Santa Fe alarmed by Romney's Big Bird gaffe

Romney in Denver: targeting "waste".

Early morning joggers on Friday were startled near Fairview Cemetary in Santa Fe, New Mexico, by a series of strange sounds coming from within the cemetary precincts. Administrators investigated the phenomenon and found, to their consternation and surprise, that the earth covering the grave of puppeteer Jim Henson seemed to have been disturbed.

"At first we thought it was prairie dogs but now we think that the corpse has somehow turned over within the grave," said city lands clerk Bud Grolder. "This has obviously never happened before. We're very surprised."

City councilmen attribute the occurrence to Henson's mortal remains posthumously taking violent exception to a promise made by Mitt Romney, during the presidential debate in Denver last night, to remove funding from the Public Broadcasting Service, which hosts the popular children's show Sesame Street, should he win office in November. Henson was a mainstay for the program until his death in 1990.

Councilman Laura Semetis says it was the first time Henson's mortal remains had reacted in such a violent way to a public event.

"Even when Burt and Ernie came out publicly as gay two years ago we didn't hear a peep from Henson," Semetis said.

"We think Mitt Romney should take more care when making pronouncements during his campaign. The city of Santa Fe now has to undertake expensive remedial work to repair the damage he has caused."

A campaign spokesperson said Romney would not be making a public comment on the event.

A spokesman for President Obama said that the Democrats would continue to fund PBS which was "a valuable public service".

"We believe that millions of children throughout the world would be devastated if their favourite TV show was cancelled due to Mitt Romney's extreme fiscal policies."