Sesame Street / Tropes K to N

Sesame Street Trope Examples
A - C | D - F | G - J | K - N | O - R | S - Z

---

Tropes brought to you by the letter K

• Kangaroo Court: In one episode, Telly is angry with a penguin and thinks about what would happen if he hit the penguin. It's all an Imagine Spot, 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.
• Kent Brockman News:
  • The Sesame Street News Flash segments with reporter Kermit.
  • Also a scene in Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird where an anchorman, played by Chevy Chase, reports on the disappearance of Big Bird from his foster family's home in Illinois. He responds to a question by Grover (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 "It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor. Would you be mine?" in a completely deadpan tone.
• Kid-Appeal Character: 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 The '80s, 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.
• Killed Off for Real: Mr. Hooper, because of the actor’s death. Elmo’s Uncle Jack as well.
• The Killjoy:
  • 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.
  • Mr. Johnson, and to a lesser extent Bert count as well.
• King Kong Copy: 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 Shaped Like What It Sells, namely burgers, drinking from the fire hydrant, using a plane's propeller to cool down, and using a giant toilet respectively).
• Kissing In A Tree: 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.
• Known by the Postal Address: It is often mentioned that Ernie and Bert live at 123 Sesame Street.

Tropes brought to you by the letter L

• Lack of Imagination: Zig-zagged for Bert. Usually, Ernie will imagine crazy things and have a hard time getting Bert to imagine them, but occasionally, 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.
• Large Ham: 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.
• Lampshade Wearing: 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".
• Last-Minute Baby Naming:
  • 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!"
• Last-Second Photo Failure: In one episode, a woman tries to take a photo of Ernie's baby niece Ernestine. However, in two of the photos, she turns away and in the third, she sneezes. Eventually, the woman decides to just keep the three photos and give up trying to take a perfect one.
• The Last Straw:
  • A mouse gets on an already overloaded elevator and it shakes and explodes.
  • A kid yanks the bottom can off a stack, and the whole store collapses.
  • In one of Prairie Dawn's pageants about "heavy" and "light", one character named Monty 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.
• Lazily Gender-Flipped Name: Telly names his hamster Chuckie, but she turns out to be a girl, so he renames her Chuckie Sue.
• Learning to Ride a Bike: Downplayed in one episode, in which Bert already knows how to ride his bike, but he must learn to ride it without training wheels.
• Least Rhymable Word: When Bert doesn't want to play at rhyming with Ernie, he says, "Hippopotamus!", but Ernie just says, "Rip-a-cotta-puss."
• Left the Background Music On:
  • Whenever the theme music plays, the characters can hear it, and know that it's time to 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 Sick Episode 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.
• Lemonade Stand Plot:
  • In It's Not Fair!, a book based on the series, on a hot summer day, Ernie gets an idea to run a lemonade stand. Bert likes this idea, and tasks him with buying the lemons. While Bert paints a sign for the stand, Ernie buys oranges instead of lemons. As Bert returns the oranges and buys lemons, he tasks Ernie with finishing painting the sign, resulting in the kitchen being a huge mess. After Bert makes the lemonade and sets up the stand, it is a huge success, but everyone praises Ernie for his idea. A jealous and angry Bert finds it unfair that Ernie makes messes and mistakes and still receives praise, whereas his hard work is never appreciated. He eventually snaps and runs off in tears. Feeling remorseful and realizing how awful Bert feels, Ernie buys him a dustpan and brush with the money he earned selling lemonade as a present.
  • The series has a Licensed Game where Elmo and Grover make lemonade and sell it to raise money for several different things, including school uniforms and seedlings.
• A Lesson Learned Too Well: In one scene of Episode 594, Big Bird is asked to watch the Fix-It Shop while Luis goes out for a few minutes; Luis tells Big Bird that he's temporarily closing the shop while he's alone, and must not let anyone in for whatever reason. By the time Luis comes back minutes later, Big Bird refuses to let him in, sticking to his word.
• Let's Meet the Meat: A lot of skits with morals about food will feature food that wants to be eaten.
