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Tropes brought to you by the letter S
- Same Face, Different Name: Technically, Betty Lou
and Prairie Dawn do have the same face (being made from the same pink Anything Muppet), but they are different characters. - Safety Worst:
- 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 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.
- Saying Too Much: In a Season 50 episode, Oscar uses his Disappoint-O-Meter on Big Bird and Snuffy and detects a huge level of misery from them having forced to cancel their playdate because Granny Bird's birthday was that day and Big Bird had to leave. Oscar chides aside that it's not like they should have their playdate tomorrow instead, which gives Big Bird and Snuffy that exact idea and don't feel upset anymore, to Oscar's chagrin.
- 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.
- 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.
- Scratchy-Voiced Senior: 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).
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
- In episode 3659, the letter X decides to quit the alphabet after Miles and Big Bird try to encourage him to stay around by showing him how he is used in Tic-Tac-Toe.
- Episode 4265 has two instances in a row, back-to-back. After Big Bird decides he doesn't care for the Good Birds' Club and decides to start a club of his own where everyone gets to be themselves, the blue jay and robin are interested, but the bullying pigeon warns them if they go with Big Bird, they're kicked out of the Good Birds' Club forever. The birds don't care and rightfully quit the club themselves; the pigeon then gives up and decides to find another club, and flies off to parts unknown.
- In Episode 5011, the various sentient fruits get ignored by the Muppets, so they decide to leave and find a place where they're useful. The Muppets then have to come up with different songs about the fruits to convince them to stay.
- Second-Person Attack: 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 crashed into the camera.
- Seeking the Intangible: Referenced in the song "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".
- Sensational Staircase Sequence: 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 Imagine Spot, he sings "Happy Tappin' With Elmo" as he tap dances down a staircase. The song is a nod to Fred Astaire's performance of Irving Berlin's "Puttin' on the Ritz" in the 1946 film, Blue Skies.
- Sentimental Shabbiness: 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.
- Sequel Hook: From Christmas Eve on Sesame Street: "How do you think the Easter Bunny can hide all those eggs in one night?"
- Serious Business: 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 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.
- "Sesame Street" Cred: The Trope Namer. This is also the most likely show to invert this trope, with characters making appearances on all sorts of shows from Rove Live to Scrubs to The Today Show.
- "Setting Off" Song:
- "We're Off To Kyoto" from Big Bird in Japan, as Big Bird, Barkley, and their mysterious woman friend set off for Kyoto.
- "Here We Go" from the Season 50 premiere, sung by Big Bird and Nina as they head off on their cross-country road trip.
- Shaming the Mob: In the Season 16 premiere when Big Bird tells the adults that Snuffy cannot come watch the sunrise with them, he is once again dismissed for inviting an imaginary friend. This proves to be enough for the irritated bird who proceeds to call the grownups out for never believing him and he knows the difference between real and imaginary, especially those who haven't been seen yet, because he learned it himself. His speech was so moving that Gordon, Maria, and Linda choose to stand on his side.
- Shapes of Disappearance: In the 50th anniversary special, Elmo sees that the Sesame Street sign is missing and imagines it up a yellow dotted outline on the pole it usually hangs from.
- Share the Sickness: In one cartoon skit, a little girl has a cold and, apparently not realising that spreading a disease doesn't mean you no longer have it, tries to give it to her dog Bozo to cure herself. He doesn't catch her cold, but apparently is already sick with an unrelated cold and doesn't want another one.
- Shave And A Haircut: An animated insert where an orange ball plays on a musical staircase.
- Ship Sinking: 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.
- Ship Tease: 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.
- Shoe Size Angst: : 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.
- Short-Distance Phone Call: In one 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.
- Shout-Out: Again, a common way to incorporate a Parental Bonus.
- "Good morning, Mr. Cunningham! Gee, that wasn't even close!"
- Big Bird's teddy bear, Radar, is named after Gary Burghoff's character on M*A*S*H, a name first conferred after Carroll Spinney met Burghoff during a taping of The Hollywood Squares in 1979.note In 2019, Little Bird was revealed to have a teddy bear named Walter (Radar's real name).
- Aversion: No matter what you've heard, Bert and Ernie are not named for George Bailey's childhood friends in It's a Wonderful Life (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."
- A farmer tries to tell everybody that his chicken stowed away on the Wiggleprise, but nobody believes him.
- Game Of Chairs, a parody sketch in which they play musical chairs. The writers snuck in a ton of references to the events from the source material, including some genuine Black Comedy:
Grover Bluejoy: Oh, do not lose your head over that, Neddy baby!- When Ernie and Bert went to a jungle to find Dr. Livingston, Ernie asked Dr. Livingston "What's Up Doc?".
- One 1990 episode revolved around Bob's archaeologist brother Minneapolis (Jeff Goldblum) looking for the Golden Cabbage of Snufertiti. Not only does he bear a striking resemblance to Indiana Jones, the boulder scene is spoofed, and Minnie performs an Indy Hat Roll (minus the "rolling" part).
