History Series / SesameStreet

The human cast has varied over the years, but for many years the core remained relatively stable: black married couple Susan and Gordon (1969-2016) (and later their adopted son Miles (1985-2008), who work as a nurse and a junior-high science teacher, respectively; Puerto Rican college student Maria (1971-2015); black student and store clerk David (1971-1989); white freelance musician Bob (1969-2016); his librarian girlfriend Linda (1971-2002), who is deaf; Hispanic "Fix-It Shop" owner Luis (1971-2016), who later married Maria, and their daughter Gabriella (1989-2012). The main humans on the show are Alan (1998-present), Chris (2007-present), Nina (2016-present), and the newest Charlie (2020-present).

The show was--and still is--also revolutionary in having an elite squad of educators and child psychologists pore over every single aspect of every segment in the whole show. ''Sesame Street'' has been called a living laboratory, and the show has been constantly tweaked to introduce new curriculum and improve its educational value. The show was completely {{Retool}}ed in 2002 to respond to new child development research. As per Wiki/TheOtherWiki:

* Green and flamboyantly grumpy trash-can resident Oscar the Grouch, designed as [[GrumpyBear a way to gently mock bad attitudes]]--''not'', as is sometimes claimed, as a cute'n'fuzzy homeless person;

The human cast has varied over the years, but for many years the core remained relatively stable: black married couple Susan and Gordon (1969-2016) (and later their adopted son Miles (1985-2008), who work as a nurse and a junior-high science teacher, respectively; Puerto Rican college student Maria (1971-2015); black student and store clerk David (1971-1989); white freelance musician Bob (1969-2016); his librarian girlfriend Linda (1971-2002), who was deaf; Hispanic "Fix-It Shop" owner Luis (1971-2016), who later married Maria, and their daughter Gabriella (1989-2012). The main humans on the show are Alan (1998-present), Chris (2007-present), Nina (2016-present), and the newest Charlie (2020-present).

The human cast has varied over the years, but for many years the core remained relatively stable: black married couple Susan and Gordon (1969-2016) (and later their adopted son Miles (1985-2008), who work as a nurse and a junior-high science teacher, respectively; Puerto Rican college student Maria (1971-2015); black student and store clerk David (1971-1989); white freelance musician Bob (1969-2016); his librarian girlfriend Linda (1971-2002), who was deaf; Hispanic "Fix-It Shop" owner Luis (1971-2016), who later married Maria, and their daughter Gabriella (1989-2012). The main humans on the show are Nina (2016-present), Alan (1998-present), and Chris (2007-present).

The human cast has varied over the years, but for many years the core remained relatively stable: black married couple Susan and Gordon (1969-2016) (and later their adopted son Miles (1985-2008), who work as a nurse and a junior-high science teacher, respectively; Puerto Rican college student Maria (1971-2015); black student and store clerk David (1971-1989); white freelance musician Bob (1969-2016); his librarian girlfriend Linda (1971-2002), who was deaf; Hispanic "Fix-It Shop" owner Luis (1971-2016), who later married Maria, and their daughter Gabriella (1989-2012). The main humans on the show are Nina (2016-present), Alan (1998-present), Gina (1987-present), and Chris (2007-present).

The human cast has varied over the years, but for many years the core remained relatively stable: black married couple Susan and Gordon (1969-2016) (and later their adopted son Miles (1985-2008), who work as a nurse and a junior-high science teacher, respectively; Puerto Rican college student Maria (1971-2015); black student and store clerk David (1971-1989); white freelance musician Bob (1969-2016); his librarian girlfriend Linda (1971-2002), who was deaf; Hispanic "Fix-It Shop" owner Luis (1971-2016), who later married Maria, and their daughter Gabriella (1989-2012). The main humans on the show are Nina (2016-present), Alan (1998-present) and Chris (2007-present).

The human cast has varied over the years, but for many years the core remained relatively stable: black married couple Susan and Gordon (until 2016) (and later their adopted son Miles (until 2008), who work as a nurse and a junior-high science teacher, respectively; Puerto Rican college student Maria (until 2015); black student and store clerk David (until 1989); white freelance musician Bob (2016); his librarian girlfriend Linda (until 2003), who was deaf; Hispanic "Fix-It Shop" owner Luis until (2016), who later married Maria, and their daughter Gabriella (until 2012). The main humans on the show are Nina, Alan and Chris.

''Sesame Street'' is a Creator/{{PBS}}[[note]]It debuted on the National Educational Television (NET) network, but NET transitioned into PBS right before the beginning of its second season, and it now also airs on Creator/HBOMax [[/note]]series that began in 1969. The Children's Television Workshop (CTW, now Creator/SesameWorkshop), a project spearheaded by Joan Ganz Cooney, created the show as a means of preparing young inner-city children for kindergarten. Instead, it got to ''everybody'' and became one of the all-time great educational shows.

The show teaches literacy, counting, simple logic,[[note]][[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSa6aE3FwF0 "Which key fits"]] and the What Happens Next machine (see below) demonstrate tools of logic and reasoning such as trial and error, the process of elimination, and cause and effect.[[/note]] and social skills through a kaleidoscopic mix of puppetry, animation, and short films. In a radical departure for the time, it was designed to deliberately mimic the fast pace and style of TV advertising in order to "sell" learning to kids: AnAesop-friendly story featuring the recurring characters on the Street would be intercut with rapid-fire "commercials" for that day's "sponsors" ("''Sesame Street'' has been brought to you today by the letters A and S, and the number 7...").

* [[SesameStreet/TropesAToC Tropes brought to you by the letters A to C]]
* [[SesameStreet/TropesDToF Tropes brought to you by the letters D to F]]
* [[SesameStreet/TropesGToJ Tropes brought to you by the letters G to J]]
* [[SesameStreet/TropesKToN Tropes brought to you by the letters K to N]]
* [[SesameStreet/TropesOToR Tropes brought to you by the letters O to R]]
* [[SesameStreet/TropesSToZ Tropes brought to you by the letters S to Z]]

[[folder:Tropes Brought to you by the Letter V and W]]
* VacationEpisode:
** A multi-episode story arc in 1978 had the main human characters traveling to Hawaii, along with Big Bird and Snuffy. The latter learned that Hawaii happens to be the point of origin for all Snuffleupagi.
** There were series of episodes where the characters visited Luis' family in New Mexico and Maria's family in Puerto Rico. Also, there were one-hour specials like "Big Bird in China" and "Big Bird in Japan".
* VegetarianCarnivore:
** Chicago the Lion was a recurring character who only appeared in the 1990s. Despite that lions are carnivores, Chicago is a vegetarian and his favorite food is broccoli.
** Boombah from ''Galli Galli Sim Sim'' is also a vegetarian lion.
* VerySpecialEpisode
** [[Recap/SesameStreetE1839 Episode 1839]], where Big Bird learns about death after Mr. Hooper (and Will Lee, who portrayed him) dies.
** The last week's worth of episodes for Season 32 (2001), in which a hurricane hits Sesame Street and destroys Big Bird's nest; the week-long story arc featured the Sesame residents working together to help Big Bird recover from his loss, and help him build a new (and stronger) nest.
** The Season 33 (2002) premiere, Episode 3981, in which Hooper's Store catches fire, was written in response to the September 11 attacks.
** Episodes associated with Luis and Maria's relationship - from falling in love, to getting married, to the birth of Gabi.
* VisualPun: The title sequence with the CG animated blocks was introduced along with the show's block format.
* VocalEvolution: Happens with many Muppets that have had the same performer for a long period of time...
** Compare Creator/JimHenson's Kermit the Frog voice from the early seasons with his Kermit voice from the late 80s; there's a very noticeable difference (the earlier voice was a little deeper and throatier).
** When Marty Robinson first [[TheOtherDarrin took over the role of Telly from Brian Muehl]] in 1984, he started out imitating Brian's Telly voice before gradually making the role his own.
** In season 1, Caroll Spinney used a "yokel" voice for Big Bird and a very New York-inflected accent for Oscar. After that he kept the basic tones of the voices but smoothened them out.
** Cookie Monster and Grover sounded almost interchangeable at first, until Frank Oz decided to make Cookie a GutturalGrowler and pitch Grover's voice up.
* TheVonTropeFamily: Count von Count.
* WalkieTalkieStatic: In ''The Magical Wand Chase'', Abby, Elmo, Rosita, Big Bird, Grover, and Cookie Monster imitate the sound of radio static with their walkie-talkies, though Cookie Monster [[ExtremeOmnivore eventually eats his]].
* WashyWatchy: ''Elmo's Wash and Dry'' is a bath book from the franchise that shows Elmo doing this at a laundromat.
* WearingItAllWrong: During the song "All Dressed Up", some children arrive wearing their winter clothes in the wrong places: One girl has a galosh on her head and a scarf on her nose, another has gloves on her ears and a coat on her face, and a boy has earmuffs around his waist and a hat on his hands. Bert bluntly tells them to go away and put their clothes in the right places.
* WeInterruptThisProgram: The "Sesame Street News" segments with Kermit the Frog. The "NEWS FLASH" logo appearing at the start of most of these segments currently serves as the trope page image.
* WeddingEpisode: One episode had the characters prepare for Maria and Luis's wedding.
* WhamLine: "Big Bird... don't you remember we told you? [[TheCharacterDiedWithHim Mr. Hooper died]]."
* WhenTheClockStrikesTwelve: The 1972 ''Cinderella'' News Flash taking place at the ball has this happen, naturally. It also occurs in two other segments not relating to the fairy tale...
** In "The Mystery of the Four Dragons," the Japanese Emperor's Son must find the four dragons hidden in the room they are in before midnight (done with a [[AnachronismStew fairly modern classroom-style Simplex clock]], no less!)
** The "Mysterious Theater" segment "Dial M for Mother" has Sherlock Helmock attempting to wish his mother a happy birthday right before Big Ben strikes midnight. Luckily, his dog Watson finds a London telephone booth, and so Sherlock is able to make the call right before the clock starts chiming.
** ''Sesame Street Stays Up Late!'' being that it's a New Year's Eve special.
* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: Sesame Street is in New York City, of course, but the show has always been vague on the specific location. [[http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/How_to_get_to_Sesame_Street Most of the hints dropped on the show]] place it in Manhattan, with the Upper East Side (just south of East Harlem) and Midtown being the most likely neighborhoods.
* WhipPan: Used for segment transitions in Seasons 40 to 45, when a number of segments and bumpers took place on location with real people During the pan, blurred images of things like buildings appear.
* WholeCostumeReference: Season 45's "Numeric-Con" finds characters dressed up as Franchise/{{Batman}}, [[Franchise/StarWars Princess Leia]], [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Captain Kirk]], and ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}, among others.
* WhyAreYouLookingAtMeLikeThat: In one episode, Cinderella's former fairy godmother, as played by Creator/WhoopiGoldberg, is taken on by Prairie Dawn, but she ignores Prairie Dawn's wishes and prepares her to go to the ball in the same fashion, Bob is present for all of this, providing commentary and advice all the while. The Fairy Godmother further ignores Prairie Dawn and turns her apple into a carriage.
--> '''Fairy Godmother''': We don't seem to have any mice around... *She gazes around the street, then at Bob* \\
* Bob, who is chewing on a bite of his own apple, abruptly stops, {{beat}}* \\
'''Bob''': [[OhCrap Uh ohhh]]... \\
'''Fairy Godmother''': *Chuckles* Alakazoogle! \\
* The Fairy Godmother turns Bob into a horse*
* WillTheyOrWontThey: Bob and Linda went on dates, but they didn't get married.
* WordsCanBreakMyBones: In ''The Magical Wand Chase'', when the bird has Abby's wand, she just wishes what she wants to happen and it comes true (like when she prevents Abby from being able to fly), unlike Abby who has to recite a MagicalIncantation.
* WormInAnApple: A segment on the words "over", "under", "around", and "through" shows a worm named Willy who moves in all directions around an apple, then eats his way through it.
* TheWorstSeatInTheHouse: One classic segment with Bert and Ernie at a movie theater saw Ernie having to contend with a woman in front of him wearing [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUcTrNxBFaA a really tall hat.]] HilarityEnsues.
* {{WPUN}}: An early 90's episode had the all-dog radio station WUFF.
* WritersCannotDoMath: There are a few slip-ups in the commentary about all the Christmases in "Elmo Saves Christmas".
** Several of the cast sing about it being "very warm for May" in the spring verse of "It's Christmas Again", but Count von Count has only counted 124 Christmases by this point, so it would have been April 28th in 1997, or April 27th in a leap year. That remark on the part of the carolers was probably included for the sake of the rhyme.
** On July 4th, Luis says everyone's been celebrating Christmas for six months. While people tend to take liberties when using such a large unit of time to keep count, six months before then technically would have been January 4th.
* WraparoundBackground: Seen in the early 80s Muppet song "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95W7cXehn6o Let's Go Driving]]".
* WrongGenreSavvy: In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-etFPVRi4HA Cutie and the Beast]], the king decides that his daughter Cutie can only marry a prince. Grover, playing a beast, comes in and the king decides to let him marry his daughter (after an ordeal). When storyteller Bob points out that Grover is not a prince, the king says he knows but also knows that in stories like this the beast ends up being a prince. [[spoiler: Not only does Grover not turn into a prince, but after getting kissed, Cutie turns into a monster.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tropes Brought to you by the Letters X, Y and Z]]
* YetAnotherChristmasCarol:
** "A Very Special Sesame Street Christmas" which was the first special to air on commercial broadcast TV and featured Oscar (as usual) in the role of Scrooge.
** In 2006, a more intentional and modernized adaptation of the story was done with "A Sesame Street Christmas Carol," again with Oscar in the role of Scrooge, and in a way it also doubled as a ClipShow featuring clips from past holiday specials when the different ghosts show Oscar the Christmases of the past and present.
* YokoOhNo: Hilariously invoked in an episode from Season 35, in which we flash back to the (decidedly un-canonical) time Gordon, Bob, and Luis formed a garage band in TheSeventies, and met Maria for the first time. Luis is so smitten that Bob comments, "I hope this girlfriend Maria doesn't break up the band, man."
* YouMonster: During a "Mine-itis" outbreak (making everyone on the Street refuse to share) Leela and Elmo are incensed to discover Oscar nonchalantly celebrating with an anchovy-and-hot-fudge sundae ice cream.
--> '''Leela''': Oh, Oscar! How could you eat at a time like this?!?
--> '''Oscar''': With a spoon!
--> '''Leela''': You know what, Oscar? You are a grouchy monster! That's who you are!
* YourTomcatIsPregnant: Telly's hamster Chuckie, thereafter called Chuckie Sue.
%%* {{Zeerust}}: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aPTlr7O_As Someday, Little Children]]
[[/folder]]

* [[SesameStreet/TropesSToU Tropes brought to you by the letters S to U]]

[[folder:Tropes Brought to you by the Letter S]]
* SameFaceDifferentName: Technically, [[http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Betty_Lou Betty Lou]] and [[http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Prairie_Dawn Prairie Dawn]] do have the same ''face'' (being made from the same pink Anything Muppet), but they are different characters.
* SafetyWorst:
** In one storyline, Telly breaks his arm after playing tag. Following his recovery he wraps himself up in pillows in order to protect himself, only to realize that [[AnAesop this means he can't move and must remove it to have fun.]]
** There was an episode in the 90's where Elmo got a boo-boo when playing with Baby Bear and Telly. When Maria tells him not to bump it and it will be just fine, Telly and Baby Bear go overboard protecting him, including eating his lunch ''for'' him so he won't hurt his hand by holding the sandwich! Elmo reminds them that he has everything under control and can watch his own hand.
** At the end of the 2001 hurricane arc, Telly has devised an "early warning system" to warn of an incoming hurricane, the main bit of which is a small pinwheel. Learning that a hurricane has a lot of wind, Telly decides that seeing a small breeze spin the pinwheel is a forewarning sign of a hurricane. Gina tells him that hurricanes are very rare and he doesn't have to worry about being caught in one ever again.
** In a 2002 episode Baby Bear hurts his nose while playing with Telly and Telly is left unsure how to keep playing with him because he worries that anything they do will hurt his nose again, even just singing the Alphabet.
* {{Scandalgate}}:
** A crossover between ''Sesame Street'' and ''The [=MacNeil=]-Lehrer News Hour'' occurred during a PBS pledge drive in the '80s in which Robert [=MacNeil=] covered the "Cookiegate" affair.
--->"Mr. Cookie Monster has been implicated in the diversion of cookies from a cookie jar in Susan and Gordon's kitchen to his tummy."
** A 2012 episode featured a paparazzi group catching Cookie Monster in the act of eating vegetables leaving him to try and prove to them that he still likes to eat cookies.
* ScratchyVoicedSenior: The old man who narrates the skit about a time he had the flu speaks in a deep, croaky voice (and no, he doesn't have the flu at the time of the narration; it's his normal voice).
* SecondPersonAttack: The "Yakity Yakity Yak" animated segment from the early 70s ended with a talkative yak, offended at being called such a thing, going berserk and charging toward the camera, ending with a "shattering" effect as if he [[NoFourthWall crashed into the camera]].
* SeekingTheIntangible: Referenced in the song "[[HakunaMatata Be Doodle Dee Dum]]", in which Elmo says that he woke up feeling grumpy and "tried to find some niceness but his niceness wasn't there".
* SeldomSeenSpecies:
** The mid-1990s sketch “African Animal Alphabet” mentions the umber bird (a small stork-like bird), the okapi (a forest-dwelling member of the giraffe family), ibises (another stork-like bird), jerboas (a jumping rodent), kingfishers, warthogs and ''Xerus'' (a ground squirrel).
** Some of the "morphing maps" segments feature some less-seen local wildlife, such as a bilby and a wombat from Australia, and a kinkajou and a capybara from Brazil.
** One of Elmo’s {{imagine spot}}s portrays him as an aardvark.
** One of the songs from the "Sesame Street Creature Feature" segment was about an aardvark.
* SensationalStaircaseSequence: In Episode 2832, as Elmo waits for Savion's tap dance class to begin, he imagines that he's one of the greatest tap dancers in the world. In his ImagineSpot, he sings [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kkXfkieWZg "Happy Tappin' With Elmo"]] as he tap dances down a staircase. The song is a nod to Creator/FredAstaire's performance of Irving Berlin's "Puttin' on the Ritz" in the 1946 film, ''Blue Skies''.
* SentimentalShabbiness: Played for laughs when Zoe shares a book she loves a lot but it's all tattered. Telly can't fathom the idea of something being tattered because someone loves it. It even has a ''bite mark'' suggesting she's had it long before she became literate.
* SequelHook: From ''Christmas Eve on Sesame Street'': [[spoiler:"How do you think the Easter Bunny can hide all those eggs in one night?"]]
* SeriousBusiness: Under all the apparent silliness is a deep, ''deep'' dedication to their core educational mission, to the point of instantly dropping characters and concepts that ''might'' negatively impact young audiences. Sometimes can itself come off as over-the-top funny; as per [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9O-Q5vJ-GHk this early short film]] wherein the process of getting milk from the cow to a baby's bottle is treated with just slightly less gravity than, say, the Normandy Invasion.
* SesameStreetCred: The TropeNamer. This is also the most likely show to invert this trope, with characters making appearances on all sorts of shows from ''Rove Live'' to ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' to ''[[Creator/{{NBC}} The Today Show]]''.
* ShaveAndAHaircut: An animated insert where an orange ball plays on a musical staircase.
* ShipSinking: In episode 2385 (Gina gets a job at Hooper’s Store), David’s incompetence in handling a situation where Amazing Mumford turns Maria into a root beer float is implied to be the death knell on their longstanding relationship. A few episodes later, Maria begins to formally date Luis, and by the end of the season they are married.
* ShipTease: Maria and Luis were being teased as early as 1975, but their relationship was overlooked for a strictly professional one as Maria was in a relationship with David until the early 1980s.
* ShoeSizeAngst: : In one episode, Big Bird tries to join "The Good Birds Club", but their pigeon leader won't let him in because his feet are too big. When Big Bird asks Abby if she can magically shrink his feet, she obliges, but he's now unable to keep his balance.
* ShortDistancePhoneCall: in what episode, Tara is showing Telly and Baby Bear about email, and they get an email from Linda, who is standing only a few feet behind them.
* ShoutOut: Again, a common way to incorporate a ParentalBonus.
** "[[Series/HappyDays Good morning, Mr. Cunningham!]] Gee, that wasn't even close!"
** Big Bird's teddy bear is named [[Series/{{Mash}} Radar]].
** Aversion: No matter what you've heard, Bert and Ernie are '''not''' named for George Bailey's childhood friends in ''Film/ItsAWonderfulLife'' (the movie didn't become iconic until well after the characters were created). Henson & co. have been driven crazy by that coincidence for years. This was lampshaded in ''Elmo Saves Christmas'', where Bert and Ernie walk past a TV playing ''It's a Wonderful Life" and are surprised by the line "Bert! Ernie! What's the matter with you two guys? You were here on my wedding night."
** [[WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}} A farmer tries to tell everybody that his chicken stowed away on the]] ''[[WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}} Wiggleprise]]'', [[WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}} but nobody believes him]].
** ''[[Series/GameOfThrones Game Of Chairs]]'', a parody sketch in which they play musical chairs.
** When Ernie and Bert went to a jungle to find Dr. Livingston, Ernie asked to Dr. Livingston ''[[WesternAnimation/BugsBunny What's Up Doc?]]''.
** One 1990 episode revolved around Bob's archaeologist brother Minneapolis (Creator/JeffGoldblum) looking for the Golden Cabbage of Snufertiti. Not only does he bear a striking resemblance to Franchise/IndianaJones, [[Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk the boulder scene is spoofed]], and Minnie performs an IndyHatRoll (minus the "rolling" part).
** The show had quite a few subtle allusions to ''Theatre/WestSideStory'', particularly in its early years, stemming from longtime showrunner Jon Stone being a big fan of the musical (and Music/StephenSondheim's work in general). The ensemble cast interacting on a stylized set based on an Upper Manhattan neighborhood is an obvious one, and even character names were used, with a Puerto Rican girl named Maria and a cop named [[https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Officer_Krupky Officer Krupky]] [sic]. Jaime Sánchez, who originated the role of Chino on Broadway, was a cast member in season 2.
** A meta example: the offices for PBS affiliate station WCFE-TV in Plattsburgh, New York, are located at 1 Sesame Street.
* ShowWithinAShow: The show's hour-long format provided the production team with enough flexibility to eventually incorporate its active spinoffs, which normally have to stand alone overseas, into ''Sesame Street'' itself: ''Abby's Flying Fairy School''; Bert and Ernie's Great Adventures; ''Series/ElmosWorld''; ''Elmo: The Musical''. The first two alternate episodes; Elmo gets a dedicated eleven-minute block (shortened to five minutes when the show was cut down to a half-hour).
* ShrunkInTheWash: In a 1990's episode Baby Bear gets a new tie from his aunt, but after it blows away in the wind and lands in the mud, he is forced to wash it. This makes it shrink to finger size and leaves him to try and find a solution for the rest of the episode.
* SickEpisode: There were many episodes that had someone who is sick.
** In a 1979 episode Big Bird goes to the hospital because he needs to have his tonsils out.
** Big Bird got pneumon-tweet-itis-carnarion in the direct to video ''Sesame Street Home Video visits the Hospital''.
** Everybody on Sesame Street (except for Elmo, Leela, and Oscar) got Mine-Itis (a grouch sickness that makes everyone greedy and unwilling to share).
** Maria once gets a stomach virus and has to go to hospital.
** Gabi gets the flu once; unfortunately it's [[BirthdayEpisode on her birthday]].
** Barkley gets sick in one episode, and Mr Mumford manages to get him well, but then he turns him invisible.
** Snuffy gets a tummyache in one episode. He also catches a cold in the Little Golden Book ''The Day Snuffy Had the Sniffles''.
** Big Bird once gets the Birdy-Pox.
** Telly gets the ''Triangle-Sneeze-Itis'' and has to avoid going near a triangle.
** Gina is out sick from work in one episode, leading her to be jealous of Savion, who's working.
** In a 1980's episode, the Count gets the "Counting Flu" which makes him pass out every time he even so much as ''imagines'' himself counting!
** Irvine gets the Grouch Flu in one episode, which makes her act un-grouchy. In another episode, Oscar wound up with the Grouch Flu.
** Downplayed in one episode. Cyranose is said to have a cold.
** In one episode Big Bird and Zoe are both sick while on a scheduled playdate, and Telly acts as an intermediary that allows them to play together anyway.
** In "Elmo Goes to the Doctor" a slew of characters get various ailments: Elmo gets earache, Baby Bear and the Count have sore throats, a goat has a tummy bug, a cow has a horn ache, a random boy and an elephant both have congestion in their noses, and Bert and a horse have colds. Thankfully, they're all better afterwards.
** Prairie Dawn gets a cold in a 1997 episode.
** There are dolls of Elmo and Ernie who are meant to be sick.
* SignatureLaugh
** Ernie's hissing, machine-gun-like "kh-h-h-h-h..."
** Bert's bleating "Eh-e-e-e-eh..."
** The Count's "ONE <insert noun here>, Ah-ha-ha..."
** Elmo has one of the most distinctive laughs in children's television, as anyone who has ever owned a Tickle-Me-Elmo doll can attest to.
** The Twiddlebugs have that high-pitched giggle.
** Zoe's shrill, back-of-the-throat laugh is hard to mistake.
* TheSimpleGestureWins: From the segment "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVDUYJo3CjU Alligator King]]"...
-->''The king snagged his foot on the royal red rug and crumpled up his nose.''
-->''The seventh son of the Alligator King was a thoughtful little whelp.''
-->''He said, "Daddy, appears to me that you could use a little help."''
-->''Said the Alligator King to his seventh son, "My son, you win the crown,"''
-->''"You didn't bring me diamonds or rubies, but you helped me up when I was down."''
* SingingInTheShower:
** Ernie sings "Rubber Duckie" in the bathtub.
** And also the song: "Singing In The Shower" sung by Olivia (In the Shower), Ernie (In the Bathtub), Oscar (In the Mudbath), and Big Bird (In the Birdbath).
* SingingMountie: The song "When I'm Calling U" is a parody of the 1936 film version of the musical ''Rose Marie'', with Mountie "Nelson"[[note]]Named after Nelson Eddy[[/note]] and young maiden "Jeanette"[[note]]Named after Creator/JeanetteMacDonald[[/note]] singing a love duet about words that start with the letter U. In the foreground is a letter U. At the very end of the song, it turns around to reveal a face and says: "Unbelievable!"
* SingingTelegram: One skit has Grover trying to deliver a singing telegram to Mr. Johnson, but accidentally sings the wrong ones.
* SleepAesop:
** One episode reveals that the Bear family occasionally need to take all-day naps because they don't hibernate. Baby Bear doesn't want to take his all-day nap, but then he keeps falling asleep and Alan tells him that sleep is important for everybody.
** In one "Teeny Little Super Guy" skit, Teeny Little Super Guy's friend Eugene doesn't want to sleep because he thinks it's boring, so Teeny Little Super Guy tells him that people need to sleep, and that he can entertain himself by making up a story while he waits for himself to fall asleep.
** One lyric in Ernie and Bert's sleep song is "Sleep, it's what everyone in the world must do. Sleep, every boy and girl. Every pigeon, too."
** The song "Take a Rest" is about the importance of napping. Oddly enough, it's sung by Bert, Cookie Monster, and Grover, who are all adults, and Bert is the only one of them who regularly takes naps. Plus, Bert and Cookie Monster have never gotten tired from activity before.
* SleepDeprivation: At the end of one skit, Ernie is sleep-deprived because the Count kept him awake counting sheep.
* SequelEpisode: Some recurring characters, like Sir John Feelgood the actor and Zoe's jacket brought to life by the Jacket Fairy, have episodes which focus on the mission de pere Muppet Wiki has list of groups of episodes which are related to one another, not all of which took place in succession and some of which build on the preceding several years after the fact.
** In a season 42 episode, Maria gets named the superintendent of 123 Sesame Street; in the very next episode, she has to deal with Bert and Ernie's apartment being flooded and plumbing equipment going missing.
* SleepingSingle: An isolated case comes up in a season 42 episode, where Bert and Ernie get flooded out of their apartment and end up sharing Gordon and Susan's bed; the only other beds around are Bert and Ernie's, which are on opposite sides of the room. Gordon has to curl up into the fetal position just to try to fit in Ernie's bed.
* SmarmyHost: Guy Smiley, the cheerful, enthusiastic, NoIndoorVoice host of countless game shows. He may well have been a big contributor to this as a GameShowHost stereotype.
* SmartPeoplePlayChess: Chess is Gordon's game of choice.
* SocietyMarchesOn: Standards for children's education have changed, and what was a good teaching tool in the 1970s and early 1980s doesn't work for modern kids. The "Old School" DVD[=s=] open with a disclaimer saying as much.
* SneezeInterruption:
** When Slimey is about to go to the moon, Snuffy says, "I think I'm going to--" but then sneezes, which gets the rocket launcher going.
** In the book ''Nobody Cares About Me'', Big Bird says, "I'm not sick" but sneezes in the middle of his sentence, so someone gets a doctor and it turns out he has a cold.
** In "Don't Be a Snerd When You Sneeze", the narrator says, "Nix your nozzle when you--" but the "snerd" almost sneezes. The narrator tries again, "When you--" but then the "snerd" actually sneezes.
** Invoked by a cow who times her sneezes to fit in with song lyrics, so she ends up singing, "What can you do, with a cold or a flu? Just, *achoo, achoo, achoo*!"
* SoapPunishment: One episode spoofs this in classic Grouch fashion: Oscar's mother washes his mouth out with ice cream as punishment for saying "please."
* SongOfManyEmotions:
** "Feelings" is a song sung to little Natasha by Ernie about the different ways of expressing emotions and concludes "But of all these feelings, winter, spring, or fall, I like laughing when I'm happy best of all".
** "Feeling Good, Feeling Bad" is a song by Ernie and Bert about their changing feelings. First Ernie is happy while Bert is sad, then Bert becomes angry, then apathetic, then happy but ''Ernie'' is sad. Like Bert, Ernie goes through anger and apathy but the song ends with both of them happy.
** "Big Feelings" is about the different emotions Abby has, including sadness, anger, and fear, about her parents' divorce.
** Downplayed for "Happy and Proud", which is about emotions at a birthday that are all variations on happiness: normal happiness, pride, and love. Sleepiness is also mentioned when the character goes to bed, but that's not an emotion.
** In "Felines", a mouse observes and sings about four cats that have different emotions. One is happy, one is sad, one is angry and the other one is neutral but then he makes noise and she becomes surprised.
** "The Island of Emotion" is a song about an island with different areas that align with different emotions: Happy Harbour, Weeping River (sadness), Love Lagoon, and the Woods of Yow (surprise).
** In "I'm Sad Because I'm Happy", Oscar sings about how he's sad, happy, and mad at the same time, the first two because of the previous emotion and the latter because "it sounds sappy to be happy when you're sad".
** "A Song About Emotions" is about how the singer expresses all his emotions.
* SoulfulPlantStory:
** The "Keep Off the Grass" song is sung by a blade of grass who doesn't want to be stood on, and it's sung in a slow, emotional way.
** One skit involves an acorn growing up and it's set to sentimental music.
** One skit has been dubbed the "sad flower" skit, as it focuses on a flower growing and is set to sad music.
* SoundEffectBleep: A passing subway train covers up an, um, unusually grouchy string of words from Oscar the Grouch in ''Christmas Eve on Sesame Street''.
-->'''Oscar''': You are, without a doubt, the stupidest [...] bird I've ever met!
* SoundToScreenAdaptation: In the early years, there were numerous songs recorded for the show's tie-in record albums that would then be made into segments, usually involving the Muppets lip-syncing to the record soundtrack that may be modified in some way to remove any album references. Even Cookie Monster's SignatureSong "C is for Cookie" is such an example, originally recorded for 1971's ''The Muppet Alphabet Album'' and then made into a segment on the show later that year.
* SpaceEpisode: In a pivotal arc that took up the entire latter half of Season 29, Slimey took a trip to the moon with five other worm astronauts.
* SpaceWhaleAesop:
** Several skits have the Aesop "eat your food or it'll tell you off".
** In-universe when Cookie Monster dreamt that a monster turned into a cookie from eating too many cookies.
** From Crumby Pictures:
*** Listen, or else you'll get hit by falling chickens ("The Spy Who Loved Cookies") or get caught in a spider web ("Furry Potter and the Goblet of Cookies").
*** Control yourself... so you don't eat your best friend (who's a cookie), ("Star S'mores").
* SpeakingLikeTotallyTeen: In the picture book story "My Babysitter and Me", also published as "I Can Have Fun with My Babysitter!" Zoe has a teenage babysitter named Becki ("My name is Becki, with an 'i'.") who tells her that they're "totally going to have a fun night," later says "Like, thanks" and when leaving tells her father "No problem, dude! Catch you later! Like, this is totally fun!"
* SpeakingSimlish: The Two-Headed Monster, though sometimes he can speak a few English words, other times it's mostly gibberish.
* TheSpeechless:
** '''The Honkers''' never spoke at all. They just communicate (and make music) with pressing their nose to sound the horns on their head.
** '''The Dingers''', counterpartes to the Honkers, only they communicate by dinging bells on their heads.
** '''Sully''' (puppeteered by Richard Hunt) is a silent sidekick of construction worker Biff.
** '''Linda''' (portrayed by Linda Bove) never did speak at all because she is deaf. That is why she uses sign language.
** '''Wolfgang''' is a seal who only speaks through braking noises.
* SpellingForEmphasis: In one cartoon skit, a talking dog is asked to say the word "yes" but refuses to, at one point saying, "N-O, no!".
* SpellMyNameWithAThe:
** For a period in the early 1970s, Cookie Monster was actually known as ''The'' Cookie Monster.
** There's also ''The'' Count.
* SpidersAreScary: The show would often feature this, more often than not involving a character learning spiders aren't really scary. A notable instance is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHMyYP0Lt9E this 1989 segment]] where Gina tells a "continuing story" of Little Miss Muffet. The titular character is initially [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes deathly afraid of spiders]], and always [[ScreamingWoman screams really loud]] and runs off, despite the spider [[UglyCute actually having a rather cute design]], even though she [[StalkerWithoutACrush keeps appearing wherever Miss Muffet tries to go]]. It isn't until Miss Muffet [[InteractiveNarrator comes to Gina for advice]], and she [[EarnYourHappyEnding goes to face her fear]] and learns [[FriendlyNeighborhoodSpider the spider is nice and just wants to be friends]].
* {{Spinoff}}: Creator/{{Sprout}}'s ''Series/PlayWithMeSesame'' repackages Muppet segments from this show with new material featuring Grover, Prairie Dawn, Bert, and Ernie.
* SpotlightStealingSquad
** For a while after Tickle Me Elmo's runaway success, it seemed that more and more of the show was becoming devoted to Elmo, to the point where it was less ''Sesame Street'' and more ''The Elmo Show''. Thankfully, though, it was reverted before things got too out of hand, so that now the character focus is much more balanced again.
** In the late 90s and early 2000s, the show was '''very''' Baby Bear-heavy. The character was very prominent during this period, likely due to puppeteer David Rudman having more time to commit to ''Sesame'', to the point that he was almost considered a {{Scrappy}} to fans.
** One could say that Abby Cadabby is this as well. From her first appearance in 2006 to now, she's gotten absolutely ''tons'' of screentime, including an entire special called Abby in Wonderland, an ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'' parody.
** Some of the new characters introduced during the "Around the Corner" era of 1993-1998, like the Squirrelles and the Furry Arms Hotel Muppets, were like this at times as well.
* StageMagician: The Amazing Mumford is a classic example... save perhaps for the "A la ''peanut butter sandwiches!''" thing.
* StayingAliveDancePose: The ''Sesame Street Fever'' [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sesame_Street_Fever#mediaviewer/File:Sesame_Street_Fever_(album_cover).jpg album cover]], which mimics the design of the ''Film/SaturdayNightFever'' soundtrack album cover with Grover as John Travolta and Ernie, Bert, and Cookie Monster as the Bee Gees.
* StealTheSurroundings: There was a routine in which Ernie, fed up with Cookie Monster stealing his cookies all the time, acquires a safe in which to put the cookies. Whereupon Cookie comes by, realizes that he cannot open the safe... then eats the safe.
* StealthPun: The Pinball Number Count short on the number 4 is golf-themed.
* {{Sting}}: Lampshaded and put to extensive use in "The Golden Triangle of Destiny".
* StinkyFlower: Whenever Stinky, the talking plant, grows a flower (usually on his birthday), it will often smell bad. This was a shock for Maria when she tried to sniff the flower.
* StoryArc: Occasionally, the Street Stories will have a consecutive narrative spanning multiple episodes. For example, Season 17 has a four-episode arc about Susan and Gordon adopting Miles. A shorter arc would be the Season 35 two-parter about Snuffy turning invisible. By far the longest arc that the show had was Maria and Luis' relationship arc, where they fell in love, get married, go on honeymoon, move in together, and give birth to Gabi. Spanning 40+ episodes and 2 seasons[[note]]Remember, at this point in time, the show's seasons had ''100'' episodes each[[/note]], it could be considered one of the longest arcs in preschool history. Sometimes, the modern episodes still do this. Season 50 had an arc about Zoe breaking her arm.
* StraightManAndWiseGuy: Bert is the Straight Man and Ernie is the Wise Guy.
* StringOnFingerReminder:
** A Bert and Ernie sketch has Bert arriving home to find that Ernie has string tied around all ten of his fingers. Pointing at the first finger, Bert asks what the string on that finger is for. Ernie replies that it is to remind that he has a string on the next finger. Bert then asks him what ''that'' string is for, and Ernie says it is to remind him he has a string on the next finger. This proceeds through all of Ernie's fingers until they reach the last one. When a very exasperated Bert asks him what that string is for, Ernie says it is to remind him to buy more string.
** In the picture book ''Don't Forget the Oatmeal'', Ernie writes down a shopping list for his and Bert's trip to the supermarket, but since he forgets to write down "Oatmeal", Bert ties a string around his finger to help him remember. Cookie Monster goes to the supermarket around the same time as Ernie and Bert due it having a big sale on cookies. When Cookie reaches the cookie aisle, he eats every cookie in sight, making a huge mess of the store. Ernie and Bert help Cookie clean up and remind him to pay for the cookies he had broken and eaten, and when they arrive home, Bert still has the string around his finger, realizing that [[ReminderFailure he and Ernie forgot to buy the oatmeal]].
* SuddenlySpeaking: Bruno the Trashman is usually a silent character, But he has occasionally spoke (like in the end of ''Follow that Bird''), He even sang with The Trashmen in ''Put Your Trash In a Can''.
* SweetSeal:
** Wolfgang is an excitable seal who communicates through a series of barks. If he so much as hears the word "fish", he is apt to go into a frenzy, so other characters have to avoid saying the word in his presence.
** There is one song called "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFeKneay0ao Swim Like Sea Lions]]" that features footage of children swimming along with sea lions.

[[folder:Tropes Brought to you by the Letters T and U]]
* TakeANumber:
** Naturally, the show does this with Grover and [[ButtMonkey Mr. Johnson]]. Mr. Johnson, holding number 40, has to wait while bakery clerk Grover calls numbers 1 through 38 for non-existent clientele. Of course, at number 39, a woman shows up with an extremely long and complicated list which Grover proceeds to fill, leaving the hapless Mr. Johnson screaming in frustration.
** In an alternate ending, Grover finally reaches number 40. A relieved Mr. Johnson asks for a jelly doughnut in a bag, but Grover asks him to take another number: number 41. Then Grover starts over at number 1, causing Mr. Johnson to faint.
** In one episode, Gordon is helping Oscar do his shopping at a story run by grouches for grouches. The store owner makes him take a number, 19, then goes through all the numbers starting at 1, even though Gordon is the only one waiting. When he finally gets to 19, other customers appear with the ''same number'' on their tickets.
* TakeThat:
** Occasionally in the course of parodying teen and adult media, notably ''[[Film/HighSchoolMusical Pre-School Musical]]'' and ''[[Theatre/SpiderManTurnOffTheDark SpiderMonster, The Musical]]''.
** Including a controversy-inducing one from Grundgetta: "From now on, I am watching [[Creator/FoxNewsChannel Pox News]]. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBGG9TcBZOA Now there's a trashy news show!]]"
** When "Wormy Gras", a street party for worms, occured in a 2000 episode, a worm wearing a [[Series/BarneyAndFriends Barney]] costume is frightened by [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/3856_3.jpg Slimey's more realistic tyrannosaurus mask]] and runs away.
** A 2010 episode lampoons the iPhone (as well as Apple products in general) by having Telly recieve an "iPogo", a pogo stick with a built-in screen. Despite it pulling off a trick perfectly, he feels bad due to not having learnt how to do it himself. He later gets his old pogo stick back after rejecting newer models of the iPogo (poking fun at the fact that Apple seems to release updated versions of products on a regular basis despite the older models working fine for most people).
* TalkAboutTheWeather: The song "Hace Calor" is about this trope and how it's a good way to break the ice when you're too shy to talk to someone.
%%* TalkingInBed: Several Ernie and Bert sketches.
* TelephoneSong:
** In "Telephone Rock", Little Jerry and the Monotones ask the operator to "put some rockin' and rollin' on the telephone." Eventually the operator calls the police on them.
** Monty in "Watermelons and Cheese" advises the characters how to properly answer the telephone, saying you should't say "watermelons and cheese" (unless you're a watermelon or a cheese).
* TestYourStrengthGame: One episode has Cookie Monster try one of these games. The barker reveals in an aside to the viewer that the game is rigged. Because the prize for the game is a cookie, the Cookie Monster wins anyway.
* ThanksgivingEpisode: The gang celebrates Thanksgiving in a Season 48 episode, but not without learning why it is celebrated.
* ThemeParks: Several, to varying degrees of success. One in Pennsylvania (1980-), one in Texas (1982-1984), Tokyo Sesame Place (1990-2006), and Parque Plaza Sésamo in Monterrey, Mexico. (1995-)
* ThemeTuneExtended: There's a bridge in the theme song (complete with ForgottenThemeTuneLyrics) that was never performed in the opening version, but was heard in the extended closing credits on Friday installments of the show. This actually applied to all CTW productions which aired around the same time, including ''Series/TheElectricCompany1971'', ''Series/ThreeTwoOneContact'', ''Series/SquareOneTV'', and ''Series/{{Ghostwriter}}''.
-->''It's a magic carpet ride\\
Every door will open wide\\
To happy people like you\\
Happy people like\\
What a beautiful''\\
(back to the first verse) ''Sunny day...''
* TheseQuestionsThree: There's a handful of animated films featuring a wizard she will only allow other people to cross a drawbridge if they correctly answer a series of questions about things like shapes.
* ThirdPersonPerson: Elmo says Elmo like referring to himself as Elmo!
%%* ThoseTwoGuys: Bert and Ernie.
%%* ThreeAmigos: Telly, Elmo, and Baby Bear; Abby, Rosita, and Zoe. For a time, they would hang out together in cliques.
* TiredAfterTheSong:
** At the end of the cover of "All Together Now", the family falls asleep, but the girl then wakes up again.
** At the end of Grover's song about directions (around, over, under, through, near, and far), he is puffed out and tired.
** One song is about a guy called Mando finding Spanish words that rhyme with his name, but at the end of the song, he appears tired and finds a final word that he translates as him having to rest.
** "Take a Rest" ends with Cookie Monster, Bert, and Grover having a nap together. Well, the song was ''about'' napping.
** "My Furry Little Shadow" ends with Grover falling asleep and his shadow somehow staying up, asking, "Where did my little friend go?", and then falling asleep itself.
** After singing the song "Every Kitty Sleeps", Suzie Kabloozie falls asleep herself.
** Ernie gets sleepy and goes back to bed after singing "I Love My Toes". Justified because it was the middle of the night.
** At the end of a song about the number twenty, the boy who's singing falls asleep, however, it's not necessarily the song that tires him out, since it was bedtime anyway.
** In the "Elmo's World" skit about building, a construction worker falls asleep after singing about her job. She then continues to sing it in her sleep.
** In "Siesta Fiesta", Rosita takes her titular nap after the song ends because her mother told her to.
* TitleDrop: In ''Follow That Bird''.
-->'''Gordon:''' Let's follow that bird.
** It also happens in the episode "Fire In Hooper's Store", where Maria says the episode's title as her response to seeing the grease fire.
* ToiletTrainingPlot: In "Elmo's Potty Time", Curly Bear gets potty-trained and several other characters talk about potty-training.
* TontoTalk: An animated insert from TheSeventies showed how inaccurate this trope is: Two boys play Cowboys and Indians, with the "Indian" speaking in this manner, and modern-day Native American boy shows up and explains that that's not how they actually speak.
* TotallyRadical: Some characters would veer into this during the "Around the Corner" era of 1993-1998.
* TrademarkFavoriteFood
** Cookie Monster's "COOOOO-KIEEEEE!"
** Big Bird's love of birdseed milkshakes.
** "A la peanut butter sandwiches!"
** Baby Bear and porridge.
** Oatmeal for Bert.
* {{Trumplica}}:
** The series' 25th anniversary special, "Stars and Street Forever!" features (human) real estate developer Ronald Grump (Creator/JoePesci) as the special's antagonist. Grump's plan is to tear down Sesame Street so that he can build the Grump Tower. Everyone on Sesame Street protests the plan, except for Benny Rabbit, who wants to work as the tower's doorman. When Grump reveals that he was planning to build a robotic doorman for the project, Benny joins the rest of Sesame Street to protest Grump's plan. Grump ultimately abandons his plan when he realizes that Oscar's trash can is on city property, and Oscar refuses to move.
** A 2005 episode features Donald Grump, the Grouch counterpart who also runs a vast business empire. As this is during the ''Apprentice'' era, Grump also tries to seek an actual apprentice by holding a series of challenges. Oscar, his girlfriend Grungetta, and a host of other Grouches sign up, but all of them get beaten in the challenges by Elmo. Grump promptly fires Elmo for being ''too helpful'', and hires Oscar and Grungetta for being least helpful, only for the two to stage a coup against Grump.
* UnconventionalFoodUsage:
** In one sketch, Ernie writes a shopping list with chocolate pudding.
** In an "Abby's Flying Fairy School" cartoon segment, the kids make sculptures and mosaics out of macaroni, then they later use letters from alphabet soup to make a stop sign.
** Oscar's mother used to wash out the mouths of him, his brother Earnest, and his sister Bunny with ice cream instead of [[SoapPunishment soap]] if they were polite.
** In one "Ernie and Bert" skit, they build a snowman and give him a carrot for a nose.
* UnEvilLaugh: Ernie's imitation of the Count in one episode includes one; after counting something, Ernie shouts, "Thunder! LIGHTNING!"... followed immediately by his own SignatureLaugh.
* UnexpectedKindness:
** In one Ernie & Bert skit, an intimidating boy named Tough Eddie knocks over Bert's sandcastle and claims to "have something for" Bert. Bert is very scared at what Eddie will do to him, but Eddie just gives him an ice cream (since he actually knocked over the sandcastle by accident and wanted to apologise).
** In one skit, some cowboys and cowgirls (including Forgetful Jones's girlfriend Clementine) think the visiting cowboy Bad Bart will hurt or kill the bartender, since he mentioned giving him "what he deserves". Actually, Bart wanted to pay the bartender, since he forgot to earlier.
* UnsatisfiableCustomer: Mr. Johnson, Grover's customer in the "Charlie's Restaurant" skits, is sometimes this.
* UnsuccessfulPetAdoption: When Big Bird tries to keep a turtle named Seymour, Seymour runs away to the park and Gina says that he probably belongs there.
* UnwantedAssistance: Baby Bear often tells to Goldilocks to stop helping.

