Snuffleupagus was a HUMONGOUS muppet on Sesame Street. Originally, he was supposed to be
Big Bird's invisible friend. The audience would see this gigantic, lumbering, wooly mammoth come talk to
Big Bird - but every
time Big Bird would try to
go get others to meet Snuffleupagus (so they would believe he existed), Snuffleupagus had decided to leave. So everyone thought Big Bird was lying about having a
big wooly mammoth friend named Snuffleupagus. Eventually, researchers for the show realized that the young
children tv-viewers were getting VERY anxious about this character!! We all could see him and knew he was real (it was not at all obvious to kids he was supposed to be the "invisible friend" - since we saw him the same as all the other characters).
Children were getting very upset that everyone thought Big Bird was lying when Big Bird was not. Ultimately, the writers had to make Snuffleupagus an actual character on the show who interacted with everyone (not just Big Bird as before). So when I use the word Snuffleupagus, I use it to refer to someone elusive, hard to get to know or hard to believe exists.