• Library Episode:
  • In a Cookie Monster sketch, Cookie goes to the library and asks the librarian for various books, as well as a box of cookies. The librarian becomes extremely frustrated when he has to explain multiple times to Cookie that the library doesn't have any cookies, just books. Cookie eventually understands, and decides to ask for a book about cookies... and a glass of milk.
  • In another sketch, Grover is at a library, explaining it to the viewer. The librarian forces Grover to speak in progressively quieter tones, until Grover can barely be heard.
  • In Episode 3613, Natasha becomes tired of playing peek-a-boo with Humphrey, so Roxie Marie suggests that Humphrey read her a book. When Humphrey borrows Roxie Marie's math book, Natasha is unimpressed, so Roxie Marie takes Humphrey and Natasha to the library to check out a book of their own. While at the library, Humphrey reads a book called Tickle the Elephant to Natasha. F.N. Jones, the author of Tickle the Elephant makes a personal appearance at the library, and Natasha bonds with Simba, his pet elephant, which inspires Jones to write a new book, Tickle Natasha.
• Limited Wardrobe:
  • Abby nearly always wears the same blue dress.
  • Louie always wears the same blue jacket.
  • Count Von Count really loves his outfit.
• List Song:
  • "You're Gonna Like It Out Here" from Episode 2570, sung by Big Bird and Maria to her soon-to-be-born baby about the many things they'll encounter.
  • There's also the "Letter S" song from Episode 3667, which has Big Bird and Rosita list various words that begin with S.
  • At the beginning of Episode 3592, Big Bird sings "Words That Rhyme With Play" as he waits for Snuffy, which has him name the various rhyming words as mentioned.
  • "Come Back, Letter T" from the "Runaway Ts" episode has Big Bird, Telly, Gabi, and Tarah list off how various T words would read without the letter T at the beginning.
  • The "Quiet Time" video has two of them. First is "Quiet Things" featuring Daphne Rubin-Vega, about listening to all the relaxing things and anything gentle and quiet, and the ending song "It's Quiet Time" by Big Bird, as he lists off all the fun he had.
  • "It's Halloween" from the Season 46 Halloween Episode has some of the Muppets listing off what costumes they're wearing.
• Literal Metaphor: 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.
• Literal-Minded:
  • In a 1978 sketch in which Bob sings an excerpt from the aria "Vilja" from Franz Lehár's The Merry Widow with piano accompaniment by Victor Borge, the first attempt sees Borge playing faster than Bob is singing, until he is half a measure ahead of Bob. Bob cuts him off, signals him to slow down, and starts again... and this time, Borge plays too slowly and ends up half a measure behind. So Bob cuts him off again and tells him "Follow me, please." On the third attempt, Borge keeps time with Bob, who begins to walk around the piano as he sings... with Borge following a few steps behind.^note  The piano accompaniment continues uninterrupted. When Bob sees him and asks what he's doing, Borge says, "You said to follow you!"
  • In a Twiddlebugs sketch, the Twiddlebug family decide to go to the zoo. After deciding against walking (as it would take three days to walk there due to their diminutive size and Tina had to be back to school the next day), swimming (as there's no water), and flying (as they need wings to do it), they decide to take the family car to the zoo... as in each of them lifting up part of the car and carrying it with them to the zoo.
  • In Episode 680, David is hungry for a hot dog, so he asks S.A.M. the Robot to make him a hot dog. S.A.M. does so by turning David into a hot dog.
• Location Song: "(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?
• Long-Lost Uncle Aesop:
  • Episode 2687, "The Golden Cabbage of Snufertiti", features Bob's Adventurer Archaeologist 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).
  • Elmo's never-before-mentioned Posthumous Character Uncle Jack is mentioned to teach kids about death in "When Families Grieve".
  • There are tons of characters only created to promote a certain cause and are never seen again: Chester for hospitalization, Alex for parental incarceration, Lily for hunger and homelessness, and Karli for foster care and parental drug addiction,
• Long-Runners: "50 years and counting" as of 2019; The phrase was the slogan for the Milestone Celebration campaign.
• Long-Runner Cast Turnover: 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, who passed away in March 2022) and Sonia Manzano (Maria) with both first appearing in 1971, and Roscoe Orman (Gordon, who in 1974 became 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.