[[folder:Tropes Brought to you by the Letter V and W]]
* VacationEpisode:
** A multi-episode story arc in 1978 had the main human characters traveling to Hawaii, along with Big Bird and Snuffy. The latter learned that Hawaii happens to be the point of origin for all Snuffleupagi.
** There were series of episodes where the characters visited Luis' family in New Mexico and Maria's family in Puerto Rico. Also, there were one-hour specials like "Big Bird in China" and "Big Bird in Japan".
* VegetarianCarnivore:
** Chicago the Lion was a recurring character who only appeared in the 1990s. Despite that lions are carnivores, Chicago is a vegetarian and his favorite food is broccoli.
** Boombah from ''Galli Galli Sim Sim'' is also a vegetarian lion.
* VerySpecialEpisode
** [[Recap/SesameStreetE1839 Episode 1839]], where Big Bird learns about death after Mr. Hooper (and Will Lee, who portrayed him) dies.
** The last week's worth of episodes for Season 32 (2001), in which a hurricane hits Sesame Street and destroys Big Bird's nest; the week-long story arc featured the Sesame residents working together to help Big Bird recover from his loss, and help him build a new (and stronger) nest.
** The Season 33 (2002) premiere, Episode 3981, in which Hooper's Store catches fire, was written in response to the September 11 attacks.
** Episodes associated with Luis and Maria's relationship - from falling in love, to getting married, to the birth of Gabi.
* VisualPun: The title sequence with the CG animated blocks was introduced along with the show's block format.
* VocalEvolution: Happens with many Muppets that have had the same performer for a long period of time...
** Compare Creator/JimHenson's Kermit the Frog voice from the early seasons with his Kermit voice from the late 80s; there's a very noticeable difference (the earlier voice was a little deeper and throatier).
** When Marty Robinson first [[TheOtherDarrin took over the role of Telly from Brian Muehl]] in 1984, he started out imitating Brian's Telly voice before gradually making the role his own.
** In season 1, Caroll Spinney used a "yokel" voice for Big Bird and a very New York-inflected accent for Oscar. After that he kept the basic tones of the voices but smoothened them out.
** Cookie Monster and Grover sounded almost interchangeable at first, until Frank Oz decided to make Cookie a GutturalGrowler and pitch Grover's voice up.
* TheVonTropeFamily: Count von Count.
* WalkieTalkieStatic: In ''The Magical Wand Chase'', Abby, Elmo, Rosita, Big Bird, Grover, and Cookie Monster imitate the sound of radio static with their walkie-talkies, though Cookie Monster [[ExtremeOmnivore eventually eats his]].
* WashyWatchy: ''Elmo's Wash and Dry'' is a bath book from the franchise that shows Elmo doing this at a laundromat.
* WearingItAllWrong: During the song "All Dressed Up", some children arrive wearing their winter clothes in the wrong places: One girl has a galosh on her head and a scarf on her nose, another has gloves on her ears and a coat on her face, and a boy has earmuffs around his waist and a hat on his hands. Bert bluntly tells them to go away and put their clothes in the right places.
* WeInterruptThisProgram: The "Sesame Street News" segments with Kermit the Frog. The "NEWS FLASH" logo appearing at the start of most of these segments currently serves as the trope page image.
* WeddingEpisode: One episode had the characters prepare for Maria and Luis's wedding.
* WhamLine: "Big Bird... don't you remember we told you? [[TheCharacterDiedWithHim Mr. Hooper died]]."
* WhenTheClockStrikesTwelve: The 1972 ''Cinderella'' News Flash taking place at the ball has this happen, naturally. It also occurs in two other segments not relating to the fairy tale...
** In "The Mystery of the Four Dragons," the Japanese Emperor's Son must find the four dragons hidden in the room they are in before midnight (done with a [[AnachronismStew fairly modern classroom-style Simplex clock]], no less!)
** The "Mysterious Theater" segment "Dial M for Mother" has Sherlock Helmock attempting to wish his mother a happy birthday right before Big Ben strikes midnight. Luckily, his dog Watson finds a London telephone booth, and so Sherlock is able to make the call right before the clock starts chiming.
** ''Sesame Street Stays Up Late!'' being that it's a New Year's Eve special.
* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: Sesame Street is in New York City, of course, but the show has always been vague on the specific location. [[http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/How_to_get_to_Sesame_Street Most of the hints dropped on the show]] place it in Manhattan, with the Upper East Side (just south of East Harlem) and Midtown being the most likely neighborhoods.
* WhipPan: Used for segment transitions in Seasons 40 to 45, when a number of segments and bumpers took place on location with real people During the pan, blurred images of things like buildings appear.
* WholeCostumeReference: Season 45's "Numeric-Con" finds characters dressed up as Franchise/{{Batman}}, [[Franchise/StarWars Princess Leia]], [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Captain Kirk]], and ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}, among others.
* WhyAreYouLookingAtMeLikeThat: In one episode, Cinderella's former fairy godmother, as played by Creator/WhoopiGoldberg, is taken on by Prairie Dawn, but she ignores Prairie Dawn's wishes and prepares her to go to the ball in the same fashion, Bob is present for all of this, providing commentary and advice all the while. The Fairy Godmother further ignores Prairie Dawn and turns her apple into a carriage.
--> '''Fairy Godmother''': We don't seem to have any mice around... *She gazes around the street, then at Bob* \\
* Bob, who is chewing on a bite of his own apple, abruptly stops, {{beat}}* \\
'''Bob''': [[OhCrap Uh ohhh]]... \\
'''Fairy Godmother''': *Chuckles* Alakazoogle! \\
* The Fairy Godmother turns Bob into a horse*
* WillTheyOrWontThey: Bob and Linda went on dates, but they didn't get married.
* WordsCanBreakMyBones: In ''The Magical Wand Chase'', when the bird has Abby's wand, she just wishes what she wants to happen and it comes true (like when she prevents Abby from being able to fly), unlike Abby who has to recite a MagicalIncantation.
* WormInAnApple: A segment on the words "over", "under", "around", and "through" shows a worm named Willy who moves in all directions around an apple, then eats his way through it.
* TheWorstSeatInTheHouse: One classic segment with Bert and Ernie at a movie theater saw Ernie having to contend with a woman in front of him wearing [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUcTrNxBFaA a really tall hat.]] HilarityEnsues.
* {{WPUN}}: An early 90's episode had the all-dog radio station WUFF.
* WritersCannotDoMath: There are a few slip-ups in the commentary about all the Christmases in "Elmo Saves Christmas".
** Several of the cast sing about it being "very warm for May" in the spring verse of "It's Christmas Again", but Count von Count has only counted 124 Christmases by this point, so it would have been April 28th in 1997, or April 27th in a leap year. That remark on the part of the carolers was probably included for the sake of the rhyme.
** On July 4th, Luis says everyone's been celebrating Christmas for six months. While people tend to take liberties when using such a large unit of time to keep count, six months before then technically would have been January 4th.
* WraparoundBackground: Seen in the early 80s Muppet song "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95W7cXehn6o Let's Go Driving]]".
* WrongGenreSavvy: In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-etFPVRi4HA Cutie and the Beast]], the king decides that his daughter Cutie can only marry a prince. Grover, playing a beast, comes in and the king decides to let him marry his daughter (after an ordeal). When storyteller Bob points out that Grover is not a prince, the king says he knows but also knows that in stories like this the beast ends up being a prince. [[spoiler: Not only does Grover not turn into a prince, but after getting kissed, Cutie turns into a monster.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tropes Brought to you by the Letters X, Y and Z]]
* YetAnotherChristmasCarol:
** "A Very Special Sesame Street Christmas" which was the first special to air on commercial broadcast TV and featured Oscar (as usual) in the role of Scrooge.
** In 2006, a more intentional and modernized adaptation of the story was done with "A Sesame Street Christmas Carol," again with Oscar in the role of Scrooge, and in a way it also doubled as a ClipShow featuring clips from past holiday specials when the different ghosts show Oscar the Christmases of the past and present.
* YokoOhNo: Hilariously invoked in an episode from Season 35, in which we flash back to the (decidedly un-canonical) time Gordon, Bob, and Luis formed a garage band in TheSeventies, and met Maria for the first time. Luis is so smitten that Bob comments, "I hope this girlfriend Maria doesn't break up the band, man."
* YouMonster: During a "Mine-itis" outbreak (making everyone on the Street refuse to share) Leela and Elmo are incensed to discover Oscar nonchalantly celebrating with an anchovy-and-hot-fudge sundae ice cream.
--> '''Leela''': Oh, Oscar! How could you eat at a time like this?!?
--> '''Oscar''': With a spoon!
--> '''Leela''': You know what, Oscar? You are a grouchy monster! That's who you are!
* YourTomcatIsPregnant: Telly's hamster Chuckie, thereafter called Chuckie Sue.
%%* {{Zeerust}}: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aPTlr7O_As Someday, Little Children]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tropes Brought to you by the Letter O]]
* ObviouslyEvil: The first and second of the three "Japanese stories" sketches from 1971-72, "The Mystery of the Four Dragons" and "The Unhappy Empire", feature the "evil Prime Minister" of Imperial Japan, voiced by Frank Oz. As if the word "evil" wasn't enough of a clue to his true nature, his bushy eyebrows are permanently furrowed in a contemptuous scowl, and he never misses an opportunity to cackle malevolently.
* ObviouslyNotFine: When [[DitzyGenius Dr. Nobel Price]] is sad about his "invention" (socks) turning out to have already been invented, he claims that he's fine despite sobbing.
* OddCouple: Bert and Ernie, who live together but sleep in separate beds. It is never really clear whether they are partners, father and son or just friends.
* OdeToApathy:
** The song "That's What Friends are For" is about how Ernie and Bert sometimes do things that would ordinarily bother the other, but they don't mind because they're such good friends.
** The song "Born to Add" is about how an unnamed man and woman don't care that their loud addition at night is waking everyone up-- they'll keep doing it anyway.
* OdeToFood:
** As you'd expect, this is a Cookie Monster specialty, going all the way back to "C is for Cookie" (about how he loves cookies so much he doesn't care if 'cookie' is the only word that starts with 'C' that he can think of), plus "Food, Food, Food" (about different types of food), "Healthy Food" (about eating a balanced diet and different nutritious foods), "Breakfast Time" (about the different weird ways he eats cookies in the morning--boiling them, juicing them, frying them, etc.), "Hey Food" (a [[Music/PastMasters "Hey Jude"]] parody sung with The Beetles) and "The First Time Me Eat Cookie" (about his first time eating cookies at about age one)
** "The Celery Song" is a song by three kids called the Celery Bunch about how much they like celery.
** Invoked when Elmo uses Abby's wand to make it so nobody can speak, only sing, and makes Baby Bear and Alan sing a song dedicated to porridge.
** One song is sung by a boy who previously thought he didn't like zucchini about how it's the best food he's ever eaten now that he's tried some.
** "Everyone Likes Ice Cream" is about how liking ice cream is nearly universal despite the fact that everyone is different.
* OffScreenCrash: The show ''loves'' this trope (a loud crash from offscreen), particularly with Muppet segments.
* OnceASeason:
** The season premieres are usually the only episodes of the whole season to feature ''all'' of the human actors on the show, because they can't afford to do so more often than that. Often, this was used to showcase new and returning actors and establish personalities. [[note]]A prime example is the fifth-season premiere, aired in November 1973, where a "typical day on Sesame Street is shown, with not only the entire human cast but every one of the Muppet characters as well.[[/note]]
** During much of TheSeventies and (at least) [[TheEighties early-to-mid Eighties]], each year the show would have a week's worth of winter-themed episodes. Actually, ''two'' weeks: the first week would show snow falling, and the second week the whole street would be covered in snow. This didn't last long, and even now whenever they do Christmas specials there's very little snow cover; as Oscar once explained in an interview, "It used to snow, but it got too expensive."
** From Seasons 33 to 37, "Do De Rubber Duck" had become an annual treat for viewers. Ditto for "Imagine That".
* OneEpisodeFear:
** In "Afraid of the Bark", Zoe (and allegedly Rocco) develop a fear of dogs and the adults and Elmo help them lose it.
** In one episode, Elmo has a fear of fire, which he gains (due to Hooper's Store catching fire) and loses (due to visiting the firehouse) on the same episode.
* OneSteveLimit:
** The first three decades featured Little Chrissy, who has also been referred to as just Chrissy and as Chris. Chrissy was also the name of a member of Little Jerry and the Monotones, and both characters were voiced by (and named after) Christopher Cerf, though the Monotone Chrissy wasn't referred to by name often. Another Chris was added to the human cast in season 38, long after the Muppets with this name had stopped appearing on the show.
** There's Sam the Robot and Sinister Sam, as well as the owner of a store where the Busby Twins frequented, and a boy who appears in the home video ''Getting Ready to Read''.
** Bad Bart and Bert's brother Bart.
** A comical example occurred in a sketch where Kermit the Frog goes to pick-up a personalized t-shirt, only to get shirts for Kermit the Forg, Kermit the Gorf, and Kermit the Grof. At first it looks like the shirt maker made a mistake, until customers with those names show up to pick up their shirts.
* OneWordVocabulary: In the early 90s, a female construction worker Muppet named Stella was often seen with Biff and Sully, and all she would say was "Yo!"
* OnlySaneMan: Averted to the extreme, as most of the cast acts pretty eccentric at times, thanks partially at least to them attempting to simultaneously teach preschoolers about letters, numbers and other subjects.
* OnlyShopInTown: Hooper's Store is this to the titular street.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness:
** When Oscar starts acting kind rather than his usual grouchy self in "Oscar the Kind", the rest reacted with surprise.
** When Oscar reads "nice books" in one episode, people wonder if he's sick.
** When Barkley doesn't eat in one episode, it's a sign he's sick.
* OpeningBallet: Part of the opening sequence of ''Christmas Eve on Sesame Street'' involves an ice ballet in which Big Bird learns from a girl how to skate to the song "Feliz Navidad".
* OurVampiresAreDifferent:
** Count von Count. He has a shadow, enjoys being out in sunlight, can't turn into a bat, and doesn't seem to be interested in sucking blood at all. (One early skit did show him having no reflection in a mirror.) Official materials are [[FlipFlopOfGod inconsistent]] on whether he is even a vampire at all.
** In the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4l9mjSeAVW0 Twilight parody]], Cookie Monster plays "Shortbreadward" a "Yumpire" with an insatiable thirst for cookies.
* OutOfFocus: This happened to several characters after Elmo and later Abby Cadabby came to dominate the show. Some longtime characters such as Prairie Dawn, Oscar the Grouch and the Count aren't seen as much as they were in previous years. Saddest of all, Big Bird is only a periodic guest star. This may be an example of RealLifeWritesThePlot, as Jerry Nelson (the Count) suffered through several years of declining health before his death in 2012 and as Carroll Spinney has continued to perform as Big Bird and Oscar into his early 80s.
** Further examples of RealLifeWritesThePlot: Even before Jim Henson's death and Frank Oz's semi-retirement, their increasing commitments to outside projects starting in the late 1970's affected how often their respective characters would appear in new material. This particularly affected Ernie, Bert, Grover, Cookie Monster and Kermit the Frog, all of whom went from frequently appearing on the street interacting with the other characters to primarily appearing in pre-filmed inserts, as Jim and Frank were then only able to dedicate one week out of each year for such.
* OutSick: This happens quite a few times.
** Sort of inverted the time the child Gabi was sick on a Birthday Episode and so her friends couldn't come to her birthday party.
** Another time Grandmama Bear has a cold, so an older Gabi has to babysit.
** A third time Big Bird and Zoe both have colds, so they can't have a play-date (they have a "play-date by proxy" with Telly).
** A fourth time Gina was sick off her job so Savion filled in.
** Another time, Maria has a stomach virus and is sent to the hospital, so she can't do her job, but she comes back later that day.
** "You've Got to Be Patient to Be a Patient" is a song all about this: it's about how you can't go out and play while sick, so you'll just have to be patient. It's sung once to Big Bird when he has a lung infection, once to Maria when she has a stomach virus, and once to a little girl when she has the flu.
** In the song "Best Friend Blues", Ernie sings about how Bert can't play with him because he's sick.
** A 1997 episode involved Prairie Dawn falling ill with a cold the day one of her pageants is supposed to be performing, so she had Bob [[DraggedIntoDrag dress in drag like Prairie]] to take her place at said pageant.
* OvercomplicatedMenuOrder: In an early skit, Ernie asks an ice-cream man for a Chocolate, Strawberry, Peach, Vanilla, Banana, Pistachio, Peppermint, Lemon, Orange, Butterscotch ice-cream cone. Amazingly enough, the ice-cream man delivers! ... Except that Ernie is now upset because the cone was prepared ''upside-down''. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIR8ykXHNGs Watch it here.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tropes Brought to you by the Letters P and Q]]
* PantomimeAnimal: Barkley was portrayed by a performer who crouched down on all fours and crawled while wearing the Barkley mask like a helmet.
* PaperThinDisguise: A RunningGag of the 2016 "Smart Cookies" segments is that the villain, the Crumb, is able to get past Cookie Monster with the most minor disguises, such as a mustache or even simply a bow-tie. Because Cookie Monster is comparing him to a digital photo, these elements don't appear, allowing Cookie to be easily fooled.
** An Ernie and Bert segment from TheSeventies had Ernie trying out a disguise kit consisting of these and tries to fool Bert with them, disguising as a pirate and Little Red Riding Hood. The problem is, Bert sees through all of them (especially since Ernie ''forgot to remove his pirate beard'' for the Red Riding Hood disguise, and he doesn't want to be disturbed while reading his "Boring Stories" book. But then TheBigBadWolf arrives and Bert assumes it's [[MistakenForAnImpostor Ernie in another disguise]], until Ernie shows up through the doorway just as the Wolf is munching on Bert's chair. Cue the OhCrap look from Bert.
* ParanoiaFuel: Invoked InUniverse and played for laughs during the W-ORD News segment with John Oliver and Cookie Monster. One of the top stories is teased by John Oliver as "The word 'crumb' ends with a 'b', but you ''never hear it''. What's it doing back there, and how can you protect yourself?"
* ParentalBonus: A deliberate part of the show from the beginning. One of the first producers described the plan for the show back in 1969 as "A show that will entertain parents so much, they'll force their kids to watch."
** If not the actual originator of the concept, then ''Sesame Street'' is certainly the most sophisticated. Includes parodies of current celebrities, movies and songs, such as 'Monsterpiece Theater', a ''Series/MasterpieceTheatre'' spoof hosted by Alistair Cookie. It's ''really'' doubtful that preschoolers would get a ''Theatre/WaitingForGodot'' parody. Or, for that matter, one based around ''Film/{{The 39 Steps|1935}}''.
** They did a parody of ''Mystery!'' in the early 90s, called ''Mysterious Theater'' with Vincent Twice, a spoof of ''Creator/VincentPrice''.
** ''Series/FamilyFeud'' was parodied in 1981 as ''Family Food'' with Richard Dawson as the host.
** There were 2 ''Series/WheelOfFortune'' parodies. One was ''Squeal of Fortune'' with Pat Playjacks and Velma Blank. The other was ''Dreidel of Fortune'' with host ''Creator/JeremyMiller'' (Not sure who played LaVanna White).
** ''Series/MiamiVice'' was spoofed as ''Miami Mice''.
** ''Series/LifeStylesOfTheRichAndFamous'' was spoofed as ''Life Styles of the Big and Little'' with Dicky Tick. Only 2 skits were made.
** ''Series/ThisIsYourLife'' was parodied as ''Here is Your Life'' with Guy Smiley (and later, Sonny Friendly).
** ''Series/SiskelAndEbert'' was parodied as ''Sneak Peak Previews'' with Telly Monster and Oscar the Grouch. Ebert and Siskel was in one of the sketch where they demonstrate the ''Thumbs Up'' ''Thumbs Down'' ratings.
** ''Series/AskTheManager'' was parodied as ''Ask Oscar'' with host Telly Monster and Oscar the Grouch.
** ''Series/HillStreetBlues'' was parodied as ''Hill Street Twos''.
** ''Series/LoveBoat'' was spoofed with Ernie as the captain who loves that boat.
** ''ABC-TV's Love in the Afternoon'' was parodied as ''WCTW: School in the Afternoon''.
** ''Series/DaysOfOurLives'' was spoofed as ''Sounds Of Our Lives''.
** Or ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkd5dJIVjgM Old Spice]]''... starring Grover. ([[Advertising/TheManYourManCouldSmellLike "Anything is possible when you smell like a monster and you know the word 'on'. I am on a horse."]] ''[[Advertising/TheManYourManCouldSmellLike "Moo!"]]'' [[Advertising/TheManYourManCouldSmellLike "Cow."]])
** They really do work hard to stay current, as also per a parody of ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' called "Law & Order: Special Letters Unit".
** They also did a parody of ''Series/BoardwalkEmpire'' called "Birdwalk Empire".
** The Latin American version of this show, ''Series/PlazaSesamo'', features the recurring sketch "Los Monstruos Tambien Lloran" ("The Monsters Also Cry"), a parody of [[SoapOpera telenovelas]] named after a classic Mexican example (''Los Ricos Tambien Lloran'' ["The Rich Also Cry"]) of the form.
** [[Series/OrangeIsTheNewBlack Five words]]: ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4YOT1ajsUM Orange is the New Snack]]''.
** ''[[Series/AmericanIdol American I]]''
** ''[[Series/GameOfThrones Game of Chairs]]'' gives us the ultimate one with the references both to the story and um...some of the more grown up aspects ("I've a wedding to get to!" - really Robb?) clear and easy to follow for fans of the show and those who only have an inkling of the hard hitting series.
** One cartoon featuring a salesman trying to sell the letter Z has the salesman give examples of words beginning with Z, including "Zither." He then pulls out a zither and starts playing the theme from ''Film/TheThirdMan''.
* ParentalSubstitute: The original concept behind Gordon and his wife Susan, according to WordOfGod.
* ParodyCommercial: Used as a second CouchGag in seasons 43 and 44.
* ParodiedTrope: Early seasons, as noted, parodied many TV advertising tropes of the day. Notably, the RepeatingAd, by using the same films more than once in a given episode.
%%* ParodiesOfFire: In the ''Chariots of Fur'' sketch.
* PenguinsAreDucks: The penguins often [[IncorrectAnimalNoise make quacking sounds]].
* PassingTheTorch: In ''So Long, Mr. Hooper'', David told Big Bird that Mr. Hooper left the store to him.
* PeopleFallOffChairs: Seen in "Little Miss Muffet: The Continuing Story", when Miss Muffet is eating spaghetti in a restaurant at the mall, and among seeing [[StalkerWithoutACrush the spider that keeps following her around]], she's so terrified she falls back in her chair (and her scream raises in pitch to reflect that.)
* PersonWithTheClothing: An animated segment about the letter V features "the villain in the Panama hat" (who even refers to himself as that).
* PianoDrop: Seen in "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8ZfNPwAiiM Danger]]" by Little Jerry and the Monotones, and "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVcZ7cDggeE Danger's No Stranger]]" by How Now Brown and the Moo Wave.
* PieInTheFace:
** The ending of "Surprise", where [[FlyAtTheCameraEnding even the viewer gets pied.]]
** The series of skits where Linda signs words that Gordon says out loud right before the word is demonstrated on him. The last word in the skit is "pie" and it ends not with Gordon getting a pie to the face, but rather Linda being on the receiving end.
*** In episode 3051, that scene is followed by Maria getting creamed by accident courtesy of Fluffy, who had been meaning to hit Oscar. Oscar is then perplexed by Maria's reaction, which is to [[ActuallyPrettyFunny laugh hysterically]].
** The "Three Whipped Cream Pies on the Wall" segment, in which Maria pies Bob, Luis and David and then gets pelted with pies herself at the end of the number - although curiously the pies all miss her face.
** Ernie is pied by Bert in an early skit, after confusing the number 4 with first a chocolate cream and then a banana cream pie.
--->'''Ernie:''' ''[after being pied]'' I knew what it was all along, but who wants to get hit in the face with a 4?
* ThePigPen: Oscar the Grouch (and most grouches) love to get dirty.
* ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything: WordOfGod is that Gordon is a teacher (first elementary school, then later high school science); in the first episode he says that he's home early because a teachers meeting was called off. However, because he's only very rarely actually seen in a classroom, and indeed seems to always be available whenever the Street plot of the day requires it, many casual viewers aren't aware of this fact. In fact, ''Series/MadTV'' once lampshaded this in a skit about the recession hitting Sesame Street, and Gordon - now riding an ice cream cart - remarks, [[ObliquelyObfuscatedOccupation "Oh, I lost my job doing whatever it is I did before."]]
* PlainPalate: Downplayed for Bert, who likes plain things like oatmeal and plain water and dislikes ice cream sodas due to not being plain enough, but is also shown enjoying non-plain food (one sketch has him mad that Ernie took his chocolate ice cream for instance).
* PlatonicValentine:
** In one episode, discussing racism and interracial friendship, Gina and Savion, who are a white woman and a black man who are best friends, sing a FriendshipSong that involves [[HurricaneOfEuphemisms a list of synonyms for "friends"]], one of them being "Valentines".
** One song is about preschool-aged best friends Elmo and Abby making Valentines for each other, likely because they're too young to have romantic love interests.
** During the "Nine Chickens" song, eight of the chickens give a Valentine to their neighbour.
* PolkaDotDisease: One episode focuses on Big Bird getting the "Birdy Pox", which is a disease most birds of his species and age get and is characterised by being covered in itchy green dots.
* PottyDance:
** In "Elmo's Potty Time", Baby Bear squirms and Elmo asks if he's dancing. Baby Bear says that, no, he's fidgeting and says he has to go himself.
** In the licensed game "Potty Plan", Elmo or Abby starts squirming if they need to go to the bathroom.
* PottyEmergency:
** Baby Bear Grover and Curly Bear get potty emergencies in "Elmo's Potty Time".
** In the game "Potty Plan", if you idle, Elmo or Abby's need to go to the bathroom becomes more urgent.
* PottyFailure:
** The Elmo's Potty Time special has a whole song about wetting oneself, called "Accidents Happen".
** Discussed in the licensed game "Elmo's Potty Time" when they mention not wanting to have accidents.
** In the licensed game "Potty Plan", Elmo or Abby can have accidents if you idle.
** One doll called Potty Time Elmo can have accidents.
* PowerOutagePlot: An Ernie and Bert segment from the 1970s has Ernie notice that it's darker than usual when they are in bed at night, and how all the lights on Sesame Street are out, and Bert explains that it's a blackout and what it is. But then Ernie torments Bert (as usual) with suggesting things they can do during the blackout, such as watch TV or listen to their radio or record player, not knowing they all require electricity to operate.
** The above sketch actually tied in to three different episodes all of which were about a blackout: episode 652, episode 2071, and episode 2210.
* PreciousPuppy: The 2021 HBO Max exclusive animated special ''Furry Friends Forever: Elmo Gets a Puppy'' involves Elmo and Grover befriending a female stray puppy named "Tango". Throughout the special, they try taking her to Sesame Street's "Pet Adoption Fair" held at the park. However, Elmo and Grover missed the event which causes [[https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2021/07/06/credit-sesame-workshop-2-_wide-a5275f51adc6bae236e7ff5a32a0329a9cb5d787-s800-c85.webp Elmo to fully adopt Tango and become his second pet]]. She will eventually show up on the PBS KIDS streaming programs starting in 2022 and future episodes of the series.
* PregnantReptile: Slimey's mother is shown being pregnant, despite being a worm.
* PrejudiceAesop:
** The song "We All Sing with the Same Voice" is about how people all look different, have different families, and come from different places, but we're all the same in many ways.
** "No Matter What Your Language" is also about how even though we speak different languages, have different names etc., we're still all the same in many ways.
** Another song, "No Matter What", is about how people are all different, but still do human things like shiver, laugh, cry, etc.
** One cartoon skit is about a Native American boy telling two white boys Native Americans don't really speak in TontoTalk.
** In one episode, Gina gets a racist phone call saying she can't be best friends with Savion because they have different skin colours. She tells Telly that some people think people with different skin colours can't be friends, but that those people are stupid.
** One song is about how families with only one parent, or with grandparents, aunts, and/or uncles as legal guardians, are just as legitimately families as families with two parents.
* PrettyInMink: In a Christmas special, one of the (human) women wears a rabbit fur jacket.
* PrisonEpisode: ''Little Children, Big Challenges: Incarceration'' (a stand-alone special) tells about how sometimes people violate the law (a "grown up rule") and have to go to jail or prison.
* PutOnABus:
** David. Northern Calloway, who was experiencing mental health and other personal issues in the late 1980s, left the show after the end of Season 20 (he was either fired or resigned, depending on which story one believes), and--since David was still fairly prominent well into 1989--his departure was explained in the premiere episode of Season 21, which aired in November 1989. Gordon receives a postcard and reads it to Elmo, explaining that David had moved to Florida to care for his grandmother and manage her farm. David is still presumed to be alive, as to this day, he has not been mentioned again. Calloway's real life, meanwhile, continued to spiral downhill and in January 1990, he suffered a massive nervous breakdown that killed him.
** Also Roosevelt Franklin, Harvey Kneeslapper, Simon Soundman, Placido Flamingo, Forgetful Jones, Don Music, Sherlock Hemlock, Sam the Robot... In fact, too many to count, as there have been hundreds of Muppets over the last 48 years, so there is no way around this. Even some of the core 'legacy Muppets', like Herry Monster, are seldom seen on the show today.
*** Actually averted in the cases of Herry & Roosevelt. See TheBusCameBack for more details.
** An unusual Muppet case is Countess von Backwards, introduced in 1990 as a love interest for the Count. After appearing in two sketches, her performer, Camille Bonora, refused to play the character anymore, since, as a devout Christian, she was uncomfortable with the occult connotations of a vampirish puppet. The Countess was dropped.
* QuarterHourShort: The Elmo block, which featured either ''Elmo the Musical'' or the original, longer version of ''Series/ElmosWorld'', took up the last eleven minutes of the hour-long version of ''Sesame Street'' starting in 1998.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tropes Brought to you by the Letter R]]
* RaidersOfTheLostParody: The Season 39 premiere "The Golden Triangle of Destiny"; after 'Minnesota Mel' shows up and tells Telly and Chris about said triangle, Mel gets a 'charley horse', so Telly gets his own costume, calls himself 'Texas Telly' and takes his place.
* RatingsStunt: The "Around the Corner" era of 1993-1998, in which the Street expanded to include several new and colourful characters and their businesses (notably the Furry Arms Hotel). This was done due to increasing competition from Series/BarneyAndFriends.
* ReallyDeadMontage: Mr. Hooper would've gotten one, but the producers decided it would confuse the younger viewers.
* RealLifeWritesThePlot: The September 11 World Trade Center attack served as the basic underlying framing device for the Season 33 premiere episode, in which Hooper's Store catches fire, much to Elmo's horror. He gets invited to the local fire station, and sees what firefighters do to save people's lives, which helps Elmo with his fears.
* RealTime: Used sometimes, and occasionally lampshaded.
--> ''Fifteen fingers (with a friend); \\
In fifteen seconds, this film will end...''
* RearrangeTheSong: The series kept its original theme for 23 seasons, then rearranged it to a calypso version in Season 24, then to an arrangement in the spirit of the original in Season 30, a bouncy swing version in Season 33, a hip-hop-inspired version in Season 38 (which was remixed into a funk-jazz version in Season 40 with additional acoustic and brass instrumentation, and remixed ''again'' in Season 42 with the addition of more percussion). Most recently a shorter folk-inspired version debuted in Season 46 when the [[ChannelHop home of the series' first-run airings moved from]] Creator/{{PBS}} to Creator/{{HBO}}.
* ReminderFailure:
** In the picture book ''Don't Forget the Oatmeal!'', Bert and Ernie go grocery shopping, with Bert remarking at the beginning that it's particularly important that they remember to get more oatmeal. [[StringOnFingerReminder Bert ties a string around his finger to help him remember.]] At the supermarket they get distracted by a Cookie Monster rampage, and when they get home they discover that they've bought everything on their list except the oatmeal.
** A classic animated sketch has a young girl being given directions about what groceries to pick up for her mother. She walks all the way to the store repeating the three items she has to get only to momentarily forget the third when she's actually in the store. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Im4GwUD1UY8&feature=fvwrel After a few second of being puzzled, she does remember the right thing to buy]], however.
* RequiredSpinoffCrossover: The ''Bert and Ernie's Great Adventures'' claymation series features the title duo and a series of new characters. The only short to feature another ''Sesame'' regular is "Wizards," which features Elmo in a prominent role.
* {{Retcon}}: It's intentionally invoked in Season 46: as mentioned above (see ChaosArchitecture), Hooper's Store has been given a vintage/retro redesign that's much more reminiscent of the original store from TheSeventies, making it seem as if the store has just set there and aged for 46 years, as opposed to having been renovated several times. The store does now offer free wi-fi, showing that it still keeps up with the time regardless.
* {{Retool}}: The show has always been described as an "experiment," where new things are tried out each year. Though the majority of the changes through the first three decades were fairly minor (dropping/adding certain characters and segments), major changes to the format have been done since the mid-2000s:
** In 2002, the show was modeled after the day of a preschool child and became more structured; daily recurring segments happened in a specific sequence, and the street story, originally shown in parts throughout the hour, was condensed into one approx. 12 minute block.
** In 2009, the show kept a similar format, only now modeled after pre-school programing blocks (such as Nick Jr.) with more long-form segments incorporated into the show.
** 2016's changes condensed the show to a half-hour format, and shifted the show's focus to a central cast of seven (Elmo, Abby, Cookie Monster, Grover, Big Bird, Oscar and Rosita), while the other Muppet characters are downgraded to supporting roles.
* RingRingCrunch: Subverted in the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yA2HFd_rBA "Time to Tick Tock" skit]] from the early 1990s with an alarm clock being used to count up to twelve in a boogie-woogie style, and among hitting twelve it rings very loudly and then breaks apart ''on its own''.
* RobotBuddy: Sam the Robot tried to be this in TheSeventies, but just couldn't get things right.
* RockPaperScissors:
** A newspaper sold at Hooper's Store featured the headline "Rock Wins! Paper and Scissors are bummed..."
** In episodes 4145 and 4225, two pigs are shown to be constantly playing this game and keep tying at "Paper." This results in them constantly going...
--> "Rock paper scissors SHOOT!" "Paper." "Paper." "TIEEEEEEEE!"
* RoommateDrama: Ernie and Bert are two single puppet characters who live together and share a bedroom. Ernie is silly while Bert is serious, which causes comedic struggles such as Ernie waking up Bert in the middle of the night and them arguing over food.
* RousingLullaby:
** One episode had Ricky Gervais sing Elmo "the N Song", which was generally a relaxing song on an accoustic guitar until the refrain, when it switches to a loud electric guitar and Ricky loudly sings "N goes NA NA NA, NA NA NANA NA NA..."
** In another, [[GrumpyBear Oscar]] is [[BabysittingEpisode babysitting baby Natasha]], he tries to sing her a lullaby, but finds it boring, so he sings it quickly. Natasha doesn't fall asleep, but she doesn't seem too bothered by the song.
** In the ''Elmo's Goodnight Stories'' tie-in book, Elmo wants to sing his mother's lullaby to his school friends, but forgets everything about it except that it involves shaking excess energy out of the extremities and turns it into an exercise song, which Ernie promptly lampshades.
* RubeGoldbergDevice: Kermit's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cog2a3YeDMM What Happens Next machine]]. Or at least, it tries to be.
* RunningGag: In "Elmo's Christmas Countdown", Elmo keeps saying "It's a Christmas miracle!"
[[/folder]]

* SesameStreet/SesameStreetCred

[[folder:Tropes Brought to you by the Letters K and L]]
* KangarooCourt: In one episode, Telly is angry with a penguin and thinks about what would happen if he hit the penguin. It's all an ImagineSpot, but he goes to court and an all-penguin jury says he's guilty at the very start of the trial. The judge is the Count, who lengthens Telly's sentence just so he can count years in jail.
* KentBrockmanNews:
** The Sesame Street News Flash segments with reporter Kermit.
** Also a scene in ''[[BigDamnMovie Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird]]'' where an anchorman, played by Creator/ChevyChase, reports on the disappearance of Big Bird from his foster family's home in Illinois. He responds to a question by Grover [[BreakingTheFourthWall (who is watching the broadcast)]], has to be corrected by someone offscreen on the pronunciation of the word "sesame", and finally gives the weather report as [[Series/MisterRogersNeighborhood "It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor. Would you be mine?"]] in a completely deadpan tone.
* KidAppealCharacter: Obviously all of the Muppets count as this, but in season 1, Bert, Ernie, Big Bird and Oscar were more like broadly comedic characters that kids and parents could find entertaining. In season 2, Big Bird became more childlike and Grover, with his furry exuberance, became a fast favorite among younger viewers. Then in TheEighties, Elmo became this ''big time'', with the show's audience skewing younger along with his popularity. Later characters like Zoe and Abby Cadabby were created specifically for Kid Appeal.
* TheKilljoy: Oscar the Grouch is as grouchy as his name indicates and he doesn't want people having fun near the trash bin he lives in. If someone is having fun near him, he'll often purposely try to make them angry.
* KingKongCopy: In one skit, a large primate is invading a city and the skit talks about various physical sensations (hunger, thirst, being too hot, and having to pee) and shows how the primate deals with them (eating a store that's ShapedLikeWhatItSells, namely burgers, drinking from the fire hydrant, using a plane's propeller to cool down, and using a giant toilet respectively).
* KissingInATree: The rhyme itself isn't used, but the events described are frequently discussed with other characters - including and especially Muppets - as Luis and Maria's relationship evolves from close friendship to deep romance and they become parents, all before everyone's eyes. The concept was put to good use, as the romance was the curriculum focus for season 19, and the pregnancy was the same for season 20.
* LackOfImagination: Zigzagged for Bert. Usually, Ernie will imagine crazy things and have a hard time getting Bert to imagine them, but occasionally, [[NotSoAboveItAll Bert ends up imagining them as well]] (such as in the "It's a Circle" song where Ernie convinces Bert that the circle is "so much more" than one), and in one rendition of "The Middle of Imagination", ''Bert'' encourages ''Ernie'' to use his imagination.
* LargeHam: Frank Oz is known to ham up his Muppet characters, from regulars like Bert, Grover and Cookie Monster, to minor and one-off characters in the 70s and 80s.
* LampshadeWearing: Thanks to Grover's antics trying to "help" Kermit at the end of a sketch on "light" and "dark", Kermit winds up with a lampshade on his head.
** During "Sesame Street Stays Up Late!" Telly tries at one point to hide from the New Year by hiding inside Finders Keepers and wearing a lampshade on his head, telling Freddie to "act like a lamp".
* LastMinuteBabyNaming:
** Baby Bear goes to meet his new baby sister. He asks her name, and their parents say they haven't thought of one yet. Baby Bear goes to check the baby out, and while he's looking at her, he remarks "Hey, you're a little curly bear." Their parents overhear him and decide to name the baby just that.
** In the picture book ''Me Cookie!'', a baby blue monster is known only as Baby Monster, even after he starts walking and talking until finally he names himself, insisting to his babysitter "Me not Baby Monster, me Cookie Monster!"
* TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers: Played straight ... a recognition game where viewers were asked to identify the odd item out of a group of (typically) four. (For instance, a pair of shoes in three boxes, but a fourth only has one shoe.) Sometimes, played with actions -- for instance, children engaged in various physical activities in three boxes, but the fourth is of a child reading.
* TheLastStraw:
** A mouse gets on an [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLntp4SuwdQ already overloaded elevator]] and it shakes and explodes.
** A kid yanks the bottom can off a stack, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2j2O7M5Riw and the whole store collapses.]]
** In one of Prairie Dawn's pageants about "heavy" and "light", one character named Creator/{{Monty|Python}} is struggling to hold up a boulder and another named Merry is holding a feather. Monty eventually drops the boulder onto Prairie's piano, nearly crushing it. Then, Merry places the feather on top, completely crushing it.
* LazilyGenderFlippedName: Telly names his hamster Chuckie, but she turns out to be a girl, so he renames her Chuckie Sue.
* LeastRhymableWord: When Bert doesn't want to play at rhyming with Ernie, he says, "Hippopotamus!", but Ernie just says, "Rip-a-cotta-puss."
* LeftTheBackgroundMusicOn:
** Whenever the theme music plays, the characters can hear it, and know that it's time to [[BreakingTheFourthWall say hello or goodbye to the viewers]]. This was a plot point on at least two occasions - one in an episode where Oscar was trying to get it out of his head as he found it too happy, another in an episode where Maria and Big Bird use the music to help Forgetful Jones remember the name of the street.
** In a SickEpisode where Big Bird and Zoe had colds and Telly was delivering messages to/from them, every time he was delivering a message, dynamic music would play, which got slower every time, a fact which he found annoying.
** In the episode where a penguin takes Telly's cap, chase music plays while he chases the penguin. Halfway through the chase, the penguin chases Telly instead, which prompts Telly to ask that they stop the chase music while they switch places.
* {{Leitmotif}}:
** During the years when Mr. Snuffleupagus was only seen by Big Bird, Snuffy's entrances and exits were accompanied by one of these.
** In recent years, the street stories have much more musical score, allowing for more of these to sneak in. Super Grover particularly is often accompanied by his classic theme.
** Sherlock Hemlock also has his "detective music".
** The Grand High Triangle Lover has his regal sounding fanfare to signal his entrance and exit.
* LetsMeetTheMeat: A lot of skits with morals about food will feature food that wants to be eaten.
* LimitedWardrobe:
** Abby nearly always wears the same blue dress.
** Louie always wears the same blue jacket.
** Count Von Count really loves his outfit.
* LiteralMetaphor: On re-entry the ''Wiggleprise'' ends up landing Around The Corner in a wash bucket full of water; it turns out "splashdown" is the proper term for a spaceship's landing on return to Earth.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: In the nearly 50 years of its existence, countless puppets and human characters have appeared on the show.
* LocationSong: "(Can you tell me how to get to) Sesame Street?" - The theme song, which essentially has children asking people, how can they find this street?
* LongLostUncleAesop:
** Episode 2687, "The Golden Cabbage of Snufertiti", features Bob's AdventurerArchaeologist brother Minneapolis in a street story with the Aesop "Siblings can love each other even if they don't have much in common." Actually justified in that one of the differences between the two is that Minneapolis likes to be on the move while Bob prefers to stay on Sesame Street (though Minneapolis does promise to visit again sometime down the line).
** One episode featured Zoe's aunt Chloe, who only served for the purpose of the Aesop "if someone does something to you which you don't like, just tell them" (Chloe tickled Zoe which she didn't like).
* LongRunners: "50 years and counting" as of 2019; The phrase was the slogan for the MilestoneCelebration campaign.
* LongRunnerCastTurnover: With the exception of three performers - the late Carroll Spinney (Big Bird and Oscar), Bob [=McGrath=] (Bob) and Loretta Long (Susan), who were there for over 45 years - the entire cast has turned over since the first episode aired in November 1969. The longest-tenured cast members after them, aside from Muppet performers, are Emilio Delgado (Luis) and Sonia Manzano (Maria) with both first appearing in 1971, and Roscoe Orman (Gordon, who in 1974 became [[TheOtherDarrin the third actor to play the role]]); Allison Bartlett O'Reilly (Gina, joining in 1987) the next longest-tenured. Everyone else has come and gone with much shorter runs on the show.
* LostPetGrievance: Has ''anybody'' seen Marty's dog?
* LoudOfWar: An early [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2DNiAWgMRY Bert and Ernie sketch]] has the duo engaging in one of these when Ernie hogs the TV set, and Bert turns the record player on to drown him out, which leads to Ernie turning the radio on to drown out the record player, then Bert responds by turning a blender on to drown out the radio... all of which leads to a fuse blowing and the power going out in their apartment.
* LowerDeckEpisode: ''Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration'' puts a lot of its focus on characters that [[TheBusCameBack haven't appeared in a long time]], and every one of them gets at least one line.

