I was having a conversation about characters from various childhood shows.
I always thought that Oscar the grouch didn’t make any sense. Why would you live in a bin?
But it occurred to me that maybe the Grouch evolved to hunt like a trapdoor spider, they hunt mainly racoons but also cats and anything else that happens into their bin.
Initially forest dwelling, with the rise of human civilisation; they have become adapted to living in cities which afford many pre-made “burrows” (bins). The lure of easy food, brings their prey to them.
If we’re going for shock value, did you know Big Bird was almost on the Challenger? The picture in my mind is an NTSB workers on a boat fishing yellow feathers out of the Atlantic.
It would have been fascinating to see how the writers handled that one.