- The show had quite a few subtle allusions to West Side Story, particularly in its early years, stemming from longtime showrunner Jon Stone being a big fan of the musical (and Stephen Sondheim'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 Officer Krupky [sic]. Jaime Sánchez, who originated the role of Chino on Broadway, was a cast member in season 2.
- Many of the songs that weren't outright Song Parodies were deliberately done in styles that could serve as Parental Bonuses. For example: "Bert's Blanket" (Episode 2391) is a Phil Spector pastiche, reminiscent of hits Spector produced such as "Be My Baby" by The Ronettes.
- A meta example: the offices for PBS affiliate station WCFE-TV in Plattsburgh, New York, are located at 1 Sesame Street.
- A 1986 sketch included Leo the Party Monster promising Telly that they were going to "party like it's 1999" at his party.
- Showdown at High Noon: Parodied by Big Bird and Gabi in Episode 3338 as they compete to see who is the literal fastest drawer on the street.
- Show Within a Show: 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; Elmo's World; 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).
- Shrunk in the Wash: 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.
- Sick Episode: There were many episodes that had someone who is sick.
- In a 1971 episode, Farley has to go to the hospital because he needs to have his tonsils out. Eight years later, Big Bird went through the same ordeal.
- Farley isn't sick in the children's book Farley Goes to the Doctor - he's just there for a checkup - but Ernie has a sore throat and Grover's arm is in a sling for an undisclosed reason.
- 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 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.
- In the children's book Nobody Cares About Me!, Big Bird decides to play sick once he notices all the attention Ernie, who has a cold, is getting for being sick. Big Bird then ends up catching Ernie's cold for real and realizes being sick is no fun.
- 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 an early 1990'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.
- The "Pet at the Vet" segment (1996) features Farley taking his cat to the vet for an upset stomach and encountering a dog, a chicken and a frog who all have the flu, followed by a pig who assures Farley's cat there's nothing to be scared of.
- Prairie Dawn gets a cold in a 1997 episode.
- There are dolls of Elmo and Ernie who are meant to be sick.
- Kermit the Frog gets sick in a 1972 episode.
- Signature Laugh:
- 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.
- Signing Off Catchphrase:
- Post-Season 46, most episodes end with the characters saying, "See you next time on... Sesame Street!"
- Moreover, through Season 45, a character announces the sponsors of the day.
- Signs of Disrepair:
- In Christmas Eve on Sesame Street, when Oscar sings "I Hate Christmas", Mr. Hooper hangs up a banner in his store that says "NOEL". Oscar then takes the E and the L from the banner, resulting in it saying "NO".
- In a Cookie Monster sketch, Cookie makes a sign that says "DON'T" to remind him not to eat the Letter of the Day cookie. Cookie ends up eating half of the sign, which now reads "DO", prompting him to eat the cookie after all.
- There's an episode where the letter T goes missing, which results in a "trash" sign now reading "rash" and Telly's name being written as "Elly" (which isn't a name, but is close to the girl's name Ellie).
- The Simple Gesture Wins: From the segment "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."note
- Singing in the Shower:
- 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).
- Singing Mountie: The song "When I'm Calling U" is a parody of the 1936 film version of the musical Rose Marie, with Mountie "Nelson"note and young maiden "Jeanette"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!"
- Singing Telegram: One skit has Grover trying to deliver a singing telegram to Mr. Johnson, but accidentally sings the wrong ones.
- Sleep Aesop:
- 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.
- Two inserts hosted by Big Bird from Seasons 30-32 dealt with this. In one insert, he is about to take a nap and talks about why sleeping and taking naps is important in order to get more energy. In another, he gives a "very useful health tip" on how to get some sleep and rest and invites the viewer to do his naptime routine with him. Both inserts end with him finally falling asleep.
- Sleep Deprivation: At the end of one skit, Ernie is sleep-deprived because the Count kept him awake counting sheep.
- Slippery Slope Fallacy:
- In one episode, Telly refuses to try a cheese and lettuce sandwich, because he fears that if he did, he'd dislike the taste, scrunch his face up, lean back, fall off the stool, and come rolling down the street and crash into Lexine on her pogo stick, who'd fly off in land in Oscar's trash can.
- In one skit, Bert asks his roommate Ernie to put a vase on one of two shelves. Ernie thinks that if he put the vase on the small shelf, it'd fall off, break, and then Bert would throw him out of their apartment leaving Ernie homeless. He then decides that if he puts it on the big shelf, Bert would not only congratulate him for not breaking the vase, he'd throw him a party just for not breaking it.
- Another skit has Ernie deliberately not putting a roller skate away, because he thinks if Ernie stood on it, he'd be sent out the door to the ice cream shop, and then buy them both ice cream.
- Ernie again in a skit where he wants to ask a man named Herbert Birdsfoot to borrow a vacuum cleaner, but then decides not to, because he might be interrupting Herbert's bath, and then Herbert might catch a cold, get angry at Ernie, refuse to loan him the vacuum cleaner, and then badmouth him to Ernie's friends, who'd stop loaning him their things, and then stop speaking to him.
- One cartoon sketch has a little girl wanting to empty her bag of ping-pong balls, only to decide not to. Her reasoning was that the balls might wake up her pet cat, who'd knock over the parrot's cage, and then her mother would come home, assume the cat made the mess, and get mad at him.