[[folder:Tropes Brought to you by the Letter M]]
* MaliciousMisnaming: In the "good birds' club" episode, the bully bird insults Big Bird by calling him "Big [noun that isn't 'bird']."
* ManOfAThousandVoices: Depending on the era of the show.
** In the old days, most of the generic, one-shot Anything Muppet characters were performed by either Frank Oz, or Jerry Nelson and Richard Hunt.
** For a while in the early 2000s, many of the female [=AM=]s were performed by Stephanie D'Abruzzo.
** Presently, almost every female Muppet is performed by Leslie Carrara-Rudolph.
* MeaningfulName:
** Gonnigan, Abby's classmate on the ''Abby's Flaying Fairy School'' segment. When nervous or upset he turns invisible, and therefore is "gone again".
** Don ''Music'' is a musician.
** The Count is a pun on counting and Count Dracula.
** Subverted with Telly, who started out preoccupied with watching television but now isn't.
* MeatOVision: In the ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' parody "Aveggies: Age of Bon Bon" on the episode about focus, Cookie Monster (as Dr. Brownie) keeps getting distracted from stopping the alien spaceship and seeing his teammates' equipment as snack food. He sees [[ComicBook/CaptainAmerica Captain Ameri-cauliflower]]'s shield as giant cookie and [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor The Mighty Corn]]'s hammer as a marshmallow and eats both of them.
* MedicalGame: ''[[https://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/sesame-interactive-elmo-goes-to-the-doctor/elmo-goes-to-the-doctor-sesame-street/ Elmo Goes to the Doctor]]'' is a licensed game about Elmo being treated for a cold, a toothache, or an earache. It has a BittersweetEnding, ending with him still in recovery.
* MediumBlending:
** Abby Cadabby moves from live-action to the computer-generated Flying Fairy School. Similarly, Bert and Ernie have ''Great Adventures'' in StopMotion.
** The ''Magical Wand Chase'' movie combines puppetry with CGI.
* {{Meganekko}}: Smart Tina in the Roosevelt Franklin sketches wears glasses, but makes this a ZigzaggedTrope, since instead of being meek and sweet she's a SmallNameBigEgo victim who's a KnowNothingKnowItAll.
* MelancholyMusicalNumber:
** "When Bert's Not Here" is a song by Ernie about how sad he feels when Bert is away.
** "Sad" is a song by Little Jerry and the Monotones about how sad Little Jerry feels after several bad things, like losing his dime and having a terrible time at school, happen.
*** Another song with the same name was sung by Olivia, who had gone from feeling fine to being sad for seemingly no reason.
** "Don't Walk" is about a groom who is very sad due to not being able to cross the street to his bride because of the 'don't walk' song.
** "All I Can Do is Cry" is a song sung by a kitten who's sad due to losing her mitten.
** "It's All Right to Cry" is a song set to a live-action film about how all people cry for various reasons, not just babies.
** "Wandering Through Wonderland" is a song Abby sings as she's lost in a place based on Wonderland from ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'' and wants to go back home.
** "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe" is about some cowboys and cowgirls at a cafe specially designed to cry things out at.
** "Just Take a Look at 15" is by a singing 15 girl who feels unnoticed.
* MissedMealAesop: This show has done this many times, with breakfast being the one they talk about most:
** In the song "The Most Important Meal of the Day" ([[EitherOrTitle also known]] as "[[TheSomethingSong The Breakfast Song]]"), a chef sings to a little boy who wants to skip breakfast, telling him not to because breakfast is the most important meal and everyone needs it.
** In another song, "The Breakfast Club" (which doesn't have anything to do with [[Film/TheBreakfastClub the movie]] apart from the title), a group of people sing that you should eat breakfast every morning as it's healthy for you.
** In one skit, Super Grover loses his SuperStrength (and becomes too weak to even lift a briefcase) because he skipped breakfast, and the Super Foods (AnthropomorphicFood in super suits) give him some food, gaining him his powers back.
** Downplayed for the "Breakfast is the Best Meal of the Day" song that [[CloudCuckoolander Ernie]] sings. While he does sing about how breakfast gives him energy in the morning, and that supposedly makes it the best, the song is mainly played for comedy, due to the [[SurrealHumour surreality]] of him singing it at night.
* MistakenForThief:
** Zigzagged in one Ernie and Bert skit. Bert observes Ernie sitting with a plate of crumbs and holding a fork and a piece of chocolate cake gone. Logically, Bert thinks Ernie ate the piece of cake, but Ernie makes up a story about a monster eating it, shaking off the crumbs, and putting the fork in Ernie's hand. Bert doesn't believe him and Ernie admits that he did eat the cake, but when Bert leaves, the monster does the exact thing Ernie described with the other piece of cake.
** At one point, Bert thinks Ernie took his cookies, but really it was Cookie Monster in disguise.
** In a 2002 episode Cookie Monster is accused of having taken cookies from a few different characters after having been specifically told not to. It turns out to be a one-shot character named Cookie Hood who was taking them.
* MistakesAreNotTheEndOfTheWorld:
** In one episode, the Count accidentally counts the same number twice and decides to give up counting and find a new job, lest he make another mistake. However, all the other jobs turn out to involve counting in some way and when Elmo makes the same error and declares that ''he'' will give up counting, he decides that accepting errors is better than giving up counting.
** The song "Accidents Happen" from "Elmo's Potty Time" is about how it's acceptable and normal for kids to have accidents during their potty-training.
** "Everyone Makes Mistakes" is a song about how everyone makes mistakes, so it's fine if you make them.
** When Rosita writes the "R" in her name backwards, Big Bird fails to dunk a ball, Zoe and Abby fall over while dancing, Bert forgets the lyrics to a song, Cookie Monster burns some cookies, the Two-Headed Monster fails to drum, and Elmo makes a math error, a woman sings a song called "The Power of Yet", implying that they can't do what they're trying to ''yet'' but will be able to in the future.
** In an animated skit, a girl named Cookie breaks the window and considers lying to her mother that her cat Lucy broke it. However, she then imagines her family making Lucy sleep in Bruno the dog's bed, which he wouldn't like, so he'd scare her away, never to be seen again. Cookie, not wanting Lucy to run away, tells the truth to her mother, who tells her that sometimes accidents just happen, but at least she told the truth and can do better next time.
** Played with in an episode. Linda breaks Ruthie's pitcher but because she's in a hurry, she didn't see it, and because she's deaf, she didn't hear it. Elmo forgets that Linda is deaf and thinks that she didn't tell Ruthie because she's afraid, so he asks Ruthie what "someone" should do if they broke the pitcher and were afraid to tell. Ruthie thinks that ''Elmo'' broke the pitcher and is afraid to tell, so she tells him the story of when she broke her uncle's lamp as a girl. Ruthie's uncle was apparently sad about the lamp, but not mad, because he knew it was an accident. Elmo tries to spread this information to Linda, which leads to everyone finding out the actual truth.
** Downplayed in one episode. Elmo learns how to roller-blade and people keep telling him that it's OK to fall down, but Elmo seems to already know that.
** The song "Trying and Trying Again" has such lyrics as "Don't be afraid because you are small, and don't be afraid that you may fall. You can get it after all; it just takes time".
** The book "Potty Training with Abby" has Abby say that she sometimes either turns the toilet into a pumpkin or wets her pants, but it's normal to make mistakes while potty training.
** In the book "P is for Potty", Elmo's cousin Albie wets his pants and Elmo and his mother Mae reassure him that it's normal and Elmo used to wet his pants as well.
** In the book "Everyone Makes Mistakes", Big Bird accidentally knocks over some laundry and tries to lie about it, but then learns that it's fine to make mistakes, but not to lie.
** In the book "Toilet Time", when the narrator points out that Ernie had accidents as a toddler learning to use the bathroom, then says, "That's OK, Ernie!".
** Downplayed in the online game "Elmo's Potty Time". Elmo doesn't have an accident, but Louie, his father, tells him that it's OK to have them anyway.
* MonikerAsEnticement: An in-universe example in "Elmo's Potty Time", when Baby Bear says that since he's potty trained, he's a "potty animal" and when Curly's potty trained she'll be one too, but there's no mention of that label applying to the audience.
* MonsterShapedMountain: When they visited Hawaii, Big Bird spent a lot of time looking for Mount Snuffleupagus; a mountain shaped like, well, a Snuffleupagus.
%%* TheMovie: ''Film/FollowThatBird'' (1985) and ''Film/TheAdventuresOfElmoInGrouchland'' (1999).
* MultiNationalShows: We heartily recommend the documentary ''The World According to Sesame Street'' on this subject.
* MultipleEndings: The 123 red ball sculpture film has two endings.
** One has the ball being crushed into a powder, while the other sees the balls triggering a machine which places cherries on three ice cream sundaes.
** A number of films on the letter or number of the day have the same basic theme and format, but are edited to feature a different letter or number. In their full form, most of the counting films go up to 20.
* MultipleHeadCase: The two-headed muppet.
* MundaneMadeAwesome:
** Music/AndreaBocelli singing a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BDVvB7Xx1w lullaby]]
** "Lever Lover" is a song about how levers are amazing due to their ability to lift things and pivot.
** Ernie once sings "I Love My Toes" about how great toes are.
** Ernie and Bert once sing a song about how amazing sleep is.
* {{Muppet}}: Jim Henson brought his Muppets to the show in the beginning, but the Muppets who debuted on ''Series/SesameStreet'' and those who didn't have been under separate headship since the 90s.
* TheMusicMeister: A 2010 [[http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Episode_4220 episode]] had Elmo take on this role by pure accident - he decided to play with Abby's wand when she left it behind after leaving to do an errand; he accidentally learned the music spell while pretending to be a conductor with it and decided to use it on everyone on the street.
* MustacheVandalism: The segment where Muppet cowboys compare a "Wanted" poster of Cookie Monster with the actual Cookie Monster. When their suspicion peaks, Cookie distracts them long enough to draw a mustache on the poster. The cowboys notice the disparity, and apologize for suspecting him. Cookie Monster amiably tips his hat--and lots of stolen cookies tumble out.
* MyNaymeIs:
** '''Herry''' Monster
** '''Merry''' Monster.
** Gabi
** Tarah
* MythologyGag: Season 40 is filled with them, ranging from props with a hidden reference on them to onscreen cameos from some of the performers. [[http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Season_40_Hidden_Gems Click here]] for a complete list.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: In the sketch when the Count sleeps over with Ernie and Bert, Ernie recommends that the Count should count sheep so he can fall asleep. But he ends up enjoying counting them, and when it begins thundering from his counting, a horrified Ernie gives this look.
* MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch: Oscar's friend Felix is a neat grouch, and Oscar's cousin George is a positive grouch.

[[folder:Tropes Brought to you by the Letter N]]
* NeatFreak:
** Bert doesn't like it when Ernie is messy.
** Unusually for a grouch, Oscar's friend Felix likes to clean.
* NegativeContinuity: In the 35th anniversary special, ''The Street We Live On'', Grover takes Elmo back in time to the Sesame Street before he was born, via a magic time traveling taxi cab. Via flashbacks, Grover takes Elmo to Maria and Luis's wedding, however, Elmo was the ring bearer at the wedding (and constantly worried about dropping the rings). In fact, Elmo can be seen ''in the flashback''. Can't really imagine how that got past the writers, producers, editors, etc.
* {{Neologism}}:
** One animated skit tells you not to be a ''snerd'' when you sneeze.
** When Bert challenges Ernie to rhyme "hippopotamus", Ernie says, "Rip-a-cotta-puss!".
** Natasha calls her doll her "hoongie".
* NeverSayDie: Several aversions.
** Averted, with Mr. Hooper's death.
** The song "One Way" also opens with the line "I'm so lonely, I wish I was dead".
** As does "On The Subway" ("So hot I could die...").
** Also averted when Elmo's Uncle Jack dies, they clearly use the words "die" and "dead", though it's part of a video which didn't air on TV.
* NewBabyEpisode:
** ''A Baby Sister For Herry'' is a book based on the show. When Herry's baby sister, Flossie is born, Herry becomes jealous of the attention she receives from his friends and relatives. Herry also dislikes when his parents have to remind him to be considerate of her, such as not playing with his toy fire engine outside her bedroom so she can sleep. Herry later decides to act like a baby so his parents will give him some attention, and when his mom finds out, she shows him pictures of what he looked like when he was a baby. This makes Herry realize that he used to be like Flossie, so he changes his attitude and helps take care of her.
** In one episode, Maria, who had been pregnant by Luis for a while now, goes into labour and eventually gives birth to Gabriella.
** In a two-part episode, Curly Bear is born. The first part focuses on Mama Bear's pregnancy and labour, and the second part focuses on Baby Bear acclimating to Curly Bear's presence.
** In the song "We've Got a Brand New Baby", a girl named Freda (who, coincidentally, has the same puppet as Ingrid) gains a new brother and sings about how she finds him annoying, with his crying and inability to do much.
** The DirectToVideo release "A New Baby in My House" has an in-universe example: Snuffy is mad at Alice for breaking his toy tiger, so their mother reads them a story about a boy who was also mad at his younger sister. In this case, it was a little prince named Firstly who was frustrated with the newborn princess Azalea for taking up attention.
** One two-part episode focuses on Gina adopting a ten-month-old boy named Marco.
** In one episode, Luis looks after [[EggMacGuffin the egg of a Honker couple]]. When the egg hatches, the newly-hatched Honker baby starts [[{{Imprinting}} calling Luis, "Daddy"]]. When the baby's parents arrive, Luis points out that the male Honker looks a lot more like the baby than Luis does, which convinces it that the Honker is his real daddy.
* NewYearHasCome: The prime time special "Sesame Street Stays Up Late!" (retitled on video as "Sesame Street Celebrates Around the World") features the adults heading out to one New Year's Eve party and Gina hosting another one for the kids. The adults return via the subway station just in time for the kids' mock ball drop courtesy of Wolfgang the seal. Elmo hosts a Creator/{{CNN}}-type newscast about how New Year's Eve is celebrated around the world. It even has an Israel segment about Rosh Hashanah which ties into Sesame Street's Israeli-American spinoff, ''Shalom Sesame''.
* NicheNetwork: In ''Elmo's World'', Elmo's TV tunes in to these kinds of channels to teach kids.
* TheNicknamer: Oscar the Grouch is this for almost all of his Sesame Street neighbors; to him, Gordon is "[[DontExplainTheJoke Curly]]," Big Bird is "Turkey," Maria is "Skinny," Bob is "Bright Eyes," Telly is "Worry Wart," and Elmo is "Little Red Menace," Oscar has nicknames for others, too.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Every one of Oscar the Grouch's schemes to ruin everybody's day backfire, resulting in everyone being happier instead.
* NightmareSequence:
** Cookie Monster had a nightmare once about flying cookies that wouldn't let him eat them, and another nightmare about a talking cookie who used to be a monster.
** Oscar has nightmares about butterflies and happy people in one episode.
* NoFourthWall:
** Often follows the common kids' TV convention in which the viewer is assumed to be "visiting" the show's characters.
** Episodes of ''Sesamstrasse'' (the German version) from 1978-88 -- when the show took place in a studio -- took it UpToEleven, where some episodes involved the studio crew helping the characters out.
* NobodyPoops: In episode 2042, Gordon makes plans to meet Mr. Snuffleupagus (who he finally believes in, despite not seeing him yet). He sets up a space by Oscar's trash can with everything he could need so he would be sure to stay and not miss out on seeing Snuffy, but nothing is brought up about how he would go to the bathroom. And aside from briefly having to go inside to take a phone call (missing his opportunity in the process), he stays out there until night time.
* NonResidentialResidence: Oscar the Grouch lives in a trash can.
* NonSequitur:
** Big Bird shouts things like, "Basil!" and "Sassafras!" when he's mad.
** The song "Watermelon's and Cheese" is about how you shouldn't say, "Watermelons and cheese" over the phone.
* NoPeripheralVision: At the end of "Cookie Disco", when Cookie panics over having no more cookies, there actually is a cookie visible on the wall in front, which he could easily spot. In this case, it's most likely unintentional, as during the early years segments were often done in one take (and it's unknown whether Frank Oz would have spotted it in the monitor when performing in the segment).
* NotAllowedToGrowUp: The human characters age normally but the Muppets and Monsters will stay the same age. Often times retcons are used when talking about stuff or flashbacking to things that they "should" have been too young for, such as Elmo being at Maria's and Luis' wedding.
%%* NothingExcitingEverHappensHere: Absolutely defied.
* NotSoForgottenBirthday: In the picture book ''Abby's Pink Party'', Elmo tries to cheer up Abby Cadabby who is sad because she thinks everyone forgot her birthday. The book ends with her surprise party.
* NotSoImaginaryFriend: Mr. Snuffleupagus was one of these for about a decade. This was eventually changed because it infuriated children, seeing Big Bird driven crazy by everyone's disbelief. Also, as per above, it occurred to the writers that perhaps having all the adults disbelieve Big Bird sent a very irresponsible message.
* NotWhereTheyThought: A RunningGag in the "Monster Clubhouse" skits is a man mistaking the Monster Clubhouse for a different clubhouse.
* NumerologicalMotif: In 2003, the budget people called for the show to be limited to 25 episodes a year. Lou Berger, the head writer at the time, pointed out that you can't exactly fire a letter of the alphabet, so now they each get one episode a year.

[[folder:Tropes Brought to you by the Letter O]]
* ObviouslyEvil: The first and second of the three "Japanese stories" sketches from 1971-72, "The Mystery of the Four Dragons" and "The Unhappy Empire", feature the "evil Prime Minister" of Imperial Japan, voiced by Frank Oz. As if the word "evil" wasn't enough of a clue to his true nature, his bushy eyebrows are permanently furrowed in a contemptuous scowl, and he never misses an opportunity to cackle malevolently.
* ObviouslyNotFine: When [[DitzyGenius Dr. Nobel Price]] is sad about his "invention" (socks) turning out to have already been invented, he claims that he's fine despite sobbing.
* OddCouple: Bert and Ernie, who live together but sleep in separate beds. It is never really clear whether they are partners, father and son or just friends.
* OdeToApathy:
** The song "That's What Friends are For" is about how Ernie and Bert sometimes do things that would ordinarily bother the other, but they don't mind because they're such good friends.
** The song "Born to Add" is about how an unnamed man and woman don't care that their loud addition at night is waking everyone up-- they'll keep doing it anyway.
* OdeToFood:
** As you'd expect, this is a Cookie Monster specialty, going all the way back to "C is for Cookie" (about how he loves cookies so much he doesn't care if 'cookie' is the only word that starts with 'C' that he can think of), plus "Food, Food, Food" (about different types of food), "Healthy Food" (about eating a balanced diet and different nutritious foods), "Breakfast Time" (about the different weird ways he eats cookies in the morning--boiling them, juicing them, frying them, etc.), "Hey Food" (a [[Music/PastMasters "Hey Jude"]] parody sung with The Beetles) and "The First Time Me Eat Cookie" (about his first time eating cookies at about age one)
** "The Celery Song" is a song by three kids called the Celery Bunch about how much they like celery.
** Invoked when Elmo uses Abby's wand to make it so nobody can speak, only sing, and makes Baby Bear and Alan sing a song dedicated to porridge.
** One song is sung by a boy who previously thought he didn't like zucchini about how it's the best food he's ever eaten now that he's tried some.
** "Everyone Likes Ice Cream" is about how liking ice cream is nearly universal despite the fact that everyone is different.
* OffScreenCrash: The show ''loves'' this trope (a loud crash from offscreen), particularly with Muppet segments.
* OnceASeason:
** The season premieres are usually the only episodes of the whole season to feature ''all'' of the human actors on the show, because they can't afford to do so more often than that. Often, this was used to showcase new and returning actors and establish personalities. [[note]]A prime example is the fifth-season premiere, aired in November 1973, where a "typical day on Sesame Street is shown, with not only the entire human cast but every one of the Muppet characters as well.[[/note]]
** During much of TheSeventies and (at least) [[TheEighties early-to-mid Eighties]], each year the show would have a week's worth of winter-themed episodes. Actually, ''two'' weeks: the first week would show snow falling, and the second week the whole street would be covered in snow. This didn't last long, and even now whenever they do Christmas specials there's very little snow cover; as Oscar once explained in an interview, "It used to snow, but it got too expensive."
** From Seasons 33 to 37, "Do De Rubber Duck" had become an annual treat for viewers. Ditto for "Imagine That".
* OneEpisodeFear:
** In "Afraid of the Bark", Zoe (and allegedly Rocco) develop a fear of dogs and the adults and Elmo help them lose it.
** In one episode, Elmo has a fear of fire, which he gains (due to Hooper's Store catching fire) and loses (due to visiting the firehouse) on the same episode.
* OneSteveLimit:
** The first three decades featured Little Chrissy, who has also been referred to as just Chrissy and as Chris. Chrissy was also the name of a member of Little Jerry and the Monotones, and both characters were voiced by (and named after) Christopher Cerf, though the Monotone Chrissy wasn't referred to by name often. Another Chris was added to the human cast in season 38, long after the Muppets with this name had stopped appearing on the show.
** There's Sam the Robot and Sinister Sam, as well as the owner of a store where the Busby Twins frequented, and a boy who appears in the home video ''Getting Ready to Read''.
** Bad Bart and Bert's brother Bart.
** A comical example occurred in a sketch where Kermit the Frog goes to pick-up a personalized t-shirt, only to get shirts for Kermit the Forg, Kermit the Gorf, and Kermit the Grof. At first it looks like the shirt maker made a mistake, until customers with those names show up to pick up their shirts.
* OneWordVocabulary: In the early 90s, a female construction worker Muppet named Stella was often seen with Biff and Sully, and all she would say was "Yo!"
* OnlySaneMan: Averted to the extreme, as most of the cast acts pretty eccentric at times, thanks partially at least to them attempting to simultaneously teach preschoolers about letters, numbers and other subjects.
* OnlyShopInTown: Hooper's Store is this to the titular street.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness:
** When Oscar starts acting kind rather than his usual grouchy self in "Oscar the Kind", the rest reacted with surprise.
** When Oscar reads "nice books" in one episode, people wonder if he's sick.
** When Barkley doesn't eat in one episode, it's a sign he's sick.
* OpeningBallet: Part of the opening sequence of ''Christmas Eve on Sesame Street'' involves an ice ballet in which Big Bird learns from a girl how to skate to the song "Feliz Navidad".
* OurVampiresAreDifferent:
** Count von Count. He has a shadow, enjoys being out in sunlight, can't turn into a bat, and doesn't seem to be interested in sucking blood at all. (One early skit did show him having no reflection in a mirror.) Official materials are [[FlipFlopOfGod inconsistent]] on whether he is even a vampire at all.
** In the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4l9mjSeAVW0 Twilight parody]], Cookie Monster plays "Shortbreadward" a "Yumpire" with an insatiable thirst for cookies.
* OutOfFocus: This happened to several characters after Elmo and later Abby Cadabby came to dominate the show. Some longtime characters such as Prairie Dawn, Oscar the Grouch and the Count aren't seen as much as they were in previous years. Saddest of all, Big Bird is only a periodic guest star. This may be an example of RealLifeWritesThePlot, as Jerry Nelson (the Count) suffered through several years of declining health before his death in 2012 and as Carroll Spinney has continued to perform as Big Bird and Oscar into his early 80s.
** Further examples of RealLifeWritesThePlot: Even before Jim Henson's death and Frank Oz's semi-retirement, their increasing commitments to outside projects starting in the late 1970's affected how often their respective characters would appear in new material. This particularly affected Ernie, Bert, Grover, Cookie Monster and Kermit the Frog, all of whom went from frequently appearing on the street interacting with the other characters to primarily appearing in pre-filmed inserts, as Jim and Frank were then only able to dedicate one week out of each year for such.
* OutSick: This happens quite a few times.
** Sort of inverted the time the child Gabi was sick on a Birthday Episode and so her friends couldn't come to her birthday party.
** Another time Grandmama Bear has a cold, so an older Gabi has to babysit.
** A third time Big Bird and Zoe both have colds, so they can't have a play-date (they have a "play-date by proxy" with Telly).
** A fourth time Gina was sick off her job so Savion filled in.
** Another time, Maria has a stomach virus and is sent to the hospital, so she can't do her job, but she comes back later that day.
** "You've Got to Be Patient to Be a Patient" is a song all about this: it's about how you can't go out and play while sick, so you'll just have to be patient. It's sung once to Big Bird when he has a lung infection, once to Maria when she has a stomach virus, and once to a little girl when she has the flu.
** In the song "Best Friend Blues", Ernie sings about how Bert can't play with him because he's sick.
** A 1997 episode involved Prairie Dawn falling ill with a cold the day one of her pageants is supposed to be performing, so she had Bob [[DraggedIntoDrag dress in drag like Prairie]] to take her place at said pageant.
* OvercomplicatedMenuOrder: In an early skit, Ernie asks an ice-cream man for a Chocolate, Strawberry, Peach, Vanilla, Banana, Pistachio, Peppermint, Lemon, Orange, Butterscotch ice-cream cone. Amazingly enough, the ice-cream man delivers! ... Except that Ernie is now upset because the cone was prepared ''upside-down''. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIR8ykXHNGs Watch it here.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tropes Brought to you by the Letters P and Q]]
* PantomimeAnimal: Barkley was portrayed by a performer who crouched down on all fours and crawled while wearing the Barkley mask like a helmet.
* PaperThinDisguise: A RunningGag of the 2016 "Smart Cookies" segments is that the villain, the Crumb, is able to get past Cookie Monster with the most minor disguises, such as a mustache or even simply a bow-tie. Because Cookie Monster is comparing him to a digital photo, these elements don't appear, allowing Cookie to be easily fooled.
** An Ernie and Bert segment from TheSeventies had Ernie trying out a disguise kit consisting of these and tries to fool Bert with them, disguising as a pirate and Little Red Riding Hood. The problem is, Bert sees through all of them (especially since Ernie ''forgot to remove his pirate beard'' for the Red Riding Hood disguise, and he doesn't want to be disturbed while reading his "Boring Stories" book. But then TheBigBadWolf arrives and Bert assumes it's [[MistakenForAnImpostor Ernie in another disguise]], until Ernie shows up through the doorway just as the Wolf is munching on Bert's chair. Cue the OhCrap look from Bert.
* ParanoiaFuel: Invoked InUniverse and played for laughs during the W-ORD News segment with John Oliver and Cookie Monster. One of the top stories is teased by John Oliver as "The word 'crumb' ends with a 'b', but you ''never hear it''. What's it doing back there, and how can you protect yourself?"
* ParentalBonus: A deliberate part of the show from the beginning. One of the first producers described the plan for the show back in 1969 as "A show that will entertain parents so much, they'll force their kids to watch."
** If not the actual originator of the concept, then ''Sesame Street'' is certainly the most sophisticated. Includes parodies of current celebrities, movies and songs, such as 'Monsterpiece Theater', a ''Series/MasterpieceTheatre'' spoof hosted by Alistair Cookie. It's ''really'' doubtful that preschoolers would get a ''Theatre/WaitingForGodot'' parody. Or, for that matter, one based around ''Film/{{The 39 Steps|1935}}''.
** They did a parody of ''Mystery!'' in the early 90s, called ''Mysterious Theater'' with Vincent Twice, a spoof of ''Creator/VincentPrice''.
** ''Series/FamilyFeud'' was parodied in 1981 as ''Family Food'' with Richard Dawson as the host.
** There were 2 ''Series/WheelOfFortune'' parodies. One was ''Squeal of Fortune'' with Pat Playjacks and Velma Blank. The other was ''Dreidel of Fortune'' with host ''Creator/JeremyMiller'' (Not sure who played LaVanna White).
** ''Series/MiamiVice'' was spoofed as ''Miami Mice''.
** ''Series/LifeStylesOfTheRichAndFamous'' was spoofed as ''Life Styles of the Big and Little'' with Dicky Tick. Only 2 skits were made.
** ''Series/ThisIsYourLife'' was parodied as ''Here is Your Life'' with Guy Smiley (and later, Sonny Friendly).
** ''Series/SiskelAndEbert'' was parodied as ''Sneak Peak Previews'' with Telly Monster and Oscar the Grouch. Ebert and Siskel was in one of the sketch where they demonstrate the ''Thumbs Up'' ''Thumbs Down'' ratings.
** ''Series/AskTheManager'' was parodied as ''Ask Oscar'' with host Telly Monster and Oscar the Grouch.
** ''Series/HillStreetBlues'' was parodied as ''Hill Street Twos''.
** ''Series/LoveBoat'' was spoofed with Ernie as the captain who loves that boat.
** ''ABC-TV's Love in the Afternoon'' was parodied as ''WCTW: School in the Afternoon''.
** ''Series/DaysOfOurLives'' was spoofed as ''Sounds Of Our Lives''.
** Or ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkd5dJIVjgM Old Spice]]''... starring Grover. ([[Advertising/TheManYourManCouldSmellLike "Anything is possible when you smell like a monster and you know the word 'on'. I am on a horse."]] ''[[Advertising/TheManYourManCouldSmellLike "Moo!"]]'' [[Advertising/TheManYourManCouldSmellLike "Cow."]])
** They really do work hard to stay current, as also per a parody of ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' called "Law & Order: Special Letters Unit".
** They also did a parody of ''Series/BoardwalkEmpire'' called "Birdwalk Empire".
** The Latin American version of this show, ''Series/PlazaSesamo'', features the recurring sketch "Los Monstruos Tambien Lloran" ("The Monsters Also Cry"), a parody of [[SoapOpera telenovelas]] named after a classic Mexican example (''Los Ricos Tambien Lloran'' ["The Rich Also Cry"]) of the form.
** [[Series/OrangeIsTheNewBlack Five words]]: ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4YOT1ajsUM Orange is the New Snack]]''.
** ''[[Series/AmericanIdol American I]]''
** ''[[Series/GameOfThrones Game of Chairs]]'' gives us the ultimate one with the references both to the story and um...some of the more grown up aspects ("I've a wedding to get to!" - really Robb?) clear and easy to follow for fans of the show and those who only have an inkling of the hard hitting series.
** One cartoon featuring a salesman trying to sell the letter Z has the salesman give examples of words beginning with Z, including "Zither." He then pulls out a zither and starts playing the theme from ''Film/TheThirdMan''.
* ParentalSubstitute: The original concept behind Gordon and his wife Susan, according to WordOfGod.
* ParodyCommercial: Used as a second CouchGag in seasons 43 and 44.
* ParodiedTrope: Early seasons, as noted, parodied many TV advertising tropes of the day. Notably, the RepeatingAd, by using the same films more than once in a given episode.
%%* ParodiesOfFire: In the ''Chariots of Fur'' sketch.
* PenguinsAreDucks: The penguins often [[IncorrectAnimalNoise make quacking sounds]].
* PassingTheTorch: In ''So Long, Mr. Hooper'', David told Big Bird that Mr. Hooper left the store to him.
* PeopleFallOffChairs: Seen in "Little Miss Muffet: The Continuing Story", when Miss Muffet is eating spaghetti in a restaurant at the mall, and among seeing [[StalkerWithoutACrush the spider that keeps following her around]], she's so terrified she falls back in her chair (and her scream raises in pitch to reflect that.)
* PersonWithTheClothing: An animated segment about the letter V features "the villain in the Panama hat" (who even refers to himself as that).
* PianoDrop: Seen in "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8ZfNPwAiiM Danger]]" by Little Jerry and the Monotones, and "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVcZ7cDggeE Danger's No Stranger]]" by How Now Brown and the Moo Wave.
* PieInTheFace:
** The ending of "Surprise", where [[FlyAtTheCameraEnding even the viewer gets pied.]]
** The series of skits where Linda signs words that Gordon says out loud right before the word is demonstrated on him. The last word in the skit is "pie" and it ends not with Gordon getting a pie to the face, but rather Linda being on the receiving end.
*** In episode 3051, that scene is followed by Maria getting creamed by accident courtesy of Fluffy, who had been meaning to hit Oscar. Oscar is then perplexed by Maria's reaction, which is to [[ActuallyPrettyFunny laugh hysterically]].
** The "Three Whipped Cream Pies on the Wall" segment, in which Maria pies Bob, Luis and David and then gets pelted with pies herself at the end of the number - although curiously the pies all miss her face.
** Ernie is pied by Bert in an early skit, after confusing the number 4 with first a chocolate cream and then a banana cream pie.
--->'''Ernie:''' ''[after being pied]'' I knew what it was all along, but who wants to get hit in the face with a 4?
* ThePigPen: Oscar the Grouch (and most grouches) love to get dirty.
* ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything: WordOfGod is that Gordon is a teacher (first elementary school, then later high school science); in the first episode he says that he's home early because a teachers meeting was called off. However, because he's only very rarely actually seen in a classroom, and indeed seems to always be available whenever the Street plot of the day requires it, many casual viewers aren't aware of this fact. In fact, ''Series/MadTV'' once lampshaded this in a skit about the recession hitting Sesame Street, and Gordon - now riding an ice cream cart - remarks, [[ObliquelyObfuscatedOccupation "Oh, I lost my job doing whatever it is I did before."]]
* PlainPalate: Downplayed for Bert, who likes plain things like oatmeal and plain water and dislikes ice cream sodas due to not being plain enough, but is also shown enjoying non-plain food (one sketch has him mad that Ernie took his chocolate ice cream for instance).
* PlatonicValentine:
** In one episode, discussing racism and interracial friendship, Gina and Savion, who are a white woman and a black man who are best friends, sing a FriendshipSong that involves [[HurricaneOfEuphemisms a list of synonyms for "friends"]], one of them being "Valentines".
** One song is about preschool-aged best friends Elmo and Abby making Valentines for each other, likely because they're too young to have romantic love interests.
** During the "Nine Chickens" song, eight of the chickens give a Valentine to their neighbour.
* PolkaDotDisease: One episode focuses on Big Bird getting the "Birdy Pox", which is a disease most birds of his species and age get and is characterised by being covered in itchy green dots.
* PottyDance:
** In "Elmo's Potty Time", Baby Bear squirms and Elmo asks if he's dancing. Baby Bear says that, no, he's fidgeting and says he has to go himself.
** In the licensed game "Potty Plan", Elmo or Abby starts squirming if they need to go to the bathroom.
* PottyEmergency:
** Baby Bear Grover and Curly Bear get potty emergencies in "Elmo's Potty Time".
** In the game "Potty Plan", if you idle, Elmo or Abby's need to go to the bathroom becomes more urgent.
* PottyFailure:
** The Elmo's Potty Time special has a whole song about wetting oneself, called "Accidents Happen".
** Discussed in the licensed game "Elmo's Potty Time" when they mention not wanting to have accidents.
** In the licensed game "Potty Plan", Elmo or Abby can have accidents if you idle.
** One doll called Potty Time Elmo can have accidents.
* PowerOutagePlot: An Ernie and Bert segment from the 1970s has Ernie notice that it's darker than usual when they are in bed at night, and how all the lights on Sesame Street are out, and Bert explains that it's a blackout and what it is. But then Ernie torments Bert (as usual) with suggesting things they can do during the blackout, such as watch TV or listen to their radio or record player, not knowing they all require electricity to operate.
** The above sketch actually tied in to three different episodes all of which were about a blackout: episode 652, episode 2071, and episode 2210.
* PreciousPuppy: The 2021 HBO Max exclusive animated special ''Furry Friends Forever: Elmo Gets a Puppy'' involves Elmo and Grover befriending a female stray puppy named "Tango". Throughout the special, they try taking her to Sesame Street's "Pet Adoption Fair" held at the park. However, Elmo and Grover missed the event which causes [[https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2021/07/06/credit-sesame-workshop-2-_wide-a5275f51adc6bae236e7ff5a32a0329a9cb5d787-s800-c85.webp Elmo to fully adopt Tango and become his second pet]]. She will eventually show up on the PBS KIDS streaming programs starting in 2022 and future episodes of the series.
* PregnantReptile: Slimey's mother is shown being pregnant, despite being a worm.
* PrejudiceAesop:
** The song "We All Sing with the Same Voice" is about how people all look different, have different families, and come from different places, but we're all the same in many ways.
** "No Matter What Your Language" is also about how even though we speak different languages, have different names etc., we're still all the same in many ways.
** Another song, "No Matter What", is about how people are all different, but still do human things like shiver, laugh, cry, etc.
** One cartoon skit is about a Native American boy telling two white boys Native Americans don't really speak in TontoTalk.
** In one episode, Gina gets a racist phone call saying she can't be best friends with Savion because they have different skin colours. She tells Telly that some people think people with different skin colours can't be friends, but that those people are stupid.
** One song is about how families with only one parent, or with grandparents, aunts, and/or uncles as legal guardians, are just as legitimately families as families with two parents.
* PrettyInMink: In a Christmas special, one of the (human) women wears a rabbit fur jacket.
* PrisonEpisode: ''Little Children, Big Challenges: Incarceration'' (a stand-alone special) tells about how sometimes people violate the law (a "grown up rule") and have to go to jail or prison.
* PutOnABus:
** David. Northern Calloway, who was experiencing mental health and other personal issues in the late 1980s, left the show after the end of Season 20 (he was either fired or resigned, depending on which story one believes), and--since David was still fairly prominent well into 1989--his departure was explained in the premiere episode of Season 21, which aired in November 1989. Gordon receives a postcard and reads it to Elmo, explaining that David had moved to Florida to care for his grandmother and manage her farm. David is still presumed to be alive, as to this day, he has not been mentioned again. Calloway's real life, meanwhile, continued to spiral downhill and in January 1990, he suffered a massive nervous breakdown that killed him.
** Also Roosevelt Franklin, Harvey Kneeslapper, Simon Soundman, Placido Flamingo, Forgetful Jones, Don Music, Sherlock Hemlock, Sam the Robot... In fact, too many to count, as there have been hundreds of Muppets over the last 48 years, so there is no way around this. Even some of the core 'legacy Muppets', like Herry Monster, are seldom seen on the show today.
*** Actually averted in the cases of Herry & Roosevelt. See TheBusCameBack for more details.
** An unusual Muppet case is Countess von Backwards, introduced in 1990 as a love interest for the Count. After appearing in two sketches, her performer, Camille Bonora, refused to play the character anymore, since, as a devout Christian, she was uncomfortable with the occult connotations of a vampirish puppet. The Countess was dropped.
* QuarterHourShort: The Elmo block, which featured either ''Elmo the Musical'' or the original, longer version of ''Series/ElmosWorld'', took up the last eleven minutes of the hour-long version of ''Sesame Street'' starting in 1998.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tropes Brought to you by the Letter R]]
* RaidersOfTheLostParody: The Season 39 premiere "The Golden Triangle of Destiny"; after 'Minnesota Mel' shows up and tells Telly and Chris about said triangle, Mel gets a 'charley horse', so Telly gets his own costume, calls himself 'Texas Telly' and takes his place.
* RatingsStunt: The "Around the Corner" era of 1993-1998, in which the Street expanded to include several new and colourful characters and their businesses (notably the Furry Arms Hotel). This was done due to increasing competition from Series/BarneyAndFriends.
* ReallyDeadMontage: Mr. Hooper would've gotten one, but the producers decided it would confuse the younger viewers.
* RealLifeWritesThePlot: The September 11 World Trade Center attack served as the basic underlying framing device for the Season 33 premiere episode, in which Hooper's Store catches fire, much to Elmo's horror. He gets invited to the local fire station, and sees what firefighters do to save people's lives, which helps Elmo with his fears.
* RealTime: Used sometimes, and occasionally lampshaded.
--> ''Fifteen fingers (with a friend); \\
In fifteen seconds, this film will end...''
* RearrangeTheSong: The series kept its original theme for 23 seasons, then rearranged it to a calypso version in Season 24, then to an arrangement in the spirit of the original in Season 30, a bouncy swing version in Season 33, a hip-hop-inspired version in Season 38 (which was remixed into a funk-jazz version in Season 40 with additional acoustic and brass instrumentation, and remixed ''again'' in Season 42 with the addition of more percussion). Most recently a shorter folk-inspired version debuted in Season 46 when the [[ChannelHop home of the series' first-run airings moved from]] Creator/{{PBS}} to Creator/{{HBO}}.
* ReminderFailure:
** In the picture book ''Don't Forget the Oatmeal!'', Bert and Ernie go grocery shopping, with Bert remarking at the beginning that it's particularly important that they remember to get more oatmeal. [[StringOnFingerReminder Bert ties a string around his finger to help him remember.]] At the supermarket they get distracted by a Cookie Monster rampage, and when they get home they discover that they've bought everything on their list except the oatmeal.
** A classic animated sketch has a young girl being given directions about what groceries to pick up for her mother. She walks all the way to the store repeating the three items she has to get only to momentarily forget the third when she's actually in the store. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Im4GwUD1UY8&feature=fvwrel After a few second of being puzzled, she does remember the right thing to buy]], however.
* RequiredSpinoffCrossover: The ''Bert and Ernie's Great Adventures'' claymation series features the title duo and a series of new characters. The only short to feature another ''Sesame'' regular is "Wizards," which features Elmo in a prominent role.
* {{Retcon}}: It's intentionally invoked in Season 46: as mentioned above (see ChaosArchitecture), Hooper's Store has been given a vintage/retro redesign that's much more reminiscent of the original store from TheSeventies, making it seem as if the store has just set there and aged for 46 years, as opposed to having been renovated several times. The store does now offer free wi-fi, showing that it still keeps up with the time regardless.
* {{Retool}}: The show has always been described as an "experiment," where new things are tried out each year. Though the majority of the changes through the first three decades were fairly minor (dropping/adding certain characters and segments), major changes to the format have been done since the mid-2000s:
** In 2002, the show was modeled after the day of a preschool child and became more structured; daily recurring segments happened in a specific sequence, and the street story, originally shown in parts throughout the hour, was condensed into one approx. 12 minute block.
** In 2009, the show kept a similar format, only now modeled after pre-school programing blocks (such as Nick Jr.) with more long-form segments incorporated into the show.
** 2016's changes condensed the show to a half-hour format, and shifted the show's focus to a central cast of seven (Elmo, Abby, Cookie Monster, Grover, Big Bird, Oscar and Rosita), while the other Muppet characters are downgraded to supporting roles.
* RingRingCrunch: Subverted in the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yA2HFd_rBA "Time to Tick Tock" skit]] from the early 1990s with an alarm clock being used to count up to twelve in a boogie-woogie style, and among hitting twelve it rings very loudly and then breaks apart ''on its own''.
* RobotBuddy: Sam the Robot tried to be this in TheSeventies, but just couldn't get things right.
* RockPaperScissors:
** A newspaper sold at Hooper's Store featured the headline "Rock Wins! Paper and Scissors are bummed..."
** In episodes 4145 and 4225, two pigs are shown to be constantly playing this game and keep tying at "Paper." This results in them constantly going...
--> "Rock paper scissors SHOOT!" "Paper." "Paper." "TIEEEEEEEE!"
* RoommateDrama: Ernie and Bert are two single puppet characters who live together and share a bedroom. Ernie is silly while Bert is serious, which causes comedic struggles such as Ernie waking up Bert in the middle of the night and them arguing over food.
* RousingLullaby:
** One episode had Ricky Gervais sing Elmo "the N Song", which was generally a relaxing song on an accoustic guitar until the refrain, when it switches to a loud electric guitar and Ricky loudly sings "N goes NA NA NA, NA NA NANA NA NA..."
** In another, [[GrumpyBear Oscar]] is [[BabysittingEpisode babysitting baby Natasha]], he tries to sing her a lullaby, but finds it boring, so he sings it quickly. Natasha doesn't fall asleep, but she doesn't seem too bothered by the song.
** In the ''Elmo's Goodnight Stories'' tie-in book, Elmo wants to sing his mother's lullaby to his school friends, but forgets everything about it except that it involves shaking excess energy out of the extremities and turns it into an exercise song, which Ernie promptly lampshades.
* RubeGoldbergDevice: Kermit's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cog2a3YeDMM What Happens Next machine]]. Or at least, it tries to be.
* RunningGag: In "Elmo's Christmas Countdown", Elmo keeps saying "It's a Christmas miracle!"
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tropes Brought to you by the Letter G]]
%%* GagHaircut: Given by Ernie to Bert in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hou8AyxWTYw this early skit]].
* GameShowAppearance:
** Big Bird and Oscar appeared semi-regularly in episodes of the original version of ''Series/TheHollywoodSquares'' (with Big Bird calling host Peter Marshall 'Mr Marshmallow'), and Elmo has appeared on the revival versions.
** Kermit appeared with his 'friend' Jim Henson, and Big Bird with his 'friend' Carroll Spinney, on separate episodes of the syndicated version of ''Series/WhatsMyLine''.
* GameShowHost: Guy Smiley and Sonny Friendly. Also "Pat Playjacks", in a one-shot ''Series/WheelOfFortune'' parody called ''Squeal of Fortune'', And Gordon in ''What Happens Next?'', And even real person game show hosts like Richard Dawson was the host of a one-shot ''Series/FamilyFeud'' parody called ''Family Food''.
* GenderBlenderName: Chuckie Sue was originally named Chuckie because Telly thought she was male. Upon finding out her real sex, he renamed her Chuckie Sue.
* GenerationXerox: The 2016 Christmas special ''Once Upon a Sesame Street Christmas'' shows the street in the 19th Century, where the great-grandfatehrs of Elmo, Cookie, Grover and others are more or less identical to their present-day counterparts (save for some extra mustaches). Though, this is merely a story made up by Elmo's dad.
** An episode featuring a visit from Gordon's father reveals he used to be a famous singing star. A flashback has him portrayed by Miles, Gordon's son.
* GenreSavvy: Occasionally, Big Bird decides not to introduce Snuffy to the adults, knowing that Snuffy will probably wander off before they can meet. One example comes in episode 1956, in which Big Bird makes a plan for them to meet, but then imagines what would happen, imagining the usual formula for when he tries to get them to meet. In another episode, Snuffy shows up at a clothing store when Gordon is trying on clothes, as Snuffy goes to try on Snuffleupagus-sized pants and later when he leaves to pay, Big Bird says that maybe Snuffy and Gordon will run into each other and meet but then adds "probably not".
%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.
* GlitchEpisode: In Sam the robot's debut episode, he had a glitch which caused him to repeat himself, prompting someone to [[PercussiveMaintenance hit him]] and him to say, "[[EpisodeTagline Thank you]]".
* TheGoldenRule: Lessons on bullying usually play out with one character bullying another and a third reasoning with the bully and asking them how they would feel if someone else treated them that way. It's usually enough to get the bully to knock it off.
* GoneHorriblyRight:
** Episode 3178, Mr. Handford tells Telly that you can try new foods easily by putting them into a sandwich, which leads Telly to try and make the very first [[DagwoodSandwich sandwich with everything on it]].
** In an episode from 2000, Alan finds himself in the same spot as Mr. Handford did. After hanging a sign that says "Hooper's Store: Where you can have whatever you want just the way you want it." Telly orders a grilled cheese sandwich but makes requests that are progressively more ridiculous for how his lunch should be served. After he enjoys his lunch, Alan takes down the sign admitting that hanging it was a mistake because it worked a little too well at getting Telly to have a specifically-catered lunch.
%%* GreatGazoo: Abby, Mumford the Magician, and dozens of magical one-offs.
* GettingReadyForBedPlot:
** One skit is about Elmo and Abby's bedtimes.
** One animated skit is about mothers tucking in their children.
** One skit has Humphrey putting Natasha down for the night and singing a lullaby called "Goodnight Natasha".
** A book based on the series called "Time for Bed, Elmo!" has Elmo doing various activities such as feeding Dorothy and stroking the cat even though it's bedtime. It ends with him falling asleep when his babysitter makes him count sheep.
* GirlyGirlWithATomboyStreak: Lily the tiger, from the Chinese coproduction ''Sesame Street: Big Bird Looks at the World''. [[note]]芝麻街: 大鸟看世界, Zhima Jie: Da Niao Kan Shijie[[/note]] While she likes wearing bows and the color pink, she's also an avid martial arts enthusiast.
* GlassShatteringSound: A variation on this with Diva La Diva, a one-off character who visited the street in a 90's episode. Professed to be "the world's loudest singer," La Diva's pipes are definitely loud enough to cause damage and while there's one instance of her voice shattering some glasses on the counter at Hooper's Store, her voice mostly causes trembling and making shelves, with items on them, fall in the Fix-It Shop and Hooper's. At the end of the episode, a cassette tape of her voice makes everything in Big Bird's nest fall off the walls - not even the Mr. Hooper picture was safe!
* GlitchEpisode: In Sam the robot's debut episode, he had a glitch which caused him to repeat himself, prompting someone to [[PercussiveMaintenance hit him]] and him to say, "[[EpisodeTagline Thank you]]".
* GreenAesop:
** OnceAnEpisode during seasons 40 and 41.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aTsze_Awpk Willie]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tU7FcZ5ASUs Wimple]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOzIO5uNKh8 Anyone?]] (He's a young boy who's bad to the environment).
* GroceryStoreEpisode:
** In Episode 2783, Luis wants Maria to meet him at the supermarket. When Big Bird and Snuffy overhear, they want to go with her, and she agrees to let them. Along the way, Big Bird and Snuffy argue over who gets to push the shopping cart, Big Bird tries to decide whether he wants to get a big or small box of Captain Birdflake cereal, and Snuffy ends up getting a small box of Snuffleupagus Puffs (which is the size of Luis, much to Maria's surprise).
** In Episode 4931, Alan goes to Sarita's Supermarket, and Elmo, Abby, and Cookie Monster tag along. To make food shopping more fun for them, Alan starts a game where Elmo, Abby, and Cookie need to find three foods that start with the letter C from different sections of the grocery store before he finishes checking out.
* GrossoutFakeout:
** In one episode, baby Natasha keeps crying and repeating, "Hoongie!". Gina and Zoe, who are [[BabysittingEpisode babysitting her]], wonder if this means she needs a diaper change, but she doesn't.
** In "Elmo's Potty Time", Grover says that his "body is trying to tell [him] something". Elmo thinks this [[GoToTheEuphemism is a euphemism for needing the bathroom]], but actually he meant he was hungry.
* GroundhogDayLoop: Happens in "Elmo Saves Christmas" after Elmo wishes for it to be Christmas every day. Unlike a true loop, everyone is aware of and experiences each Christmas, and holiday repeats as time moves forward. The seasons change from winter to spring, then summer (and presumably, fall), and then to the next winter.
* GroupIdentifyingFeature:
** Dingers can be distinguished from monsters by the bicycle bells on their heads, which give them their names.
** One episode has a band called the Lead Police, a parody of Music/ThePolice, who all wear leather jackets.
* GrumpyBear: While the show is mostly jolly, there are a few grumpy characters, including Oscar the Grouch and grouches in general, Mr. Johnson, and to a lesser extent Bert.

