As sad as the loss of Jim Henson has been to the world, Ernie continues to be performed on Sesame Street by others willing to stick their hands up his butt. (I'm just saying.)
Didn't Jim Henson die a completely preventable death, too? He had strep throat that went untreated for several days and it caused organ failures from toxic shock syndrome.
As far as the other comment suggests, it wasn't so much a case of choosing to die or choosing a ridiculous "treatment" but just getting unlucky with having step go real bad in a hurry.
Dr. David Gelmont announced that Henson had died from Streptococcus pneumoniae, an infection that causes bacterial pneumonia. However, on May 29, Gelmont reclassified it as organ dysfunction resulting from streptococcal toxic shock syndrome caused by Streptococcus pyogenes. Gelmont noted Henson might have been saved had he gone to the hospital just a few hours sooner. Medical expert Lawrence D. Altman also stated that Henson's death "may have shocked many Americans who believed that bacterial infections no longer could kill with such swiftness." A lack of familiarity with this possibility, combined with the then-recent deaths of prominent men (including Rock Hudson, Liberace, Roy Cohn, and others) whose AIDS deaths had first been publicly euphemized as other illnesses due to AIDS's pervasive stigma, led to a false but widespread rumor that Henson had died of AIDS--a rumor that was swiftly and directly refuted by Dr. Gelmont. Frank Oz believed the stress of negotiating with Disney led to Henson's death, stating in a 2021 interview: "The Disney deal is probably what killed Jim. It made him sick." Henson was cremated and in 1992, his ashes were scattered near Taos in New Mexico.
I'm glad you can feel that way. I, on the other hand, can't. I just wish I could have a way to not see the sad and fucked up stuff on here all the time.
Yeah, and seeing the lowest bottoms of the human existence every time you scroll your newsfeed doesn't make you more sensitive to it, it numbs you to it.
This comic is sad in the way that the Fry's dog episode is sad. It's devastating the first time you see it but the more you think about it the more you realize that there was/is no other message, they're just saying death really sucks, and yeah it does, but that doesn't mean it's healthy to relive it over and over and over.
