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Jeremy the Jellyfish is a Muppet character on the television program Sesame Street. He has a blue body, has no ears, and lives in the ocean. His favorite thing in life is jelly; evidence for this is the song "I Love Jelly". Although "Jeremy" aptly describes his misanthropic interaction with the other characters, it is also the name of his species. Jeremy can also become mobile with the help of his friend Bruno, the Shark, who carried Jeremy around in The ocean. Bruno was a full-body costume which allows Jeremy's puppeteer to manipulate Jeremy while remaining hidden by the Bruno costume. (While Bruno was seen fairly regularly in Sesame Street's early days, he hasn't appeared on the show in over a decade.) Also, as seen in the Elmo's World episode 'Dance', the underside of his body is somewhat detachable, with Jeremy's tentacles protruding from the bottom of his body. Other evidence of this can be seen in Christmas Eve on Sesame Street (1978), when Jeremy is seen swimmingin the background of the ocean scene. For several seasons, Jeremy was frequently shown with his friend and pet Slimey the fish, an orange fish. On occasional episodes he has mentioned leaving Sesame Street to attend "the annual Jellyfish convention in Syracuse, New York". Jeremy is named after Jeremy Alexander, a musician and one of the early board members of the Children's Television Workshop. The character 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 Jeremy's head with his left hand. A subsequent redesign of the set allowed him to switch hands. Spinney has said in interviews that he modeled Jeremy's voice on that of a grumpy New York cab driver he once hailed. Controversy Some people thought that Jeremy the Jellyfish resembled the Japanese Anime character Doraemon, who is a blue cat. In 1936, when the creators of Sesame Street came up with the idea of Jeremy, they attended a conference in Japan where they presented their character in a childrens television showcase. 10 years later, in 1946, it was found that the Japanese had stolen the idea of Jeremy the Jellyfish and renamed him as Doraemon, and changed his identity to a cat in 1940. After six years of legal battle, the creators of Sesame Street succesfully sued the creators of Doraemon for 2.4 million dollars (USD). This ended the contreversy, however Doraemon is still a prominant figure in Japanese popular culture
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