History NightmareFuel / SesameStreet

* A frequently cited example of this is the sketch where Bert and Ernie are [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yiqGtZXCmQ exploring a pyramid]]. In it, there's a really creepy-looking statue that looks almost identical to Ernie that moves and talks in a severely creepy voice when Bert's not in the room. The fact that the usually care-free and silly-hearted Ernie is genuinely terrified doesn't do much to reassure younger viewers that the sketch is all in good fun.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mx668Pevvfg "The Parade of Numbers"]], animated by the late Karen Aqua circa 1995. There's something a little bit unsettling about the carnival masks.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJiU6dHtxLU This is a big letter V.]] Not bad until the very end, [[BodyHorror where it's embedded in someone's knee.]]

* The iconic dancing city credit crawl is remembered quite fondly even today. [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9buQq4N60H4 The same could not be as easily said for what followed it]]. In 1995(Season 27), an after credit sequence entitled “Coming soon on Sesame Street”, was introduced. The words in front of a teal background with a spotlight would be followed by an [[OnTheNext insert from the proceeding episode’s street scene]] , These were followed by Big Bird, seen from the head up, in front of a purple static background. He then bellows [[ThatsAllFolks “Toodle Loo!”]], before a copyright disclaimer is revealed, followed by the funding credits. A bombastic rendition of the theme, along with the aforementioned purple static and Big Bird, mixes everything together to create a rather infamous bumper among closing logo enthusiasts. These bumpers lasted until 1998(Season 29), where they were never heard from again…
** [[https://youtu.be/Cj1cZPqY_qU Except not really]]. Only the “Coming Soon” gimmick was dropped. The latter portion with Big Bird was tweaked into a copyright disclaimer. They apparently liked it so much that they [[https://youtu.be/pd3-sD_mmrg kept it for even a little while after the Children’s Television Workshop rebranded to Sesame Workshop]], which led to the bumpers being slightly retooled again, even adding in slightly calmer music. Not enough to extinguish everything around it, but still. The bumpers were dropped in 2003(beginning with Season 34) never to be seen again for real this time…Except still not really because they could still be seen on reruns of this era. Not helped by the fact that these seasons(or at least Season 30-31) were really popular for reruns back in the Mid 2000s-Early 2010s

* During the "Big Bird in Japan" direct-to-video special, Big Bird's dog friend Barkley wanders alone into a Buddhist Temple, leading to a [[https://youtu.be/veM7PIbOGNM?t=2732 montage]] of several close-up shots of statues of grotesque Buddhist demons. The darkness of the temple, not to mention the frightening musical stings accompanied by the sound of ''Barkley's terrified whimpers'', do NOT help things.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Roewb-FxHM0 Don]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jfqc07-C4Vw Music]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Er_dDJDAPU0 losing]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M30g3In8ao his]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxWvn53n35g temper]] can be unsettling. It's no wonder his character didn't last long. In 1998, the skits were suspended from airing because parents sent in complaints to Children's Television Workshop about their kids hitting their heads from home. One sketch (last link in the previous entry) even has Don Music rewrite the Sesame Street theme. The mood is not good as there is a stormy night, Kermit the Frog is involved, and Yellowstone Park is mentioned.

** The ending of the song title, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LP2rVGbZXrw "Bones (Inside of You)".]] The skeleton laughing is terrifying to children. No wonder the laughter sound was omitted on the album version of the song.

%% * This creepy cartoon, "[[https://youtu.be/D3Rnq4v16e0 Cat in Jungle]]", can give some viewers an unsettling feeling. The weird music doesn't help.

%% * "[[https://youtu.be/rzF4FJIpxJg Psychedelic Alphabet]]" will make you wonder if the people who made this cartoon were on some serious drugs.

* There'z just something unsettling about the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZ5Y3TizswY "Martian Beauty"]] song. Does anybody really need ''that many'' nostrils?

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVktxm3p7gI "Count to Ten with Nobody"]]. An odd little sketch from the early years of Sesame Street, where a floating face that looks like it's made of rubber bands, with quite possibly one of the scariest voices ever heard on the show, counts to ten while weird animations and sound effects play continuously in the background. WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs indeed. Also the face jerks around like it's a seizure victim and who can forget those high-pitched synth tones at the beginning? It was actually based off [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qePUsdTmzuc THIS]] early Jim Henson film. Yeah, you definitely don’t want to hear the term “evil thoughts” on a show that toddlers watch.