• Lost Pet Grievance: Has anybody seen Marty's dog?
• Loud of War: An early 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.
• Loud Sleeper Gag:
  • One skit has roommates Ernie and Bert get awakened by a dripping faucet. Ernie tries drowning out the dripping with other loud sounds, but that obviously just makes it worse. Bert gets rid of all the sounds, only for Ernie to snore and Bert to complain, "It's not fair!"
  • Another skit has Elmo sleeping over at Telly's house, only to be kept awake by Telly's snoring. First, Elmo tries playing music, but that keeps them both awake, then Telly tries covering his nose and mouth, but he finds it hard to breathe, so Elmo puts on earmuffs and it works. Elmo then snores, but luckily, Telly puts on a second pair of earmuffs.
  • One cartoon skit has a man named Mr. Tweak, who can't sleep because his upstairs neighbour is snoring.
• Loved by All:
  • Mr. Hooper was a hard-working, funny member of the Street that acted as a grandfather figure to those around him, earning him universal adoration. As a result, it was a very sad day when he died.
  • Big Bird is similarly beloved, aside from the Big Bad Ensemble in "Follow That Bird".
• Lower-Deck Episode: Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration puts a lot of its focus on characters that haven't appeared in a long time, and every one of them gets at least one line.

Tropes brought to you by the letter M

• Mad at a Dream: One of the Season 29 episodes has Elmo feeling really, really angry after having a really bad dream. Luis and Gabi help him take deep breaths before he tells the story. He explains to them that there were two Elmos in his dream, and he got frustrated when his twin kept repeating everything he did and he became jealous of him. Luis and Gabi keep helping Elmo breathe as he talks through feeling angry. They tell him that it was a dream and that there's one Elmo. Elmo feels better and goes back to sleep to make up with his twin so they can play together.
• Mad Libs Catchphrase: The Teaser since Season 46 ends with one of the characters saying, "Watch/Keep watching for more [insert show topic here] on Sesame Street!"
• Madness Mantra: Anyone affected by the Mine-itis disease will shout "MINE!" nonstop.
• Malicious Misnaming: In the "good birds' club" episode, the bully bird insults Big Bird by calling him "Big [noun that isn't 'bird']."
• Man of a Thousand Voices: 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 AMs were performed by Stephanie D'Abruzzo.
  • Presently, almost every female Muppet is performed by Leslie Carrara-Rudolph.
• May It Never Happen Again:
  • In one song, the main character kisses a "blueberry-beaked budgie", but then that leads to him contracting a strange disease that makes him lethargic and grow blueberries on his head. The song ends with him refusing to kiss any more fruit-themed animals.
  • In one skit, a bear, after being chased by a swarm of bees, decides to never mess with bees again.
  • Subverted. One episode involves Abby casting a spell on Elmo and Zoe, causing a lot of hats to stack on their heads, that leads to total chaos. At the end of the episode, she promises never to use the spell again, but this promise doesn't work since she accidentally casts it.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Abby Cadabby's name is a pun on "abracadabra", a phrase commonly used by magicians.
  • Gonnigan, Abby's classmate on the Abby's Flaying Fairy School segment. When nervous or upset he turns invisible, and therefore is "gone again".
  • Big Bird is well, what you'd expect, a big bird.
  • Oscar's girlfriend Grundgetta, who is named after "grunge", which is grime or dirt.
  • Guy Smiley, billed as "everyone's favorite game show host", who indeed smiles a lot.
  • Sonny Friendly, known as "America's friendliest game show host" true to his name.
  • Don Music is a musician.
  • The Count is a pun on counting and Count Dracula.
  • The Honkers communicate by honking from squeezing their noses, while Dingers ring the bells on their heads.
  • Subverted with Telly, who started out preoccupied with watching television but now isn't.
• Meat-O-Vision: In the Avengers: Age of Ultron 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 Captain Ameri-cauliflower's shield as giant cookie and The Mighty Corn's hammer as a marshmallow and eats both of them.
• Medical Game: Elmo Goes to the Doctor is a licensed game about Elmo being treated for a cold, a toothache, or an earache. It has a Bittersweet Ending, ending with him still in recovery.
