the greatest love affair.

And it's not Stamos and Saget.

It all began around 1969. Jim Henson, creator of The Muppets, had the idea to add a friendly duo to his newest TV creation, Sesame Street. Henson wanted to show his audience that people can be friends, regardless of how different they are.

Henson drew up (or scribbled) a simple design for the duo, which Don Sahlin actually built, and Bert and Ernie were born.

Ernie is chubby and orange while Bert is yellow and rather thin. It is thought that Henson was trying to mimic similarities seen in the great Abbott and Costello. When it comes to personalities, Ernie was more of the "happy-go-lucky" type while Bert was known for being somewhat mean, mature and often "boring".

The Sesame Street pilot, which originally aired to select families in 1969, did not do well. The only part of the pilot that received any recognition was a brief appearance by Bert and Ernie. This prompted Henson to decide that the muppets/puppets would be the stars of the show, often interacting with humans, which had not been done in the original pilot.

Since that glorious day, it has been a match made it puppet heaven. Bert and Ernie have lived in an apartment in the basement of 123 Sesame Street. Their skits have followed a similar pattern: Ernie would come up with some ridiculous idea in which Bert would have to calmly talk him out of it. The end result would be Bert losing his temper and Ernie continuing to stay completely oblivious to the ridiculousness of his own idea.

For 45 years, Bert and Ernie have been "together"; living in the same apartment, sleeping in separate beds (although they do sleep in the same room), hanging with their mutual pals like Big Bird and the crew. Their actual sexual orientation has been the subject for debate for decades.

45 YEARS! What is the law regarding common law marriage?

Well recently, a similar question has been asked, making the dynamic duo a topic for discussion for newspapers, blogs and, more specifically, Change.org.

Since gay marriage is now legal in the state of New York, one Chicago resident, Lair Scott, has been fighting for the two muppets to take the plunge and tie the knot with a recent petition.

"We are not asking

Sesame Street

to do anything crude or disrespectful," Scott told ABC News. "It can be done in a tasteful way. Let us teach tolerance of those that are different."

But as quickly as Scott's petition began, a rebuttal swiftly followed. Their "love affair" may be the longest and greatest of all we've seen, looks like it's a no to the nuptials.

Not only did a petition to stop Bert and Ernie from getting married pop up, but the Sesame Workshop President and CEO, Gary Knell, spoke as well stating, "Bert and Ernie are best friends. They were created to teach preschoolers that people can be good friends with those who are very different from themselves."

Knell continued by discussing the idea that Bert and Ernie are gay explaining, "Even though they are identified as male characters and possess many human traits and characteristics ... they remain puppets, and do not have a sexual orientation. They do not exist below the waist."

Marriage or not, the idea of Bert and Ernie together sparks a great debate in a time when Henson's original intention of the duo, to show that "people can be friends, even though they're different" or the acceptance of differences, is an extremely important discussion in today's society.

For more information about the nuptials of our famous friends, visit The Washington Post.