Michelle Obama’s Netflix puppeteer wants to empower LGBT kids

Michelle Obama’s new gay Netflix puppeteer wants to inspire LGBT + kids through the upcoming kids food show.

In the new Netflix series Waffles + Mochi, the former first lady is joined by a busy sidekick, Busy the Bee, to spread information about healthy eating to children around the world. Busy is the manager of Ms. O’s grocery store and frequently appears near Obama on the show.

Jonathan Kidder, the puppeteer behind Busy the Bee, said he wanted to use his character to inspire more LGBT + children. Kidder is one of the only openly cheerful creators of children’s puppeteers.

He said The daily beast he first joined Waffles + Mochi as an assistant puppeteer to help the small show crew on international shoots. But he said the show’s creators asked him to officially join the case as the Occupied because they believed the bee could benefit from Kidder’s “dry, gay nerve” associated with the character. Michelle Obama.

He explained that Busy is not an openly gay bee, but he joked that “all puppets are a little bit gay”. But he said he hoped to bring more diversity to Waffles + Mochi by channeling her own personality and sexuality through Busy.

“They never said openly ‘we need you to be as gay as possible please’,” Kidder said. “But I got the feeling they liked that I brought that diversity to the mix.”

He said his job was to let Michelle Obama’s sidekick “get colorful and let my rainbow through him”

Kidder shared that he found it hard to come to terms with his sexuality, and something was heartwarming about being an outside puppeteer playing as a character “whose identity is questionable”. He said, “if I were a gay kid,” he would “have really enjoyed having a character that makes me feel like I’m on the inside” on a show like Waffles + Mochi.

Kidder said he would have appreciated seeing a character on a children’s show who was “a little more flamboyant, but masculine” or a little “sassy, ​​but also a guy.” He added: “Then to learn that the person playing this character was a proud and proud gay man, it would have been amazing to meet when I was a kid.”

He said The daily beast that the children’s entertainment industry “care about conservative people”, who generally disapprove of the idea of ​​the LGBT + community being featured on a children’s program.

But Kidder said he was more concerned with “innocent children who don’t see their asserted reality” seeing someone like them in the TV shows they watch. He argued that children who “grow up like me” become “fiercely codependent, total fun for people” and create a “false self”.

“It’s a very bad thing,” Kidder said. “Let’s stop worrying about the conservative view. Let’s start by dealing with the young and innocent human beings who just need to be accepted for who they are.

The first season of Michelle Obama’s new series Waffles + Mochi is currently available to stream on Netflix. The show features two puppets, Waffles and Mochi, who travel the world to find out all they can about food, culture, and how to cook with fresh ingredients.

Alongside Obama, Waffles + Mochi also features celebrity cameos from Exchanged at birth the star Katie Leclerc, strange eye‘s Tan France, Common, Lionel Richie, Jack Black and Strange things star Gaten Matarazzo.