• Medium Blending:
  • Abby Cadabby moves from live-action to the computer-generated Flying Fairy School. Similarly, Bert and Ernie have Great Adventures in Stop Motion.
  • The Magical Wand Chase movie combines puppetry with CGI.
• Melancholy Musical Number:
  • "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 Alice in Wonderland and wants to go back home.
  • "The Ballad of the Sad Café" is about some cowboys and cowgirls at a café specially designed to cry things out at.
  • "Just Take a Look at 15" is by a singing 15 girl who feels unnoticed.
• Merry in Minor Key:
  • "Song of the Count" is sung by Count von Count about how he loves to count things. The song is in B Minor and mimics Eastern European folk music, which is fitting for the Count's Bela Lugosi-esque accent.
  • The show also did this with the beginnings of the "Slimey to the Moon" season-long story arc! When the Wiggleprise rocket carrying Slimey and 4 other worm astronauts successfully launches, the ending shots of it flying through space are accompanied by a serious and triumphant "The Planets, Mars Suite"-like music score.
• Messy Pig: In Episode 3139, a pig stays at the Furry Arms hotel, and complains to Humphrey and Ingrid that he is checking out since their maid service stinks. When Humphrey tells the pig that the maid came to his hotel room every day to clean it, the pig tells him that that's exactly why he's checking out; he prefers for his hotel room to be a pigsty. While this is bad news for Humphrey and Ingrid since one of their customers is unsatisfied, it is good news for Gordon and Susan, since they need someplace to spend the night while their apartment is being painted, and they can move into the hotel room once the pig has moved out. After, of course, Benny moves out the pig's numerous carts' worth of luggage.
• Midas Touch: The street scene in Episode 4184 deals with Cookie Monster wishing he could have cookies all the time with no wait, and the Cookie Fairy grants his wish by bestowing him the "Cookie Touch", which transforms anything he touches into cookies. At first Cookie Monster enjoys his new ability, but when he tries to get the others to have fun, he transforms one of Telly's triangles and Big Bird's favorite book, and even Chris turns into a living human-cookie hybrid. The three chew him out for ruining their duties in life, and Cookie Monster decides to relinquish his ability upon discovering too much of something is not good for him.
• Midword Rhyme:
  • Happens in the second verse of the theme song.
    Come and play
    Everything's A-OK
    Friendly neigh-
    -bors there, that's where we meet
  • The song "You're Gonna Like It Out Here" has this:
    It's like Heaven on Earth
    With a day for your birth-
    -day every year
• Mind Your Step: Maria climbs into Oscar's trash can to look for baby Natasha. Oscar tells her to count twenty steps down in the dark, but there is a crash on the last step. Oscar then tells her that the step is broken.
• Missed Him by That Much:
  • Sesame Street spent over a decade (from 1971 to 1985) exhausting virtually every variation of this trope with regards to Snuffleupagus. He was perceived by the vast majority of the adult cast as a figment of Big Bird's imagination, until extreme steps were taken to physically prevent him from once again fulfilling this trope, and leaving the room just as the gathered adults were supposed to meet him. Behind the scenes, the evident reason for his final unveiling to the adult cast was due to fears about young viewers learning the wrong lessons about attempting to tell the truth/getting in trouble for being honest.
  • In the special Don't Eat the Pictures: Sesame Street at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the adults keep barely missing Big Bird at the beginning when they are trying to find him before the museum closes. And then there's the various scenes where the night guard barely misses Big Bird, Snuffy, and the Prince.
  • In the episode where Slimey lands on the moon, a farmer constantly tells the others that his chicken is on the space ship heading to the moon with the worms, but everyone insists that there is no chicken there. At one point, when everybody else is talking and turning their heads away from the screen, the chicken appears on-camera. The farmer is the only one watching and tells everyone that his chicken is there, but when everybody looks, the chicken is again off-camera.
  • In the episode where Abelardo Montoya from Plaza Sésamo visited, Big Bird is anxious to see his cousin but cannot find him anywhere; at the same time, Abelardo is trying to find Big Bird with a similar situation. As they search, one bird leaves the scene just before the opposite enters the area, and it takes until after their back-to-back BSoD Song at the park do the cousins finally see each other.