** “[[https://youtu.be/4AnHw-ebDdY The Sound of Music]]”. It seems innocent enough at first, but it really gets freaky at the end when Grover hears a Creator/JulieAndrews sound-alike singing “The Sound of Music”, and suddenly, the hill he is sitting on comes alive and starts moving around. This is supposed to be a joke referencing the lyric: “The hills are alive”, but still, it is unsettling to say the least, and Grover certainly thinks so.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jc20vMz0V7Q There was a standalone Elmo sketch]] where British comedian Ricky Gervais appears at Elmo's bedtime to sing him a "celebrity lullaby". After some funny {{parental bonus}}es, Ricky then sings the song, centered on the letter N--which begins by gently singing about nighttime and nightgown... to SCREAMING "NAHNAHNAHNAHNAH" at the top of his lungs at a traumatized Elmo, who responds with a theme-appropriate "No!" and ends up too terrified to sleep.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XJ8qeyqGoc Bob Luis and the Train]] ends with a train coming out of a tunnel [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou and right towards the camera]]. The lack of music when the train approaches and the way it slowly gets closer and closer does not help matters. Even Bob and Luis are terrified!

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9P9sQvPJuSU The Wegman Dogs.]] For some, their first introduction to UnintentionalUncannyValley – either a dog's head on a human's body, or human hands on a dog that's walking erect for some reason, all wearing clothes and wigs and speaking in CreepyMonotone.

* [[https://youtu.be/_J0VMpsIwIs "And Now... The Octopus!]]." The music just makes it more creepy and unsettling. Seeing this as a 4-year old is rather jarring. The Kermit part at the end might help, though.

* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-NUkHKmYvs Alphabet Jungle]] sketch from the mid 1990's. The animation (done by ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' creator Klasky-Csupo) is flat out uncanny, especially the way the girl walks and the appearance of her face. There are also scary appearances by a rhino that crushes one letter and a giant smiling spider crawling over another. At the end of the sketch, the screen fades to black and the music fades out and all we see are the eyes of every character with the sound of crickets.

* The song "Belly Breathe" by Common and Colbie Caillat shows Elmo getting angry and becoming a Frazzle-looking monster. Common himself doesn't look too bad, as he isn't necessarily angry in his transformation, but Elmo can be as scary as the actual Frazzle when he transforms.

* [[https://youtu.be/1_EkQARQNuk Barn in the U.S.A]] is a great example. The song is supposed to be a parody on Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A." where farm animals talk about what they do. The problem with the song is that it's played in a minor key with very loud instrumentation, making it sound more like the animals are creatures of the night who like to stalk innocent people while they're asleep.

* In the late 2010s, Sesame Street made a video about [[https://youtu.be/KgSJom5f2Qc domestic violence.]] Granted it’s for adults only, but the way the dad audibly slaps the mom is quite startling. No wonder those kids were so scared.

* There’s just something unsettling about the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZ5Y3TizswY “Martian Beauty”]] song. Does anybody really need ''that many'' nostrils?

* Some children were freaked out by Sally Cruikshank's cartoon [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hnoJwfnzmqA "Beginning Middle and End"]] due to some of the DerangedAnimation being a bit [[http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c321/nemoy/seymour3_zpse34dcc59.gif uncanny]]. The Music/TalkingHeads-like music and Paul Jacobs's quirky singing style certainly doesn't help.

* "[[https://youtu.be/W-zvYSV2VyM On Top of Spaghetti]]" is a catchy tune for sure, but the visuals accompanying it are downright ''surreal''. The thought of a meatball tumbling into a garden from sneezing and turning into a tree are bizarre enough, but the transformation is done in [[SpecialEffectFailure glaringly obvious CG]], making the process feel incredibly otherworldly and hard to stomach.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mx668Pevvfg "The Parade of Numbers"]], animated by the late Karen Aqua circa 1995. There's a little bit unsettling about these carnival masks.

* The Christmas special "Elmo Saves Christmas" has the Easter Bunny, who's surprisingly pretty creepy with the uncanny appearance: he's a guy in a bunny suit with a creepy smoker's voice (portrayed by Harvey Fierstein).

%% * There's something a little bit unsettling about [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mx668Pevvfg these]] carnival masks.

* [[https://youtu.be/e66vYSEpnqE The Ogre Head on a Hill skit]]. The creepy Irish music doesn't help matters.

%%* Sesame Street's first movie, ''Follow That Bird'', has a pretty good example. The movie's main antagonist, Miss Finch, had a pretty terrifying appearance.
%% ** Then again, Miss Finch was the movie's villain so she was supposed to be scary.
%% ** This can also be applied to the scenes with the circus where Big Bird had his feathers dyed in blue and is considered nothing more than a novelty act.
%% ''Elmo In Grouchland'' had the characters get arrested. Their crime? Asking a policeman for help. “This is torture”, indeed.