[[folder:Tropes Brought to you by the Letter H]]
* HairTriggerSoundEffect: EVERY time the Count laughs, thunder follows.
* {{Hammerspace}}: Oscar's trash can is often implied to be this (i.e. fits a lot of stuff in it).
* HappyDance: The "Elmo's World" segment [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=top6rTkXYJw has]] Elmo doing one. "''When we learn something new, we do the happy dance, yeah!''"
* HarassingPhoneCall:
** The 1975 song "Telephone Rock" is about a puppet and his rock band who harass a telephone operator by trying to get people to listen to a story about rock music by calling them on the phone. The song ends with the group all sent to jail for the harassing calls.
** A "News Flash" segment also from 1975 has Kermit rexieve a phone call that someone is trapped out in a blizzard, and he goes outside to try and get a scoop on the individual. Nobody he asks knows anything about a person trapped outside and soon Kermit winds up nearly frozen in the blizzard himself. The segment ends with Harvey Kneeslapper calling to say the call was a prank call and that Kermit is now the blizzard trapped individual!
** In a 1993 episode Gina receieves a phone call while working at Hooper's Store that angers her. We only hear her side of the conversation but the individual says something about how her and Savion should not be friends because of their different skin colors. Telly who is in the store overhears the conversation and asks what happens and Gina and Savion both explain it to him. When Telly asks what would happen if the individual calls again Gina and Savion demonstrate that they would simply blow a raspberry, not saying that the best thing to do is just hang up.
* HatesBeingTouched: The Grouches (although they more hate ''affectionate'' touching) and Benny Rabbit, who wrote a whole song about 'don't touch me'.
* HatOfFlight: Features in the "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QlUCZjbG1g Above it All]]" song sequence animated by Sally Cruikshank.
* HaveAGayOldTime: From "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ":
-->''It starts out like an "A" word, as anyone can see''\\
''But somewhere in the middle, it gets awful QR to me!''
* HeadDesk:
** Muppet composer Don Music had a habit, when unable to find a rhyme, of slamming his forehead into the keys of his piano in sheer frustration. Which is why you don't see him anymore.
** An early Ernie and Bert segment from 1969 featured this at the end: Ernie slowly drives Bert nuts by his counting, and then Bert just ''loses it'' and bangs his head on a table in the background, and then runs screaming right past the camera and out the door. The ending would usually be cut from reruns due to concerns that kids would imitate Bert's head-banging.
* HeatWaveEpisode:
** The song "It Sure is Hot" is about a hot day.
** One episode is about Baby Bear selling porridge on a hot day.
** In another episode, Maria is looking for some relief on a hot day, and the Amazing Mumford complies by casting a magic spell that changes the weather--leaving her stuck under a freezing and snowy cloud.
* HereWeGoAgain:
** At end of the song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syj3dYJvHUQ "I heard my Dog Bark."]], the dog barks again and wakes up all the other pets in the house.
** "There's a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza...". As per the lyrics for that song, it ends with Henry realizing that he still doesn't know what to carry the water in because there's a hole in his bucket.
** The end of ''Christmas Eve on Sesame Street''.
** After Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor settles an argument between Baby Bear and Goldilocks, The Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf appear, seeking the Justice's assistance, much to the annoyance of both her and Maria.
** Uttered word-for-word by Elmo in Episode 4205 (Season 40). The plot deals Inspector Four (played by Judah Friedlander) threatening to shut down things on Sesame Street unless they have exactly four of something, while Elmo and Telly try to make sure thing stay safe. At the end of the story, he gets promoted to Inspector Five, meaning Elmo and Telly have to start all over again.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: Bert and Ernie are best male friends, and they're not a couple. Also, Big Bird and Snuffy and Baby Bear and Telly, but they're kids, so they're too young to be romantic couples anyway.
* HeWhoMustNotBeSeen: Charlie the Chef (The owner of Charlie's Restaurant) is never seen.
* HibernationMigrationSituation:
** In one episode, Baby Bear reveals that his family sometimes takes all-day naps to make up for the sleep they miss by not hibernating. He decides to skip his all-day nap to play with Elmo and Telly, but keeps falling asleep, eventually [[SleepAesop learning that sleep is important]] and taking his all-day nap.
** In a Season 40 episode, Baby Bear's family decides to hibernate until April due to a porridge shortage. With this, Telly explains how he'll feel with no best friend. A hibernation consultant named Max eventually comes to the cottage and encourages them to sleep outside, which leads to them digging a hole on Sesame Street and Chris giving them bran flakes. The Bears decide not to hibernate and eat bran flakes all winter long!
* HiddenDepths: A lot of humor is mined from the simple-minded monsters (such as Grover and Cookie) possessing rather advanced vocabulary.
* HiddenHarasser: One cartoon featured a kid sure that there was an alligator in his room, but his mother couldn't find it. It turned out to be his dog having some fun with a flashlight.
* HollywoodAutism: Sesame Street has a character named Julia, who has Autism. So much emphasis is placed on her quirks that it stops the show in its tracks. Then the other Muppets begin imitating her...
** In fairness to the show, they did research and learned up about autism, but even they admitted it's impossible to represent everyone with autism, since it's different for everyone affected.
* HomesicknessHymn: Invoked in the song "I Don't Want to Live on the Moon", where Ernie sings about all the cool places he'd like to visit...but only if it means he'll return home to his friends.
-->''Though I'd like to look down at the Earth up above''
-->''I would miss all the places and people I love''
-->''So although I may go, I'll be coming home soon''
-->'''Cause I don't want to live on the moon.''
* HonestyAesop:
** "Ernie's Little Lie" has Ernie get given a picture of a tiger. He wants to enter it in a context, lying that he drew it, but then learns that you shouldn't say something about a thing if it's not true, so he admits the truth.
** In "Accidents Happen", Big Bird accidentally knocks over somebody's laundry and tells a bunch of conflicting lies, before deciding on the truth.
** In one of the "Noodles and Ned" skits, [[EdibleThemeNaming Noodles]] breaks Ned's toy plane and thinks of trying to hide it but then decides to tell the truth.
** In one episode, Telly lies that his uncle is a circus performer but then feels bad about it and learns to tell the truth.
** In one animated skit, a little girl named Cookie breaks the window and thinks of lying that Lucy the cat did it. However, she then imagines her family disowning Lucy and then Lucy running away, so she tells the truth.
** Zigzagged in "Linda Breaks Ruthie's Pitcher". Linda does break the pitcher, but she's deaf, so she didn't hear the crash, and she didn't see it break or feel the impact because she was in a hurry. Elmo forgets that Linda is deaf, though, so when she tells Ruthie she didn't know what happened to it, he [[CassandraTruth thinks she's lying]]. When Ruthie asks Elmo if he knows what happened to the pitcher, he stammers, so she thinks ''he'' broke it. When he asks Ruthie what would happen if "hypothetically" someone she knew broke the pitcher, she mistakes it for an IHaveThisFriend situation, causing further confusion.
* HotSkittyOnWailordAction: Abby's classmate Blogg is the child of a fairy and a troll.
* HouseFire: Actually a ''store'' fire because Hooper's Store has had three fires occur:
** The first was in episode 0540 during Season 5 where a pile of junk in the store's basement catches fire. The rest of the episode deals with the group cleaning out the building.
** In episode 2265 during Season 18 David's grilled cheese sandwich burns and is quickly extinguished, this after Elmo wishes for an "adventure"
** Season 33 kicked off with episode 3981, a VerySpecialEpisode made as a response to the 9/11 attacks. After a fire occurs in Hooper's Store Elmo becomes frightened by all the commotion and becomes scared to go back inside the store. He and Maria then take a trip to the firehouse where Elmo learns about what firefighters do and how to be safe if a fire should occur. At the end Elmo says he is no longer scared since he knows that firefighters can help if a fire happens.
** Not from the actual series, a fire occured in the home video ''Sesame Street Vists the Firehouse'', this one actually happening at an apartment building and destroying the attic where a monster lives.
* HowCanSantaDeliverAllThoseToys: Subverted. In ''Christmas Eve on Sesame Street'', Oscar's question is, more accurately, "How can Santa fit down the chimney?" [[spoiler: Big Bird nearly freezes waiting up for the answer, and doesn't get one. Elmo Saves Christmas reveals that he has a time-traveling reindeer.]]
* HulkSpeak: Ironically, one of the most beloved characters of an EdutainmentShow, Cookie Monster, embodies this trope perfectly, with the "me"[=/=]"I" substitution and a disdain for prepositions, among other things. But as the ''Monsterpiece Theatre'' segments show, he's very well-read.
* HungerCausesLethargy: Shows up heaps of times, mostly centred around the idea of breakfast, which they cite as the most important meal:
** In the song "The Breakfast Club" (no relation to [[Film/TheBreakfastClub the movie]]), they sing, "Join the Breakfast Club, the Breakfast Club. Don't let your energy go [[SayingSoundEffectsOutLoud glub, glub, glub]]" (as in, like a car running out of gas).
** In the song "The Most Important Meal of the Day" ([[EitherOrTitle or as it's sometimes known]], "[[TheSomethingSong The Breakfast Song]]"), the singing chef recounts a story of a girl named Susie who skipped breakfast due to thinking it was unnecessary and "[[FauxHorrific cruel]]", but then became too tired to play on the playground. She's seen yawning and leaning against a tree.
** In one Super Grover skit, skipping breakfast makes Grover too weak to lift a briefcase. This is also an example of BroughtDownToNormal, since SuperStrength is one of his powers.
** [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] for the breakfast song [[CloudCuckoolander Ernie]] sings. He says that breakfast "wakes [him] up", but it's [[AmbiguousSituation unclear]] whether he needed waking up because he was hungry or because he's NotAMorningPerson.
** In one skit, this is discussed when guest star UsefulNotes/BuzzAldrin sees Telly saying, "I'm running low on energy" while playing astronaut. He [[ComicallyMissingThePoint thinks he means he's feeling sluggish]] and says, "Well, eat some food." Telly was actually talking in the context of his game, but it starts a conversation on food giving one energy.
** In one skit, a girl named Carolyn gets tired on the playground and [[ImpliedTrope the narrator thinks]] it's because the cake she ate didn't satiate her enough.
* TheHyena: Harvey Kneeslapper is very easily-amused and is laughing in nearly all his scenes.

[[folder:Tropes Brought to you by the Letters I and J]]
* IdeaBulb: Rather the entire Idea ''Lamp'' in ''Sesame Street Stays Up Late!" when Telly gets the idea to simply try and hide from the incoming New Year.
* IDoNotLikeGreenEggsAndHam: In a Bert & Ernie skit, Ernie tries to get Bert to play a rhyming game despite Bert repeatedly refuting that he doesn't like to play games of the such. When they both get into the swing of it, Bert finds that he enjoys himself, so much so that bert wishes to keep playing even after Ernie grows tired and stops playing.
* InsomniaEpisode:
** In the third-to-last Season 31 episode, Ernie sleeps over at Big Bird's nest, but can't sleep, so he keeps Gordon up with his endless demands.
** In a 70s episode, Big Bird can't sleep, so Bert plays a marching record and he falls asleep in the arbor.
* ICallHerVera: Or I Call My Bathtub "Rosie", in the very first episode.
* IHaveJustOneThingToSay: In one skit spoofing ''Series/TheLoveBoat'', Ernie as TheCaptain with a bunch of Anything Muppets are repeatedly enthusing in over-the-top fashion about how they "Looove this boat!". This goes on for several minutes while one guy on a lawn chair is silently reading but appearing to grow annoyed. He then snaps and goes on a loud tirade about everyone's behavior [[note]]"...YOU SAY 'I LOVE THIS BOAT' SO MUCH THAT IT'S COMING OUT OF MY EARS!..."[[/note]]... only to sappily admit "I love this boat, too!" [[note]]"...(raging) YA WANNA KNOW WHAT I REALLY THINK?! YA WANNA KNOW WHAT I ''REALLY'' THINK?!...([[MoodSwing all sappy]]) I love this boat, too!"[[/note]].
* INeedToGoIronMyDog: Whenever Luis becomes his persona "Señor Zero," he makes this type of excuse to leave, such as needing to feed his undershirts or having left his wallet in the dishwasher.
* IntentionalMessMaking: One skit involves [[TheKilljoy Oscar]] annoying everybody by dirtying the windows instead of cleaning them and putting trash into some soup that was cooking.
* IWantSong: The 2018 special ''When You Wish Upon a Pickle'' starts off with one of these, as sung by the main cast.
* IconicItem:
** Ernie's rubber duckie.
** Oscar's trash can. And he's never moved to a plastic container with wheels, either.
%%* IconicOutfit: Bob's sweater.
* IconicSequelCharacter: Elmo made his first (official) appearance in 1984, 15 years after the premiere.
* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: InWhichATropeIsDescribed
* IgnorantAboutFire:
** Defied with the song "Get Out, Stay Out, Don't You Go Back In". It mentions that going back into a burning house to save a toy is a stupid idea.
** In one episode, Alan accidentally ignites a grease fire in Hooper's Store while trying to make fried chicken. It doesn't help that he leaves the stove unattended to talk to Maria and Elmo.
* InanimateCompetitor:
** In one skit, they have a "Whose Pet is Best?" competition and one contestant is Rocco the rock.
** One "Bert and Ernie's Great Adventures" skit has a bird competition. Bert enters Bernice, who's one of his pigeons, but Ernie enters his rubber duck.
* IncendiaryExponent: A campfire in "The Ladybugs' Picnic" gets out of control and has to be put out by the fire department. In the original animation, the fire even burns the Ladybugs' marshmallows to a crisp.
* IncredibleShrinkingMan: More accurately "Incredible Shrinking Bird". In a two-part story a magic trick from Mumford gone awry causes Big Bird to shrink.
* IndyEscape: Often done in spoofs of Indiana Jones:
** Episode 2687: where the gang evades what seemingly appears to be a boulder, but is actually the rare Golden Cabbage of Snuffertity
** Episode 3135: An Indiana Jones-type explorer engages in one of these throughout the episode, completely unnoticed by anyone.
** Episode 4161: Telly and Chris are pursued by a giant boulder.
* InjuredLimbEpisode:
** In one episode, known as "Wing in a Sling", Big Bird sprains his wing.
** During episode 1996 in Season 16, Luis breaks his arm and he spends the next few weeks' worth of episodes in a cast.
** Telly spent a few weeks during Season 24 (in 1993) with his arm in a cast after breaking it.
** In Episode 4001, Big Bird injuries his ankle in a fall.
** In Episode 5023, Zoe breaks her arm when she slips on some banana peels (courtesy of Joey and Davey) while attempting her ballet jump. Charlie, Rosita, and Elmo try to find a game that Zoe can play with just one arm.
* InSeriesNickname:
** Cookie Monster's real name is Sid.
** Oscar calls Maria "Skinny".
* InstantThunder: Typically played straight, especially with Count von Count, but there have been a couple of aversions...
** In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkoNxYPtyc0 a 1981 Ernie and Bert sketch]] where Ernie is afraid of a noisy thunderstorm during the night, he decides to quell his fears by imagining the lightning flashes are Olivia taking a picture with her flash camera, and the thunder that comes afterward is the photo subject dropping something.
** On episode 2061 during season 18 Big Bird winds up frightened by a thunderstorm that hits just as he tries to go to sleep. The first two thunderclaps are instantaneous but after Gordon and Susan teach him that he can tell how far away a thunderstorm is by counting the time between the lightning and thunder every thunderclap afterwards comes a few seconds after the lighting.
** Episode 4215, "Chicken When it Comes to Thunderstorms," has some chickens that are on Elmo and Abby Caddabby's [[ItMakesSenseInContext T-ball team]] [[FearOfThunder frightened by a thunderstorm]] with notably realistic lengthy gaps between the lightning and the thunder. This comes into play when Elmo and Abby suggest the chickens cover their eyes so they don't see the lightning, which works, until the thunder afterward freaks them out. Abby tries materializing earmuffs onto the chickens so the thunder doesn't scare them, but they end up still seeing the lightning, so that doesn't help. It's when Leela attempts to comfort the chickens when things begin to work out.
%%* InstantWebHit: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enpFde5rgmw "I Love My Hair."]]
* InteractiveNarrator: Gina serves as one when she told "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHMyYP0Lt9E Little Miss Muffet and the Spider: The Continuing Story]]"; Miss Muffet has a WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes-type of [[SpidersAreScary fear of spiders]], and keeps running away screaming loudly from the spider [[StalkerWithoutACrush that keeps following her everywhere]]. It isn't until Miss Muffet comes to Gina for advice, and she tells Miss Muffet that the spider might really be nice, and it turns out the spider just wants to be friends.
* InternalHomage: One episode involves Celina and the kids who attend her dance studio putting on a live-action production of the Sesame Street short film "The Alligator King."
** In one episode Big Bird watches the "Ballet Dancing Yaks" song and wants to get together with two friends to do the same song and dance, but he is faced with a predicament when ''dozens'' of others want to join.
** There is an episode where everybody gets hooked on singing the "Yip Yip Family" song from the Martians.
** In an homage to Alphaboy, Big Bird spent one episode as Alphabird.
** In a season 31 episode, Telly and Baby Bear play Alphaquest.
* InventionalWisdom: An episode involves a high-powered air conditioning system being installed in the Furry Arms Hotel. Humphrey specifically states that it's only meant to be turned up to 10. If the knob is turned up to 14, it will break. Those are literally his exact words. Guess what the resident penguins end up doing.
** During the "Slimey to the Moon" arc one episode involves a crisis aboard the spaceship where the worms cannot get along after weeks of confinement. An incident leads to a button inside the ship being pressed that is specifically designed to put the ship off course if pressed. A bit of research reveals that there is a button to reverse the effect of the first button, but it is on the tip top of the ship's exterior—so that it cannot be pressed by accident!
* IrritationNightmare:
** One episode involves [[GrumpyBear Oscar]] having nightmares about [[TheKilljoy happy people]] and butterflies. He finds them scary in the night, but usually, happy people and butterflies are just pet peeves of his.
** One skit involves Cookie Monster having a nightmare about cookies flying around and him being unable to reach them.
* ItsAWonderfulPlot: After Elmo wishes for it to be Christmas every day in "Elmo Saves Christmas" Santa gives him a special time-traveling reindeer to take him forward in time and find out what will happen. After a year has passed Elmo sees that his wish was not the most optimal one to make.
* ItsPronouncedTropay: During the "Cooking by the Numbers" segments in Season 30 Chef Rutheé insists that her name is pronounced "Ruth-AY" any time the announcer of the segment calls her "Chef Ruth-ee". At the end of the number 9 segment Chef Rutheé freaks out over the overuse of lemons in her recipe and ''she'' mispronoucnes her name as "Ruth-ee" leaving the announcer to remind her of the correct "Ruth-AY".
* InvincibleHero: Sesame Street's Emmy count is ''off the charts''.
* IrisOut: Used in the 1992-1998 opening. It's also at the end of the song, ''Indian U Call''.
* IWillFindYou: In the Cecile the Ball song ''I'm Gonna Get To You''.
%%* IWouldSayIfICouldSay
* JoblessParentDrama: One VerySpecialEpisode has Elmo's mother lose her job, so their family has to make a point of spending less money.
* JobSong:
** "People in Your Neighbourhood" is about several different jobs that people you might meet every day might have.
** "Do the Doctor" is a song sung by some doctors about a dance based on their profession.
** One song is sung by a construction worker about building in the "Elmo's World" skit about building.
** The 1995 song "What Do They Do When They Go Wherever They Go?" is another song about different jobs.

[[folder:Tropes Brought to you by the Letters K and L]]
* KangarooCourt: In one episode, Telly is angry with a penguin and thinks about what would happen if he hit the penguin. It's all an ImagineSpot, but he goes to court and an all-penguin jury says he's guilty at the very start of the trial. The judge is the Count, who lengthens Telly's sentence just so he can count years in jail.
* KentBrockmanNews:
** The Sesame Street News Flash segments with reporter Kermit.
** Also a scene in ''[[BigDamnMovie Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird]]'' where an anchorman, played by Creator/ChevyChase, reports on the disappearance of Big Bird from his foster family's home in Illinois. He responds to a question by Grover [[BreakingTheFourthWall (who is watching the broadcast)]], has to be corrected by someone offscreen on the pronunciation of the word "sesame", and finally gives the weather report as [[Series/MisterRogersNeighborhood "It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor. Would you be mine?"]] in a completely deadpan tone.
* KidAppealCharacter: Obviously all of the Muppets count as this, but in season 1, Bert, Ernie, Big Bird and Oscar were more like broadly comedic characters that kids and parents could find entertaining. In season 2, Big Bird became more childlike and Grover, with his furry exuberance, became a fast favorite among younger viewers. Then in TheEighties, Elmo became this ''big time'', with the show's audience skewing younger along with his popularity. Later characters like Zoe and Abby Cadabby were created specifically for Kid Appeal.
* TheKilljoy: Oscar the Grouch is as grouchy as his name indicates and he doesn't want people having fun near the trash bin he lives in. If someone is having fun near him, he'll often purposely try to make them angry.
* KingKongCopy: In one skit, a large primate is invading a city and the skit talks about various physical sensations (hunger, thirst, being too hot, and having to pee) and shows how the primate deals with them (eating a store that's ShapedLikeWhatItSells, namely burgers, drinking from the fire hydrant, using a plane's propeller to cool down, and using a giant toilet respectively).
* KissingInATree: The rhyme itself isn't used, but the events described are frequently discussed with other characters - including and especially Muppets - as Luis and Maria's relationship evolves from close friendship to deep romance and they become parents, all before everyone's eyes. The concept was put to good use, as the romance was the curriculum focus for season 19, and the pregnancy was the same for season 20.
* LackOfImagination: Zigzagged for Bert. Usually, Ernie will imagine crazy things and have a hard time getting Bert to imagine them, but occasionally, [[NotSoAboveItAll Bert ends up imagining them as well]] (such as in the "It's a Circle" song where Ernie convinces Bert that the circle is "so much more" than one), and in one rendition of "The Middle of Imagination", ''Bert'' encourages ''Ernie'' to use his imagination.
* LargeHam: Frank Oz is known to ham up his Muppet characters, from regulars like Bert, Grover and Cookie Monster, to minor and one-off characters in the 70s and 80s.
* LampshadeWearing: Thanks to Grover's antics trying to "help" Kermit at the end of a sketch on "light" and "dark", Kermit winds up with a lampshade on his head.
** During "Sesame Street Stays Up Late!" Telly tries at one point to hide from the New Year by hiding inside Finders Keepers and wearing a lampshade on his head, telling Freddie to "act like a lamp".
* LastMinuteBabyNaming:
** Baby Bear goes to meet his new baby sister. He asks her name, and their parents say they haven't thought of one yet. Baby Bear goes to check the baby out, and while he's looking at her, he remarks "Hey, you're a little curly bear." Their parents overhear him and decide to name the baby just that.
** In the picture book ''Me Cookie!'', a baby blue monster is known only as Baby Monster, even after he starts walking and talking until finally he names himself, insisting to his babysitter "Me not Baby Monster, me Cookie Monster!"
* TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers: Played straight ... a recognition game where viewers were asked to identify the odd item out of a group of (typically) four. (For instance, a pair of shoes in three boxes, but a fourth only has one shoe.) Sometimes, played with actions -- for instance, children engaged in various physical activities in three boxes, but the fourth is of a child reading.
* TheLastStraw:
** A mouse gets on an [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLntp4SuwdQ already overloaded elevator]] and it shakes and explodes.
** A kid yanks the bottom can off a stack, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2j2O7M5Riw and the whole store collapses.]]
** In one of Prairie Dawn's pageants about "heavy" and "light", one character named Creator/{{Monty|Python}} is struggling to hold up a boulder and another named Merry is holding a feather. Monty eventually drops the boulder onto Prairie's piano, nearly crushing it. Then, Merry places the feather on top, completely crushing it.
* LazilyGenderFlippedName: Telly names his hamster Chuckie, but she turns out to be a girl, so he renames her Chuckie Sue.
* LeastRhymableWord: When Bert doesn't want to play at rhyming with Ernie, he says, "Hippopotamus!", but Ernie just says, "Rip-a-cotta-puss."
* LeftTheBackgroundMusicOn:
** Whenever the theme music plays, the characters can hear it, and know that it's time to [[BreakingTheFourthWall say hello or goodbye to the viewers]]. This was a plot point on at least two occasions - one in an episode where Oscar was trying to get it out of his head as he found it too happy, another in an episode where Maria and Big Bird use the music to help Forgetful Jones remember the name of the street.
** In a SickEpisode where Big Bird and Zoe had colds and Telly was delivering messages to/from them, every time he was delivering a message, dynamic music would play, which got slower every time, a fact which he found annoying.
** In the episode where a penguin takes Telly's cap, chase music plays while he chases the penguin. Halfway through the chase, the penguin chases Telly instead, which prompts Telly to ask that they stop the chase music while they switch places.
* {{Leitmotif}}:
** During the years when Mr. Snuffleupagus was only seen by Big Bird, Snuffy's entrances and exits were accompanied by one of these.
** In recent years, the street stories have much more musical score, allowing for more of these to sneak in. Super Grover particularly is often accompanied by his classic theme.
** Sherlock Hemlock also has his "detective music".
** The Grand High Triangle Lover has his regal sounding fanfare to signal his entrance and exit.
* LetsMeetTheMeat: A lot of skits with morals about food will feature food that wants to be eaten.
* LimitedWardrobe:
** Abby nearly always wears the same blue dress.
** Louie always wears the same blue jacket.
** Count Von Count really loves his outfit.
* LiteralMetaphor: On re-entry the ''Wiggleprise'' ends up landing Around The Corner in a wash bucket full of water; it turns out "splashdown" is the proper term for a spaceship's landing on return to Earth.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: In the nearly 50 years of its existence, countless puppets and human characters have appeared on the show.
* LocationSong: "(Can you tell me how to get to) Sesame Street?" - The theme song, which essentially has children asking people, how can they find this street?
* LongLostUncleAesop:
** Episode 2687, "The Golden Cabbage of Snufertiti", features Bob's AdventurerArchaeologist brother Minneapolis in a street story with the Aesop "Siblings can love each other even if they don't have much in common." Actually justified in that one of the differences between the two is that Minneapolis likes to be on the move while Bob prefers to stay on Sesame Street (though Minneapolis does promise to visit again sometime down the line).
** One episode featured Zoe's aunt Chloe, who only served for the purpose of the Aesop "if someone does something to you which you don't like, just tell them" (Chloe tickled Zoe which she didn't like).
* LongRunners: "50 years and counting" as of 2019; The phrase was the slogan for the MilestoneCelebration campaign.
* LongRunnerCastTurnover: With the exception of three performers - the late Carroll Spinney (Big Bird and Oscar), Bob [=McGrath=] (Bob) and Loretta Long (Susan), who were there for over 45 years - the entire cast has turned over since the first episode aired in November 1969. The longest-tenured cast members after them, aside from Muppet performers, are Emilio Delgado (Luis) and Sonia Manzano (Maria) with both first appearing in 1971, and Roscoe Orman (Gordon, who in 1974 became [[TheOtherDarrin the third actor to play the role]]); Allison Bartlett O'Reilly (Gina, joining in 1987) the next longest-tenured. Everyone else has come and gone with much shorter runs on the show.
* LostPetGrievance: Has ''anybody'' seen Marty's dog?
* LoudOfWar: An early [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2DNiAWgMRY Bert and Ernie sketch]] has the duo engaging in one of these when Ernie hogs the TV set, and Bert turns the record player on to drown him out, which leads to Ernie turning the radio on to drown out the record player, then Bert responds by turning a blender on to drown out the radio... all of which leads to a fuse blowing and the power going out in their apartment.
* LowerDeckEpisode: ''Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration'' puts a lot of its focus on characters that [[TheBusCameBack haven't appeared in a long time]], and every one of them gets at least one line.

[[folder:Tropes Brought to you by the Letter M]]
* MaliciousMisnaming: In the "good birds' club" episode, the bully bird insults Big Bird by calling him "Big [noun that isn't 'bird']."
* ManOfAThousandVoices: Depending on the era of the show.
** In the old days, most of the generic, one-shot Anything Muppet characters were performed by either Frank Oz, or Jerry Nelson and Richard Hunt.
** For a while in the early 2000s, many of the female [=AM=]s were performed by Stephanie D'Abruzzo.
** Presently, almost every female Muppet is performed by Leslie Carrara-Rudolph.
* MeaningfulName:
** Gonnigan, Abby's classmate on the ''Abby's Flaying Fairy School'' segment. When nervous or upset he turns invisible, and therefore is "gone again".
** Don ''Music'' is a musician.
** The Count is a pun on counting and Count Dracula.
** Subverted with Telly, who started out preoccupied with watching television but now isn't.
* MeatOVision: In the ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' parody "Aveggies: Age of Bon Bon" on the episode about focus, Cookie Monster (as Dr. Brownie) keeps getting distracted from stopping the alien spaceship and seeing his teammates' equipment as snack food. He sees [[ComicBook/CaptainAmerica Captain Ameri-cauliflower]]'s shield as giant cookie and [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor The Mighty Corn]]'s hammer as a marshmallow and eats both of them.
* MedicalGame: ''[[https://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/sesame-interactive-elmo-goes-to-the-doctor/elmo-goes-to-the-doctor-sesame-street/ Elmo Goes to the Doctor]]'' is a licensed game about Elmo being treated for a cold, a toothache, or an earache. It has a BittersweetEnding, ending with him still in recovery.
* MediumBlending:
** Abby Cadabby moves from live-action to the computer-generated Flying Fairy School. Similarly, Bert and Ernie have ''Great Adventures'' in StopMotion.
** The ''Magical Wand Chase'' movie combines puppetry with CGI.
* {{Meganekko}}: Smart Tina in the Roosevelt Franklin sketches wears glasses, but makes this a ZigzaggedTrope, since instead of being meek and sweet she's a SmallNameBigEgo victim who's a KnowNothingKnowItAll.
* MelancholyMusicalNumber:
** "When Bert's Not Here" is a song by Ernie about how sad he feels when Bert is away.
** "Sad" is a song by Little Jerry and the Monotones about how sad Little Jerry feels after several bad things, like losing his dime and having a terrible time at school, happen.
*** Another song with the same name was sung by Olivia, who had gone from feeling fine to being sad for seemingly no reason.
** "Don't Walk" is about a groom who is very sad due to not being able to cross the street to his bride because of the 'don't walk' song.
** "All I Can Do is Cry" is a song sung by a kitten who's sad due to losing her mitten.
** "It's All Right to Cry" is a song set to a live-action film about how all people cry for various reasons, not just babies.
** "Wandering Through Wonderland" is a song Abby sings as she's lost in a place based on Wonderland from ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'' and wants to go back home.
** "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe" is about some cowboys and cowgirls at a cafe specially designed to cry things out at.
** "Just Take a Look at 15" is by a singing 15 girl who feels unnoticed.
* MissedMealAesop: This show has done this many times, with breakfast being the one they talk about most:
** In the song "The Most Important Meal of the Day" ([[EitherOrTitle also known]] as "[[TheSomethingSong The Breakfast Song]]"), a chef sings to a little boy who wants to skip breakfast, telling him not to because breakfast is the most important meal and everyone needs it.
** In another song, "The Breakfast Club" (which doesn't have anything to do with [[Film/TheBreakfastClub the movie]] apart from the title), a group of people sing that you should eat breakfast every morning as it's healthy for you.
** In one skit, Super Grover loses his SuperStrength (and becomes too weak to even lift a briefcase) because he skipped breakfast, and the Super Foods (AnthropomorphicFood in super suits) give him some food, gaining him his powers back.
** Downplayed for the "Breakfast is the Best Meal of the Day" song that [[CloudCuckoolander Ernie]] sings. While he does sing about how breakfast gives him energy in the morning, and that supposedly makes it the best, the song is mainly played for comedy, due to the [[SurrealHumour surreality]] of him singing it at night.
* MistakenForThief:
** Zigzagged in one Ernie and Bert skit. Bert observes Ernie sitting with a plate of crumbs and holding a fork and a piece of chocolate cake gone. Logically, Bert thinks Ernie ate the piece of cake, but Ernie makes up a story about a monster eating it, shaking off the crumbs, and putting the fork in Ernie's hand. Bert doesn't believe him and Ernie admits that he did eat the cake, but when Bert leaves, the monster does the exact thing Ernie described with the other piece of cake.
** At one point, Bert thinks Ernie took his cookies, but really it was Cookie Monster in disguise.
** In a 2002 episode Cookie Monster is accused of having taken cookies from a few different characters after having been specifically told not to. It turns out to be a one-shot character named Cookie Hood who was taking them.
* MistakesAreNotTheEndOfTheWorld:
** In one episode, the Count accidentally counts the same number twice and decides to give up counting and find a new job, lest he make another mistake. However, all the other jobs turn out to involve counting in some way and when Elmo makes the same error and declares that ''he'' will give up counting, he decides that accepting errors is better than giving up counting.
** The song "Accidents Happen" from "Elmo's Potty Time" is about how it's acceptable and normal for kids to have accidents during their potty-training.
** "Everyone Makes Mistakes" is a song about how everyone makes mistakes, so it's fine if you make them.
** When Rosita writes the "R" in her name backwards, Big Bird fails to dunk a ball, Zoe and Abby fall over while dancing, Bert forgets the lyrics to a song, Cookie Monster burns some cookies, the Two-Headed Monster fails to drum, and Elmo makes a math error, a woman sings a song called "The Power of Yet", implying that they can't do what they're trying to ''yet'' but will be able to in the future.
** In an animated skit, a girl named Cookie breaks the window and considers lying to her mother that her cat Lucy broke it. However, she then imagines her family making Lucy sleep in Bruno the dog's bed, which he wouldn't like, so he'd scare her away, never to be seen again. Cookie, not wanting Lucy to run away, tells the truth to her mother, who tells her that sometimes accidents just happen, but at least she told the truth and can do better next time.
** Played with in an episode. Linda breaks Ruthie's pitcher but because she's in a hurry, she didn't see it, and because she's deaf, she didn't hear it. Elmo forgets that Linda is deaf and thinks that she didn't tell Ruthie because she's afraid, so he asks Ruthie what "someone" should do if they broke the pitcher and were afraid to tell. Ruthie thinks that ''Elmo'' broke the pitcher and is afraid to tell, so she tells him the story of when she broke her uncle's lamp as a girl. Ruthie's uncle was apparently sad about the lamp, but not mad, because he knew it was an accident. Elmo tries to spread this information to Linda, which leads to everyone finding out the actual truth.
** Downplayed in one episode. Elmo learns how to roller-blade and people keep telling him that it's OK to fall down, but Elmo seems to already know that.
** The song "Trying and Trying Again" has such lyrics as "Don't be afraid because you are small, and don't be afraid that you may fall. You can get it after all; it just takes time".
** The book "Potty Training with Abby" has Abby say that she sometimes either turns the toilet into a pumpkin or wets her pants, but it's normal to make mistakes while potty training.
** In the book "P is for Potty", Elmo's cousin Albie wets his pants and Elmo and his mother Mae reassure him that it's normal and Elmo used to wet his pants as well.
** In the book "Everyone Makes Mistakes", Big Bird accidentally knocks over some laundry and tries to lie about it, but then learns that it's fine to make mistakes, but not to lie.
** In the book "Toilet Time", when the narrator points out that Ernie had accidents as a toddler learning to use the bathroom, then says, "That's OK, Ernie!".
** Downplayed in the online game "Elmo's Potty Time". Elmo doesn't have an accident, but Louie, his father, tells him that it's OK to have them anyway.
* MonikerAsEnticement: An in-universe example in "Elmo's Potty Time", when Baby Bear says that since he's potty trained, he's a "potty animal" and when Curly's potty trained she'll be one too, but there's no mention of that label applying to the audience.
* MonsterShapedMountain: When they visited Hawaii, Big Bird spent a lot of time looking for Mount Snuffleupagus; a mountain shaped like, well, a Snuffleupagus.
%%* TheMovie: ''Film/FollowThatBird'' (1985) and ''Film/TheAdventuresOfElmoInGrouchland'' (1999).
* MultiNationalShows: We heartily recommend the documentary ''The World According to Sesame Street'' on this subject.
* MultipleEndings: The 123 red ball sculpture film has two endings.
** One has the ball being crushed into a powder, while the other sees the balls triggering a machine which places cherries on three ice cream sundaes.
** A number of films on the letter or number of the day have the same basic theme and format, but are edited to feature a different letter or number. In their full form, most of the counting films go up to 20.
* MultipleHeadCase: The two-headed muppet.
* MundaneMadeAwesome:
** Music/AndreaBocelli singing a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BDVvB7Xx1w lullaby]]
** "Lever Lover" is a song about how levers are amazing due to their ability to lift things and pivot.
** Ernie once sings "I Love My Toes" about how great toes are.
** Ernie and Bert once sing a song about how amazing sleep is.
* {{Muppet}}: Jim Henson brought his Muppets to the show in the beginning, but the Muppets who debuted on ''Series/SesameStreet'' and those who didn't have been under separate headship since the 90s.
* TheMusicMeister: A 2010 [[http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Episode_4220 episode]] had Elmo take on this role by pure accident - he decided to play with Abby's wand when she left it behind after leaving to do an errand; he accidentally learned the music spell while pretending to be a conductor with it and decided to use it on everyone on the street.
* MustacheVandalism: The segment where Muppet cowboys compare a "Wanted" poster of Cookie Monster with the actual Cookie Monster. When their suspicion peaks, Cookie distracts them long enough to draw a mustache on the poster. The cowboys notice the disparity, and apologize for suspecting him. Cookie Monster amiably tips his hat--and lots of stolen cookies tumble out.
* MyNaymeIs:
** '''Herry''' Monster
** '''Merry''' Monster.
** Gabi
** Tarah
* MythologyGag: Season 40 is filled with them, ranging from props with a hidden reference on them to onscreen cameos from some of the performers. [[http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Season_40_Hidden_Gems Click here]] for a complete list.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: In the sketch when the Count sleeps over with Ernie and Bert, Ernie recommends that the Count should count sheep so he can fall asleep. But he ends up enjoying counting them, and when it begins thundering from his counting, a horrified Ernie gives this look.
* MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch: Oscar's friend Felix is a neat grouch, and Oscar's cousin George is a positive grouch.

