Oscar the Grouch is a Muppet character on the television program Sesame Street.

Oscar has a green body (during the 1969-1970 season, however, he was orange), has no nose, and lives in a garbage can. His favorite thing in life is trash; evidence for this include the fact that he has never been shown outside his trash can on a single episode, and the song "I Love Trash". He's known as "The Grouch" because of his typically grouchy moods, which tend to be on the whiney side, although he can also be very clever. Also, he is of the grouch species. Some say he is very smart.

Oscar can become mobile when necessary, with the help of his friend Bruno, the trashman, who carries Oscar around in his can. Bruno is a full-body costume which allows Oscar's puppeteer to manipulate Oscar while remaining hidden by the Bruno costume. Also, as seen in the Elmo's World episode 'Dance', the underside of his trash can is somewhat detachable, which implies that he is ambulatory to some extent. In Christmas Eve on Sesame Street (1978), Oscar was shown ice skating, with his legs protruding from the bottom of his trash can. For several seasons, Oscar was frequently shown with his friend and pet Slimey, an orange worm. On occasional episodes he has mentioned leaving Sesame Street to attend "the annual Grouch convention in Syracuse, New York".

Oscar is performed by Muppeteer Carroll Spinney. Spinney's other lead character is Big Bird. During the first season of Sesame Street, the street set was arranged such that Spinney, who is right-handed, was forced to operate Oscar's head with his left hand. A subsequent redesign of the set allowed Spinney to switch hands.

Oscar thinks that numbers are silly, according to the song "Knock Three Times".

In Oscar's trashcan

• Slimey, Oscar's pet worm
• Fluffy, Oscar's pet elephant, only his trunk is ever shown
• Rosie the Hippopotamus
• A fire breathing dragon
• Farm animals, the existence of a goat and a pig is confirmed

Characters that have gone into Oscar's trashcan

• Elmo
• Forgetful Jones
• Placido Flamingo
• Snuffy
• Telly Monster
• Linda
• Grungetta
• Oscar's mom (puppeteered by Jerry Nelson)
• Buffy Sainte-Marie, when she was visiting Sesame Street
• David's Grandma , who freaked out on Oscar. She came out clean, Oscar dirty, implying she must have actually beat Oscar up.
• Bob, who climbed into Oscar's can, only to get burnt by Oscar's pet fire-breathing dragon, get covered in muck head to foot, and get his clothes torn by the mess.
• One of Bob's friends, who fixed something in Oscar's can
• Bert, twice in the 1970s, once when Bert moved out of his and Ernie's apartment (he tries to clean up the trashcan, leading to confrontation; some say this was meant to be a spoof of The Odd Couple), and again in an attempt to surprise Big Bird
• Maria, in the late 1970s, to get a cup of sugar
• Irvine, episode 2606, Oscar's niece was in the can while Oscar was away
• Sonny Friendly , season 24, for The Home Game
• Wanda Cousteau , season 25, to hide from the hungry Wolfgang the Seal
• Ruthie , season 28 or 29, when she was "Grouch of the Day"
• Miles Robinson and his band, season 35, playing a gig
• Julius Erving and the Philadelphia 76ers who play the grouches in basketball inside the can while Gordon and Gina? peer in. The ball comes out of the can and Dr. J comes out soon after. Gordon says, "My goodness, you're Julius Erving". Dr. J says, "Uh yeah, Can I have my ball back please?"

• Rizzo the Rat, Muppet Family Christmas , "bunked" with Oscar, but not actually seen in the can
• Big Bird, Elmo in Grouchland, he was pushed in

When making an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Grover responded to a question from Jimmy, stating that he has never been in Oscar's trash can. He also stated that "anybody is allowed [in Oscar's trash can, but] who would want to go in there? Huh?" [1]

Oscar in pop-culture

Oscar inspired an Apple Macintosh hack written by Eric Shapiro and shown at the 1989 MacHack conference, featuring a singing animated Oscar that appeared from the trash can whenever a file was thrown away. The hack was so popular that some parents lost the entire contents of their hard disks to preschoolers wanting to see more of Oscar. (Late Nights with MacHack, p. 27)

Oscar has appeared twice on The Simpsons, though unofficially and not by name. The first was in 1998 in the episode Trash of the Titans, during the song "The Garbage Man." The second was in 2000 in the episode Missionary: Impossible, in which Homer defrauds a PBS affiliate during pledge week.

See also: List of Sesame Street Grouch characters