* There's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgLuGYkckKk another News Flash sketch]] featuring "Jack and the Beanstalk," featuring Jerry Nelson in a live human role again, in this case, the Giant. He's creeped out quite a few kids this way too.

* One ''Elmo's World'' segment opens with Elmo opening his door, only to find a wall of cameras that snap photos of him all at once and cause his pupils to shrink. It's supposed to be funny, but it just... ''[[https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/muppet/images/8/88/EWCamera-Miosis.png/revision/latest?cb=20201210142730&format=original isn't.]]''

* One *Elmo's World* segment opens with Elmo opening his door, only to find a wall of cameras that snap photos of him all at once and cause his pupils to shrink. It's supposed to be funny, but it just... ''[[https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/muppet/images/8/88/EWCamera-Miosis.png/revision/latest?cb=20201210142730&format=original isn't.]]''

* [[http://images.wikia.com/muppet/images/9/9b/Firstsnuffy.jpg The first Snuffleupagus puppet suit]], with his TechnicolorEyes, is UncannyValley to many.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9P9sQvPJuSU The Wegman Dogs.]] For some, their first introduction to UncannyValley – either a dog's head on a human's body, or human hands on a dog that's walking erect for some reason, all wearing clothes and wigs and speaking in CreepyMonotone.

* [[https://youtu.be/J0LBqXr8dUQ SAM the Machine]] scared a few kids back in the day, especially with its UncannyValley appearance and its pretty creepy robotic voice.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aA5Nf1r4dkw L for Laugh]] animated by Vincent Cafarelli and Candy Kugel from Buzzco Associates features a creepy looking man that laughs in a psychotic manner with L's coming out of his mouth when he laughs, the ominous music and the DerangedAnimation doesn't help matters either.

* In the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oltFGbA0mZc First and Last]] skit, a prototype Grover gets trampled by a crowd mostly made up of monsters. When Grover gets up, a GrossUpCloseUp occurs, with [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou his nose nearly touching the camera]] the viewer is watching him through.

* Two cosplayers showed up to Dragoncon 2012 dressed up as a realistic-looking Ernie and Bert. Unfortunately, it ended up looking ''very'' [[UncannyValley uncanny]], to the point where the article calls them "Childhood Ruining Nightmare Fuel". See the horrifying, terrifying photos [[http://now.msn.com/ernie-and-bert-cosplayers-at-dragoncon-look-terrifying here]] and [[http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m9r5o6S8SS1rppmouo1_500.jpg here]]... [[SchmuckBait if you're able to]].

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBSp42EwVHw This]] segment about Stop signs. We have the same kind of stop-motion as the Milo Counting skits but with the camera stopping very close to each Stop sign making their appearance very reminiscent of zooming vanity plates. The music is a weirdly simplistic off-key chiming, and it doesn't help that the female voiceover changes in tone every time she shouts "Stop!" sounding loud and firm at one point, and angry at another.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBSp42EwVHw This]] segment about Stop signs. We have the same kind of stop-motion as the Milo Counting skits but with the camera stopping very close to each Stop sign making their appearance very reminiscent of zooming vanity plates. The music is a weirdly simplistic off-key chiming and it doesn't help that Maria's voice changes in tone every time she shouts "Stop!" sounding loud and firm at one point, and angry at another.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1WYCa9OJjU Another unsettling G skit]] has Grover next to a foam-rubber G as he talks about the various G words and how important they are. As he talks, the G begins move back and forth, and more so, groan in a rather alarming way, all unnoticed by Grover of course. By the time he gets to the word "grow" at 1:40 the G begins to grow at an alarming rate as well as constantly growling; Grover finally runs offstage before the letter explodes. Like the Ernie and Bert pyramid skit above, music was added later on to make the skit less creepy.

* In the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oltFGbA0mZc First and Last]] skit, a prototype gets trampled by a crowd mostly made up of monsters. When Grover gets up, a GrossUpCloseUp occurs, with [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou his nose nearly touching the camera]] the viewer is watching him through.

* In the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oltFGbA0mZc First and Last]] skit, a prototype gets trampled by a crowd mostly made up of monsters. When Grover gets up, a GrossUpCloseUp occurs, with [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou his nose nearly touching the camera the viewer is watching him through.