[[folder:Tropes Brought to you by the Letter N]]
* NeatFreak:
** Bert doesn't like it when Ernie is messy.
** Unusually for a grouch, Oscar's friend Felix likes to clean.
* NegativeContinuity: In the 35th anniversary special, ''The Street We Live On'', Grover takes Elmo back in time to the Sesame Street before he was born, via a magic time traveling taxi cab. Via flashbacks, Grover takes Elmo to Maria and Luis's wedding, however, Elmo was the ring bearer at the wedding (and constantly worried about dropping the rings). In fact, Elmo can be seen ''in the flashback''. Can't really imagine how that got past the writers, producers, editors, etc.
* {{Neologism}}:
** One animated skit tells you not to be a ''snerd'' when you sneeze.
** When Bert challenges Ernie to rhyme "hippopotamus", Ernie says, "Rip-a-cotta-puss!".
** Natasha calls her doll her "hoongie".
* NeverSayDie: Several aversions.
** Averted, with Mr. Hooper's death.
** The song "One Way" also opens with the line "I'm so lonely, I wish I was dead".
** As does "On The Subway" ("So hot I could die...").
** Also averted when Elmo's Uncle Jack dies, they clearly use the words "die" and "dead", though it's part of a video which didn't air on TV.
* NewBabyEpisode:
** ''A Baby Sister For Herry'' is a book based on the show. When Herry's baby sister, Flossie is born, Herry becomes jealous of the attention she receives from his friends and relatives. Herry also dislikes when his parents have to remind him to be considerate of her, such as not playing with his toy fire engine outside her bedroom so she can sleep. Herry later decides to act like a baby so his parents will give him some attention, and when his mom finds out, she shows him pictures of what he looked like when he was a baby. This makes Herry realize that he used to be like Flossie, so he changes his attitude and helps take care of her.
** In one episode, Maria, who had been pregnant by Luis for a while now, goes into labour and eventually gives birth to Gabriella.
** In a two-part episode, Curly Bear is born. The first part focuses on Mama Bear's pregnancy and labour, and the second part focuses on Baby Bear acclimating to Curly Bear's presence.
** In the song "We've Got a Brand New Baby", a girl named Freda (who, coincidentally, has the same puppet as Ingrid) gains a new brother and sings about how she finds him annoying, with his crying and inability to do much.
** The DirectToVideo release "A New Baby in My House" has an in-universe example: Snuffy is mad at Alice for breaking his toy tiger, so their mother reads them a story about a boy who was also mad at his younger sister. In this case, it was a little prince named Firstly who was frustrated with the newborn princess Azalea for taking up attention.
** One two-part episode focuses on Gina adopting a ten-month-old boy named Marco.
** In one episode, Luis looks after [[EggMacGuffin the egg of a Honker couple]]. When the egg hatches, the newly-hatched Honker baby starts [[{{Imprinting}} calling Luis, "Daddy"]]. When the baby's parents arrive, Luis points out that the male Honker looks a lot more like the baby than Luis does, which convinces it that the Honker is his real daddy.
* NewYearHasCome: The prime time special "Sesame Street Stays Up Late!" (retitled on video as "Sesame Street Celebrates Around the World") features the adults heading out to one New Year's Eve party and Gina hosting another one for the kids. The adults return via the subway station just in time for the kids' mock ball drop courtesy of Wolfgang the seal. Elmo hosts a Creator/{{CNN}}-type newscast about how New Year's Eve is celebrated around the world. It even has an Israel segment about Rosh Hashanah which ties into Sesame Street's Israeli-American spinoff, ''Shalom Sesame''.
* NicheNetwork: In ''Elmo's World'', Elmo's TV tunes in to these kinds of channels to teach kids.
* TheNicknamer: Oscar the Grouch is this for almost all of his Sesame Street neighbors; to him, Gordon is "[[DontExplainTheJoke Curly]]," Big Bird is "Turkey," Maria is "Skinny," Bob is "Bright Eyes," Telly is "Worry Wart," and Elmo is "Little Red Menace," Oscar has nicknames for others, too.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Every one of Oscar the Grouch's schemes to ruin everybody's day backfire, resulting in everyone being happier instead.
* NightmareSequence:
** Cookie Monster had a nightmare once about flying cookies that wouldn't let him eat them, and another nightmare about a talking cookie who used to be a monster.
** Oscar has nightmares about butterflies and happy people in one episode.
* NoFourthWall:
** Often follows the common kids' TV convention in which the viewer is assumed to be "visiting" the show's characters.
** Episodes of ''Sesamstrasse'' (the German version) from 1978-88 -- when the show took place in a studio -- took it UpToEleven, where some episodes involved the studio crew helping the characters out.
* NobodyPoops: In episode 2042, Gordon makes plans to meet Mr. Snuffleupagus (who he finally believes in, despite not seeing him yet). He sets up a space by Oscar's trash can with everything he could need so he would be sure to stay and not miss out on seeing Snuffy, but nothing is brought up about how he would go to the bathroom. And aside from briefly having to go inside to take a phone call (missing his opportunity in the process), he stays out there until night time.
* NonResidentialResidence: Oscar the Grouch lives in a trash can.
* NonSequitur:
** Big Bird shouts things like, "Basil!" and "Sassafras!" when he's mad.
** The song "Watermelon's and Cheese" is about how you shouldn't say, "Watermelons and cheese" over the phone.
* NoPeripheralVision: At the end of "Cookie Disco", when Cookie panics over having no more cookies, there actually is a cookie visible on the wall in front, which he could easily spot. In this case, it's most likely unintentional, as during the early years segments were often done in one take (and it's unknown whether Frank Oz would have spotted it in the monitor when performing in the segment).
* NotAllowedToGrowUp: The human characters age normally but the Muppets and Monsters will stay the same age. Often times retcons are used when talking about stuff or flashbacking to things that they "should" have been too young for, such as Elmo being at Maria's and Luis' wedding.
%%* NothingExcitingEverHappensHere: Absolutely defied.
* NotSoForgottenBirthday: In the picture book ''Abby's Pink Party'', Elmo tries to cheer up Abby Cadabby who is sad because she thinks everyone forgot her birthday. The book ends with her surprise party.
* NotSoImaginaryFriend: Mr. Snuffleupagus was one of these for about a decade. This was eventually changed because it infuriated children, seeing Big Bird driven crazy by everyone's disbelief. Also, as per above, it occurred to the writers that perhaps having all the adults disbelieve Big Bird sent a very irresponsible message.
* NotWhereTheyThought: A RunningGag in the "Monster Clubhouse" skits is a man mistaking the Monster Clubhouse for a different clubhouse.
* NumerologicalMotif: In 2003, the budget people called for the show to be limited to 25 episodes a year. Lou Berger, the head writer at the time, pointed out that you can't exactly fire a letter of the alphabet, so now they each get one episode a year.

[[folder:Tropes Brought to you by the Letter O]]
* ObviouslyEvil: The first and second of the three "Japanese stories" sketches from 1971-72, "The Mystery of the Four Dragons" and "The Unhappy Empire", feature the "evil Prime Minister" of Imperial Japan, voiced by Frank Oz. As if the word "evil" wasn't enough of a clue to his true nature, his bushy eyebrows are permanently furrowed in a contemptuous scowl, and he never misses an opportunity to cackle malevolently.
* ObviouslyNotFine: When [[DitzyGenius Dr. Nobel Price]] is sad about his "invention" (socks) turning out to have already been invented, he claims that he's fine despite sobbing.
* OddCouple: Bert and Ernie, who live together but sleep in separate beds. It is never really clear whether they are partners, father and son or just friends.
* OdeToApathy:
** The song "That's What Friends are For" is about how Ernie and Bert sometimes do things that would ordinarily bother the other, but they don't mind because they're such good friends.
** The song "Born to Add" is about how an unnamed man and woman don't care that their loud addition at night is waking everyone up-- they'll keep doing it anyway.
* OdeToFood:
** As you'd expect, this is a Cookie Monster specialty, going all the way back to "C is for Cookie" (about how he loves cookies so much he doesn't care if 'cookie' is the only word that starts with 'C' that he can think of), plus "Food, Food, Food" (about different types of food), "Healthy Food" (about eating a balanced diet and different nutritious foods), "Breakfast Time" (about the different weird ways he eats cookies in the morning--boiling them, juicing them, frying them, etc.), "Hey Food" (a [[Music/PastMasters "Hey Jude"]] parody sung with The Beetles) and "The First Time Me Eat Cookie" (about his first time eating cookies at about age one)
** "The Celery Song" is a song by three kids called the Celery Bunch about how much they like celery.
** Invoked when Elmo uses Abby's wand to make it so nobody can speak, only sing, and makes Baby Bear and Alan sing a song dedicated to porridge.
** One song is sung by a boy who previously thought he didn't like zucchini about how it's the best food he's ever eaten now that he's tried some.
** "Everyone Likes Ice Cream" is about how liking ice cream is nearly universal despite the fact that everyone is different.
* OffScreenCrash: The show ''loves'' this trope (a loud crash from offscreen), particularly with Muppet segments.
* OnceASeason:
** The season premieres are usually the only episodes of the whole season to feature ''all'' of the human actors on the show, because they can't afford to do so more often than that. Often, this was used to showcase new and returning actors and establish personalities. [[note]]A prime example is the fifth-season premiere, aired in November 1973, where a "typical day on Sesame Street is shown, with not only the entire human cast but every one of the Muppet characters as well.[[/note]]
** During much of TheSeventies and (at least) [[TheEighties early-to-mid Eighties]], each year the show would have a week's worth of winter-themed episodes. Actually, ''two'' weeks: the first week would show snow falling, and the second week the whole street would be covered in snow. This didn't last long, and even now whenever they do Christmas specials there's very little snow cover; as Oscar once explained in an interview, "It used to snow, but it got too expensive."
** From Seasons 33 to 37, "Do De Rubber Duck" had become an annual treat for viewers. Ditto for "Imagine That".
* OneEpisodeFear:
** In "Afraid of the Bark", Zoe (and allegedly Rocco) develop a fear of dogs and the adults and Elmo help them lose it.
** In one episode, Elmo has a fear of fire, which he gains (due to Hooper's Store catching fire) and loses (due to visiting the firehouse) on the same episode.
* OneSteveLimit:
** The first three decades featured Little Chrissy, who has also been referred to as just Chrissy and as Chris. Chrissy was also the name of a member of Little Jerry and the Monotones, and both characters were voiced by (and named after) Christopher Cerf, though the Monotone Chrissy wasn't referred to by name often. Another Chris was added to the human cast in season 38, long after the Muppets with this name had stopped appearing on the show.
** There's Sam the Robot and Sinister Sam, as well as the owner of a store where the Busby Twins frequented, and a boy who appears in the home video ''Getting Ready to Read''.
** Bad Bart and Bert's brother Bart.
** A comical example occurred in a sketch where Kermit the Frog goes to pick-up a personalized t-shirt, only to get shirts for Kermit the Forg, Kermit the Gorf, and Kermit the Grof. At first it looks like the shirt maker made a mistake, until customers with those names show up to pick up their shirts.
* OneWordVocabulary: In the early 90s, a female construction worker Muppet named Stella was often seen with Biff and Sully, and all she would say was "Yo!"
* OnlySaneMan: Averted to the extreme, as most of the cast acts pretty eccentric at times, thanks partially at least to them attempting to simultaneously teach preschoolers about letters, numbers and other subjects.
* OnlyShopInTown: Hooper's Store is this to the titular street.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness:
** When Oscar starts acting kind rather than his usual grouchy self in "Oscar the Kind", the rest reacted with surprise.
** When Oscar reads "nice books" in one episode, people wonder if he's sick.
** When Barkley doesn't eat in one episode, it's a sign he's sick.
* OpeningBallet: Part of the opening sequence of ''Christmas Eve on Sesame Street'' involves an ice ballet in which Big Bird learns from a girl how to skate to the song "Feliz Navidad".
* OurVampiresAreDifferent:
** Count von Count. He has a shadow, enjoys being out in sunlight, can't turn into a bat, and doesn't seem to be interested in sucking blood at all. (One early skit did show him having no reflection in a mirror.) Official materials are [[FlipFlopOfGod inconsistent]] on whether he is even a vampire at all.
** In the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4l9mjSeAVW0 Twilight parody]], Cookie Monster plays "Shortbreadward" a "Yumpire" with an insatiable thirst for cookies.
* OutOfFocus: This happened to several characters after Elmo and later Abby Cadabby came to dominate the show. Some longtime characters such as Prairie Dawn, Oscar the Grouch and the Count aren't seen as much as they were in previous years. Saddest of all, Big Bird is only a periodic guest star. This may be an example of RealLifeWritesThePlot, as Jerry Nelson (the Count) suffered through several years of declining health before his death in 2012 and as Carroll Spinney has continued to perform as Big Bird and Oscar into his early 80s.
** Further examples of RealLifeWritesThePlot: Even before Jim Henson's death and Frank Oz's semi-retirement, their increasing commitments to outside projects starting in the late 1970's affected how often their respective characters would appear in new material. This particularly affected Ernie, Bert, Grover, Cookie Monster and Kermit the Frog, all of whom went from frequently appearing on the street interacting with the other characters to primarily appearing in pre-filmed inserts, as Jim and Frank were then only able to dedicate one week out of each year for such.
* OutSick: This happens quite a few times.
** Sort of inverted the time the child Gabi was sick on a Birthday Episode and so her friends couldn't come to her birthday party.
** Another time Grandmama Bear has a cold, so an older Gabi has to babysit.
** A third time Big Bird and Zoe both have colds, so they can't have a play-date (they have a "play-date by proxy" with Telly).
** A fourth time Gina was sick off her job so Savion filled in.
** Another time, Maria has a stomach virus and is sent to the hospital, so she can't do her job, but she comes back later that day.
** "You've Got to Be Patient to Be a Patient" is a song all about this: it's about how you can't go out and play while sick, so you'll just have to be patient. It's sung once to Big Bird when he has a lung infection, once to Maria when she has a stomach virus, and once to a little girl when she has the flu.
** In the song "Best Friend Blues", Ernie sings about how Bert can't play with him because he's sick.
** A 1997 episode involved Prairie Dawn falling ill with a cold the day one of her pageants is supposed to be performing, so she had Bob [[DraggedIntoDrag dress in drag like Prairie]] to take her place at said pageant.
* OvercomplicatedMenuOrder: In an early skit, Ernie asks an ice-cream man for a Chocolate, Strawberry, Peach, Vanilla, Banana, Pistachio, Peppermint, Lemon, Orange, Butterscotch ice-cream cone. Amazingly enough, the ice-cream man delivers! ... Except that Ernie is now upset because the cone was prepared ''upside-down''. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIR8ykXHNGs Watch it here.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tropes Brought to you by the Letters P and Q]]
* PantomimeAnimal: Barkley was portrayed by a performer who crouched down on all fours and crawled while wearing the Barkley mask like a helmet.
* PaperThinDisguise: A RunningGag of the 2016 "Smart Cookies" segments is that the villain, the Crumb, is able to get past Cookie Monster with the most minor disguises, such as a mustache or even simply a bow-tie. Because Cookie Monster is comparing him to a digital photo, these elements don't appear, allowing Cookie to be easily fooled.
** An Ernie and Bert segment from TheSeventies had Ernie trying out a disguise kit consisting of these and tries to fool Bert with them, disguising as a pirate and Little Red Riding Hood. The problem is, Bert sees through all of them (especially since Ernie ''forgot to remove his pirate beard'' for the Red Riding Hood disguise, and he doesn't want to be disturbed while reading his "Boring Stories" book. But then TheBigBadWolf arrives and Bert assumes it's [[MistakenForAnImpostor Ernie in another disguise]], until Ernie shows up through the doorway just as the Wolf is munching on Bert's chair. Cue the OhCrap look from Bert.
* ParanoiaFuel: Invoked InUniverse and played for laughs during the W-ORD News segment with John Oliver and Cookie Monster. One of the top stories is teased by John Oliver as "The word 'crumb' ends with a 'b', but you ''never hear it''. What's it doing back there, and how can you protect yourself?"
* ParentalBonus: A deliberate part of the show from the beginning. One of the first producers described the plan for the show back in 1969 as "A show that will entertain parents so much, they'll force their kids to watch."
** If not the actual originator of the concept, then ''Sesame Street'' is certainly the most sophisticated. Includes parodies of current celebrities, movies and songs, such as 'Monsterpiece Theater', a ''Series/MasterpieceTheatre'' spoof hosted by Alistair Cookie. It's ''really'' doubtful that preschoolers would get a ''Theatre/WaitingForGodot'' parody. Or, for that matter, one based around ''Film/{{The 39 Steps|1935}}''.
** They did a parody of ''Mystery!'' in the early 90s, called ''Mysterious Theater'' with Vincent Twice, a spoof of ''Creator/VincentPrice''.
** ''Series/FamilyFeud'' was parodied in 1981 as ''Family Food'' with Richard Dawson as the host.
** There were 2 ''Series/WheelOfFortune'' parodies. One was ''Squeal of Fortune'' with Pat Playjacks and Velma Blank. The other was ''Dreidel of Fortune'' with host ''Creator/JeremyMiller'' (Not sure who played LaVanna White).
** ''Series/MiamiVice'' was spoofed as ''Miami Mice''.
** ''Series/LifeStylesOfTheRichAndFamous'' was spoofed as ''Life Styles of the Big and Little'' with Dicky Tick. Only 2 skits were made.
** ''Series/ThisIsYourLife'' was parodied as ''Here is Your Life'' with Guy Smiley (and later, Sonny Friendly).
** ''Series/SiskelAndEbert'' was parodied as ''Sneak Peak Previews'' with Telly Monster and Oscar the Grouch. Ebert and Siskel was in one of the sketch where they demonstrate the ''Thumbs Up'' ''Thumbs Down'' ratings.
** ''Series/AskTheManager'' was parodied as ''Ask Oscar'' with host Telly Monster and Oscar the Grouch.
** ''Series/HillStreetBlues'' was parodied as ''Hill Street Twos''.
** ''Series/LoveBoat'' was spoofed with Ernie as the captain who loves that boat.
** ''ABC-TV's Love in the Afternoon'' was parodied as ''WCTW: School in the Afternoon''.
** ''Series/DaysOfOurLives'' was spoofed as ''Sounds Of Our Lives''.
** Or ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkd5dJIVjgM Old Spice]]''... starring Grover. ([[Advertising/TheManYourManCouldSmellLike "Anything is possible when you smell like a monster and you know the word 'on'. I am on a horse."]] ''[[Advertising/TheManYourManCouldSmellLike "Moo!"]]'' [[Advertising/TheManYourManCouldSmellLike "Cow."]])
** They really do work hard to stay current, as also per a parody of ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' called "Law & Order: Special Letters Unit".
** They also did a parody of ''Series/BoardwalkEmpire'' called "Birdwalk Empire".
** The Latin American version of this show, ''Series/PlazaSesamo'', features the recurring sketch "Los Monstruos Tambien Lloran" ("The Monsters Also Cry"), a parody of [[SoapOpera telenovelas]] named after a classic Mexican example (''Los Ricos Tambien Lloran'' ["The Rich Also Cry"]) of the form.
** [[Series/OrangeIsTheNewBlack Five words]]: ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4YOT1ajsUM Orange is the New Snack]]''.
** ''[[Series/AmericanIdol American I]]''
** ''[[Series/GameOfThrones Game of Chairs]]'' gives us the ultimate one with the references both to the story and um...some of the more grown up aspects ("I've a wedding to get to!" - really Robb?) clear and easy to follow for fans of the show and those who only have an inkling of the hard hitting series.
** One cartoon featuring a salesman trying to sell the letter Z has the salesman give examples of words beginning with Z, including "Zither." He then pulls out a zither and starts playing the theme from ''Film/TheThirdMan''.
* ParentalSubstitute: The original concept behind Gordon and his wife Susan, according to WordOfGod.
* ParodyCommercial: Used as a second CouchGag in seasons 43 and 44.
* ParodiedTrope: Early seasons, as noted, parodied many TV advertising tropes of the day. Notably, the RepeatingAd, by using the same films more than once in a given episode.
%%* ParodiesOfFire: In the ''Chariots of Fur'' sketch.
* PenguinsAreDucks: The penguins often [[IncorrectAnimalNoise make quacking sounds]].
* PassingTheTorch: In ''So Long, Mr. Hooper'', David told Big Bird that Mr. Hooper left the store to him.
* PeopleFallOffChairs: Seen in "Little Miss Muffet: The Continuing Story", when Miss Muffet is eating spaghetti in a restaurant at the mall, and among seeing [[StalkerWithoutACrush the spider that keeps following her around]], she's so terrified she falls back in her chair (and her scream raises in pitch to reflect that.)
* PersonWithTheClothing: An animated segment about the letter V features "the villain in the Panama hat" (who even refers to himself as that).
* PianoDrop: Seen in "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8ZfNPwAiiM Danger]]" by Little Jerry and the Monotones, and "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVcZ7cDggeE Danger's No Stranger]]" by How Now Brown and the Moo Wave.
* PieInTheFace:
** The ending of "Surprise", where [[FlyAtTheCameraEnding even the viewer gets pied.]]
** The series of skits where Linda signs words that Gordon says out loud right before the word is demonstrated on him. The last word in the skit is "pie" and it ends not with Gordon getting a pie to the face, but rather Linda being on the receiving end.
*** In episode 3051, that scene is followed by Maria getting creamed by accident courtesy of Fluffy, who had been meaning to hit Oscar. Oscar is then perplexed by Maria's reaction, which is to [[ActuallyPrettyFunny laugh hysterically]].
** The "Three Whipped Cream Pies on the Wall" segment, in which Maria pies Bob, Luis and David and then gets pelted with pies herself at the end of the number - although curiously the pies all miss her face.
** Ernie is pied by Bert in an early skit, after confusing the number 4 with first a chocolate cream and then a banana cream pie.
--->'''Ernie:''' ''[after being pied]'' I knew what it was all along, but who wants to get hit in the face with a 4?
* ThePigPen: Oscar the Grouch (and most grouches) love to get dirty.
* ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything: WordOfGod is that Gordon is a teacher (first elementary school, then later high school science); in the first episode he says that he's home early because a teachers meeting was called off. However, because he's only very rarely actually seen in a classroom, and indeed seems to always be available whenever the Street plot of the day requires it, many casual viewers aren't aware of this fact. In fact, ''Series/MadTV'' once lampshaded this in a skit about the recession hitting Sesame Street, and Gordon - now riding an ice cream cart - remarks, [[ObliquelyObfuscatedOccupation "Oh, I lost my job doing whatever it is I did before."]]
* PlainPalate: Downplayed for Bert, who likes plain things like oatmeal and plain water and dislikes ice cream sodas due to not being plain enough, but is also shown enjoying non-plain food (one sketch has him mad that Ernie took his chocolate ice cream for instance).
* PlatonicValentine:
** In one episode, discussing racism and interracial friendship, Gina and Savion, who are a white woman and a black man who are best friends, sing a FriendshipSong that involves [[HurricaneOfEuphemisms a list of synonyms for "friends"]], one of them being "Valentines".
** One song is about preschool-aged best friends Elmo and Abby making Valentines for each other, likely because they're too young to have romantic love interests.
** During the "Nine Chickens" song, eight of the chickens give a Valentine to their neighbour.
* PolkaDotDisease: One episode focuses on Big Bird getting the "Birdy Pox", which is a disease most birds of his species and age get and is characterised by being covered in itchy green dots.
* PottyDance:
** In "Elmo's Potty Time", Baby Bear squirms and Elmo asks if he's dancing. Baby Bear says that, no, he's fidgeting and says he has to go himself.
** In the licensed game "Potty Plan", Elmo or Abby starts squirming if they need to go to the bathroom.
* PottyEmergency:
** Baby Bear Grover and Curly Bear get potty emergencies in "Elmo's Potty Time".
** In the game "Potty Plan", if you idle, Elmo or Abby's need to go to the bathroom becomes more urgent.
* PottyFailure:
** The Elmo's Potty Time special has a whole song about wetting oneself, called "Accidents Happen".
** Discussed in the licensed game "Elmo's Potty Time" when they mention not wanting to have accidents.
** In the licensed game "Potty Plan", Elmo or Abby can have accidents if you idle.
** One doll called Potty Time Elmo can have accidents.
* PowerOutagePlot: An Ernie and Bert segment from the 1970s has Ernie notice that it's darker than usual when they are in bed at night, and how all the lights on Sesame Street are out, and Bert explains that it's a blackout and what it is. But then Ernie torments Bert (as usual) with suggesting things they can do during the blackout, such as watch TV or listen to their radio or record player, not knowing they all require electricity to operate.
** The above sketch actually tied in to three different episodes all of which were about a blackout: episode 652, episode 2071, and episode 2210.
* PreciousPuppy: The 2021 HBO Max exclusive animated special ''Furry Friends Forever: Elmo Gets a Puppy'' involves Elmo and Grover befriending a female stray puppy named "Tango". Throughout the special, they try taking her to Sesame Street's "Pet Adoption Fair" held at the park. However, Elmo and Grover missed the event which causes [[https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2021/07/06/credit-sesame-workshop-2-_wide-a5275f51adc6bae236e7ff5a32a0329a9cb5d787-s800-c85.webp Elmo to fully adopt Tango and become his second pet]]. She will eventually show up on the PBS KIDS streaming programs starting in 2022 and future episodes of the series.
* PregnantReptile: Slimey's mother is shown being pregnant, despite being a worm.
* PrejudiceAesop:
** The song "We All Sing with the Same Voice" is about how people all look different, have different families, and come from different places, but we're all the same in many ways.
** "No Matter What Your Language" is also about how even though we speak different languages, have different names etc., we're still all the same in many ways.
** Another song, "No Matter What", is about how people are all different, but still do human things like shiver, laugh, cry, etc.
** One cartoon skit is about a Native American boy telling two white boys Native Americans don't really speak in TontoTalk.
** In one episode, Gina gets a racist phone call saying she can't be best friends with Savion because they have different skin colours. She tells Telly that some people think people with different skin colours can't be friends, but that those people are stupid.
** One song is about how families with only one parent, or with grandparents, aunts, and/or uncles as legal guardians, are just as legitimately families as families with two parents.
* PrettyInMink: In a Christmas special, one of the (human) women wears a rabbit fur jacket.
* PrisonEpisode: ''Little Children, Big Challenges: Incarceration'' (a stand-alone special) tells about how sometimes people violate the law (a "grown up rule") and have to go to jail or prison.
* PutOnABus:
** David. Northern Calloway, who was experiencing mental health and other personal issues in the late 1980s, left the show after the end of Season 20 (he was either fired or resigned, depending on which story one believes), and--since David was still fairly prominent well into 1989--his departure was explained in the premiere episode of Season 21, which aired in November 1989. Gordon receives a postcard and reads it to Elmo, explaining that David had moved to Florida to care for his grandmother and manage her farm. David is still presumed to be alive, as to this day, he has not been mentioned again. Calloway's real life, meanwhile, continued to spiral downhill and in January 1990, he suffered a massive nervous breakdown that killed him.
** Also Roosevelt Franklin, Harvey Kneeslapper, Simon Soundman, Placido Flamingo, Forgetful Jones, Don Music, Sherlock Hemlock, Sam the Robot... In fact, too many to count, as there have been hundreds of Muppets over the last 48 years, so there is no way around this. Even some of the core 'legacy Muppets', like Herry Monster, are seldom seen on the show today.
*** Actually averted in the cases of Herry & Roosevelt. See TheBusCameBack for more details.
** An unusual Muppet case is Countess von Backwards, introduced in 1990 as a love interest for the Count. After appearing in two sketches, her performer, Camille Bonora, refused to play the character anymore, since, as a devout Christian, she was uncomfortable with the occult connotations of a vampirish puppet. The Countess was dropped.
* QuarterHourShort: The Elmo block, which featured either ''Elmo the Musical'' or the original, longer version of ''Series/ElmosWorld'', took up the last eleven minutes of the hour-long version of ''Sesame Street'' starting in 1998.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tropes Brought to you by the Letter R]]
* RaidersOfTheLostParody: The Season 39 premiere "The Golden Triangle of Destiny"; after 'Minnesota Mel' shows up and tells Telly and Chris about said triangle, Mel gets a 'charley horse', so Telly gets his own costume, calls himself 'Texas Telly' and takes his place.
* RatingsStunt: The "Around the Corner" era of 1993-1998, in which the Street expanded to include several new and colourful characters and their businesses (notably the Furry Arms Hotel). This was done due to increasing competition from Series/BarneyAndFriends.
* ReallyDeadMontage: Mr. Hooper would've gotten one, but the producers decided it would confuse the younger viewers.
* RealLifeWritesThePlot: The September 11 World Trade Center attack served as the basic underlying framing device for the Season 33 premiere episode, in which Hooper's Store catches fire, much to Elmo's horror. He gets invited to the local fire station, and sees what firefighters do to save people's lives, which helps Elmo with his fears.
* RealTime: Used sometimes, and occasionally lampshaded.
--> ''Fifteen fingers (with a friend); \\
In fifteen seconds, this film will end...''
* RearrangeTheSong: The series kept its original theme for 23 seasons, then rearranged it to a calypso version in Season 24, then to an arrangement in the spirit of the original in Season 30, a bouncy swing version in Season 33, a hip-hop-inspired version in Season 38 (which was remixed into a funk-jazz version in Season 40 with additional acoustic and brass instrumentation, and remixed ''again'' in Season 42 with the addition of more percussion). Most recently a shorter folk-inspired version debuted in Season 46 when the [[ChannelHop home of the series' first-run airings moved from]] Creator/{{PBS}} to Creator/{{HBO}}.
* ReminderFailure:
** In the picture book ''Don't Forget the Oatmeal!'', Bert and Ernie go grocery shopping, with Bert remarking at the beginning that it's particularly important that they remember to get more oatmeal. [[StringOnFingerReminder Bert ties a string around his finger to help him remember.]] At the supermarket they get distracted by a Cookie Monster rampage, and when they get home they discover that they've bought everything on their list except the oatmeal.
** A classic animated sketch has a young girl being given directions about what groceries to pick up for her mother. She walks all the way to the store repeating the three items she has to get only to momentarily forget the third when she's actually in the store. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Im4GwUD1UY8&feature=fvwrel After a few second of being puzzled, she does remember the right thing to buy]], however.
* RequiredSpinoffCrossover: The ''Bert and Ernie's Great Adventures'' claymation series features the title duo and a series of new characters. The only short to feature another ''Sesame'' regular is "Wizards," which features Elmo in a prominent role.
* {{Retcon}}: It's intentionally invoked in Season 46: as mentioned above (see ChaosArchitecture), Hooper's Store has been given a vintage/retro redesign that's much more reminiscent of the original store from TheSeventies, making it seem as if the store has just set there and aged for 46 years, as opposed to having been renovated several times. The store does now offer free wi-fi, showing that it still keeps up with the time regardless.
* {{Retool}}: The show has always been described as an "experiment," where new things are tried out each year. Though the majority of the changes through the first three decades were fairly minor (dropping/adding certain characters and segments), major changes to the format have been done since the mid-2000s:
** In 2002, the show was modeled after the day of a preschool child and became more structured; daily recurring segments happened in a specific sequence, and the street story, originally shown in parts throughout the hour, was condensed into one approx. 12 minute block.
** In 2009, the show kept a similar format, only now modeled after pre-school programing blocks (such as Nick Jr.) with more long-form segments incorporated into the show.
** 2016's changes condensed the show to a half-hour format, and shifted the show's focus to a central cast of seven (Elmo, Abby, Cookie Monster, Grover, Big Bird, Oscar and Rosita), while the other Muppet characters are downgraded to supporting roles.
* RingRingCrunch: Subverted in the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yA2HFd_rBA "Time to Tick Tock" skit]] from the early 1990s with an alarm clock being used to count up to twelve in a boogie-woogie style, and among hitting twelve it rings very loudly and then breaks apart ''on its own''.
* RobotBuddy: Sam the Robot tried to be this in TheSeventies, but just couldn't get things right.
* RockPaperScissors:
** A newspaper sold at Hooper's Store featured the headline "Rock Wins! Paper and Scissors are bummed..."
** In episodes 4145 and 4225, two pigs are shown to be constantly playing this game and keep tying at "Paper." This results in them constantly going...
--> "Rock paper scissors SHOOT!" "Paper." "Paper." "TIEEEEEEEE!"
* RoommateDrama: Ernie and Bert are two single puppet characters who live together and share a bedroom. Ernie is silly while Bert is serious, which causes comedic struggles such as Ernie waking up Bert in the middle of the night and them arguing over food.
* RousingLullaby:
** One episode had Ricky Gervais sing Elmo "the N Song", which was generally a relaxing song on an accoustic guitar until the refrain, when it switches to a loud electric guitar and Ricky loudly sings "N goes NA NA NA, NA NA NANA NA NA..."
** In another, [[GrumpyBear Oscar]] is [[BabysittingEpisode babysitting baby Natasha]], he tries to sing her a lullaby, but finds it boring, so he sings it quickly. Natasha doesn't fall asleep, but she doesn't seem too bothered by the song.
** In the ''Elmo's Goodnight Stories'' tie-in book, Elmo wants to sing his mother's lullaby to his school friends, but forgets everything about it except that it involves shaking excess energy out of the extremities and turns it into an exercise song, which Ernie promptly lampshades.
* RubeGoldbergDevice: Kermit's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cog2a3YeDMM What Happens Next machine]]. Or at least, it tries to be.
* RunningGag: In "Elmo's Christmas Countdown", Elmo keeps saying "It's a Christmas miracle!"
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tropes Brought to you by the Letter D]]
* DagwoodSandwich: In episode 3718, Telly comes into Hooper's Store for his usual cheese sandwich lunch, but after seeing a different patron eating something different Mr. Hanford tells him you can put anything on a sandwich. Afterwards Telly gets a passion to make the world's first "everything" sandwich.
* DancePartyEnding: The nineteenth season finale is Luis and Maria's wedding; the episode ends with everyone dancing to a salsa remix of the theme song at the reception in the arbor.
* DarkestAfrica: Subverted in a 1970s segment. [[KnowNothingKnowItAll Smart Tina]] claims that Africa is just one big jungle because she saw it in a ''Franchise/{{Tarzan}}'' movie. But Roosevelt Franklin shows on a map that only a small portion of Africa is jungle. The continent is really a mix of different environments dotted with big cities and valuable resources.
* DeadpanSnarker: Bert or Oscar, normally. Though the writers have infused many of the characters with this trait when the sketch calls for it.
* DefectiveDetective: Again, Sherlock Hemlock, along with [[Series/{{Columbo}} Colambo]].
* DemographicDissonantCrossover:
** The Star Wars episode that feature appearances by [=C3PO=] and [=R2D2=]. Even though ''Star Wars'' is a family franchise, the violent fight scenes make it appropriate only for children older then 7.
** The celebrity expanded version of ''Monster in the Mirror'' ends with a cameo from ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', a show for an audience ''far'' more adult that that of Sesame Street.
** Three skits (one about the letter W, one about body parts, and one about brushing teeth) featured characters from Happy Days (Fonzie was in all three and Richie also featured in the tooth-brushing skit). While Happy Days isn't an adult show, it contains risque jokes that make it more suitable for around middle school age and up.
* DemotedToExtra: Has happened with numerous cast members and Muppets over the years, but the most notable would have to be Big Bird during the 2000s, being overshadowed by Elmo's skyrocketing popularity since TheNineties. It's gotten to the point where Big Bird now basically serves as Elmo and Abby Cadabby's sidekick.
* DeniedFoodAsPunishment: Oscar's ice cream sundae was taken away by Brian Williams in the Mine-itis episode.
* DestroyedForReal: Big Bird's nest area in the 5-part hurricane story arc from 2001: the hurricane blew down all of the construction doors surrounding the area, the nest itself was blown apart into a mess of scattered twigs and sticks, the whole area was reduced to a shambles (and even though Oscar and his can were in Bob's apartment as the hurricane blew through, the rest of Oscar's domain was also blown to pieces). It took the adults two days to help clean up the debris as well as put the doors back up, and another two days for them all to help Big Bird build a new nest.
* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: Intentionally done with Vincent Twice, a Muppet parody of Creator/VincentPrice that hosted the ''Mysterious Theater'' segments and would often repeat his name twice when introducing himself, hence his name. Even Sherlock Helmock does it when [[spoiler:in one installment, Vincent Twice turns out to be the culprit of the mystery.]]
-->"I am your host, Vincent Twice Vincent Twice."
* TheDiaperChange: Natasha has her diaper changed in one episode.
* DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu: In the TVMovie ''Film/DontEatthePictures'' several of the human cast and Muppets are accidentally locked in the NYC Metropolitan Museum of Art overnight. Big Bird's subplot involved him and Snuffleupagus helping the 4000-year-old ghost of an Egyptian boy confront the god Osiris when he refused to let the boy into the afterlife. Repeat: ''Big Bird'' confronted a ''god'' and told him ''he was wrong.'' And won.
* DiegeticSoundtrackUsage: Bert sings a bit of it in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gf0nL8lOWbQ this sketch]].
* DiggingToChina: The ''Big Bird In China'' TV-movie special. Oscar and Telly feel left out, so they decide to dig (Oscar makes Telly do all the actual work). As soon as they get there, Oscar decides that "Ehhh, it's not so special!" and immediately turns around to go home.
* DinnerAndAShow: In one insert, Maria is trying to have coffee with Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, but they are repeatedly interrupted by an argument among Muppets. Things have to be settled before the women can get back to their coffee.
* DiseasePreventionAesop:
** Two skits are about preventing flu.
** The song "The Right Way to Sneeze" is about sneezing into your elbow.
** There is an animated skit called "Don't Be a Snerd When You Sneeze" about covering your mouth and nose while sneezing and coughing.
** One animated skit shows a talking [[WeirdSun sun]] which tells some anthro dogs to sneeze into their arms (even though only one had a cold, the other two were sneezing because of pepper and allergies.)
* DisneyAcidSequence:
** Many early episodes had a series of sketches on numbers (1 through 10) that involved a baker who holds in his arms that number of desserts but falls down a flight of stairs, ruining the desserts in question. The sketches started with a very flashy animated intro in which the voices of kids are heard counting up from 1 to 10, then back to 1, and finally up to the featured number in the sketch, in choral voice over, while that number, in animated form, zoomed around the screen.
** Also, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0aWP3IaBZ4 "Counting to 10 with Nobody"]].
* DisruptingTheTheater:
** In an Ernie and Bert sketch, Ernie makes some loud noises while he eats his popcorn and drinks his soda at the movie theater. Bert loses his temper and shouts at Ernie to be quiet, at which point the usher enters and throws Bert out.
** In another Ernie and Bert sketch, A lady with a very tall hat sits in front of Ernie, blocking his view of the movie. Under Bert's advice, Ernie asks the lady to take off her hat. The lady does so, [[GoneHorriblyRight sitting it down in the seat in front of Bert]] and [[HereWeGoAgain blocking his view of the movie]].
** In yet another Ernie and Bert sketch, Ernie gets emotional during a movie: first he's sad, then scared, then happy. His reactions bother the other moviegoers, and the scene ends in chaos.
** In Episode 2040, Big Bird invites Snuffy ([[NotSoImaginaryFriend then still believed by the adults to be his imaginary friend]]) to join him, Bob, and David to see a movie at the movie theater. During the movie, Snuffy devours all of David's popcorn, blows his snuffle loudly during the sad part of the movie, and leaves in the middle of the movie to see his mother, causing Big Bird to get into a noisy argument with Bob and David.
** In In Episode 3093, Elmo, Big Bird, Snuffy, Savion, and Gina go to the movie theater to see ''[[Film/HoneyIShrunkTheKids Honey, I Shrunk the Snuffleupagus]]''. When they arrive at the theater, they block the view of the couple behind them, much to the couple's ire.
* TheDissTrack:
** In "Don't Be a Bully", some monsters tell off another monster in song for stealing their ball, calling him a bully.
** In "The Wasteroon Song", three sentient water drops chastise two kids named Freda Bailey and Sheldon Cox for leaving the tap running, calling them "[[BigStupidDoodooHead wasteroons]]".
** In "We've Got a Brand New Baby", a monster girl sings about how she [[AnnoyingYoungerSibling finds her baby brother annoying]] because he can't do much, doesn't wear clothes, is bald, makes annoying sounds, [[ProneToTears cries a lot]], and she doesn't know why he was even born.
* DistantDuet: "One Little Star" from ''Follow That Bird'', [[SubvertedTrope except that it's done with three characters.]]
* DiurnalNocturnalAnimal: {{Inverted|Trope}} in the “African Animal Alphabet” sketch, which mentions that “C is for cheetah running underneath the moon”. The cheetah is one of the few diurnal cats.
* ADogNamedDog: Big Bird and Little Bird. Also, Baby Bear. Cookie Monster also shared a rock named Rock.
* DogWalksYou:
** In later appearances by the pair, Barkley pulls Bob around Sesame Street while Bob struggles to keep up. In one episode from 1998, Barkley chases after a cat; [[ItMakesSenseInContext they're followed by Telly and Baby Bear]] as Big Bird and Oscar look on.
** The picture book ''1 2 3 Count with Me'' depicts a number and animals on each page. The one for the number 10 shows "10 friendly dogs" and depicts Ernie being dragged along by those dogs and shouting "Whoa! Slow down, you guys! What's the rush?"
* DownerEnding:
** The Monsterpiece Theater send-up of ''Theatre/WestSideStory'' entitled "Inside/Outside Story," where Tony and Maria are separated by one being inside and the other outside. Much like the musical, the two don't get a happy ending even when they try to switch places.
* DrippingDisturbance: One early Bert and Ernie sketch involves a dripping faucet that keeps Bert awake, so he sends Ernie to take care of the problem. How does Ernie solve the problem? By turning on a radio to play loud music to drown out the dripping. Then, when Bert tells Ernie that he still can't sleep because of the radio music, Ernie turns on a vacuum cleaner to drown out the music.
* DrivenToSuicide: Everything King Minus touches simply ceases to exist, including the damsel he tried to save. His reaction gives new meaning to the phrase "died by his own hand". (Although it may have been an accident, or disappearing might be non-fatal).