• Missed Meal Aesop: 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" (also known as "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 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 Super-Strength (and becomes too weak to even lift a briefcase) because he skipped breakfast, and the Super Foods (Anthropomorphic Food 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 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 surreality of him singing it at night.
• Mistaken for Brooding:
  • When Telly's hamster Chuckie begins behaving less actively, he thinks Chuckie is sad, but it turns out that she is actually female and about to give birth.
  • In one skit, Ernie isn't letting Bert into their shared apartment. Bert speculates on why this is the case, at one point wondering if Ernie is sad and wanting to be alone so he can sulk. It turns out, however, that Ernie was perfectly happy, and was in fact planning a Surprise Party.
• Mistaken for an Imposter: In one episode when Oscar's mother visits, he leaves the scene when Big Bird is coming so she can feel the same pain he gets from him. Big Bird begins to assume Oscar's mom is Oscar in disguise when she begins using the same mannerisms as him, to the point of even shouting his "Scram!" phrase. It's only when the real Oscar screams from inside his trash can does Big Bird realize it's not a disguise.
• Mistaken for Thief:
  • 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.
• Mistaken for Transformed: When Abby the fairy tries to cast a spell at the same time as Maria leaves the area and a chicken arrives of the scene, Abby thinks that she's turned Maria into the chicken.
• Mistakes Are Not the End of the World:
  • 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.
• "Miss X" Pun: One skit features a woman named Miss Nomer (first name Ida).
• Moniker As Enticement: 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.
• Monochrome Casting: Very intentionally Defied Trope, with the casting specifically showing a racially diverse and integrated group that would reflect the reality of inner-city children. Notably, however, in 1970 the show was banned in Mississippi when TV commissioners claimed "Mississippi was not yet ready" for the show's integrated cast. Sesame Street producers and viewers told them exactly what they thought about that, and the chastened executives reversed the ban just a few short weeks later.
• Monster-Shaped Mountain: When they visited Hawaii, Big Bird spent a lot of time looking for Mount Snuffleupagus; a mountain shaped like, well, a Snuffleupagus.
• Morality Pet: Oscar tends to act less grouchy than usual whenever he is around his pet worm Slimy or his grouch girlfriend Grundgetta.
• Movie-Theater Episode:
  • 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, sitting it down in the seat in front of Bert and blocking his view of the movie.
  • In yet another Ernie and Bert sketch, Ernie gets emotional during a movie: first he's scared, then sad, then happy. His reactions bother the other moviegoers, and the scene ends in chaos.
  • In yet another Ernie and Bert sketch, Ernie and Bert go to the movies to see a silent movie, "The Picnic," starring Charlie Chaplin and his date.
  • In Episode 641, S.A.M. the Robot finds David and Maria, who are on their way to the movies. He asks to join them, having never been to a movie theater before. They agree to take him under the condition that he promises not to flash any lights or make any noise. Although S.A.M. agrees, he makes a lot of chatter on the way to the theater. At the theater, S.A.M. asks David and Maria out loud how a movie projector works, disturbing them and the other patrons. Just as S.A.M. settles down, the projector breaks. David tells S.A.M. that the movie can't continue until the projector is fixed. Excited upon hearing that the projector is a machine like him, S.A.M. thinks he can help out and leaves. When the movie continues, David and Maria discover that S.A.M. is serving as the projector's replacement by playing the movie from his front hatch. In the end, David and Maria complain about how bad the film was, but praise S.A.M. for his work.
  • In Episode 2040, Big Bird invites Snuffy (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 Episode 3093, Elmo, Big Bird, Snuffy, Savion, and Gina go to the movie theater to see Honey, I Shrunk the Snuffleupagus. When they arrive at the theater, they block the view of the couple behind them, Elmo, Big Bird, and Snuffy become impatient waiting for the movie to start, and when it finally does, Snuffy leaves the theater when he becomes terrified at the idea of a snuffleupagus getting smaller.
  • The 1996 theatrical short made for Loews Theaters, Don't Forget to Watch the Movie, had every Muppet on the show at the time in a theater singing a song about the theater and what not to do in it, starting out with the standards (No smoking, no talking, etc.) before branching out into more outlandish things which would only be an issue in a place like Sesame Street (No surfing, no dancing with bears, no eating the seats, no pulling your friend's nose off and sticking it to someone else).