* In ''Sesame Street Home Video Visits the Hospital'', Big Bird has a lung infection that forces him to stay in the hospital for several days. Even though it plays out in a reassuring way that teaches children not to be afraid of the hospital, it's still slightly unnerving (maybe more so for adults) to see Big Bird suffering from an illness that makes him cough constantly and explicitly causes him pain when he breathes, and which requires him to use an inhaler and at one point to be hooked up to an IV.

* [[http://youtu.be/C2zuez3VK1U "Number Twelve Rocks"]]. It's like [[WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHeadDoAmerica a bad peyote trip in the desert]]. Hell of a way to teach kids to count, Henson.

* The clips with animals exchanging body parts were always freaky, [[https://youtu.be/EGWOUjfCj7Icreepy this one]] with a frog and a fly swapping bodies was pure nightmare fuel, the narrator's creepy voice made it scarier.

* The 1976 episode where Creator/MargaretHamilton reprised her role as [[Film/TheWizardOfOz The Wicked Witch of the West]]. [[note]](In a nutshell, the Wicked Witch of the West crash-lands her broom on Sesame Street, is separated from her broom and later learns David -- who is watching Hooper's Store -- had found it. She then threatens David and the other residents in various ways before she retrieves her broom. The rest of the live-action scenes in that episode feature her interactions with Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch.)[[/note]] Aired February 10, 1976, the Children's Television Workshop and PBS received mail from parents, almost all of it negative; a recurring theme was that the children -- too young to understand the story was fiction and to distinguish reality from fantasy -- were frightened by the Witch's behavior and her threatening various characters with harm ([[DisproportionateRetribution turning Big Bird into a feather duster and David into a basketball]]); additionally, at least one Wiccan mother complained that the episode represented negative stereotypes of witches (despite a scene late in the episode where Big Bird warms up to the Witch and they become friendly). While the episode may be seen as {{Narm}}ish today -- indeed, among the intended morals of the episode was that the Witch's threats were merely idle and that viewers had in reality nothing to worry about -- at the time PBS decided it was best if the episode be shelved when the summer 1976 summer rerun schedule cycled to that episode that August ... and indeed, not even so much as clips have resurfaced, even 40-plus years later. It was banned due to the heaps of nightmare-inducing terror it featured according to parents. Though a detailed recap of the episode (with screencaps) can be found on [[http://www.toughpigs.com/wicked-witch/ the ToughPigs Muppet fan site.]]

** The dark turn the special's "be careful what you wish for" message takes. To wit: Elmo wishes for "Christmas every day," and at first it seems wonderful...until, after a year of nothing but Christmas, we see the beloved Sesame Street in the grip of a BadFuture. The place is a desolate ruin. Countless businesses have closed due to lack of customers, and the shop owners are losing their minds; Maria in particular is shown to be desperate to fix something--''anything''--and is "sick of having fun." There are no Christmas trees because evergreen pine trees have been classified as endangered species, according to Grover. The local carolers have been singing non-stop for a year, and as a result, they're barely able to speak because of laryngitis. Anyone who was visiting family for Christmas, like Snuffy, can never go home again. Even Count von Count has lost his love of counting, and shows symptoms of depression (total lack of interest in former activities and general listlessness). And when Elmo tries to undo this by using his last wish, he shakes the snowglobe so much, it flies out of his hands and breaks before he can finish the incantation, thus [[AndIMustScream dooming Sesame Street to an eternity frozen in time]] (as Luis puts it: "It's Christmas...FOREVER" and Big Bird laments "Goodbye, Snuffy"). Thankfully, Elmo figures out a way to hit the ResetButton, but it's ''still'' a big TearJerker.

%% * In keeping with the mask theme, we present to you [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrHXDXYOgUg "M for Mask"]]. It says a lot when the clown mask is the ''least'' unsettling of the bunch.

* There's something a little bit unsettling about [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mx668Pevvfg these]] carnival masks.
* In keeping with the mask theme, we present to you [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrHXDXYOgUg "M for Mask"]]. It says a lot when the clown mask is the ''least'' unsettling of the bunch.

%%** Then again, Miss Finch was the movie's villain so she was supposed to be scary.

%% “Elmo In Grouchland” had the characters get arrested. Their crime? Asking a policeman for help. “This is torture”, indeed.

* A frequently cited example of this is the sketch where Bert and Ernie are [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yiqGtZXCmQ exploring a pyramid]]. In it, there's a really creepy-looking statue that looks almost identical to Ernie that moves and talks in a severely creepy voice when Bert's not in the room. The fact that the usually care-free and silly-hearted Ernie is genuinely afraid doesn't do much to reassure younger viewers that the sketch is all in good fun.