[[folder:Tropes Brought to you by the Letter E]]
* EaglelandOsmosis: It was rumored that in a British primary school, a teacher showed [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRdo_lRpaIc this clip]] to her class and later asked where milk comes from. Their response? America. This was no fault of the Children's Television Workshop. The CTW, when asked, will help other nations to create their own versions of Sesame Street tailored to the host nation's cultures, concerns, and budget. BBC turned down the CTW's offer, due to the outcry from teachers who were horrified by Sesame Street's content. They also felt CTW's involvement would be insulting, considering the BBC already had 20 years of experience producing children's educational programs.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness:
** Early seasons were much slower-paced, and frequently relied on lengthy lectures, making it more in line with competitors such as ''Series/MisterRogersNeighborhood'' and ''Series/CaptainKangaroo''. [[note]] This was most likely intentional, as, according to the book ''Sesame Street: A Celebration of 40 Years of Life on the Street'' the show's creator Joan Ganz Cooney highly respected both shows [[/note]] Also, some segments tended to repeat at least twice, since they were modeled after real TV commercials. They abandoned this around the mid 1970s.
** Some of the Muppet characters looked and sounded very different, too. Oscar, for example, was orange, and only his head was visible. Big Bird missed most of the feathers on his head, and had the mindset of a dim-witted adult bird rather than a child. Cookie Monster was slightly more menacing at first, acting as a disruptive nuisance with a very limited vocabulary. Plus, Grover was green, and Ernie and Bert had noticeable New York accents.
** [[Series/TheMuppetShow Rowlf]], who was the best-known Muppet character in 1969, starred in the Children's Television Workshop pitch reel for the show alongside Kermit, but only made one appearance in the series proper (in the Henson-made "Song of 9" film from season 1). Oddly, in the pitch reel, Rowlf was the OnlySaneMan and Kermit was a DeadpanSnarker (though he did get the honors of coming up with the title for ''Sesame Street'', after a RunningGag of other Muppets straining to think of a good title for the show).
** Before Elmo gained his own distinct identity, he was an [[http://youtu.be/7AkqR4XszTo occasional background character.]] Sometimes he would have a [[VocalDissonance deep or raspy voice]].
** Animated segments originally outnumbered Muppet segments. Also, the characters broke the fourth wall more frequently, addressing their audience as well as introducing and commenting on segments, as if they tied into each other more.
** In a first season segment where [[http://www.sesamestreet.org/play#media/video_b2021ee8-1560-11dd-a62f-919b98326687 Ernie cleans up the apartment]], Ernie points out his paperclip collection. Later on, Bert would be the one who collects paperclips, while Ernie would typically think they are boring.
** The street set used to look much more authentically New York inner-city back in the old days, with litter and dead leaves covering the sidewalk, grit on the buildings, and the sounds of traffic, car horns, sirens, and whistles heard in the background.
** The very first version of Snuffy teeters into AccidentalNightmareFuel.
** Ernie, Bert, Grover, Cookie Monster and even Kermit the Frog were far more frequently seen on the street with the other characters in the first ten seasons, since Jim Henson and Frank Oz were more readily available, though after ''Series/TheMuppetShow'' and other subsequent projects took up much of their time, Ernie, Bert, Grover, Cookie and Kermit were then relegated to mostly inserts, as Jim and Frank were then only able to dedicate one week out of each year for such. (Those characters started to make regular appearances in street scenes again in the 1990s and 2000s, following Jim's death and Frank's semi-retirement.)
** Although always possessing a golden voice, Bob wasn't always a music teacher; in fact, during the show's earliest episodes, he was a shop teacher instead.
** The first season featured performances of popular (and copyrighted) songs; it was not uncommon to find things like Bob singing "[[Theatre/{{Hair}} Good Morning Starshine]]", or the Muppets belting out some tunes of Music/TheBeatles. Of course, [[ClumsyCopyrightCensorship you won't be seeing these on DVD]], which is why Website/YouTube is your best bet.
*** This continued to a lesser extent into the second season. The Muppets' cover of "Help" is from that season, as is Grover singing [[Theatre/TheKingAndI "I Whistle A Happy Tune"]].
*** A rare instance of a popular song being sung on the show after the first season was when special guest star Music/GloriaEstefan sang [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btGQ5Wbp3Ak her famous song "Conga"]] on the show in 1991.
** Count von Count was more sinister when he debuted in 1972. Although [[OurVampiresAreDifferent he wouldn't drink blood or turn into a bat and would still often be out in sunlight]], he was much more vampiric, such as possessing hypnotic powers so he could get others to let him count something, and his SignatureLaugh was more villainous-sounding, and he wouldn't let anything get in his way of counting. He was significantly toned down and got much friendlier by the end of the 70s, and they gradually phased out rerunning older segments featuring his earlier self (most notably any where he uses his hypnotic powers).
** The first few Waiter Grover sketches had Grover being the victim of Fat Blue's demands (i.e. missing letters from his alphabet soup, his sandwich order not looking like the picture on the menu, being indecisive about whether to have the soup or the sandwich first), but soon, Grover became more and more inept with his job, giving Fat Blue quite a hard time.
** There were two letters of the day initially. It was changed to one somewhere around season 3.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: In the end of ''The Princesses and the Stick'' when the fish (Bob) tells everybody to take turns with the stick.
* EarWorm:
** In a 1998 episode, Big Bird just wants to go about his day, but he can't stop thinking about the song "C is for Cookie".
** Played with in an episode where Oscar gets the theme in his head. The reason why he dislikes it is because the song is too happy for grouches.
** In another episode everybody across Sesame Street gets the Martians' "Yip-Yip Family" song stuck in their heads.
* EarthSong:
** "Don't Throw Your Trash on the Ground" talks about how you should never litter but use trash bins instead.
** "The Wasteroon Song" is about how if you leave the tap running, you're wasting water and are thus a "[[CatchphraseInsult wasteroon]]".
** "Don't Waste Water" is about why water is important and shouldn't be wasted.
** The similarly-titled "Don't Waste ''the'' Water" is about how you should never leave your faucet running.
** There are three songs featuring a character named Willie Wimple, about environmentalism-- one is about deforestation, one is about littering, and the final one is about water pollution. They show Willie doing the bad thing and sing about the terrible thing that would happen if all children did it.
** In "Just Throw it My Way", Oscar sings about how you should throw your trash into his bin instead of on the ground.
** "Good Morning, Mr. River" talks about how rivers are disappearing due to pollution.
** "Love the Ocean" is about how you should never throw garbage into the ocean.
** "Turn off the Tap" is about how you should turn off taps when you're done using them.
** "Pond Full of Fish" tells the audience not to pollute ponds.
** "Water" is about the uses for water and includes a verse on not wasting it.
* EatTheCamera: A not-uncommon means of ending skits, particularly ([[ItMakesSenseInContext considering his shtick]]) featuring Cookie Monster.
* EdibleThemeNaming:
** One little girl in a cartoon skit is named Cookie. Downplayed for Cookie Monster, which is a nickname.
** The "Noodles and Ned" skits feature Noodles the cat.
* EducationalSong: A major foundation of the show, covering a wide array of educational concepts and music genres.
* EdutainmentShow: Not the UrExample, but very much the TropeMaker for shows that try to present educational content in an entertaining fashion. With its colorful Muppets, witty comedy sketches, catchy songs, and memorable film and animation inserts, it became a big hit right out of the gate.
* ElectionDayEpisode: The Season 15 finale sees "No Electioneering" signs plastered all over the street, as Big Bird learns that David and Olivia are off to the voting booths because it's Election Day. David and Olivia explain to Big Bird that people vote for who they want to run in certain offices in the government, so Big Bird and Snuffy decide they want to vote too, but they can't because they're not old enough to register to vote (and because Snuffy was still "imaginary" at the time).
* ElmuhFuddSyndwome: Baby Bear speaks with an Elmer Fudd lisp, and so does his superhero creation Hero Guy.
* EmbarrassingDampSheets: Bedwetting gets its own verse in the song "Accidents Happen".
* EmbarrassmentPlot:
** One episode focuses on Baby Bear being embarrassed about his baby doll because he thinks dolls are for girls.
** In one "Abby's Flying Fairy School" skit, Blogg is embarrassed when he visits the city of trolls because he is half-troll and half-fairy so he looks like a troll with wings and feels like the odd one out.
* {{Emo}}: Abby's classmate Gonnigan. He's shy and pessimistic, wears a striped hoodie, has a floppy hairstyle, and [[PersonalityPowers becomes transparent]] when he's nervous... which is a lot of the time. ("Where's Gonnigan?" "He's [[MeaningfulName gone again]].")
* EndlessWinter: In the film ''Elmo Saves Christmas'', Elmo wishes that every day was Christmas. However, he takes it back after he's shown [[ItsAWonderfulPlot what would happen if he made that wish]].
* EpisodeCodeNumber: Displaying the episode number is the series' CouchGag. Originally, the show used Sequential Numbering, but switched to Seasonal Numbering around Season 44.
** 1969-1975: Random animated episode code number sequence (for example a man hits a gong that reads "Sesame Street", The gong breaks down and it reveals the episode code number).
** 1976-1992: The episode number is superimposed over the start of the opening sequence (its footage often varies.)
** 1992-1998: The episode number appears the middle of a cloudy sky that starts the "Calypso" opening.
** 1998-2002: Again, it's superimposed over the start of the opening.
** 2002-2007: Super Grover flies through the air, crashes, and holds a sign with the number up in a daze.
** 2007-2009: At one point, it shared a signpost with the Sesame Street sign.
** 2009-2015: The episode number is written in chalk on a sidewalk.
** 2016-present: Now, the number flies by on a sign being pulled by an airplane at the start of the opening.
* EpisodeTagline:
** In one episode, Baby Bear keeps saying the title of his story, "The Three Bears in Outer Space" with an inexplicable echo on that last word which disappears at the end.
** In the episode where Gabi gets [[SickEpisode the flu]] on her [[BirthdayEpisode birthday]], everyone tells her, "It's OK to be sad if you're sick on your birthday" to the point where she gets, well, sick of it.
** One episode involves trying to find out why Natasha keeps saying, "Hoongie". [[spoiler: It turns out that's what she calls her doll.]]
** Every episode in seasons 38 through 45 has a "word of the day".
* EscapedAnimalRampage: Ernie tells Bert about his day at the zoo in an early skit. Ernie describes the trip as largely uneventful, even as he also reveals that [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0rKeEUexz4 several animals escaped their cages]]...
* EveryEpisodeEnding:
** Up to three letters of the day and two numbers of the day are reviewed and given sponsor credits. Starting with Season 27 (1995-1996), new episodes generally only had one letter and number of the day.An exception was Episode 4135, which had two letters of the day.
** Up until the end of Season 26 (1994-1995), this was followed by "''Sesame Street'' is a production of the Children's Television Workshop". The funding credits then were shown, which were initially silent, then had a tune known by fans as "Funky Chimes" playing from 1972-92, and finally used an instrumental of the then-current "calypso" version of the theme from 1992-95.
** From 1995-98, every episode ended with a "Coming soon on ''Sesame Street''" bumper, with Big Bird saying "Toodle-oo!" to wrap it up.
* EverybodyCries: The contestants (Luke Warn, Ida Normer, and Pierre Blue) on The Sonny Friendly Game Show: ''The Crying Game Show'' after the announcer says "There is no consolation prize!"
** One song in the mid 90's is entitled "It's Alright to Cry" and is all about how all people cry sometimes.
* EveryoneHasStandards: In the sketch where he plays Myth/RobinHood auditioning new Merry Men, even giggling jokester extraordinaire Ernie finds Harvey Kneeslapper's wacky antics obnoxious and annoying.
* EvilSlinks: Intentionally subverted, in an effort to make things unfairly stereotyped as icky and scary more approachable. Sammy the Snake and his song about the letter S illustrate this nicely.
* ExactWords: Often a source of misunderstanding. In one Ernie and Bert sketch, Bert's reading is disrupted by the music of a marching band Ernie is leading outside, and Bert asks him to practice anywhere but outside the apartment - so Ernie leads the band inside the appartment.
* ExposedEyeballsAsEyes: The eyes of Cookie Monster and Elmo are just eyeballs placed on top of their heads.
* ExpositoryThemeTune:
* {{Expy}}: The many co-productions around the world contain their own versions of certain characters.
** Each country has a full-bodied Muppet similar to Big Bird, but not an exact replica. One example is Abelardo Montoya from Series/PlazaSesamo (the Latin American version of the show), a large green parrot (and officially Big Bird's cousin). [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPelXeapeeI They even met once.]]
** [[ZigzaggedTrope Zigzagged]] on ''Zhima Jie''. ''Film/BigBirdInChina'' was a hit in China, so the Chinese producers insisted on actually having Big Bird on the show. Eventually Sesame Workshop decided to let them have a Big Bird puppet, but have the character, Da Niao, be Big Bird's [[UncannyFamilyResemblance identical cousin]].
** Co-productions also have their own versions of Oscar, usually another grouch. Sometimes, though, inserts with the original Oscar will be dubbed and used.
** Elmo is international now, too. His South African equivalent is named Neno.
** "Fruta Manzana", a singer in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fInpWLRthh0&ab_channel=tpirman1982 this animated spot]] about eating fruit for health and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0L2bVgEJQQ&ab_channel=tpirman1982 this one]] about not littering is based off the Chiquita Banana mascot for Chiquita, with maybe a little Creator/CarmenMiranda thrown in.
* ExtremeOmniGoat: In an interstitial cartoon demonstrating "zero". A complaint was received from the Dairy Goats Association, leading to a follow-up clarifying that dairy goats only eat healthy, sensible foods. See them both, one after the other, [[http://www.sesamestreet.org/video_player?p_p_lifecycle=0&p_p_id=videoPlayer_WAR_sesameportlets4369&p_p_uid=20fb3f7a-1570-11dd-bb51-597ab51d2e81&t=1258786878500& here]].
* ExtremeOmnivore: Cookie Monster eats anything, as do his family occasionally. Oscar eats some extremely strange food combinations -- like sardine ice cream with chocolate sauce -- but they are generally at least edible. Narf also eats a helmet at one point.

[[folder:Tropes Brought to you by the Letter F]]
* FacelessMasses: [[http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Anything_Muppets The anything muppets]]. The reason that they are called this is because they can be anything as needed, however the most memorable are [[http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Count_von_Count The Count]], [[http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/The_Amazing_Mumford The Amazing Mumford]], [[http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Guy_Smiley Guy Smiley]], [[http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Prairie_Dawn Prairie Dawn]] and of course {{Forgetful|Jones}} [[http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Forgetful_Jones Jones]].
* {{Fainting}}: Happens quite a bit with Muppets (i.e. they pass out or appear to), especially Grover, who tends to exert a lot of energy in the process of giving 110% to what he does and is given to being dramatic. Also a very common way to end a Muppet sketch.
* FacePalm: In ''The Triangle is Right''. Carl Mericana was asked what kind of shape he was being presented with, and when he responded with "a circle", Betty Lou facepalmed.
* FairyCompanion: Abby Cadabby, who is a serious point of contention for some fans, as it looks disturbingly like [[ExecutiveMeddling the character was designed by a marketing committee]]. However, the book "Street Gang" - while quite frankly admitting that that ''is'' how ''Zoe'' was designed, and how much she was hated by the writers because of it - takes pains to point out that Abby was created in the traditional manner by the show's longest established writer.
* FairyTaleFreeForAll: Whenever the show dipped its feet into {{Fairy Tale}}s, it featured an assortment of fairy tale characters as Muppets. Notable examples include Baby Bear from [[Literature/{{Goldilocks}} Goldilocks and the Three Bears]] along with his parents (and later, his little sister), or TheBigBadWolf and Literature/TheThreeLittlePigs. There have also been smaller appearances from various Fairy Godmothers, Literature/{{Cinderella}}, Literature/{{Rapunzel}}, Literature/LittleRedRidingHood, and many others.
** Baby Bear attends Storybook Community School, which seems to be geared toward fairytale characters.
* TheFamilyForTheWholeFamily: Lefty the letter-pushing salesman, usually shown sidling up to Ernie: "Psst! Hey, kid - you wanna buy an 'O'?"
* TheFantasticFaux: "The Furry Four" features Telly, Elmo, and Abby dressing as the titular heroes from Telly's comic. Elmo becomes the Furry Flash (who has SuperSpeed), Abby becomes as the Furry Tornado (capable of SpectacularSpinning), Telly becomes Mr. Furry (having the power to turn invisible), and Furry Muscles (SuperStrength) but have a hard time recruiting a fourth person to fill that role, before eventually settling on Chris.
* FatAndSkinny: Ernie and Bert, although Ernie is more broad than fat.
* FearSong: In "Elmo Visits the Doctor", the title character is AfraidOfDoctors. Because of this, Elmo can't decide whether to have his earache treated or not, and sings a song about it.
* FeelingTheBabyKick: In the first part of the 3-part episode, "Three Bears and a New Baby", after the Bear family hug each other when Mama tells Baby Bear that they'll still have the same amount of love for each other as they did before, their hug is interrupted by Baby Bear's new baby sister, Curly, kicking from inside Mama. Baby Bear is impressed when he finds out that a baby can move around inside its mother, and Mama allows him to feel Curly kick.
* {{Filler}}:
** The televised version of ''Abby in Wonderland'' was combined with a cover version of "(I Believe in) Little Things" and the street scenes from "The Golden Triangle of Destiny" in order to fill an hour.
** Also, through the years, various tricks were used to fill the hour. These included the inserting of one of several stock segments - such as the famous "dot bridge" (dots would be placed, one at a time, on the screen, to form a 6-by-5 grid) - to repeating segments to a quick clip of someone (either a mainstream celebrity or cast member) making a comment a la ''Series/RowanAndMartinsLaughIn''. Sometimes, the end theme and "sponsors of the day" was simply started early over a [[LeaveTheCameraRunning generic street scene, but the camera just pulling away from the action in progress]].
* FilthyFun:
** All Grouches (except [[NeatFreak Felix]]) enjoy being dirty and hate being clean, so they "wash" with things like mud and cheese. Irvine, Oscar's niece, did want a bath in one episode, but that was seen as an unusual activity that she's only doing because she's a toddler.
** Slimey the worm likes mud, probably because he's a worm.
* FirstDayOfSchoolEpisode:
** Abby, and later Baby Bear, had episodes focusing on their having their first day at a school for fairy-tale characters.
** One episode focused on Elmo's first day of preschool.
** A book based on the series focused on Grover's first day of school.
** The Count remembers his first day of school at one point during a {{Flashback}}.
* FishOutOfWater:
** The Yip-Yip aliens, who spent their first years on Earth attempting to communicate with inanimate objects... like telephones and radios. HilarityEnsues.
** A more literal example of this trope would be the short-lived [[http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Wanda_Cousteau Wanda Cousteau]] (''Film/AFishCalledWanda''... [[DontExplainTheJoke get it?]]).
%%* FiveTokenBand: The human cast.
* {{Flanderization}}: An inevitable side effect of a {{Long Runner|s}} crossed with LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters. Some stand out more than others, though:
** Zoe was originally a little girl monster who enjoyed dancing, among other things... but from Seasons 33 to 47, she was only seen in her tutu.
** Telly used to be merely fond of triangles instead of obsessed with them like he is now.
** Cookie Monster, in his earliest appearances, just loved milk and cookies before becoming an ExtremeOmnivore.
** Since the mid-1990s, Elmo has become increasingly loud and hyperactive within each season as well as a KarmaHoudini. This is especially noticable in the segment ''Series/ElmosWorld''.
* FleetingDemographicRule: See CanonDiscontinuity above. Many of the topics involving Elmo now would have been explored by Big Bird thirty years ago.
* FlyAtTheCameraEnding: The musical skit "Surprise" has a PieInTheFace ending with the pie flying straight into the face of the viewer.
* AFoggyDayInLondonTown: In a News Flash, Kermit has gone to London to report on the London Fog. He is interrupted by the London Frog, a Guardsman carrying the official London Log, and the London Hog. Then the fog clears up, so they all dance the London Clog.
* ForgetfulJones: {{Trope Namer|s}}. Forgetful Jones is a cowboy who forgets a lot.
* FourFingeredHands: According to WordOfGod, every Muppet has them ''except'' Cookie Monster.
* FreakyFridayFlip: In a mid 90's episode, Mumford does a magic trick where he switches places with a dog but things go awry when the dog, in Mumford's body and still holding the wand, runs away and leaves him unable to undo the trick.
* FreezeFrameBonus: In "Elmo Saves Christmas", Elmo's fireplace has a nativity set on the mantle.
* FriendlyLocalChinatown: In ''The Magical Wand Chase'', the gang ends up in Chinatown where they chase after a bird who has Abby's wand. They later end up in two towns filled with people from Mexico and West Africa, respectively.
* FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire: The Count is one of the finest examples of this. He's a vampire, but very friendly and never seen drinking blood.
* FunnyAnimal: Some upright-walking animals, such as the Bear family, feature.
* FunnyForeigner: The Count is one of the Transylvanian variety. he speaks like the archetypical Transylvanian vampire.
* FurryConfusion:
** In one skit, teaching about frogs, Kermit is horrified when Bob tells him that frogs do not eat pizza or live in apartments, and is noticeably squeamish when Bob shows him a real bullfrog.
** The song "Bears, Bears, Bears" is about how the Bear family are still bears even though they don't act like regular bears.
* FurryReminder: The Bear family doesn't hibernate, but in one episode, it's revealed that they still need to occasionally take all-day naps to make up for lost sleep.

[[folder:Tropes Brought to you by the Letter G]]
%%* GagHaircut: Given by Ernie to Bert in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hou8AyxWTYw this early skit]].
* GameShowAppearance:
** Big Bird and Oscar appeared semi-regularly in episodes of the original version of ''Series/TheHollywoodSquares'' (with Big Bird calling host Peter Marshall 'Mr Marshmallow'), and Elmo has appeared on the revival versions.
** Kermit appeared with his 'friend' Jim Henson, and Big Bird with his 'friend' Carroll Spinney, on separate episodes of the syndicated version of ''Series/WhatsMyLine''.
* GameShowHost: Guy Smiley and Sonny Friendly. Also "Pat Playjacks", in a one-shot ''Series/WheelOfFortune'' parody called ''Squeal of Fortune'', And Gordon in ''What Happens Next?'', And even real person game show hosts like Richard Dawson was the host of a one-shot ''Series/FamilyFeud'' parody called ''Family Food''.
* GenderBlenderName: Chuckie Sue was originally named Chuckie because Telly thought she was male. Upon finding out her real sex, he renamed her Chuckie Sue.
* GenerationXerox: The 2016 Christmas special ''Once Upon a Sesame Street Christmas'' shows the street in the 19th Century, where the great-grandfatehrs of Elmo, Cookie, Grover and others are more or less identical to their present-day counterparts (save for some extra mustaches). Though, this is merely a story made up by Elmo's dad.
** An episode featuring a visit from Gordon's father reveals he used to be a famous singing star. A flashback has him portrayed by Miles, Gordon's son.
* GenreSavvy: Occasionally, Big Bird decides not to introduce Snuffy to the adults, knowing that Snuffy will probably wander off before they can meet. One example comes in episode 1956, in which Big Bird makes a plan for them to meet, but then imagines what would happen, imagining the usual formula for when he tries to get them to meet. In another episode, Snuffy shows up at a clothing store when Gordon is trying on clothes, as Snuffy goes to try on Snuffleupagus-sized pants and later when he leaves to pay, Big Bird says that maybe Snuffy and Gordon will run into each other and meet but then adds "probably not".
%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.
* GlitchEpisode: In Sam the robot's debut episode, he had a glitch which caused him to repeat himself, prompting someone to [[PercussiveMaintenance hit him]] and him to say, "[[EpisodeTagline Thank you]]".
* TheGoldenRule: Lessons on bullying usually play out with one character bullying another and a third reasoning with the bully and asking them how they would feel if someone else treated them that way. It's usually enough to get the bully to knock it off.
* GoneHorriblyRight:
** Episode 3178, Mr. Handford tells Telly that you can try new foods easily by putting them into a sandwich, which leads Telly to try and make the very first [[DagwoodSandwich sandwich with everything on it]].
** In an episode from 2000, Alan finds himself in the same spot as Mr. Handford did. After hanging a sign that says "Hooper's Store: Where you can have whatever you want just the way you want it." Telly orders a grilled cheese sandwich but makes requests that are progressively more ridiculous for how his lunch should be served. After he enjoys his lunch, Alan takes down the sign admitting that hanging it was a mistake because it worked a little too well at getting Telly to have a specifically-catered lunch.
%%* GreatGazoo: Abby, Mumford the Magician, and dozens of magical one-offs.
* GettingReadyForBedPlot:
** One skit is about Elmo and Abby's bedtimes.
** One animated skit is about mothers tucking in their children.
** One skit has Humphrey putting Natasha down for the night and singing a lullaby called "Goodnight Natasha".
** A book based on the series called "Time for Bed, Elmo!" has Elmo doing various activities such as feeding Dorothy and stroking the cat even though it's bedtime. It ends with him falling asleep when his babysitter makes him count sheep.
* GirlyGirlWithATomboyStreak: Lily the tiger, from the Chinese coproduction ''Sesame Street: Big Bird Looks at the World''. [[note]]芝麻街: 大鸟看世界, Zhima Jie: Da Niao Kan Shijie[[/note]] While she likes wearing bows and the color pink, she's also an avid martial arts enthusiast.
* GlassShatteringSound: A variation on this with Diva La Diva, a one-off character who visited the street in a 90's episode. Professed to be "the world's loudest singer," La Diva's pipes are definitely loud enough to cause damage and while there's one instance of her voice shattering some glasses on the counter at Hooper's Store, her voice mostly causes trembling and making shelves, with items on them, fall in the Fix-It Shop and Hooper's. At the end of the episode, a cassette tape of her voice makes everything in Big Bird's nest fall off the walls - not even the Mr. Hooper picture was safe!
* GlitchEpisode: In Sam the robot's debut episode, he had a glitch which caused him to repeat himself, prompting someone to [[PercussiveMaintenance hit him]] and him to say, "[[EpisodeTagline Thank you]]".
* GreenAesop:
** OnceAnEpisode during seasons 40 and 41.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aTsze_Awpk Willie]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tU7FcZ5ASUs Wimple]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOzIO5uNKh8 Anyone?]] (He's a young boy who's bad to the environment).
* GroceryStoreEpisode:
** In Episode 2783, Luis wants Maria to meet him at the supermarket. When Big Bird and Snuffy overhear, they want to go with her, and she agrees to let them. Along the way, Big Bird and Snuffy argue over who gets to push the shopping cart, Big Bird tries to decide whether he wants to get a big or small box of Captain Birdflake cereal, and Snuffy ends up getting a small box of Snuffleupagus Puffs (which is the size of Luis, much to Maria's surprise).
** In Episode 4931, Alan goes to Sarita's Supermarket, and Elmo, Abby, and Cookie Monster tag along. To make food shopping more fun for them, Alan starts a game where Elmo, Abby, and Cookie need to find three foods that start with the letter C from different sections of the grocery store before he finishes checking out.
* GrossoutFakeout:
** In one episode, baby Natasha keeps crying and repeating, "Hoongie!". Gina and Zoe, who are [[BabysittingEpisode babysitting her]], wonder if this means she needs a diaper change, but she doesn't.
** In "Elmo's Potty Time", Grover says that his "body is trying to tell [him] something". Elmo thinks this [[GoToTheEuphemism is a euphemism for needing the bathroom]], but actually he meant he was hungry.
* GroundhogDayLoop: Happens in "Elmo Saves Christmas" after Elmo wishes for it to be Christmas every day. Unlike a true loop, everyone is aware of and experiences each Christmas, and holiday repeats as time moves forward. The seasons change from winter to spring, then summer (and presumably, fall), and then to the next winter.
* GroupIdentifyingFeature:
** Dingers can be distinguished from monsters by the bicycle bells on their heads, which give them their names.
** One episode has a band called the Lead Police, a parody of Music/ThePolice, who all wear leather jackets.
* GrumpyBear: While the show is mostly jolly, there are a few grumpy characters, including Oscar the Grouch and grouches in general, Mr. Johnson, and to a lesser extent Bert.

[[folder:Tropes Brought to you by the Letter H]]
* HairTriggerSoundEffect: EVERY time the Count laughs, thunder follows.
* {{Hammerspace}}: Oscar's trash can is often implied to be this (i.e. fits a lot of stuff in it).
* HappyDance: The "Elmo's World" segment [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=top6rTkXYJw has]] Elmo doing one. "''When we learn something new, we do the happy dance, yeah!''"
* HarassingPhoneCall:
** The 1975 song "Telephone Rock" is about a puppet and his rock band who harass a telephone operator by trying to get people to listen to a story about rock music by calling them on the phone. The song ends with the group all sent to jail for the harassing calls.
** A "News Flash" segment also from 1975 has Kermit rexieve a phone call that someone is trapped out in a blizzard, and he goes outside to try and get a scoop on the individual. Nobody he asks knows anything about a person trapped outside and soon Kermit winds up nearly frozen in the blizzard himself. The segment ends with Harvey Kneeslapper calling to say the call was a prank call and that Kermit is now the blizzard trapped individual!
** In a 1993 episode Gina receieves a phone call while working at Hooper's Store that angers her. We only hear her side of the conversation but the individual says something about how her and Savion should not be friends because of their different skin colors. Telly who is in the store overhears the conversation and asks what happens and Gina and Savion both explain it to him. When Telly asks what would happen if the individual calls again Gina and Savion demonstrate that they would simply blow a raspberry, not saying that the best thing to do is just hang up.
* HatesBeingTouched: The Grouches (although they more hate ''affectionate'' touching) and Benny Rabbit, who wrote a whole song about 'don't touch me'.
* HatOfFlight: Features in the "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QlUCZjbG1g Above it All]]" song sequence animated by Sally Cruikshank.
* HaveAGayOldTime: From "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ":
-->''It starts out like an "A" word, as anyone can see''\\
''But somewhere in the middle, it gets awful QR to me!''
* HeadDesk:
** Muppet composer Don Music had a habit, when unable to find a rhyme, of slamming his forehead into the keys of his piano in sheer frustration. Which is why you don't see him anymore.
** An early Ernie and Bert segment from 1969 featured this at the end: Ernie slowly drives Bert nuts by his counting, and then Bert just ''loses it'' and bangs his head on a table in the background, and then runs screaming right past the camera and out the door. The ending would usually be cut from reruns due to concerns that kids would imitate Bert's head-banging.
* HeatWaveEpisode:
** The song "It Sure is Hot" is about a hot day.
** One episode is about Baby Bear selling porridge on a hot day.
** In another episode, Maria is looking for some relief on a hot day, and the Amazing Mumford complies by casting a magic spell that changes the weather--leaving her stuck under a freezing and snowy cloud.
* HereWeGoAgain:
** At end of the song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syj3dYJvHUQ "I heard my Dog Bark."]], the dog barks again and wakes up all the other pets in the house.
** "There's a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza...". As per the lyrics for that song, it ends with Henry realizing that he still doesn't know what to carry the water in because there's a hole in his bucket.
** The end of ''Christmas Eve on Sesame Street''.
** After Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor settles an argument between Baby Bear and Goldilocks, The Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf appear, seeking the Justice's assistance, much to the annoyance of both her and Maria.
** Uttered word-for-word by Elmo in Episode 4205 (Season 40). The plot deals Inspector Four (played by Judah Friedlander) threatening to shut down things on Sesame Street unless they have exactly four of something, while Elmo and Telly try to make sure thing stay safe. At the end of the story, he gets promoted to Inspector Five, meaning Elmo and Telly have to start all over again.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: Bert and Ernie are best male friends, and they're not a couple. Also, Big Bird and Snuffy and Baby Bear and Telly, but they're kids, so they're too young to be romantic couples anyway.
* HeWhoMustNotBeSeen: Charlie the Chef (The owner of Charlie's Restaurant) is never seen.
* HibernationMigrationSituation:
** In one episode, Baby Bear reveals that his family sometimes takes all-day naps to make up for the sleep they miss by not hibernating. He decides to skip his all-day nap to play with Elmo and Telly, but keeps falling asleep, eventually [[SleepAesop learning that sleep is important]] and taking his all-day nap.
** In a Season 40 episode, Baby Bear's family decides to hibernate until April due to a porridge shortage. With this, Telly explains how he'll feel with no best friend. A hibernation consultant named Max eventually comes to the cottage and encourages them to sleep outside, which leads to them digging a hole on Sesame Street and Chris giving them bran flakes. The Bears decide not to hibernate and eat bran flakes all winter long!
* HiddenDepths: A lot of humor is mined from the simple-minded monsters (such as Grover and Cookie) possessing rather advanced vocabulary.
* HiddenHarasser: One cartoon featured a kid sure that there was an alligator in his room, but his mother couldn't find it. It turned out to be his dog having some fun with a flashlight.
* HollywoodAutism: Sesame Street has a character named Julia, who has Autism. So much emphasis is placed on her quirks that it stops the show in its tracks. Then the other Muppets begin imitating her...
** In fairness to the show, they did research and learned up about autism, but even they admitted it's impossible to represent everyone with autism, since it's different for everyone affected.
* HomesicknessHymn: Invoked in the song "I Don't Want to Live on the Moon", where Ernie sings about all the cool places he'd like to visit...but only if it means he'll return home to his friends.
-->''Though I'd like to look down at the Earth up above''
-->''I would miss all the places and people I love''
-->''So although I may go, I'll be coming home soon''
-->'''Cause I don't want to live on the moon.''
* HonestyAesop:
** "Ernie's Little Lie" has Ernie get given a picture of a tiger. He wants to enter it in a context, lying that he drew it, but then learns that you shouldn't say something about a thing if it's not true, so he admits the truth.
** In "Accidents Happen", Big Bird accidentally knocks over somebody's laundry and tells a bunch of conflicting lies, before deciding on the truth.
** In one of the "Noodles and Ned" skits, [[EdibleThemeNaming Noodles]] breaks Ned's toy plane and thinks of trying to hide it but then decides to tell the truth.
** In one episode, Telly lies that his uncle is a circus performer but then feels bad about it and learns to tell the truth.
** In one animated skit, a little girl named Cookie breaks the window and thinks of lying that Lucy the cat did it. However, she then imagines her family disowning Lucy and then Lucy running away, so she tells the truth.
** Zigzagged in "Linda Breaks Ruthie's Pitcher". Linda does break the pitcher, but she's deaf, so she didn't hear the crash, and she didn't see it break or feel the impact because she was in a hurry. Elmo forgets that Linda is deaf, though, so when she tells Ruthie she didn't know what happened to it, he [[CassandraTruth thinks she's lying]]. When Ruthie asks Elmo if he knows what happened to the pitcher, he stammers, so she thinks ''he'' broke it. When he asks Ruthie what would happen if "hypothetically" someone she knew broke the pitcher, she mistakes it for an IHaveThisFriend situation, causing further confusion.
* HotSkittyOnWailordAction: Abby's classmate Blogg is the child of a fairy and a troll.
* HouseFire: Actually a ''store'' fire because Hooper's Store has had three fires occur:
** The first was in episode 0540 during Season 5 where a pile of junk in the store's basement catches fire. The rest of the episode deals with the group cleaning out the building.
** In episode 2265 during Season 18 David's grilled cheese sandwich burns and is quickly extinguished, this after Elmo wishes for an "adventure"
** Season 33 kicked off with episode 3981, a VerySpecialEpisode made as a response to the 9/11 attacks. After a fire occurs in Hooper's Store Elmo becomes frightened by all the commotion and becomes scared to go back inside the store. He and Maria then take a trip to the firehouse where Elmo learns about what firefighters do and how to be safe if a fire should occur. At the end Elmo says he is no longer scared since he knows that firefighters can help if a fire happens.
** Not from the actual series, a fire occured in the home video ''Sesame Street Vists the Firehouse'', this one actually happening at an apartment building and destroying the attic where a monster lives.
* HowCanSantaDeliverAllThoseToys: Subverted. In ''Christmas Eve on Sesame Street'', Oscar's question is, more accurately, "How can Santa fit down the chimney?" [[spoiler: Big Bird nearly freezes waiting up for the answer, and doesn't get one. Elmo Saves Christmas reveals that he has a time-traveling reindeer.]]
* HulkSpeak: Ironically, one of the most beloved characters of an EdutainmentShow, Cookie Monster, embodies this trope perfectly, with the "me"[=/=]"I" substitution and a disdain for prepositions, among other things. But as the ''Monsterpiece Theatre'' segments show, he's very well-read.
* HungerCausesLethargy: Shows up heaps of times, mostly centred around the idea of breakfast, which they cite as the most important meal:
** In the song "The Breakfast Club" (no relation to [[Film/TheBreakfastClub the movie]]), they sing, "Join the Breakfast Club, the Breakfast Club. Don't let your energy go [[SayingSoundEffectsOutLoud glub, glub, glub]]" (as in, like a car running out of gas).
** In the song "The Most Important Meal of the Day" ([[EitherOrTitle or as it's sometimes known]], "[[TheSomethingSong The Breakfast Song]]"), the singing chef recounts a story of a girl named Susie who skipped breakfast due to thinking it was unnecessary and "[[FauxHorrific cruel]]", but then became too tired to play on the playground. She's seen yawning and leaning against a tree.
** In one Super Grover skit, skipping breakfast makes Grover too weak to lift a briefcase. This is also an example of BroughtDownToNormal, since SuperStrength is one of his powers.
** [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] for the breakfast song [[CloudCuckoolander Ernie]] sings. He says that breakfast "wakes [him] up", but it's [[AmbiguousSituation unclear]] whether he needed waking up because he was hungry or because he's NotAMorningPerson.
** In one skit, this is discussed when guest star UsefulNotes/BuzzAldrin sees Telly saying, "I'm running low on energy" while playing astronaut. He [[ComicallyMissingThePoint thinks he means he's feeling sluggish]] and says, "Well, eat some food." Telly was actually talking in the context of his game, but it starts a conversation on food giving one energy.
** In one skit, a girl named Carolyn gets tired on the playground and [[ImpliedTrope the narrator thinks]] it's because the cake she ate didn't satiate her enough.
* TheHyena: Harvey Kneeslapper is very easily-amused and is laughing in nearly all his scenes.