• The Moving Experience: In one episode, Snuffy tells Big Bird he has to pack up because his family will be leaving later; this leads Big Bird to assume Snuffy is moving away, so he and the others plan a going away party for him. However, it's only by then Snuffy reveals he's not moving, he's only going on vacation for two whole days.
• Multi-National Shows: We heartily recommend the documentary The World According to Sesame Street on this subject.
• Multiple Endings:
  • 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.
• Multiple Head Case: The two-headed muppet.
• Mundane Made Awesome:
  • Andrea Bocelli singing a 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.
  • One episode of the Season 7 "snow days" arc has Big Bird show rather mundane sound imitations to Gordon. The first two times, he makes no sound at all — he is imitating the sound of falling snow and a pillow. The third time when Gordon asks for an imitation that does produce sound, Big Bird shows the imitation of walking home with his eyes closed, which results in crashing into things.
  • In Episode 1463 when Big Bird decides to become his favorite superhero "Superbird", he searches for people in distress only to help the adults with menial favors such as holding the groceries, giving Barkley his food, getting some laundry to the laundromat, and watching a hot dog stand. Nevertheless, he acts like they're tasks a superhero can do.
• Muppet: Jim Henson brought his Muppets to the show in the beginning, but the Muppets who debuted on Sesame Street and those who didn't have been under separate headship since the 90s.
• Musical Chores:
  • During Part 4 of the Hurricane arc, Big Bird and the gang sing "Twig By Twig" as they rebuild his nest together.
  • The music video "That's Cooperation" has Big Bird and the various birdkind working together to clean up the arbor.
• Musicalis Interruptus:
  • Throughout Episode 3246, Big Bird tries in vain to sing his favorite song, only to get interrupted by a friend who asks him to do a menial favor for them.
  • In a Season 39 episode, Leela wants to film a video for her parents in India; she comes upon Big Bird who is holding a Birdketeer meeting where everyone sings the alphabet while flapping their arms like birds, and he happily lets her film them singing. Once they get to P, a cuckoo clock strikes, signaling the end of the meeting, and the Birdketeers had to go home.
• The Music Meister: A 2010 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.
• Mustache Vandalism: 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.
• My God, What Have I Done?: 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.
• My Grandma Can Do Better Than You: Ernie tries to draw a picture of a llama, but Bert says it doesn't look anything like a llama and adds, "My sister can draw a llama better than that!"
• My Nayme Is:
  • Herry Monster
  • Merry Monster.
  • Gabi
  • Tarah
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Oscar's friend Felix is a neat grouch, and Oscar's cousin George is a positive grouch.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Season 40 is filled with them, ranging from props with a hidden reference on them to onscreen cameos from some of the performers. Click here for a complete list.
  • The spin-off short Computer Bug has Bert and Ernie go inside a computer with a star-shaped mouse cursor. A tie-in game from a few years earlier, Sesame Street Baby & Me, also uses a star for the cursor.

Tropes brought to you by the letter N

• Named After the Injury: In a Christmas Episode, Oscar the Grouch adopts a cat. This cat has a prosthetic leg, so is named "Tiny Tim" after a character from A Christmas Carol who walks with a crutch.
• Neat Freak:
  • Bert doesn't like it when Ernie is messy.
  • Unusually for a grouch, Oscar's friend Felix likes to clean.
• Negative Continuity: 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".
• Never Say "Die": Several aversions, including:
  • Mr. Hooper's death.
  • The song "One Way" opens with the line "I'm so lonely, I wish I was dead".
  • "On The Subway" has the line "So hot I could die...".
  • 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.
• New Baby Episode:
  • 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 Direct to Video 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 the egg of a Honker couple. When the egg hatches, the newly-hatched Honker baby starts 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.
  • In Episode 3307, Slimey's mom, Eartha, is pregnant, and Oscar, Maria, and Luis have to get her to the worm hospital so she can have her baby, as Slimey's father, Dusty's flight back to Sesame Street gets delayed. Because Oscar's car, the Sloppy Jalopy won't start up, Eartha ends up giving birth to her new baby in it. The new baby is a girl, and Oscar names her Sloppy.
