By STEFANIE DAZIO Associated Press
BERLIN (AP) — Forget SpongeBob SquarePants, Sesame Street and the sourdough starter craze: a depressed German loaf of bread named Bernd das Brot is celebrating his 25th anniversary as the reluctant star of a children’s television program that accidentally became equally popular with adults.
A cult classic in Germany, Bernd das Brot (Bernd the Bread) is a puppet renowned for his deep, gloomy voice, his perpetual pessimism and his signature expression, “Mist!” (Think “crap!” in English.)
Played and voiced by puppeteer Jörg Teichgraeber, Bernd is a television presenter who wants nothing to do with TV and can’t wait to go home to stare at the wallpaper.
This year, his friends — a sheep and a flower bush — are urging him to become a bread influencer.
Bernd’s beginnings
Born as a sketch on the back of a napkin in a pizzeria, Bernd’s infamous grimace was drawn by Tommy Krappweis who modeled it after co-creator Norman Cöster’s face. The duo had been asked to come up with mascots for KiKA, a German children’s public television channel.
Comic artist Georg Graf von Westphalen designed Bernd as a pullman loaf — white bread typically sliced for sandwiches — with short arms and a permanent scowl. Bernd channels German stereotypes with his grumpy disposition, penchant for complaining and dry sense of humor and irony.
Bernd’s first episode aired on KiKA in 2000 alongside his more-optimistic pals, Chili the Sheep and Briegel the Bush.
A reluctant popularity
Because KiKA is a children’s channel, there was typically dead air from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. On Jan. 1, 2003, the network put Bernd’s short episodes into the night loop for the first time.
The move brought an adult audience — often those sitting at home and smoking pot, or returning after a long night of partying — into Bernd’s world, cementing his popularity as a German cult classic.
In 2004, Bernd won the Adolf Grimme Prize — the German television equivalent of an Emmy — because the jury said he represents “the right to be in a bad mood.”
“Bernd shows you that you are less vulnerable with humor and self-irony. And perhaps the most important point is: It’s totally okay if you don’t feel well sometimes. That’s completely fine,” Krappweis, Bernd’s creator, said in a KiKA Q&A about Bernd’s anniversary.
Bernd’s broken heart
Bernd is depressed for a multitude of reasons, including his failed attempt to be the mascot for a bakery’s advertising campaign (that’s how he ended up as a TV presenter, as a last resort).
But it’s in Episode 85 that we finally learn about Bernd’s broken heart.
“A long, long time ago I fell in love with a beautiful, slim baguette. She was so incredibly charming and funny,” Bernd tells Chili and Briegel. “But unfortunately it was in vain.
“She only had eyes for this run-of-the-mill multigrain bread with its 10 types of grain. It was so depressing.”
The kidnapping
Despite Bernd’s best efforts — one of his catchphrases is “I would like to leave this show” — the episodes have never become stale. He sings, he dances, he’s been to space. He’s the star of merchandise, a video game and headlines like “Give Us Our Daily Bernd.”
He was even kidnapped! In 2009, his 2-meter-tall (6.56 feet) statue was stolen from his traditional place outside the town hall in Erfurt, where KiKA is based.
A claim of responsibility surfaced on YouTube, by sympathizers of a group of demonstrators who were protesting a company that had produced cremation ovens for the Nazi extermination camp Auschwitz. The demonstrators, however, denied involvement in Bernd’s kidnapping and the video was removed from the internet.
Bernd was held hostage for nearly two weeks before being discovered unharmed in an abandoned barracks.
The anniversary year
KiKA is honoring Bernd’s 25th anniversary — despite his complaints — with new episodes, an update to his hit song and online activities for kids and adults alike. The celebrations begin now, as Bernd’s birthday is Feb. 29.
The latest series will premiere in September as Bernd, Chili and Briegel launch the social media channel “Better with Bernd” in their efforts to make him into a bread influencer.
The trio will present inventions to make school, and life, easier for viewers but naturally their concoctions backfire. Bernd instead becomes a defluencer — and an involuntary trendsetter.
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AP journalist Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin contributed to this report.