[[folder:Tropes Brought to you by the Letters I and J]]
* IdeaBulb: Rather the entire Idea ''Lamp'' in ''Sesame Street Stays Up Late!" when Telly gets the idea to simply try and hide from the incoming New Year.
* IDoNotLikeGreenEggsAndHam: In a Bert & Ernie skit, Ernie tries to get Bert to play a rhyming game despite Bert repeatedly refuting that he doesn't like to play games of the such. When they both get into the swing of it, Bert finds that he enjoys himself, so much so that bert wishes to keep playing even after Ernie grows tired and stops playing.
* InsomniaEpisode:
** In the third-to-last Season 31 episode, Ernie sleeps over at Big Bird's nest, but can't sleep, so he keeps Gordon up with his endless demands.
** In a 70s episode, Big Bird can't sleep, so Bert plays a marching record and he falls asleep in the arbor.
* ICallHerVera: Or I Call My Bathtub "Rosie", in the very first episode.
* IHaveJustOneThingToSay: In one skit spoofing ''Series/TheLoveBoat'', Ernie as TheCaptain with a bunch of Anything Muppets are repeatedly enthusing in over-the-top fashion about how they "Looove this boat!". This goes on for several minutes while one guy on a lawn chair is silently reading but appearing to grow annoyed. He then snaps and goes on a loud tirade about everyone's behavior [[note]]"...YOU SAY 'I LOVE THIS BOAT' SO MUCH THAT IT'S COMING OUT OF MY EARS!..."[[/note]]... only to sappily admit "I love this boat, too!" [[note]]"...(raging) YA WANNA KNOW WHAT I REALLY THINK?! YA WANNA KNOW WHAT I ''REALLY'' THINK?!...([[MoodSwing all sappy]]) I love this boat, too!"[[/note]].
* INeedToGoIronMyDog: Whenever Luis becomes his persona "Señor Zero," he makes this type of excuse to leave, such as needing to feed his undershirts or having left his wallet in the dishwasher.
* IntentionalMessMaking: One skit involves [[TheKilljoy Oscar]] annoying everybody by dirtying the windows instead of cleaning them and putting trash into some soup that was cooking.
* IWantSong: The 2018 special ''When You Wish Upon a Pickle'' starts off with one of these, as sung by the main cast.
* IconicItem:
** Ernie's rubber duckie.
** Oscar's trash can. And he's never moved to a plastic container with wheels, either.
%%* IconicOutfit: Bob's sweater.
* IconicSequelCharacter: Elmo made his first (official) appearance in 1984, 15 years after the premiere.
* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: InWhichATropeIsDescribed
* IgnorantAboutFire:
** Defied with the song "Get Out, Stay Out, Don't You Go Back In". It mentions that going back into a burning house to save a toy is a stupid idea.
** In one episode, Alan accidentally ignites a grease fire in Hooper's Store while trying to make fried chicken. It doesn't help that he leaves the stove unattended to talk to Maria and Elmo.
* InanimateCompetitor:
** In one skit, they have a "Whose Pet is Best?" competition and one contestant is Rocco the rock.
** One "Bert and Ernie's Great Adventures" skit has a bird competition. Bert enters Bernice, who's one of his pigeons, but Ernie enters his rubber duck.
* IncendiaryExponent: A campfire in "The Ladybugs' Picnic" gets out of control and has to be put out by the fire department. In the original animation, the fire even burns the Ladybugs' marshmallows to a crisp.
* IncredibleShrinkingMan: More accurately "Incredible Shrinking Bird". In a two-part story a magic trick from Mumford gone awry causes Big Bird to shrink.
* IndyEscape: Often done in spoofs of Indiana Jones:
** Episode 2687: where the gang evades what seemingly appears to be a boulder, but is actually the rare Golden Cabbage of Snuffertity
** Episode 3135: An Indiana Jones-type explorer engages in one of these throughout the episode, completely unnoticed by anyone.
** Episode 4161: Telly and Chris are pursued by a giant boulder.
* InjuredLimbEpisode:
** In one episode, known as "Wing in a Sling", Big Bird sprains his wing.
** During episode 1996 in Season 16, Luis breaks his arm and he spends the next few weeks' worth of episodes in a cast.
** Telly spent a few weeks during Season 24 (in 1993) with his arm in a cast after breaking it.
** In Episode 4001, Big Bird injuries his ankle in a fall.
** In Episode 5023, Zoe breaks her arm when she slips on some banana peels (courtesy of Joey and Davey) while attempting her ballet jump. Charlie, Rosita, and Elmo try to find a game that Zoe can play with just one arm.
* InSeriesNickname:
** Cookie Monster's real name is Sid.
** Oscar calls Maria "Skinny".
* InstantThunder: Typically played straight, especially with Count von Count, but there have been a couple of aversions...
** In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkoNxYPtyc0 a 1981 Ernie and Bert sketch]] where Ernie is afraid of a noisy thunderstorm during the night, he decides to quell his fears by imagining the lightning flashes are Olivia taking a picture with her flash camera, and the thunder that comes afterward is the photo subject dropping something.
** On episode 2061 during season 18 Big Bird winds up frightened by a thunderstorm that hits just as he tries to go to sleep. The first two thunderclaps are instantaneous but after Gordon and Susan teach him that he can tell how far away a thunderstorm is by counting the time between the lightning and thunder every thunderclap afterwards comes a few seconds after the lighting.
** Episode 4215, "Chicken When it Comes to Thunderstorms," has some chickens that are on Elmo and Abby Caddabby's [[ItMakesSenseInContext T-ball team]] [[FearOfThunder frightened by a thunderstorm]] with notably realistic lengthy gaps between the lightning and the thunder. This comes into play when Elmo and Abby suggest the chickens cover their eyes so they don't see the lightning, which works, until the thunder afterward freaks them out. Abby tries materializing earmuffs onto the chickens so the thunder doesn't scare them, but they end up still seeing the lightning, so that doesn't help. It's when Leela attempts to comfort the chickens when things begin to work out.
%%* InstantWebHit: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enpFde5rgmw "I Love My Hair."]]
* InteractiveNarrator: Gina serves as one when she told "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHMyYP0Lt9E Little Miss Muffet and the Spider: The Continuing Story]]"; Miss Muffet has a WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes-type of [[SpidersAreScary fear of spiders]], and keeps running away screaming loudly from the spider [[StalkerWithoutACrush that keeps following her everywhere]]. It isn't until Miss Muffet comes to Gina for advice, and she tells Miss Muffet that the spider might really be nice, and it turns out the spider just wants to be friends.
* InternalHomage: One episode involves Celina and the kids who attend her dance studio putting on a live-action production of the Sesame Street short film "The Alligator King."
** In one episode Big Bird watches the "Ballet Dancing Yaks" song and wants to get together with two friends to do the same song and dance, but he is faced with a predicament when ''dozens'' of others want to join.
** There is an episode where everybody gets hooked on singing the "Yip Yip Family" song from the Martians.
** In an homage to Alphaboy, Big Bird spent one episode as Alphabird.
** In a season 31 episode, Telly and Baby Bear play Alphaquest.
* InventionalWisdom: An episode involves a high-powered air conditioning system being installed in the Furry Arms Hotel. Humphrey specifically states that it's only meant to be turned up to 10. If the knob is turned up to 14, it will break. Those are literally his exact words. Guess what the resident penguins end up doing.
** During the "Slimey to the Moon" arc one episode involves a crisis aboard the spaceship where the worms cannot get along after weeks of confinement. An incident leads to a button inside the ship being pressed that is specifically designed to put the ship off course if pressed. A bit of research reveals that there is a button to reverse the effect of the first button, but it is on the tip top of the ship's exterior—so that it cannot be pressed by accident!
* IrritationNightmare:
** One episode involves [[GrumpyBear Oscar]] having nightmares about [[TheKilljoy happy people]] and butterflies. He finds them scary in the night, but usually, happy people and butterflies are just pet peeves of his.
** One skit involves Cookie Monster having a nightmare about cookies flying around and him being unable to reach them.
* ItsAWonderfulPlot: After Elmo wishes for it to be Christmas every day in "Elmo Saves Christmas" Santa gives him a special time-traveling reindeer to take him forward in time and find out what will happen. After a year has passed Elmo sees that his wish was not the most optimal one to make.
* ItsPronouncedTropay: During the "Cooking by the Numbers" segments in Season 30 Chef Rutheé insists that her name is pronounced "Ruth-AY" any time the announcer of the segment calls her "Chef Ruth-ee". At the end of the number 9 segment Chef Rutheé freaks out over the overuse of lemons in her recipe and ''she'' mispronoucnes her name as "Ruth-ee" leaving the announcer to remind her of the correct "Ruth-AY".
* InvincibleHero: Sesame Street's Emmy count is ''off the charts''.
* IrisOut: Used in the 1992-1998 opening. It's also at the end of the song, ''Indian U Call''.
* IWillFindYou: In the Cecile the Ball song ''I'm Gonna Get To You''.
%%* IWouldSayIfICouldSay
* JoblessParentDrama: One VerySpecialEpisode has Elmo's mother lose her job, so their family has to make a point of spending less money.
* JobSong:
** "People in Your Neighbourhood" is about several different jobs that people you might meet every day might have.
** "Do the Doctor" is a song sung by some doctors about a dance based on their profession.
** One song is sung by a construction worker about building in the "Elmo's World" skit about building.
** The 1995 song "What Do They Do When They Go Wherever They Go?" is another song about different jobs.

[[folder:Tropes Brought to you by the Letters K and L]]
* KangarooCourt: In one episode, Telly is angry with a penguin and thinks about what would happen if he hit the penguin. It's all an ImagineSpot, but he goes to court and an all-penguin jury says he's guilty at the very start of the trial. The judge is the Count, who lengthens Telly's sentence just so he can count years in jail.
* KentBrockmanNews:
** The Sesame Street News Flash segments with reporter Kermit.
** Also a scene in ''[[BigDamnMovie Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird]]'' where an anchorman, played by Creator/ChevyChase, reports on the disappearance of Big Bird from his foster family's home in Illinois. He responds to a question by Grover [[BreakingTheFourthWall (who is watching the broadcast)]], has to be corrected by someone offscreen on the pronunciation of the word "sesame", and finally gives the weather report as [[Series/MisterRogersNeighborhood "It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor. Would you be mine?"]] in a completely deadpan tone.
* KidAppealCharacter: Obviously all of the Muppets count as this, but in season 1, Bert, Ernie, Big Bird and Oscar were more like broadly comedic characters that kids and parents could find entertaining. In season 2, Big Bird became more childlike and Grover, with his furry exuberance, became a fast favorite among younger viewers. Then in TheEighties, Elmo became this ''big time'', with the show's audience skewing younger along with his popularity. Later characters like Zoe and Abby Cadabby were created specifically for Kid Appeal.
* TheKilljoy: Oscar the Grouch is as grouchy as his name indicates and he doesn't want people having fun near the trash bin he lives in. If someone is having fun near him, he'll often purposely try to make them angry.
* KingKongCopy: In one skit, a large primate is invading a city and the skit talks about various physical sensations (hunger, thirst, being too hot, and having to pee) and shows how the primate deals with them (eating a store that's ShapedLikeWhatItSells, namely burgers, drinking from the fire hydrant, using a plane's propeller to cool down, and using a giant toilet respectively).
* KissingInATree: The rhyme itself isn't used, but the events described are frequently discussed with other characters - including and especially Muppets - as Luis and Maria's relationship evolves from close friendship to deep romance and they become parents, all before everyone's eyes. The concept was put to good use, as the romance was the curriculum focus for season 19, and the pregnancy was the same for season 20.
* LackOfImagination: Zigzagged for Bert. Usually, Ernie will imagine crazy things and have a hard time getting Bert to imagine them, but occasionally, [[NotSoAboveItAll Bert ends up imagining them as well]] (such as in the "It's a Circle" song where Ernie convinces Bert that the circle is "so much more" than one), and in one rendition of "The Middle of Imagination", ''Bert'' encourages ''Ernie'' to use his imagination.
* LargeHam: Frank Oz is known to ham up his Muppet characters, from regulars like Bert, Grover and Cookie Monster, to minor and one-off characters in the 70s and 80s.
* LampshadeWearing: Thanks to Grover's antics trying to "help" Kermit at the end of a sketch on "light" and "dark", Kermit winds up with a lampshade on his head.
** During "Sesame Street Stays Up Late!" Telly tries at one point to hide from the New Year by hiding inside Finders Keepers and wearing a lampshade on his head, telling Freddie to "act like a lamp".
* LastMinuteBabyNaming:
** Baby Bear goes to meet his new baby sister. He asks her name, and their parents say they haven't thought of one yet. Baby Bear goes to check the baby out, and while he's looking at her, he remarks "Hey, you're a little curly bear." Their parents overhear him and decide to name the baby just that.
** In the picture book ''Me Cookie!'', a baby blue monster is known only as Baby Monster, even after he starts walking and talking until finally he names himself, insisting to his babysitter "Me not Baby Monster, me Cookie Monster!"
* TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers: Played straight ... a recognition game where viewers were asked to identify the odd item out of a group of (typically) four. (For instance, a pair of shoes in three boxes, but a fourth only has one shoe.) Sometimes, played with actions -- for instance, children engaged in various physical activities in three boxes, but the fourth is of a child reading.
* TheLastStraw:
** A mouse gets on an [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLntp4SuwdQ already overloaded elevator]] and it shakes and explodes.
** A kid yanks the bottom can off a stack, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2j2O7M5Riw and the whole store collapses.]]
** In one of Prairie Dawn's pageants about "heavy" and "light", one character named Creator/{{Monty|Python}} is struggling to hold up a boulder and another named Merry is holding a feather. Monty eventually drops the boulder onto Prairie's piano, nearly crushing it. Then, Merry places the feather on top, completely crushing it.
* LazilyGenderFlippedName: Telly names his hamster Chuckie, but she turns out to be a girl, so he renames her Chuckie Sue.
* LeastRhymableWord: When Bert doesn't want to play at rhyming with Ernie, he says, "Hippopotamus!", but Ernie just says, "Rip-a-cotta-puss."
* LeftTheBackgroundMusicOn:
** Whenever the theme music plays, the characters can hear it, and know that it's time to [[BreakingTheFourthWall say hello or goodbye to the viewers]]. This was a plot point on at least two occasions - one in an episode where Oscar was trying to get it out of his head as he found it too happy, another in an episode where Maria and Big Bird use the music to help Forgetful Jones remember the name of the street.
** In a SickEpisode where Big Bird and Zoe had colds and Telly was delivering messages to/from them, every time he was delivering a message, dynamic music would play, which got slower every time, a fact which he found annoying.
** In the episode where a penguin takes Telly's cap, chase music plays while he chases the penguin. Halfway through the chase, the penguin chases Telly instead, which prompts Telly to ask that they stop the chase music while they switch places.
* {{Leitmotif}}:
** During the years when Mr. Snuffleupagus was only seen by Big Bird, Snuffy's entrances and exits were accompanied by one of these.
** In recent years, the street stories have much more musical score, allowing for more of these to sneak in. Super Grover particularly is often accompanied by his classic theme.
** Sherlock Hemlock also has his "detective music".
** The Grand High Triangle Lover has his regal sounding fanfare to signal his entrance and exit.
* LetsMeetTheMeat: A lot of skits with morals about food will feature food that wants to be eaten.
* LimitedWardrobe:
** Abby nearly always wears the same blue dress.
** Louie always wears the same blue jacket.
** Count Von Count really loves his outfit.
* LiteralMetaphor: On re-entry the ''Wiggleprise'' ends up landing Around The Corner in a wash bucket full of water; it turns out "splashdown" is the proper term for a spaceship's landing on return to Earth.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: In the nearly 50 years of its existence, countless puppets and human characters have appeared on the show.
* LocationSong: "(Can you tell me how to get to) Sesame Street?" - The theme song, which essentially has children asking people, how can they find this street?
* LongLostUncleAesop:
** Episode 2687, "The Golden Cabbage of Snufertiti", features Bob's AdventurerArchaeologist brother Minneapolis in a street story with the Aesop "Siblings can love each other even if they don't have much in common." Actually justified in that one of the differences between the two is that Minneapolis likes to be on the move while Bob prefers to stay on Sesame Street (though Minneapolis does promise to visit again sometime down the line).
** One episode featured Zoe's aunt Chloe, who only served for the purpose of the Aesop "if someone does something to you which you don't like, just tell them" (Chloe tickled Zoe which she didn't like).
* LongRunners: "50 years and counting" as of 2019; The phrase was the slogan for the MilestoneCelebration campaign.
* LongRunnerCastTurnover: With the exception of three performers - the late Carroll Spinney (Big Bird and Oscar), Bob [=McGrath=] (Bob) and Loretta Long (Susan), who were there for over 45 years - the entire cast has turned over since the first episode aired in November 1969. The longest-tenured cast members after them, aside from Muppet performers, are Emilio Delgado (Luis) and Sonia Manzano (Maria) with both first appearing in 1971, and Roscoe Orman (Gordon, who in 1974 became [[TheOtherDarrin the third actor to play the role]]); Allison Bartlett O'Reilly (Gina, joining in 1987) the next longest-tenured. Everyone else has come and gone with much shorter runs on the show.
* LostPetGrievance: Has ''anybody'' seen Marty's dog?
* LoudOfWar: An early [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2DNiAWgMRY Bert and Ernie sketch]] has the duo engaging in one of these when Ernie hogs the TV set, and Bert turns the record player on to drown him out, which leads to Ernie turning the radio on to drown out the record player, then Bert responds by turning a blender on to drown out the radio... all of which leads to a fuse blowing and the power going out in their apartment.
* LowerDeckEpisode: ''Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration'' puts a lot of its focus on characters that [[TheBusCameBack haven't appeared in a long time]], and every one of them gets at least one line.

[[folder:Tropes Brought to you by the Letter M]]
* MaliciousMisnaming: In the "good birds' club" episode, the bully bird insults Big Bird by calling him "Big [noun that isn't 'bird']."
* ManOfAThousandVoices: Depending on the era of the show.
** In the old days, most of the generic, one-shot Anything Muppet characters were performed by either Frank Oz, or Jerry Nelson and Richard Hunt.
** For a while in the early 2000s, many of the female [=AM=]s were performed by Stephanie D'Abruzzo.
** Presently, almost every female Muppet is performed by Leslie Carrara-Rudolph.
* MeaningfulName:
** Gonnigan, Abby's classmate on the ''Abby's Flaying Fairy School'' segment. When nervous or upset he turns invisible, and therefore is "gone again".
** Don ''Music'' is a musician.
** The Count is a pun on counting and Count Dracula.
** Subverted with Telly, who started out preoccupied with watching television but now isn't.
* MeatOVision: In the ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' parody "Aveggies: Age of Bon Bon" on the episode about focus, Cookie Monster (as Dr. Brownie) keeps getting distracted from stopping the alien spaceship and seeing his teammates' equipment as snack food. He sees [[ComicBook/CaptainAmerica Captain Ameri-cauliflower]]'s shield as giant cookie and [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor The Mighty Corn]]'s hammer as a marshmallow and eats both of them.
* MedicalGame: ''[[https://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/sesame-interactive-elmo-goes-to-the-doctor/elmo-goes-to-the-doctor-sesame-street/ Elmo Goes to the Doctor]]'' is a licensed game about Elmo being treated for a cold, a toothache, or an earache. It has a BittersweetEnding, ending with him still in recovery.
* MediumBlending:
** Abby Cadabby moves from live-action to the computer-generated Flying Fairy School. Similarly, Bert and Ernie have ''Great Adventures'' in StopMotion.
** The ''Magical Wand Chase'' movie combines puppetry with CGI.
* {{Meganekko}}: Smart Tina in the Roosevelt Franklin sketches wears glasses, but makes this a ZigzaggedTrope, since instead of being meek and sweet she's a SmallNameBigEgo victim who's a KnowNothingKnowItAll.
* MelancholyMusicalNumber:
** "When Bert's Not Here" is a song by Ernie about how sad he feels when Bert is away.
** "Sad" is a song by Little Jerry and the Monotones about how sad Little Jerry feels after several bad things, like losing his dime and having a terrible time at school, happen.
*** Another song with the same name was sung by Olivia, who had gone from feeling fine to being sad for seemingly no reason.
** "Don't Walk" is about a groom who is very sad due to not being able to cross the street to his bride because of the 'don't walk' song.
** "All I Can Do is Cry" is a song sung by a kitten who's sad due to losing her mitten.
** "It's All Right to Cry" is a song set to a live-action film about how all people cry for various reasons, not just babies.
** "Wandering Through Wonderland" is a song Abby sings as she's lost in a place based on Wonderland from ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'' and wants to go back home.
** "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe" is about some cowboys and cowgirls at a cafe specially designed to cry things out at.
** "Just Take a Look at 15" is by a singing 15 girl who feels unnoticed.
* MissedMealAesop: This show has done this many times, with breakfast being the one they talk about most:
** In the song "The Most Important Meal of the Day" ([[EitherOrTitle also known]] as "[[TheSomethingSong The Breakfast Song]]"), a chef sings to a little boy who wants to skip breakfast, telling him not to because breakfast is the most important meal and everyone needs it.
** In another song, "The Breakfast Club" (which doesn't have anything to do with [[Film/TheBreakfastClub the movie]] apart from the title), a group of people sing that you should eat breakfast every morning as it's healthy for you.
** In one skit, Super Grover loses his SuperStrength (and becomes too weak to even lift a briefcase) because he skipped breakfast, and the Super Foods (AnthropomorphicFood in super suits) give him some food, gaining him his powers back.
** Downplayed for the "Breakfast is the Best Meal of the Day" song that [[CloudCuckoolander Ernie]] sings. While he does sing about how breakfast gives him energy in the morning, and that supposedly makes it the best, the song is mainly played for comedy, due to the [[SurrealHumour surreality]] of him singing it at night.
* MistakenForThief:
** Zigzagged in one Ernie and Bert skit. Bert observes Ernie sitting with a plate of crumbs and holding a fork and a piece of chocolate cake gone. Logically, Bert thinks Ernie ate the piece of cake, but Ernie makes up a story about a monster eating it, shaking off the crumbs, and putting the fork in Ernie's hand. Bert doesn't believe him and Ernie admits that he did eat the cake, but when Bert leaves, the monster does the exact thing Ernie described with the other piece of cake.
** At one point, Bert thinks Ernie took his cookies, but really it was Cookie Monster in disguise.
** In a 2002 episode Cookie Monster is accused of having taken cookies from a few different characters after having been specifically told not to. It turns out to be a one-shot character named Cookie Hood who was taking them.
* MistakesAreNotTheEndOfTheWorld:
** In one episode, the Count accidentally counts the same number twice and decides to give up counting and find a new job, lest he make another mistake. However, all the other jobs turn out to involve counting in some way and when Elmo makes the same error and declares that ''he'' will give up counting, he decides that accepting errors is better than giving up counting.
** The song "Accidents Happen" from "Elmo's Potty Time" is about how it's acceptable and normal for kids to have accidents during their potty-training.
** "Everyone Makes Mistakes" is a song about how everyone makes mistakes, so it's fine if you make them.
** When Rosita writes the "R" in her name backwards, Big Bird fails to dunk a ball, Zoe and Abby fall over while dancing, Bert forgets the lyrics to a song, Cookie Monster burns some cookies, the Two-Headed Monster fails to drum, and Elmo makes a math error, a woman sings a song called "The Power of Yet", implying that they can't do what they're trying to ''yet'' but will be able to in the future.
** In an animated skit, a girl named Cookie breaks the window and considers lying to her mother that her cat Lucy broke it. However, she then imagines her family making Lucy sleep in Bruno the dog's bed, which he wouldn't like, so he'd scare her away, never to be seen again. Cookie, not wanting Lucy to run away, tells the truth to her mother, who tells her that sometimes accidents just happen, but at least she told the truth and can do better next time.
** Played with in an episode. Linda breaks Ruthie's pitcher but because she's in a hurry, she didn't see it, and because she's deaf, she didn't hear it. Elmo forgets that Linda is deaf and thinks that she didn't tell Ruthie because she's afraid, so he asks Ruthie what "someone" should do if they broke the pitcher and were afraid to tell. Ruthie thinks that ''Elmo'' broke the pitcher and is afraid to tell, so she tells him the story of when she broke her uncle's lamp as a girl. Ruthie's uncle was apparently sad about the lamp, but not mad, because he knew it was an accident. Elmo tries to spread this information to Linda, which leads to everyone finding out the actual truth.
** Downplayed in one episode. Elmo learns how to roller-blade and people keep telling him that it's OK to fall down, but Elmo seems to already know that.
** The song "Trying and Trying Again" has such lyrics as "Don't be afraid because you are small, and don't be afraid that you may fall. You can get it after all; it just takes time".
** The book "Potty Training with Abby" has Abby say that she sometimes either turns the toilet into a pumpkin or wets her pants, but it's normal to make mistakes while potty training.
** In the book "P is for Potty", Elmo's cousin Albie wets his pants and Elmo and his mother Mae reassure him that it's normal and Elmo used to wet his pants as well.
** In the book "Everyone Makes Mistakes", Big Bird accidentally knocks over some laundry and tries to lie about it, but then learns that it's fine to make mistakes, but not to lie.
** In the book "Toilet Time", when the narrator points out that Ernie had accidents as a toddler learning to use the bathroom, then says, "That's OK, Ernie!".
** Downplayed in the online game "Elmo's Potty Time". Elmo doesn't have an accident, but Louie, his father, tells him that it's OK to have them anyway.
* MonikerAsEnticement: An in-universe example in "Elmo's Potty Time", when Baby Bear says that since he's potty trained, he's a "potty animal" and when Curly's potty trained she'll be one too, but there's no mention of that label applying to the audience.
* MonsterShapedMountain: When they visited Hawaii, Big Bird spent a lot of time looking for Mount Snuffleupagus; a mountain shaped like, well, a Snuffleupagus.
%%* TheMovie: ''Film/FollowThatBird'' (1985) and ''Film/TheAdventuresOfElmoInGrouchland'' (1999).
* MultiNationalShows: We heartily recommend the documentary ''The World According to Sesame Street'' on this subject.
* MultipleEndings: The 123 red ball sculpture film has two endings.
** One has the ball being crushed into a powder, while the other sees the balls triggering a machine which places cherries on three ice cream sundaes.
** A number of films on the letter or number of the day have the same basic theme and format, but are edited to feature a different letter or number. In their full form, most of the counting films go up to 20.
* MultipleHeadCase: The two-headed muppet.
* MundaneMadeAwesome:
** Music/AndreaBocelli singing a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BDVvB7Xx1w lullaby]]
** "Lever Lover" is a song about how levers are amazing due to their ability to lift things and pivot.
** Ernie once sings "I Love My Toes" about how great toes are.
** Ernie and Bert once sing a song about how amazing sleep is.
* {{Muppet}}: Jim Henson brought his Muppets to the show in the beginning, but the Muppets who debuted on ''Series/SesameStreet'' and those who didn't have been under separate headship since the 90s.
* TheMusicMeister: A 2010 [[http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Episode_4220 episode]] had Elmo take on this role by pure accident - he decided to play with Abby's wand when she left it behind after leaving to do an errand; he accidentally learned the music spell while pretending to be a conductor with it and decided to use it on everyone on the street.
* MustacheVandalism: The segment where Muppet cowboys compare a "Wanted" poster of Cookie Monster with the actual Cookie Monster. When their suspicion peaks, Cookie distracts them long enough to draw a mustache on the poster. The cowboys notice the disparity, and apologize for suspecting him. Cookie Monster amiably tips his hat--and lots of stolen cookies tumble out.
* MyNaymeIs:
** '''Herry''' Monster
** '''Merry''' Monster.
** Gabi
** Tarah
* MythologyGag: Season 40 is filled with them, ranging from props with a hidden reference on them to onscreen cameos from some of the performers. [[http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Season_40_Hidden_Gems Click here]] for a complete list.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: In the sketch when the Count sleeps over with Ernie and Bert, Ernie recommends that the Count should count sheep so he can fall asleep. But he ends up enjoying counting them, and when it begins thundering from his counting, a horrified Ernie gives this look.
* MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch: Oscar's friend Felix is a neat grouch, and Oscar's cousin George is a positive grouch.

[[folder:Tropes Brought to you by the Letter N]]
* NeatFreak:
** Bert doesn't like it when Ernie is messy.
** Unusually for a grouch, Oscar's friend Felix likes to clean.
* NegativeContinuity: In the 35th anniversary special, ''The Street We Live On'', Grover takes Elmo back in time to the Sesame Street before he was born, via a magic time traveling taxi cab. Via flashbacks, Grover takes Elmo to Maria and Luis's wedding, however, Elmo was the ring bearer at the wedding (and constantly worried about dropping the rings). In fact, Elmo can be seen ''in the flashback''. Can't really imagine how that got past the writers, producers, editors, etc.
* {{Neologism}}:
** One animated skit tells you not to be a ''snerd'' when you sneeze.
** When Bert challenges Ernie to rhyme "hippopotamus", Ernie says, "Rip-a-cotta-puss!".
** Natasha calls her doll her "hoongie".
* NeverSayDie: Several aversions.
** Averted, with Mr. Hooper's death.
** The song "One Way" also opens with the line "I'm so lonely, I wish I was dead".
** As does "On The Subway" ("So hot I could die...").
** Also averted when Elmo's Uncle Jack dies, they clearly use the words "die" and "dead", though it's part of a video which didn't air on TV.
* NewBabyEpisode:
** ''A Baby Sister For Herry'' is a book based on the show. When Herry's baby sister, Flossie is born, Herry becomes jealous of the attention she receives from his friends and relatives. Herry also dislikes when his parents have to remind him to be considerate of her, such as not playing with his toy fire engine outside her bedroom so she can sleep. Herry later decides to act like a baby so his parents will give him some attention, and when his mom finds out, she shows him pictures of what he looked like when he was a baby. This makes Herry realize that he used to be like Flossie, so he changes his attitude and helps take care of her.
** In one episode, Maria, who had been pregnant by Luis for a while now, goes into labour and eventually gives birth to Gabriella.
** In a two-part episode, Curly Bear is born. The first part focuses on Mama Bear's pregnancy and labour, and the second part focuses on Baby Bear acclimating to Curly Bear's presence.
** In the song "We've Got a Brand New Baby", a girl named Freda (who, coincidentally, has the same puppet as Ingrid) gains a new brother and sings about how she finds him annoying, with his crying and inability to do much.
** The DirectToVideo release "A New Baby in My House" has an in-universe example: Snuffy is mad at Alice for breaking his toy tiger, so their mother reads them a story about a boy who was also mad at his younger sister. In this case, it was a little prince named Firstly who was frustrated with the newborn princess Azalea for taking up attention.
** One two-part episode focuses on Gina adopting a ten-month-old boy named Marco.
** In one episode, Luis looks after [[EggMacGuffin the egg of a Honker couple]]. When the egg hatches, the newly-hatched Honker baby starts [[{{Imprinting}} calling Luis, "Daddy"]]. When the baby's parents arrive, Luis points out that the male Honker looks a lot more like the baby than Luis does, which convinces it that the Honker is his real daddy.
* NewYearHasCome: The prime time special "Sesame Street Stays Up Late!" (retitled on video as "Sesame Street Celebrates Around the World") features the adults heading out to one New Year's Eve party and Gina hosting another one for the kids. The adults return via the subway station just in time for the kids' mock ball drop courtesy of Wolfgang the seal. Elmo hosts a Creator/{{CNN}}-type newscast about how New Year's Eve is celebrated around the world. It even has an Israel segment about Rosh Hashanah which ties into Sesame Street's Israeli-American spinoff, ''Shalom Sesame''.
* NicheNetwork: In ''Elmo's World'', Elmo's TV tunes in to these kinds of channels to teach kids.
* TheNicknamer: Oscar the Grouch is this for almost all of his Sesame Street neighbors; to him, Gordon is "[[DontExplainTheJoke Curly]]," Big Bird is "Turkey," Maria is "Skinny," Bob is "Bright Eyes," Telly is "Worry Wart," and Elmo is "Little Red Menace," Oscar has nicknames for others, too.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Every one of Oscar the Grouch's schemes to ruin everybody's day backfire, resulting in everyone being happier instead.
* NightmareSequence:
** Cookie Monster had a nightmare once about flying cookies that wouldn't let him eat them, and another nightmare about a talking cookie who used to be a monster.
** Oscar has nightmares about butterflies and happy people in one episode.
* NoFourthWall:
** Often follows the common kids' TV convention in which the viewer is assumed to be "visiting" the show's characters.
** Episodes of ''Sesamstrasse'' (the German version) from 1978-88 -- when the show took place in a studio -- took it UpToEleven, where some episodes involved the studio crew helping the characters out.
* NobodyPoops: In episode 2042, Gordon makes plans to meet Mr. Snuffleupagus (who he finally believes in, despite not seeing him yet). He sets up a space by Oscar's trash can with everything he could need so he would be sure to stay and not miss out on seeing Snuffy, but nothing is brought up about how he would go to the bathroom. And aside from briefly having to go inside to take a phone call (missing his opportunity in the process), he stays out there until night time.
* NonResidentialResidence: Oscar the Grouch lives in a trash can.
* NonSequitur:
** Big Bird shouts things like, "Basil!" and "Sassafras!" when he's mad.
** The song "Watermelon's and Cheese" is about how you shouldn't say, "Watermelons and cheese" over the phone.
* NoPeripheralVision: At the end of "Cookie Disco", when Cookie panics over having no more cookies, there actually is a cookie visible on the wall in front, which he could easily spot. In this case, it's most likely unintentional, as during the early years segments were often done in one take (and it's unknown whether Frank Oz would have spotted it in the monitor when performing in the segment).
* NotAllowedToGrowUp: The human characters age normally but the Muppets and Monsters will stay the same age. Often times retcons are used when talking about stuff or flashbacking to things that they "should" have been too young for, such as Elmo being at Maria's and Luis' wedding.
%%* NothingExcitingEverHappensHere: Absolutely defied.
* NotSoForgottenBirthday: In the picture book ''Abby's Pink Party'', Elmo tries to cheer up Abby Cadabby who is sad because she thinks everyone forgot her birthday. The book ends with her surprise party.
* NotSoImaginaryFriend: Mr. Snuffleupagus was one of these for about a decade. This was eventually changed because it infuriated children, seeing Big Bird driven crazy by everyone's disbelief. Also, as per above, it occurred to the writers that perhaps having all the adults disbelieve Big Bird sent a very irresponsible message.
* NotWhereTheyThought: A RunningGag in the "Monster Clubhouse" skits is a man mistaking the Monster Clubhouse for a different clubhouse.
* NumerologicalMotif: In 2003, the budget people called for the show to be limited to 25 episodes a year. Lou Berger, the head writer at the time, pointed out that you can't exactly fire a letter of the alphabet, so now they each get one episode a year.

[[folder:Tropes Brought to you by the Letter O]]
* ObviouslyEvil: The first and second of the three "Japanese stories" sketches from 1971-72, "The Mystery of the Four Dragons" and "The Unhappy Empire", feature the "evil Prime Minister" of Imperial Japan, voiced by Frank Oz. As if the word "evil" wasn't enough of a clue to his true nature, his bushy eyebrows are permanently furrowed in a contemptuous scowl, and he never misses an opportunity to cackle malevolently.
* ObviouslyNotFine: When [[DitzyGenius Dr. Nobel Price]] is sad about his "invention" (socks) turning out to have already been invented, he claims that he's fine despite sobbing.
* OddCouple: Bert and Ernie, who live together but sleep in separate beds. It is never really clear whether they are partners, father and son or just friends.
* OdeToApathy:
** The song "That's What Friends are For" is about how Ernie and Bert sometimes do things that would ordinarily bother the other, but they don't mind because they're such good friends.
** The song "Born to Add" is about how an unnamed man and woman don't care that their loud addition at night is waking everyone up-- they'll keep doing it anyway.
* OdeToFood:
** As you'd expect, this is a Cookie Monster specialty, going all the way back to "C is for Cookie" (about how he loves cookies so much he doesn't care if 'cookie' is the only word that starts with 'C' that he can think of), plus "Food, Food, Food" (about different types of food), "Healthy Food" (about eating a balanced diet and different nutritious foods), "Breakfast Time" (about the different weird ways he eats cookies in the morning--boiling them, juicing them, frying them, etc.), "Hey Food" (a [[Music/PastMasters "Hey Jude"]] parody sung with The Beetles) and "The First Time Me Eat Cookie" (about his first time eating cookies at about age one)
** "The Celery Song" is a song by three kids called the Celery Bunch about how much they like celery.
** Invoked when Elmo uses Abby's wand to make it so nobody can speak, only sing, and makes Baby Bear and Alan sing a song dedicated to porridge.
** One song is sung by a boy who previously thought he didn't like zucchini about how it's the best food he's ever eaten now that he's tried some.
** "Everyone Likes Ice Cream" is about how liking ice cream is nearly universal despite the fact that everyone is different.
* OffScreenCrash: The show ''loves'' this trope (a loud crash from offscreen), particularly with Muppet segments.
* OnceASeason:
** The season premieres are usually the only episodes of the whole season to feature ''all'' of the human actors on the show, because they can't afford to do so more often than that. Often, this was used to showcase new and returning actors and establish personalities. [[note]]A prime example is the fifth-season premiere, aired in November 1973, where a "typical day on Sesame Street is shown, with not only the entire human cast but every one of the Muppet characters as well.[[/note]]
** During much of TheSeventies and (at least) [[TheEighties early-to-mid Eighties]], each year the show would have a week's worth of winter-themed episodes. Actually, ''two'' weeks: the first week would show snow falling, and the second week the whole street would be covered in snow. This didn't last long, and even now whenever they do Christmas specials there's very little snow cover; as Oscar once explained in an interview, "It used to snow, but it got too expensive."
** From Seasons 33 to 37, "Do De Rubber Duck" had become an annual treat for viewers. Ditto for "Imagine That".
* OneEpisodeFear:
** In "Afraid of the Bark", Zoe (and allegedly Rocco) develop a fear of dogs and the adults and Elmo help them lose it.
** In one episode, Elmo has a fear of fire, which he gains (due to Hooper's Store catching fire) and loses (due to visiting the firehouse) on the same episode.
* OneSteveLimit:
** The first three decades featured Little Chrissy, who has also been referred to as just Chrissy and as Chris. Chrissy was also the name of a member of Little Jerry and the Monotones, and both characters were voiced by (and named after) Christopher Cerf, though the Monotone Chrissy wasn't referred to by name often. Another Chris was added to the human cast in season 38, long after the Muppets with this name had stopped appearing on the show.
** There's Sam the Robot and Sinister Sam, as well as the owner of a store where the Busby Twins frequented, and a boy who appears in the home video ''Getting Ready to Read''.
** Bad Bart and Bert's brother Bart.
** A comical example occurred in a sketch where Kermit the Frog goes to pick-up a personalized t-shirt, only to get shirts for Kermit the Forg, Kermit the Gorf, and Kermit the Grof. At first it looks like the shirt maker made a mistake, until customers with those names show up to pick up their shirts.
* OneWordVocabulary: In the early 90s, a female construction worker Muppet named Stella was often seen with Biff and Sully, and all she would say was "Yo!"
* OnlySaneMan: Averted to the extreme, as most of the cast acts pretty eccentric at times, thanks partially at least to them attempting to simultaneously teach preschoolers about letters, numbers and other subjects.
* OnlyShopInTown: Hooper's Store is this to the titular street.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness:
** When Oscar starts acting kind rather than his usual grouchy self in "Oscar the Kind", the rest reacted with surprise.
** When Oscar reads "nice books" in one episode, people wonder if he's sick.
** When Barkley doesn't eat in one episode, it's a sign he's sick.
* OpeningBallet: Part of the opening sequence of ''Christmas Eve on Sesame Street'' involves an ice ballet in which Big Bird learns from a girl how to skate to the song "Feliz Navidad".
* OurVampiresAreDifferent:
** Count von Count. He has a shadow, enjoys being out in sunlight, can't turn into a bat, and doesn't seem to be interested in sucking blood at all. (One early skit did show him having no reflection in a mirror.) Official materials are [[FlipFlopOfGod inconsistent]] on whether he is even a vampire at all.
** In the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4l9mjSeAVW0 Twilight parody]], Cookie Monster plays "Shortbreadward" a "Yumpire" with an insatiable thirst for cookies.
* OutOfFocus: This happened to several characters after Elmo and later Abby Cadabby came to dominate the show. Some longtime characters such as Prairie Dawn, Oscar the Grouch and the Count aren't seen as much as they were in previous years. Saddest of all, Big Bird is only a periodic guest star. This may be an example of RealLifeWritesThePlot, as Jerry Nelson (the Count) suffered through several years of declining health before his death in 2012 and as Carroll Spinney has continued to perform as Big Bird and Oscar into his early 80s.
** Further examples of RealLifeWritesThePlot: Even before Jim Henson's death and Frank Oz's semi-retirement, their increasing commitments to outside projects starting in the late 1970's affected how often their respective characters would appear in new material. This particularly affected Ernie, Bert, Grover, Cookie Monster and Kermit the Frog, all of whom went from frequently appearing on the street interacting with the other characters to primarily appearing in pre-filmed inserts, as Jim and Frank were then only able to dedicate one week out of each year for such.
* OutSick: This happens quite a few times.
** Sort of inverted the time the child Gabi was sick on a Birthday Episode and so her friends couldn't come to her birthday party.
** Another time Grandmama Bear has a cold, so an older Gabi has to babysit.
** A third time Big Bird and Zoe both have colds, so they can't have a play-date (they have a "play-date by proxy" with Telly).
** A fourth time Gina was sick off her job so Savion filled in.
** Another time, Maria has a stomach virus and is sent to the hospital, so she can't do her job, but she comes back later that day.
** "You've Got to Be Patient to Be a Patient" is a song all about this: it's about how you can't go out and play while sick, so you'll just have to be patient. It's sung once to Big Bird when he has a lung infection, once to Maria when she has a stomach virus, and once to a little girl when she has the flu.
** In the song "Best Friend Blues", Ernie sings about how Bert can't play with him because he's sick.
** A 1997 episode involved Prairie Dawn falling ill with a cold the day one of her pageants is supposed to be performing, so she had Bob [[DraggedIntoDrag dress in drag like Prairie]] to take her place at said pageant.
* OvercomplicatedMenuOrder: In an early skit, Ernie asks an ice-cream man for a Chocolate, Strawberry, Peach, Vanilla, Banana, Pistachio, Peppermint, Lemon, Orange, Butterscotch ice-cream cone. Amazingly enough, the ice-cream man delivers! ... Except that Ernie is now upset because the cone was prepared ''upside-down''. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIR8ykXHNGs Watch it here.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tropes Brought to you by the Letters P and Q]]
* PantomimeAnimal: Barkley was portrayed by a performer who crouched down on all fours and crawled while wearing the Barkley mask like a helmet.
* PaperThinDisguise: A RunningGag of the 2016 "Smart Cookies" segments is that the villain, the Crumb, is able to get past Cookie Monster with the most minor disguises, such as a mustache or even simply a bow-tie. Because Cookie Monster is comparing him to a digital photo, these elements don't appear, allowing Cookie to be easily fooled.
** An Ernie and Bert segment from TheSeventies had Ernie trying out a disguise kit consisting of these and tries to fool Bert with them, disguising as a pirate and Little Red Riding Hood. The problem is, Bert sees through all of them (especially since Ernie ''forgot to remove his pirate beard'' for the Red Riding Hood disguise, and he doesn't want to be disturbed while reading his "Boring Stories" book. But then TheBigBadWolf arrives and Bert assumes it's [[MistakenForAnImpostor Ernie in another disguise]], until Ernie shows up through the doorway just as the Wolf is munching on Bert's chair. Cue the OhCrap look from Bert.
* ParanoiaFuel: Invoked InUniverse and played for laughs during the W-ORD News segment with John Oliver and Cookie Monster. One of the top stories is teased by John Oliver as "The word 'crumb' ends with a 'b', but you ''never hear it''. What's it doing back there, and how can you protect yourself?"
* ParentalBonus: A deliberate part of the show from the beginning. One of the first producers described the plan for the show back in 1969 as "A show that will entertain parents so much, they'll force their kids to watch."
** If not the actual originator of the concept, then ''Sesame Street'' is certainly the most sophisticated. Includes parodies of current celebrities, movies and songs, such as 'Monsterpiece Theater', a ''Series/MasterpieceTheatre'' spoof hosted by Alistair Cookie. It's ''really'' doubtful that preschoolers would get a ''Theatre/WaitingForGodot'' parody. Or, for that matter, one based around ''Film/{{The 39 Steps|1935}}''.
** They did a parody of ''Mystery!'' in the early 90s, called ''Mysterious Theater'' with Vincent Twice, a spoof of ''Creator/VincentPrice''.
** ''Series/FamilyFeud'' was parodied in 1981 as ''Family Food'' with Richard Dawson as the host.
** There were 2 ''Series/WheelOfFortune'' parodies. One was ''Squeal of Fortune'' with Pat Playjacks and Velma Blank. The other was ''Dreidel of Fortune'' with host ''Creator/JeremyMiller'' (Not sure who played LaVanna White).
** ''Series/MiamiVice'' was spoofed as ''Miami Mice''.
** ''Series/LifeStylesOfTheRichAndFamous'' was spoofed as ''Life Styles of the Big and Little'' with Dicky Tick. Only 2 skits were made.
** ''Series/ThisIsYourLife'' was parodied as ''Here is Your Life'' with Guy Smiley (and later, Sonny Friendly).
** ''Series/SiskelAndEbert'' was parodied as ''Sneak Peak Previews'' with Telly Monster and Oscar the Grouch. Ebert and Siskel was in one of the sketch where they demonstrate the ''Thumbs Up'' ''Thumbs Down'' ratings.
** ''Series/AskTheManager'' was parodied as ''Ask Oscar'' with host Telly Monster and Oscar the Grouch.
** ''Series/HillStreetBlues'' was parodied as ''Hill Street Twos''.
** ''Series/LoveBoat'' was spoofed with Ernie as the captain who loves that boat.
** ''ABC-TV's Love in the Afternoon'' was parodied as ''WCTW: School in the Afternoon''.
** ''Series/DaysOfOurLives'' was spoofed as ''Sounds Of Our Lives''.
** Or ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkd5dJIVjgM Old Spice]]''... starring Grover. ([[Advertising/TheManYourManCouldSmellLike "Anything is possible when you smell like a monster and you know the word 'on'. I am on a horse."]] ''[[Advertising/TheManYourManCouldSmellLike "Moo!"]]'' [[Advertising/TheManYourManCouldSmellLike "Cow."]])
** They really do work hard to stay current, as also per a parody of ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' called "Law & Order: Special Letters Unit".
** They also did a parody of ''Series/BoardwalkEmpire'' called "Birdwalk Empire".
** The Latin American version of this show, ''Series/PlazaSesamo'', features the recurring sketch "Los Monstruos Tambien Lloran" ("The Monsters Also Cry"), a parody of [[SoapOpera telenovelas]] named after a classic Mexican example (''Los Ricos Tambien Lloran'' ["The Rich Also Cry"]) of the form.
** [[Series/OrangeIsTheNewBlack Five words]]: ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4YOT1ajsUM Orange is the New Snack]]''.
** ''[[Series/AmericanIdol American I]]''
** ''[[Series/GameOfThrones Game of Chairs]]'' gives us the ultimate one with the references both to the story and um...some of the more grown up aspects ("I've a wedding to get to!" - really Robb?) clear and easy to follow for fans of the show and those who only have an inkling of the hard hitting series.
** One cartoon featuring a salesman trying to sell the letter Z has the salesman give examples of words beginning with Z, including "Zither." He then pulls out a zither and starts playing the theme from ''Film/TheThirdMan''.
* ParentalSubstitute: The original concept behind Gordon and his wife Susan, according to WordOfGod.
* ParodyCommercial: Used as a second CouchGag in seasons 43 and 44.
* ParodiedTrope: Early seasons, as noted, parodied many TV advertising tropes of the day. Notably, the RepeatingAd, by using the same films more than once in a given episode.
%%* ParodiesOfFire: In the ''Chariots of Fur'' sketch.
* PenguinsAreDucks: The penguins often [[IncorrectAnimalNoise make quacking sounds]].
* PassingTheTorch: In ''So Long, Mr. Hooper'', David told Big Bird that Mr. Hooper left the store to him.
* PeopleFallOffChairs: Seen in "Little Miss Muffet: The Continuing Story", when Miss Muffet is eating spaghetti in a restaurant at the mall, and among seeing [[StalkerWithoutACrush the spider that keeps following her around]], she's so terrified she falls back in her chair (and her scream raises in pitch to reflect that.)
* PersonWithTheClothing: An animated segment about the letter V features "the villain in the Panama hat" (who even refers to himself as that).
* PianoDrop: Seen in "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8ZfNPwAiiM Danger]]" by Little Jerry and the Monotones, and "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVcZ7cDggeE Danger's No Stranger]]" by How Now Brown and the Moo Wave.
* PieInTheFace:
** The ending of "Surprise", where [[FlyAtTheCameraEnding even the viewer gets pied.]]
** The series of skits where Linda signs words that Gordon says out loud right before the word is demonstrated on him. The last word in the skit is "pie" and it ends not with Gordon getting a pie to the face, but rather Linda being on the receiving end.
*** In episode 3051, that scene is followed by Maria getting creamed by accident courtesy of Fluffy, who had been meaning to hit Oscar. Oscar is then perplexed by Maria's reaction, which is to [[ActuallyPrettyFunny laugh hysterically]].
** The "Three Whipped Cream Pies on the Wall" segment, in which Maria pies Bob, Luis and David and then gets pelted with pies herself at the end of the number - although curiously the pies all miss her face.
** Ernie is pied by Bert in an early skit, after confusing the number 4 with first a chocolate cream and then a banana cream pie.
--->'''Ernie:''' ''[after being pied]'' I knew what it was all along, but who wants to get hit in the face with a 4?
* ThePigPen: Oscar the Grouch (and most grouches) love to get dirty.
* ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything: WordOfGod is that Gordon is a teacher (first elementary school, then later high school science); in the first episode he says that he's home early because a teachers meeting was called off. However, because he's only very rarely actually seen in a classroom, and indeed seems to always be available whenever the Street plot of the day requires it, many casual viewers aren't aware of this fact. In fact, ''Series/MadTV'' once lampshaded this in a skit about the recession hitting Sesame Street, and Gordon - now riding an ice cream cart - remarks, [[ObliquelyObfuscatedOccupation "Oh, I lost my job doing whatever it is I did before."]]
* PlainPalate: Downplayed for Bert, who likes plain things like oatmeal and plain water and dislikes ice cream sodas due to not being plain enough, but is also shown enjoying non-plain food (one sketch has him mad that Ernie took his chocolate ice cream for instance).
* PlatonicValentine:
** In one episode, discussing racism and interracial friendship, Gina and Savion, who are a white woman and a black man who are best friends, sing a FriendshipSong that involves [[HurricaneOfEuphemisms a list of synonyms for "friends"]], one of them being "Valentines".
** One song is about preschool-aged best friends Elmo and Abby making Valentines for each other, likely because they're too young to have romantic love interests.
** During the "Nine Chickens" song, eight of the chickens give a Valentine to their neighbour.
* PolkaDotDisease: One episode focuses on Big Bird getting the "Birdy Pox", which is a disease most birds of his species and age get and is characterised by being covered in itchy green dots.
* PottyDance:
** In "Elmo's Potty Time", Baby Bear squirms and Elmo asks if he's dancing. Baby Bear says that, no, he's fidgeting and says he has to go himself.
** In the licensed game "Potty Plan", Elmo or Abby starts squirming if they need to go to the bathroom.
* PottyEmergency:
** Baby Bear Grover and Curly Bear get potty emergencies in "Elmo's Potty Time".
** In the game "Potty Plan", if you idle, Elmo or Abby's need to go to the bathroom becomes more urgent.
* PottyFailure:
** The Elmo's Potty Time special has a whole song about wetting oneself, called "Accidents Happen".
** Discussed in the licensed game "Elmo's Potty Time" when they mention not wanting to have accidents.
** In the licensed game "Potty Plan", Elmo or Abby can have accidents if you idle.
** One doll called Potty Time Elmo can have accidents.
* PowerOutagePlot: An Ernie and Bert segment from the 1970s has Ernie notice that it's darker than usual when they are in bed at night, and how all the lights on Sesame Street are out, and Bert explains that it's a blackout and what it is. But then Ernie torments Bert (as usual) with suggesting things they can do during the blackout, such as watch TV or listen to their radio or record player, not knowing they all require electricity to operate.
** The above sketch actually tied in to three different episodes all of which were about a blackout: episode 652, episode 2071, and episode 2210.
* PreciousPuppy: The 2021 HBO Max exclusive animated special ''Furry Friends Forever: Elmo Gets a Puppy'' involves Elmo and Grover befriending a female stray puppy named "Tango". Throughout the special, they try taking her to Sesame Street's "Pet Adoption Fair" held at the park. However, Elmo and Grover missed the event which causes [[https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2021/07/06/credit-sesame-workshop-2-_wide-a5275f51adc6bae236e7ff5a32a0329a9cb5d787-s800-c85.webp Elmo to fully adopt Tango and become his second pet]]. She will eventually show up on the PBS KIDS streaming programs starting in 2022 and future episodes of the series.
* PregnantReptile: Slimey's mother is shown being pregnant, despite being a worm.
* PrejudiceAesop:
** The song "We All Sing with the Same Voice" is about how people all look different, have different families, and come from different places, but we're all the same in many ways.
** "No Matter What Your Language" is also about how even though we speak different languages, have different names etc., we're still all the same in many ways.
** Another song, "No Matter What", is about how people are all different, but still do human things like shiver, laugh, cry, etc.
** One cartoon skit is about a Native American boy telling two white boys Native Americans don't really speak in TontoTalk.
** In one episode, Gina gets a racist phone call saying she can't be best friends with Savion because they have different skin colours. She tells Telly that some people think people with different skin colours can't be friends, but that those people are stupid.
** One song is about how families with only one parent, or with grandparents, aunts, and/or uncles as legal guardians, are just as legitimately families as families with two parents.
* PrettyInMink: In a Christmas special, one of the (human) women wears a rabbit fur jacket.
* PrisonEpisode: ''Little Children, Big Challenges: Incarceration'' (a stand-alone special) tells about how sometimes people violate the law (a "grown up rule") and have to go to jail or prison.
* PutOnABus:
** David. Northern Calloway, who was experiencing mental health and other personal issues in the late 1980s, left the show after the end of Season 20 (he was either fired or resigned, depending on which story one believes), and--since David was still fairly prominent well into 1989--his departure was explained in the premiere episode of Season 21, which aired in November 1989. Gordon receives a postcard and reads it to Elmo, explaining that David had moved to Florida to care for his grandmother and manage her farm. David is still presumed to be alive, as to this day, he has not been mentioned again. Calloway's real life, meanwhile, continued to spiral downhill and in January 1990, he suffered a massive nervous breakdown that killed him.
** Also Roosevelt Franklin, Harvey Kneeslapper, Simon Soundman, Placido Flamingo, Forgetful Jones, Don Music, Sherlock Hemlock, Sam the Robot... In fact, too many to count, as there have been hundreds of Muppets over the last 48 years, so there is no way around this. Even some of the core 'legacy Muppets', like Herry Monster, are seldom seen on the show today.
*** Actually averted in the cases of Herry & Roosevelt. See TheBusCameBack for more details.
** An unusual Muppet case is Countess von Backwards, introduced in 1990 as a love interest for the Count. After appearing in two sketches, her performer, Camille Bonora, refused to play the character anymore, since, as a devout Christian, she was uncomfortable with the occult connotations of a vampirish puppet. The Countess was dropped.
* QuarterHourShort: The Elmo block, which featured either ''Elmo the Musical'' or the original, longer version of ''Series/ElmosWorld'', took up the last eleven minutes of the hour-long version of ''Sesame Street'' starting in 1998.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tropes Brought to you by the Letter R]]
* RaidersOfTheLostParody: The Season 39 premiere "The Golden Triangle of Destiny"; after 'Minnesota Mel' shows up and tells Telly and Chris about said triangle, Mel gets a 'charley horse', so Telly gets his own costume, calls himself 'Texas Telly' and takes his place.
* RatingsStunt: The "Around the Corner" era of 1993-1998, in which the Street expanded to include several new and colourful characters and their businesses (notably the Furry Arms Hotel). This was done due to increasing competition from Series/BarneyAndFriends.
* ReallyDeadMontage: Mr. Hooper would've gotten one, but the producers decided it would confuse the younger viewers.
* RealLifeWritesThePlot: The September 11 World Trade Center attack served as the basic underlying framing device for the Season 33 premiere episode, in which Hooper's Store catches fire, much to Elmo's horror. He gets invited to the local fire station, and sees what firefighters do to save people's lives, which helps Elmo with his fears.
* RealTime: Used sometimes, and occasionally lampshaded.
--> ''Fifteen fingers (with a friend); \\
In fifteen seconds, this film will end...''
* RearrangeTheSong: The series kept its original theme for 23 seasons, then rearranged it to a calypso version in Season 24, then to an arrangement in the spirit of the original in Season 30, a bouncy swing version in Season 33, a hip-hop-inspired version in Season 38 (which was remixed into a funk-jazz version in Season 40 with additional acoustic and brass instrumentation, and remixed ''again'' in Season 42 with the addition of more percussion). Most recently a shorter folk-inspired version debuted in Season 46 when the [[ChannelHop home of the series' first-run airings moved from]] Creator/{{PBS}} to Creator/{{HBO}}.
* ReminderFailure:
** In the picture book ''Don't Forget the Oatmeal!'', Bert and Ernie go grocery shopping, with Bert remarking at the beginning that it's particularly important that they remember to get more oatmeal. [[StringOnFingerReminder Bert ties a string around his finger to help him remember.]] At the supermarket they get distracted by a Cookie Monster rampage, and when they get home they discover that they've bought everything on their list except the oatmeal.
** A classic animated sketch has a young girl being given directions about what groceries to pick up for her mother. She walks all the way to the store repeating the three items she has to get only to momentarily forget the third when she's actually in the store. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Im4GwUD1UY8&feature=fvwrel After a few second of being puzzled, she does remember the right thing to buy]], however.
* RequiredSpinoffCrossover: The ''Bert and Ernie's Great Adventures'' claymation series features the title duo and a series of new characters. The only short to feature another ''Sesame'' regular is "Wizards," which features Elmo in a prominent role.
* {{Retcon}}: It's intentionally invoked in Season 46: as mentioned above (see ChaosArchitecture), Hooper's Store has been given a vintage/retro redesign that's much more reminiscent of the original store from TheSeventies, making it seem as if the store has just set there and aged for 46 years, as opposed to having been renovated several times. The store does now offer free wi-fi, showing that it still keeps up with the time regardless.
* {{Retool}}: The show has always been described as an "experiment," where new things are tried out each year. Though the majority of the changes through the first three decades were fairly minor (dropping/adding certain characters and segments), major changes to the format have been done since the mid-2000s:
** In 2002, the show was modeled after the day of a preschool child and became more structured; daily recurring segments happened in a specific sequence, and the street story, originally shown in parts throughout the hour, was condensed into one approx. 12 minute block.
** In 2009, the show kept a similar format, only now modeled after pre-school programing blocks (such as Nick Jr.) with more long-form segments incorporated into the show.
** 2016's changes condensed the show to a half-hour format, and shifted the show's focus to a central cast of seven (Elmo, Abby, Cookie Monster, Grover, Big Bird, Oscar and Rosita), while the other Muppet characters are downgraded to supporting roles.
* RingRingCrunch: Subverted in the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yA2HFd_rBA "Time to Tick Tock" skit]] from the early 1990s with an alarm clock being used to count up to twelve in a boogie-woogie style, and among hitting twelve it rings very loudly and then breaks apart ''on its own''.
* RobotBuddy: Sam the Robot tried to be this in TheSeventies, but just couldn't get things right.
* RockPaperScissors:
** A newspaper sold at Hooper's Store featured the headline "Rock Wins! Paper and Scissors are bummed..."
** In episodes 4145 and 4225, two pigs are shown to be constantly playing this game and keep tying at "Paper." This results in them constantly going...
--> "Rock paper scissors SHOOT!" "Paper." "Paper." "TIEEEEEEEE!"
* RoommateDrama: Ernie and Bert are two single puppet characters who live together and share a bedroom. Ernie is silly while Bert is serious, which causes comedic struggles such as Ernie waking up Bert in the middle of the night and them arguing over food.
* RousingLullaby:
** One episode had Ricky Gervais sing Elmo "the N Song", which was generally a relaxing song on an accoustic guitar until the refrain, when it switches to a loud electric guitar and Ricky loudly sings "N goes NA NA NA, NA NA NANA NA NA..."
** In another, [[GrumpyBear Oscar]] is [[BabysittingEpisode babysitting baby Natasha]], he tries to sing her a lullaby, but finds it boring, so he sings it quickly. Natasha doesn't fall asleep, but she doesn't seem too bothered by the song.
** In the ''Elmo's Goodnight Stories'' tie-in book, Elmo wants to sing his mother's lullaby to his school friends, but forgets everything about it except that it involves shaking excess energy out of the extremities and turns it into an exercise song, which Ernie promptly lampshades.
* RubeGoldbergDevice: Kermit's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cog2a3YeDMM What Happens Next machine]]. Or at least, it tries to be.
* RunningGag: In "Elmo's Christmas Countdown", Elmo keeps saying "It's a Christmas miracle!"
[[/folder]]