• New Year Has Come: 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 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.
• Niche Network: In Elmo's World, Elmo's TV tunes in to these kinds of channels to teach kids.
• The Nicknamer: Oscar the Grouch is this for almost all of his Sesame Street neighbors; to him, Gordon is "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.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Every one of Oscar the Grouch's schemes to ruin everybody's day backfire, resulting in everyone being happier instead.
• Niceness Denial: In one episode, Oscar, who's a huge grump, donates toys to charity. He claims he's not doing it to be "nice", but just because he doesn't like the toys.
• Nightmare Sequence:
  • 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.
• No Antagonist: The show doesn't have any type of villain, due to being a preschool show. Although Oscar, Grungetta, and the Grouches are killjoys, they're not technically against the others.
• No Fourth Wall:
  • Often follows the common kids' TV convention in which the viewer is assumed to be "visiting" the show's characters.
  • Exaggerated in some episodes of Sesamstrasse (the German version) from 1978-88 — when the show took place in a studio — where they involved the studio crew helping the characters out.
• Nobody Poops: 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.
• Non-Residential Residence: Oscar the Grouch lives in a trash can.
• Non Sequitur:
  • 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.
• Noodle Incident: The series has a few of these, mainly so that young viewers dealing with specific things in their lives can easily identify with characters who are also going through similar situations:
  • When the news of Mr. Hooper's death is broken to Big Bird, the cause of death is not revealed, presumably to avoid causing young viewers to get scared of themselves or loved ones dying in a specific way.
  • Likewise, in the special "When Families Grieve", the cause of death for Elmo's uncle Jack is left unstated.
  • The reason for the divorce of Abby Cadabby's parents is only said to be due to "irreparable grown-up problems".
  • Karli is in foster care for a time due to her mother having a drug addiction, but what the latter was addicted to before going into rehab isn't revealed.
• "No Peeking!" Request:
  • At the start of the Season 8 premiere, Grover is surprised by the viewer's appearance and invites them to surprise the rest of the gang; Grover asks everyone to cover their eyes until he counts to three, which is when the viewer is asked to surprise them.
  • In Episode 1624, Big Bird gives this request to some of the adults as he prepares to surprise them with his makeshift Puerto Rico on a snowy day.
  • Zoe is given this request by Maria in Episode 3789 so she can surprise her with her new Zoemobile.
  • In the Journey to Ernie segments after Ernie has finished giving a clue to where he is hiding, Big Bird will ask the viewer to close their eyes and count to 10 with him to start the game.
• No Peripheral Vision: 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).
• Nose Nuggets: In one "Abby's Flying Fairy School" segment, the kids are trying to make up a "magic sneeze word", that is akin to "bless you" but can do magic. Blogg thinks of "abra ca-booger", while Gonnigan thinks of "hocus mucus".
• Not Allowed to Grow Up: 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.
• Not His Sled: In "Birdie and the Beast", after Big Bird befriends the Beast, the Witch's curse upon the Beast is broken. However, rather than turn the Beast back into a human, the Beast's hair is straightened out. When a surprised Big Bird tells the Beast that he's still a beast, The Beast tells him that he's always been a beast, and that the Witch's curse just messed up his hair.
• Not-So-Forgotten Birthday: 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.
• Not-So-Imaginary Friend: 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.
• Not What It Looks Like:
  • In an early episode, Luis shows Big Bird his new scale and asks him to watch it while he makes repairs. Snuffy comes over and when he attempts to weigh himself, but accidentally crushes the scale while doing so; he promptly flees the scene just as Luis returns, and since Big Bird was the only one there, Luis thinks Big Bird broke the scale.
  • In Episode 4914, Zoe and Rosita accidentally knock down Big Bird's block tower while playing catch. The two slip off and Snuffy comes over just as Big Bird comes back to see the tower ruined, and since Snuffy was the only one there at the time, Big Bird assumed Snuffy knocked down the tower and chews him out.
• Not Where They Thought: A Running Gag in the "Monster Clubhouse" skits is a man mistaking the Monster Clubhouse for a different clubhouse.
• Numerological Motif: 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.

---