cookie monster

cookie monster
 n.

   [from the children's TV program Sesame Street] Any of a family of
   early (1970s) hacks reported on {TOPS-10}, {ITS}, {Multics}, and
   elsewhere that would lock up either the victim's terminal (on a
   timesharing machine) or the {console} (on a batch {mainframe}),
   repeatedly demanding "I WANT A COOKIE". The required responses ranged
   in complexity from "COOKIE" through "HAVE A COOKIE" and upward.
   Folklorist Jan Brunvand (see {FOAF}) has described these programs as
   urban legends (implying they probably never existed) but they existed,
   all right, in several different versions. See also {wabbit}.
   Interestingly, the term cookie monster appears to be a {retcon}; the
   original term was {cookie bear}.
    

cookie monster
cookie bear

   <recreation> (From the children's TV program "Sesame Street")
   Any of a family of early (1970s) hacks reported on {TOPS-10},
   {ITS}, {Multics} and elsewhere that would lock up either the
   victim's terminal (on a {time-sharing} machine) or the
   {console} (on a batch {mainframe}), repeatedly demanding "I
   WANT A COOKIE".  The required responses ranged in complexity
   from "COOKIE" through "HAVE A COOKIE" and upward.

   See also {wabbit}.

   [{Jargon File}]

   (1997-02-12)