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Tropes Brought to you by Numbers and the Letter A]]

* FiveFiveFive:
** In a 1990s episode Mumford sets up a magic hotline with the phone number 555-555-5555.
** In a 2004 episode, Snuffy gets a magic ukulele and the phone number to activate it is 1-555-UKE. After accidentally breaking it the number for an emergency repair hotline in 1-555-OOPS.
** One toaster ad has the number 555-TOAST.
* SeventiesHair: The human cast had this almost across-the-board during the decade. The first three Gordons all sported an Afro, until Roscoe Orman switched him to BaldOfAwesome. David had an impressive set of sideburns, Luis started out with longish hair, and even the strait-laced Bob let his hair grow out a bit at one point.
* AbsentAnimalCompanion: In one segment, Ernie brings home a puppy for himself and Bert. The sketch ends with them coming up with names for the dog...maybe that's why they didn't keep it.
* AccidentalMisnaming:
** Big Bird always addressed Mr. Hooper as "Mr. Looper". He even got away with "[[{{Toilet Humour}} Mr. Pooper]]" on at least one occasion.
** Snuffy often called Mr. Hooper's successor Mr. Hanford "Mr. Handfoot".
** "Hello, Mr. Cunningham--gee, that wasn't even close!"
** He also called Peter Marshall, host of ''Series/TheHollywoodSquares'', "Mr. Marshmallow" whenever he appeared on that show (either a normal episode, or ''Storybook Squares''- a version where kids and parents played and the celebrities played storybook characters or historical figures).
** Big Bird also misnamed a one-shot character Mr. Flapman accidentally, calling him Mr. Flopman.
* AcidRefluxNightmare: Cookie Monster's cookie-induced nightmare (well known as a notorious NightmareFuel moment).
* ActorAllusion:
** Bob [=McGrath=] had a music degree, as well as an established career which predates ''Sesame Street'''s run.
** Savion Glover, who played Gina's tap dancing friend, Savion, from 1990 to 1995, is a tap dancer in real life, and in fact made many guest appearances on TV shows which would feature him tap dancing, including an episode of fellow CTW program ''Series/SquareOneTV''.
** Many of the celebrity appearances have jokes involving these, such as a scene where Creator/JayLeno fills in for "Johnny" as Big Bird plays a game with him.
** In ''The Magical Wand Chase'', after spinning around in the hot air balloon for a bit, Big Bird says "Spinny!" (which the captions spell as "Spinney"). This is a reference to his actor, Caroll Spinney.
* ActuallyQuiteCatchy: Bert is Ernie's best friend, but when Ernie sings, Bert often doesn't like the songs due to them getting in the way of what he's doing. He'll often learn to like them halfway through, though and may even dance or join in. This will usually be punctuated with him noting that the song is admittedly "kind of kickin'".
* AcmeProducts: The appliance company is called ''Nologo''.
* ActuallyPrettyFunny: In the sketch where Ernie and Bert go to the jungle in search of Dr. Livingston just so Ernie can ask one question, Bert is among those laughing when the question turns out to be [[spoiler:[[WesternAnimation/BugsBunny "What's up, doc?"]].]] Keep in mind that Bert is the straight man of the duo, the one who Ernie often drags into partipating in his games and foolishness, who upon finding Dr. Livingston when Ernie briefly reconsidered asking his question Bert frustratingly pointed out how far they had traveled.
* AdaptationalSympathy: The Three Bears from ''Literature/{{Goldilocks}}'' are main characters, and unlike their portrayal as antagonists in the fairy tale, here they're just a normal family that happens to be comprised of anthropomorphic bears.
* AdultFear: In ''The Magical Wand Chase'', Elmo tries to grab Abby's wand from the hood of their car-shaped hot air balloon. Except he's a young child that is way high up in the sky. He even slips trying to get the wand, and Rosita and Big Bird are utterly ''terrified'' as they look on.
* AnAesop: Many episodes are meant to teach morals to little kids, such as "Don't Get Pushy" which is meant to teach against physical violence. Other examples include:
** One episode dealt directly with racism, and, in true ''Sesame Street'' fashion, the showrunners dealt with the issue bluntly and directly, rather than sugarcoating the idea. In the episode, Gina (who is white) and Savion (who is Black) go to see a movie together, then, on the walk back to Hooper's Store, clown around and generally act like best friends. When they arrive, an anonymous person calls up the store and says some ''very'' nasty things about the idea of black and white people being friendly with each other (we don't hear exactly what, but Gina and Savion's reactions say it all). Telly, who's confused, asks what happened, and Gina and Savion explain that there are "some really stupid people in the world who can't stand to see it when people of different races are friends." When asked why, the two are forced to admit that they don't know, but point out that Sesame Street is full of people (and monsters, and birds...) who are all different colors and races, but still friends. Telly sums it all up--"What does color have to do with being friends?" And, in a bittersweet but TruthInTelevision ending, the show closes with Gina and Savion remarking that the racist who saw them earlier could very well still be watching them, and might never change their mind. They resolve to stay best friends anyway, which promotes a message about doing what's right, but it's also powerful to acknowledge that racism isn't going to go away after forty-five minutes. [[https://youtu.be/ovoilDJethU Check out]] [[https://youtu.be/RKsxwvhK_C8 the relevant scenes.]]
** "Meet Julia": Elmo, Abby Cadabby, and Alan introduce Julia to Big Bird. When she doesn't talk to him right away, he thinks she doesn't like him, but Alan explains that she has autism, so she interacts differently than most people. Throughout the episode, Elmo, Abby, and Alan help him understand that although she doesn't say much, stims constantly, and has sensitivities that need to be acknowledged (she doesn't like the way paint feels on her skin and hates loud noises, demonstrated when she has a meltdown when a fire engine siren goes off) she is a happy person and a great friend. The episode ends with the kids playing "Boing Tag", a game Julia invented earlier in the episode.
* AffectionateNickname: Ingrid and Humphrey have a host of pet names for Natasha, which they sing about.
* AffectionateParody:
** Lots of them, such as "Pre-School Musical".
** In-Universe: Cookie Monster did a sendup of "Elmo's World", called [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HASdmBYHo5Y "Cookie World"]].
* AffectionHatingKid: There's an episode focused on Zoe not liking it when her aunt Chloe tickles her and coming up with wacky methods to prevent herself from being tickled.
* AllOrNothing: At the end of "The Crying Game Show" with host Sonny Friendly, the grand prize turns out to be Friendly's own teddy bear. So, Sonny cries harder than any of the contestants, And thus, he wins the game. And he leaves the poor contestants sobbing all over again when the announcer blurts out that there are no consolation prizes.
* AlternateCatchphraseInflection: Normally when Cookie Monster says, "Cowabunga!", he shouts it in an excited voice. At one point, however, he says it in a frustrated voice at normal volume to express frustration at the lack of cookies.
* AmazingTechnicolorPopulation: Especially among the Muppets. While humans are not rainbow-colored, monsters and other characters represented by puppets come in many colours, as do some cartoon humanoids.
* AmazingTechnicolorWildlife:
** Feff the cat is green.
** Noodles the cat is purple.
** Ovejita the lamb is purple.
* AmbiguousSyntax: Often a source of humor and misunderstanding in segments.
** In a Julius and Jasper segment where Jasper holds one leg in the air, Julius asks why he's holding one leg in the air. It's because if he holds two in the air, he'll fall down.
** In Sam the Robot's debut, Susan asks Sam if it's unusual to be meeting [[MakesAsMuchSenseInContext a cement mixer for lunch]], Sam agrees -- usually, they meet for dinner.
* AmbiguouslyGay: Horatio the elephant has some traits that are associated with stereotypical gay men like wearing a tutu and having a high voice, however, he is never shown to be gay (likely due to MoralGuardians) but not confirmed to be straight (or bi or [[{{Asexuality}} ace]] for that matter) either.
* AmbiguouslyHuman: Some of the cartoon characters like Ned and Susie Kabloozie look human, but have weird-coloured skin. Also, the characters who are played by Muppets but look human are hard to determine the species of.
* AmbiguouslyJewish:
** Mr. Hooper. On rare occasions the show would make it more explicit, as when Bob wished him a happy Hanukkah in the ''Christmas Eve'' special, or when Big Bird inquired about the different languages the characters could speak and Hooper mentioned that he learned Yiddish as a boy. Actor Will Lee was himself Jewish.
** The Count may be a {{Space Jew|s}}. (His leitmotif is actually a Roma tune, but it happens to sound identical to {{Klezmer}}.) Meanwhile, Oscar the Grouch has Israeli relatives, as seen in "Shalom Sesame", and they don't seem to be Israeli Arabs. Interestingly, in the next incarnation of the franchise in Israel, Oscar’s {{Expy}} tries MacGyvering a phone to call him in one sketch. At the end, he pulls it off, only for Oscar to shout in Hebrew (albeit with a thick American accent), ‘Don’t bother me!’
* AmbiguousSituation: The episode where Elmo's dad goes away for a month or so to do "grownup work" is meant for kids whose parents are in the military, but it's left ambiguous as to whether Louie himself is in it.
* AmericanEagle: One skit is about monsters trying to decide the national bird of America. Bejamin Franklin (played by Telly) suggests the turkey as turkeys were there to welcome the pilgrims (and because they're "nice"). Thomas Jefferson (played by Bert) suggests the pigeon because they enjoy the simple things that improve America (like curbs). Oscar suggests cockatoos since they can be taught rude sayings. John Adams (played by Ernie) suggests the eagle and wins, offending Big Bird.
* AmusingAlien: Some joke scenes involve the Yip-yip aliens trying to figure out Earth things.
* AndStarring:
** Beginning in Season 2 (1970-1971) and continuing until Season 50 (2019-2020), Caroll Spinney received this billing for Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch, since they are (or once were) considered to be the most important Muppet characters on the show, having been conceived specifically for interaction with the live actors on the street.
** Kevin Clash as Elmo began to receive such billing on a regular basis as well as of 2010, until his departure from the show for, ah, very un-child-friendly reasons.
* {{Angrish}}: When Big Bird is mad, he shouts out made-up words and occasionally random actual words (i.e. "basil" and "sassafras".)
* AnimalLover:
** Elmo likes to play with and talk to animals and he owns a fish named Dorothy.
** Zoe seems to like animals too, despite being afraid of dogs in one episode. Notably, she wants to go to the zoo in the Grouchland movie and volunteers at an animal shelter in one of the games.
** Telly owns a hamster named Chuckie Sue and likes to play with other people's pets.
** The reason Gina became a vet was because she likes animals.
** Oscar, despite being a traditional Grouch, seems to have a soft spot for animals, as evidenced by his owning heaps of them, even clean animals, such as a cat.
* AnimalSweetOnObject:
** A turtle falls in love with an empty shell, thinking it's a female turtle. When he sees that "she" isn't moving or breathing, he thinks "she" is dead, but then realises it's just an empty shell.
** Sam the robot has gotten crushes on a toaster and blender.
** There was one episode where Artoo and Threepio guest starred and Artoo fell in love with a fire hydrant.
* AnimatedAdaptation: HBO Max released an animated special, ''The Monster At The End Of This Story'', that adapts exactly what you think. It also doubles as an ArtShift since it's animated as opposed to being filmed with puppets. It's also a musical, 'natch.
* AnthropomorphicFood: Talking food features a lot.
* AnthropomorphicTypography: There are a number of skits that featured sentient letters and numbers.
* AntiChristmasSong: Sung by [[TheGrinch Oscar]]. He sings a song called "I Hate Christmas", about how he (and Grouches in general) hate Christmas and want to have a more grouch-like holiday.
* AppetiteEqualsHealth:
** In one episode, Barkley has the dog equivalent of a cold and isn't eating. Maria and Big Bird think this is serious.
** PlayedForDrama when a little girl's fish looks sick and doesn't eat his food, then dies.
** In a live-action skit with the song "You Have to be Patient to be a Patient", a little girl is seen refusing her porridge, so her father takes her temperature and shakes his head.
** In ''Sesame Street Home Video Visits the Hospital'', when the hospital is working to diagnose Big Bird's lung infection, Maria is asked about his appetite and replies that lately it's been so-so. Toward the end of the special, he's shown ordering every item on the hospital menu for lunch: an obvious sign that he's getting better.
* AreYouSureYouWantToDoThat: In ''Christmas Eve on Sesame Street'', Mr. Hooper asks Bert and Ernie for confirmation before allowing each of them to trade their most prized possessions for gifts for each other. Later on, he catches up with them at home and gives them their treasures back.
* TheArtifact:
** Telly was originally "The Television Monster", an example of a child who watched too much television - the prototype even came complete with wildly spiralling eyes from sitting too close. This characterization has largely died away, leaving only his trademark nervous personality.
** Cookie Monster's [[ExtremeOmnivore extreme omnivorous]] trait is due to him originally starting out as a generic monster who simply devoured nearly everything he came in contact with. Despite the focus on cookies, his omnivorous tendencies have never been dropped.
** The famous closing dialogue, "[[BroughtToYouByTheLetterS Sesame Street was brought to you today by the letter __ and the number ___]]," was originally reflective of the idea that the cartoons, songs, etc. between street scenes were commercials. When that format was changed, the dialogue remained through 2016.
* ArtifactName: Baby Bear is still named that even though he's no longer a baby. There was actually an episode where he tried to rename himself Not-a-Baby Bear, but it didn't stick.
* AscendedExtra: Cookie Monster, Grover and Elmo all began as anonymous Muppet monsters who gradually developed into distinct characters. Cookie Monster, still nameless and [[TheVoiceless voiceless]], appeared in the first episode in 1969, ruining a Kermit lecture about the letter W by eating the letter piece-by-piece. Some later sketches established his love of cookies, before he finally became a regular. Grover made a smattering of appearances in season 1, eventually getting his name late in the season, but it was actually a sketch on ''Series/TheEdSullivanShow'' in May of 1970, where he constantly interrupts Kermit's performance of "What Kind of Fool Am I?", that marked the first appearance of Grover in his familiar characterization. Elmo first showed up as a background character in the first part of TheSeventies, and was sometimes referred to as "Baby Monster". It wasn't until 1984 that Kevin Clash gave him his famous voice and identity. A video showing Elmo's evolution can be found [[http://youtu.be/7AkqR4XszTo here.]]
* AsideGlance: Looking at the screen is very common in a show that commonly [[BreakingTheFourthWall Breaks The Fourth Wall]] including the people and Muppets alike. However, the most noted would probably be scenes when a human character is dealing with an annoying or eccentric character (usually a Muppet). Big Bird also looks at the screen when frustrated or sad.
* AspectRatioSwitch: When the show made the jump to HD in 2008, only so much new footage could be made, thus the show would flip back and forth between new 16:9 material and pillarboxed 4:3 material. By 2014, the show went completely HD.
** The home video releases are produced in widescreen and pillarbox any older material.
* AsymmetricDilemma: The newspaper comic had a variation on the "bacon and eggs" archetype
-->"If I had more light, I could read a book... if I had a book... if I could read."
* AudienceParticipationSong: Which naturally requires BreakingTheFourthWall, notably in the famous "One of These Things is Not Like the Other".
* AudienceSurrogate: in the debut episode, the wraparound has a young girl named Sally move to Sesame Street, and Gordon introduces her (and, by extension, the audience) to the setting and the other characters.
* AwkwardlyPlacedBathtub: In the very first episode, Ernie is taking a bath in a tub located right in the middle of the living room, during which he matter-of-factly chats with Bert. Granted, the layout of Ernie and Bert's place had not really been established yet. Later episodes had the tub relocated to an implied separate bathroom, including the classic Rubber Duckie sequence.

[[folder:Tropes Brought to you by the Letter B]]
* BabySeeBabyDo:
** When the Count sings to Natasha at one point, she copies him at random instances. He believes she is trying to count, but she mainly copies the nouns, such as "kiddy-dats!" after the Count counts the "kitty-cats".
** Natasha's first words were, "Oh dear" after Snuffy said the phrase when she didn't talk.
** Inverted once when Humphrey copies Natasha's babbling.
** In "Elmo's Potty Time", Baby Bear explains that he calls pee "wee-wee" and poop "woo-woo". Curly begins to chant, "Wee wee woo woo!".
** In one episode, Baby Bear says that his parents are going out to dinner and Curly Bear says, "Dinner!".
** Once, a girl sings a song, repeating the word "tortellini" to her baby sister in hopes of her learning the word. Eventually, the baby manages to say, "tortellini", although at first, she can only say the "ini" part.
** When Ernie tried to find similarities between himself and his niece Ernestine, she copied his laugh.
* BabysFirstWords:
** In the book "Me Cookie", Cookie Monster says his first word ("cookie") around the beginning of the book.
** Natasha's first words were "Oh, dear". This was because it was what Snuffy said whenever she failed to say a word he wanted her to say.
** Curly's first word is "Bebo", her nickname for Baby Bear.
* BabyTalk: Several characters coo at Natasha and call her "little Natasha-pie" and stuff like that.
* BadBadActing: In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odoCIssBsf4 a 1979 News Flash segment]] where Kermit asks baby monsters in a daycare center what they want to be when they grow up and rewards each one with a cookie after they explain their future career, just as Kermit starts to sign off Cookie Monster comes in posing as a baby monster by flatly saying "Cry cry cry, sniffle sniffle sniffle." "Me baby monster. Cry cry, waaaah." Naturally, Kermit isn't fooled and recognizes him right away, knowing Cookie Monster wants a free cookie.
* BadMoodRetreat:
** The "Sad Cafe" song is about a cafe where cowpokes go to cry.
** Alice has two walls she stares at. One for when she's very sad and one for when she's only a little bit sad.
* BaitAndSwitchCharacterIntro: In the song "I Cry", a baby named Rocky is introduced as a normal baby, crying. When his mother and sister leave, however, he bursts into a song about why he cries. This cements him as a baby who's ProneToTears, which is typical of a baby, but at the same time, secretly a BrainyBaby.
* BaldOfAwesome: Gordon, as currently played by Roscoe Orman (the early 1970s Matt Robinson version having had an Afro of Awesome) that was later revealed to be a wig in a skit that talks about rain.
* BaldBlackLeaderGuy: Gordon is bald and black and becoming a leader was necessitated by the events of ''Follow That Bird.''
* {{Balloonacy}}: Several examples of balloons making things fly, such as the very end of Kermit's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cog2a3YeDMM What-Happens-Next machine]] demonstration, and the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-efJIlXM7A Light and Heavy Lecture]].
* BalloonBurstingBird:
** One animated segment had a JerkAss asking for a big, bigger, and biggest balloon (popping the first two he's offered); the biggest balloon causes him to fly up into the sky, but it gets popped by an equally big bird soon after.
** In another insert, balloons shaped like the letters from A to Z were popped by a speeding bird.
** In yet another animated insert, produced by Cliff Roberts, a bird demonstrated subtraction by popping balloons with its beak.
* BananaPeel:
** In one of the "Global Grover" segments from 2004 Grover pours out an entire basket of banana peels from Jordan and calls out the viewer's expectation that he will slip on them but points out that it won't happen (Comedy 101), but in the end he still manages to.
** Around the same time in one of the recurring "Monster Clubhouse" segments a Muppet shows up at the Clubhouse looking for the "National Slip On The Banana Peel Club".
** In Episode 5023, Joey and Davey toss their banana peels on the ground, and Zoe, who attempts a ballet leap, slips on them, breaking her arm as a result.
* BathsAreFun: Any number of skits and songs are on the series to promote this, the most well-known being Ernie's ode to his "Rubber Duckie." "Baby Bear's Bath Song" is another major one. Many of them were released on the album ''[[http://www.amazon.com/Splish-Splash-Bath-Time-Fun/dp/B00000HXSD Splish, Splash, Bath-time Fun]]''.
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor:
** An animated segment features a cat who hates the rain. Meeting a fairy he gets three wishes. His first is for the rain to stop. Eventually everything dries up and he wishes to know what's going on. After finding out he uses his third wish to wish for rain to happen again. Knowing from his experience that the rain is important, this is the lesson he's learned.
** The climax of ''Elmo Saves Christmas'' has Elmo learn this when he sees that Sesame Street is in ruin after one straight year of Christmases.
** In the book ''It's No Fun Being Sick'', Herry is jealous of the attention Flossie is getting due to being sick. However, he then catches her illness and finds he can't enjoy the attention due to his symptoms.
* BeachEpisode:
** The "Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" video takes place on the beach, as do the songs "Hello Happy Happiness", and "Skin".
** There is also a clip from the mid 90's where a girl and her dog play on the beach set to the Bobby [=McFerrin=] song "Simple Pleasures".
** One ''Elmo: the Musical'' sketch is entitled "Beach: The Musical". In this sketch, Elmo visits Happy Crab Beach. On Happy Crab Beach, everyone is happy, except for a little shrimp who is [[HeightAngst unhappy with her diminutive size]]. When a wave washes King Crab's crown into a narrow cove, the shrimp is the only one small enough to recover it, and when she does, she realizes there are advantages to her diminutive size.
* BeanstalkParody:
** In one episode, Jack grows a beanstalk but refuses to climb it for fear of damaging it.
** In one of the news skits, Kermit climbs a beanstalk and meets a giant.
* BearsAreBadNews: Averted with the Bear family, of course. It's also played with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqevpVqw4VQ this "Camp Wannagohome" segment about trees]], near the end they spot a wild bear on the tree they were observing and flee in terror, unaware that the bear wants to be a camper too!
* BedsheetGhost:
** This is Big Bird's disguise in the picture book ''Who's Afraid of Monsters?'' It gets a good scare out of everyone until they figure out it's him.
** In a Bert & Ernie sketch, Ernie dresses as a bedsheet ghost to try and scare Bert. In the end Bert is not the one who's scared.
* BenevolentMonsters: Sesame Street has long made a point of featuring the cuddliest of monsters, from Elmo to the easily-amused Count, to the ever-hungry Cookie Monster. The worst of the lot is usually Oscar, who's just the Grouch. Indeed, some of the nicest monsters are the toughest, scariest-looking, like Herry and Frazzle. In many of Herry's early appearances, he appears to be mean or frightening, but ends up showing his friendly side (often after he unintentionally scared others off).
* BigApplesauce: Sesame Street has been shown to be in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity on maps in both ''[[Film/SesameStreetPresentsFollowThatBird Follow that Bird]]'' and the five-part hurricane story arc.
* BigBlackout: One segment with Ernie & Bert has Ernie waking up in the middle of the night to find it's extra dark, because the streetlights outdoors and the nightlight in the room are out. Bert tells him it's a blackout in progress but Ernie suggests doing things like watching TV, listening to the radio, or playing a record, all of which cannot be done during a blackout since they all need electricity. He decides to call someone to tell them about the blackout and winds up contacting Oscar, angry at being woken in the middle of the night.
** This segment aired as a part of three episodes featuring a PowerOutagePlot: episode 652, episode 2071, and episode 2210.
* BigBudgetBeefup:
** 1985's ''[[Film/SesameStreetPresentsFollowThatBird Follow That Bird]]'', which required a bigger, more elaborate street set in Toronto (and in the same studio where ''Series/FraggleRock'' was shot) to make it look good on the silver screen.
** 1999's ''The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland'', which featured the expansive home region of Oscar, as well as another recreation of the street set in North Carolina.
* BigEater:
** Cookie Monster. In addition to eating just about anything, he is incredibly hard to satiate.
** The monsters of Monster Clubhouse during snack time, where they are known to have very big snacks.
** "Never invite a letter M to your house for dinner!"
* BigFriendlyDog: Barkley is very affectionate, and he goes up to just above Maria's waist.
* BigNo: In the [[Literature/TheHungerGames Hunger Games]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eT7nD02Im5E parody]], after Cookieniss wins the second Hungry Games only to find out there is going to be a third movie.
* BigOlUnibrow: Bert and Oscar both have a unibrow.
* BigStormEpisode:
** An episode aired March 3, 1972 depicted a big rainstorm coming to the Sesame Street region of New York, with various characters dealing with situations that come up – whether to set plants outside in the rain, dressing appropriately to go outside, worrying about slipping on a certain spot, Oscar getting splashed by water from a passing car, taking out the garbage, etc. The episode was aired on Noggin in 1999 and is among the most frequently uploaded to [=YouTube=].
** The highlight for S32 (2001) was a week-long arc involving Sesame Street being hit by a hurricane. While damage was minimal, Big Bird's nest was completely destroyed, and his friends and neighbors worked together to help him clean up and build a new and stronger nest to call home. Since then, PBS has aired repeats of this episode in response to particularly destructive hurricanes such as Katrina and Sandy to help children cope with fear and trauma. More recently, parts two through five have been cobbled together into an hour-long special for such occasions.
* BilingualAnimal:
** Chip and Dip can both speak and meow.
** One "Elmo's World" skit features a tiger who can talk and once demonstrates his roar. His housecat friend, however, can only meow.
** One cartoon skit is about a talking dog trying to meow but he can only bark. In another, a talking cat tries to bark, but he can only meow.
** The Bear family mainly talks, but they can also growl. One episode is about Baby Bear accepting that his baby sister Curly has a louder growl than him.
* BirthDeathJuxtaposition: The new neighbors' baby was born around the time Mr. Hooper died.
* BirthdayEpisode:
** For Linda, where Bob teaches everyone how to sign "Happy Birthday to You".
** Big Bird's birthday was the focus of a PBS pledge drive special in 1991.
** Also Gabi had one that was also a SickEpisode because she had the flu.
** ''Rocco'' once had a "birthday", although as Elmo pointed out, rocks don't actually have birthdays.
** In one "Ernie and Bert" skit, Ernie sings Happy Birthday to a letter U.
** In one Season 29 episode Slimey had to celebrate his birthday on the Starship Wiggleprise with the other worm astronauts.
* BittersweetEnding: [[Recap/SesameStreetE1839 Episode 1839]], in which the death of Mr. Hooper was explained to Big Bird. In the final scene, just as Big Bird is hanging up Mr. Hooper's picture as a sign that he's beginning to come to terms with his loss, he meets some new neighbors and their baby.
** The song "Don't Walk," where a Muppet groom can't meet his bride-to-be across the street because the stoplight won't change from "Don't Walk" to "Walk." Although the two can never get together, he affirms he'll love her forever and that she'll save her heart for him.
* BizarreInstrument: The "Shpritzer Honker Splasher Sprinkler Tweeter Squirt", which looks like a cross between a synthesizer and a sprinkler system. It takes four people to operate it, and it's played on a giant foot-operated keyboard, a series of buttons, a set of foot pedals, and a panel of electronic drum pads.
* BlanketFort: In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=16&v=aEmaWIxyhj8&feature=emb_logo this]] [=YouTube=] video, Louie gives parents advice on taking a bit of time for themselves while cooped up with their kids during the UsefulNotes/CoronavirusDisease2019Pandemic, while his son Elmo shouts in the background for him to come help build a pillow fort.
* BlessedWithSuck: Everything King Minus touches ceases to exist. [[spoiler:This includes the princess he wanted to save; he annihilated himself in horror (possibly by accident) after that.]]
* BlindDate: The premise of the song "Wet Paint Sign," where two Muppets are arranged for a blind date to meet on a bench on the park, but a "Wet Paint" sign hanging from it prevents them sitting. They each think they'll never meet their date and wind up going off together on their own.
* BlowingARaspberry:
** The movie in which Elmo goes to Grouchland features the Queen of Trash demanding one hundred of these "raspberries" in a set time.
** Natasha blows raspberries a lot.
* {{Bowdlerize}}: Music/LindaRonstadt appeared with a mariachi band on one episode to perform "Y Andale," a Mexican song whose original Spanish lyrics are about a woman who mocks her lover for criticizing her drinking binges. The ''Sesame Street'' version of the song was sung mostly in English and became a song about the meaning of the song's title ("get on with it" or "let's go").
* BrattyFoodDemand: Mr. Johnson is demanding, especially when it comes to food, and often shouts at his servers (usually Grover).
* BreakoutCharacter: Bert, Ernie, Big Bird and Elmo all became major hits after debuting, with Elmo even displacing Big Bird once he arrived.
* BroughtToYouByTheLetterS: Sesame Street is the TropeNamer; the leading example for the trope on this show is Super Grover, who wears an S on his chest.
* BuffySpeak: In one episode, Telly talks about how "boingy" his pogo stick is.
* TheBusCameBack: As of late 2018/2019, several old characters who were DemotedToExtra or [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome simply disappeared]] have popped up on the show, or in side projects, with new puppeteers, including Herry Monster (Peter Linz), The Amazing Mumford (John Kennedy) & Roosevelt Franklin (Ryan Dillon) [[note]] While Franklin hasn't made any new speaking appearances on the show as of yet, he did appear at Carroll Spinney's retirement party, and on an episode of the Hallmark Channel series ''Meet the Peetes'' when Holly Robinson Peete visited the set (since her father, the late Matt Robinson, was the original voice of the character, while Frank Oz controlled the puppet itself. In keeping with this, Chris Knowings provided the voice for this appearance, to Dillon's puppetry).[[/note]]
* BusCrash Invoked in order to explain death to children; Mr. Hooper died after actor Will Lee's death.
* ButtMonkey:
** Bert is quite unlucky, normally because Ernie unwittingly does something Bert doesn't like.
** Oscar sometimes has his moments, especially with his pranks backfiring on him.
** Mr. Johnson is also a Butt Monkey because, due to both his fussiness and, probably a better example, Grover's incompetence, he never gets what he wants.
** Grover himself is often a victim of slapstick and general bad luck.
* BystanderSyndrome: This happens during the song "Me Lost Me Cookie at the Disco". After Cookie Monster sings about his lost cookie and starts looking for it, he desperately cries out for help to find it, but everyone in the room just ignores him and keeps dancing.
* ByTheLightsOfTheirEyes
** When Maria has to go into Oscar's [[BiggerOnTheInside trash can]], in order to hide what the actual interior looked like. Oscar's glowing eyes were identical to his normal ones, though Maria's were clearly Muppet approximations. Done in another episode when Abby Caddaby magics herself into the trash can.
** In one classic sketch, Ernie and Bert run so many appliances in their apartment that it blows a fuse, and the blackout is presented with their eyes floating around in complete darkness.
** In one sketch, Forgetful Jones and Clementine arrive home to find their cabin dark because Forgetful needs to be reminded to turn something on. After Forgetful turns on the faucet, fan, and radio to no avail he remembers that the right thing to turn on is the light. Until he turns on the lights his eyes, Clementine's eyes, and Buster's eyes and teeth are all floating around in the darkness.
** In the ''Elmo's World'' segment on farms Elmo goes inside Oscar's trash can to film him feeding his farm animals. Oscar's glowing yellow eyes and Elmo's glowing eyes are the only things that are visible on screen.
** In an animated sketch we see two characters talking about how it's dark and that even though one of them knows there is a light switch, it is too high to reach. Naturally, we only see their cartoon eyes. After the two cooperate and turn on the light we see that the two characters are a man and a monster. Surprised that the man has been lifted by a monster he turns off the light again, this time ending the sketch on a black screen.
** In another sketch, Kermit tries to demonstrate "light" and "dark" by showing that the single source of light in his room is a lamp. Right as he turns it off Grover opens the door and comes in causing light to come in through the door. When Grover closes the door at Kermit's direction the entire room becomes pitch black and we only see their eyes floating around as they scramble to fill the room with light. Grover eventually finds the door and opens it only to find that, in their scramble, they've trashed the whole room. Kermit ends the sketch by [[LampshadeWearing having the lamp shade stuck on his head]] when he tells Grover to leave since he's "helped enough today".
** The "Alphabet Jungle" song ends with the screen going dark and every character's eyes being seen at the same time the song fades out and crickets are heard chirping.