C is for cookie, but it's also for cherished, which is how generations of children view the furry, googly-eyed blue "Sesame Street" monster with a voracious appetite for cookies, and just about anything else.
Cookie Monster comes right out and says what we're thinking, about food, manners and heck, even the media. He once chided Matt Lauer: "You members of media blow story waaaaaay out of proportion!"
We've whittled down some of the best Cookie Monster moments and here are our 11 favorites, in no particular order. Nom nom nom!
1. The shrinking monster: "I’d do anything for a cookie."
2. Losing our cookies: "Me lost me cookie at the disco."
3. Shhhhh! We're at the library! “No get upset, okay? Don’t get excited. Me not fussy — just give me box of cookies.”
4. Phoning Carly Rae Jepsen: “Me just met you and this is crazy, but you got cookie, so share it maybe?”
5. Cookie Monster and the rock: “It’s good to be alive.”
6. Games with Kermit: Cotton ball? Pogo stick? Rump roast? “Life not all guessing games, Frog.”
7. Les Mousserables: "Me Tummy in Despair."
8. Double Stuffed Seven learns to pay attention: “Yeah, that no work. Me just got hit by falling chicken.”
9. Cookie-gate: Cookie Monster takes on Robert MacNeil. “That what wrong with the media today. All they have is questions, questions, questions. They never have cookies.”
10. Fast and slow: How to trick Ernie out of his cookies. "Pinkie, up!"
11. Cookie monster does math: “You can stop subtracting now.”
And remember folks, Cookie Monster ALWAYS gets the last word:
This article was originally published Feb. 13, 2015 at 7:46 a.m. ET.