-dubbed, on a 2016 appearance on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and a YouTube video promoting the Sesame Studios channel. Spinney continues to puppeteer Oscar sporadically, such as at live events.
