The Con Man

The Con ManName used in script is a sharply dressed character with an oily British accented voice. Operating on a similar level to the street's established shifty salesman, he appears in Sesame Street Episode 1066, surreptitiously placing a letter M (mounted on a stand) in Big Bird's nest. 
The con man artfully attempts to persuade Big Bird to buy additional letter attachments to make full physical words out of. Reflecting price inflation, in contrast to Lefty's typical charge of a nickel, the UG attachment costs 98 cents. When the yellow one proves sales resistant, he offers all three attachments for $1.27. Despite the bargain rate, his sales technique proves unsuccessful. For an ironic twist, a second con man (Richard Hunt) with an even more pronounced Cockney accent ("'Ello, 'ello, 'ello, squire!") appears to sell him an M to go with the attachments.
Both con men characters bear similarities to an established British type known as the spiv, or sometimes wide boy. Typically Cockney, the spiv is a sharp wheeler dealer, usually sharply dressed and in pop culture usually with a thin moustache, who uses his wits to sell fraudulent, counterfeit, or illicit goods. During World War II, real-life spivs dealt with the black market during England's prolonged and stringent rationing period. 
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Category:Muppet Characters
Category:Sesame Street Muppet Characters
Category:Sesame Street Characters