- Another cartoon has a girl considering scaring her friend, who's on his skateboard and walking a dog. However, she changes her mind because she fears he may get pulled along by the dog on his skateboard, knock over the fruit cart, fall backwards, and hit his head.
- Sequel Episode: 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.
- Sleeping Single: 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.
- Smarmy Host: Guy Smiley, the cheerful, enthusiastic, No Indoor Voice host of countless game shows. He may well have been a big contributor to this as a Game Show Host stereotype.
- Smart People Play Chess: Chess is Gordon's game of choice.
- Sneeze Interruption:
- 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*!"
- Soap Punishment: One episode spoofs this in classic Grouch fashion: Oscar's mother washes his mouth out with ice cream as punishment for saying "please."
- Something Itis:
- In the Direct to Video special "Sesame Street Visits the Hospital", Big Bird catches a violent illness called "Pneumotweetitis Canaria", which causes him to cough nonstop and produce weak tweeting sounds from his throat.
- Snuffy catches "Snuffle-itis" in one episode which causes him to produce orchestral trumpeting sounds from his snuffle.
- One episode has Telly catch "Triangle Sneezitis", which causes him to sneeze nonstop every time he's near a triangle of any sort.
- In one episode, most of Sesame Street breaks out with the "Mine-itis" disease which causes them to become constantly selfish and greedy.
- So Much for Stealth: In the "Birdy-Pox" episode after the Count sings his counting lullaby to help Big Bird take his nap while he counts his spots, he emits his Signature Laugh silently which also sets off the random thunderclaps, which wakes the bird up with a start.
- Song of Many Emotions:
- "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.
- Sore Loser:
- This is Big Bird's issue for the "Staring Contest" episode, not wanting to stop having so many staring contests against Snuffy unless he wins just one. He learns his lesson in the end that it doesn't matter whether he wins or loses and what's more important is they had fun playing.
- The Big Bad Wolf suffers this in Episode 4082. Whenever he loses a game against someone else, he gets furious and huffs and puffs them away. In the end, Big Bad Wolf learns he can't win everything all the time and it shouldn't matter if he does, and with that, he learns to control himself when losing again before he finally wins.
- Soulful Plant Story:
- 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.
- Sound-Effect Bleep: 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!
- Sound-to-Screen Adaptation: 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 Signature Song "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.
- Space Episode: 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.
- Space Whale Aesop:
- 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").
- Speaking Like Totally Teen: 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!"
- Speaking Simlish: The Two-Headed Monster, though sometimes he can speak a few English words, other times it's mostly gibberish.
- The Speechless:
- 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.
- Spelling for Emphasis: In one cartoon skit, a talking dog is asked to say the word "yes" but refuses to, at one point saying, "N-O, no!".
- Spell My Name with a "The":
- For a period in the early 1970s, Cookie Monster was actually known as The Cookie Monster.
- There's also The Count.
- Spiders Are Scary: The show would often feature this, more often than not involving a character learning spiders aren't really scary. A notable instance is this 1989 segment where Gina tells a "continuing story" of Little Miss Muffet. The titular character is initially deathly afraid of spiders, and always screams really loud and runs off, despite the spider actually having a rather cute design, even though she keeps appearing wherever Miss Muffet tries to go. It isn't until Miss Muffet comes to Gina for advice, and she goes to face her fear and learns the spider is nice and just wants to be friends.
- Spinoff: Sprout's Play With Me Sesame repackages Muppet segments from this show with new material featuring Grover, Prairie Dawn, Bert, and Ernie.
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad
- 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 Alice in Wonderland 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.
- Spring Is Late: In the Big Bird Brings Spring to Sesame Street Little Golden Book (as well as its video adaptation), Big Bird is tired of the winter weather and how it prevents him from doing the things he likes outdoors, so he decides to make it feel like spring by buying flowers and giving them to his friends.
- Springtime for Hitler: In one episode of the "snow days" arc of Season 4, Oscar decides to play rotten tricks on the residents; however, each of his pranks only result in accomplishing something helpful, specifically spilling sand and sawdust which make it easier to walk across the snow without slipping.
- Stage Magician: The Amazing Mumford is a classic example... save perhaps for the "A la peanut butter sandwiches!" thing.
- Staring Contest: In Episode 3346, Big Bird learns of these and has several of them against Snuffy, but he keeps losing and vows not to stop at it until he wins. Carlo offers to train him, but try as he might, he still loses. Carlo decides maybe staring isn't his thing and he's good at other games like tag.
- Start My Own: In Episode 2024, Big Bird wants to join the Grouchketeers with Oscar, but he rejects him because he's "too nice", thus, Big Bird forms his own nicer and kinder club called the Birdketeers.
- "Staying Alive" Dance Pose: The Sesame Street Fever album cover◊, which mimics the design of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack album cover with Grover as John Travolta and Ernie, Bert, and Cookie Monster as the Bee Gees.
- Steal the Surroundings: 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.
- Stealth Pun: The Pinball Number Count segment on the number 4 is golf-themed. One of the singers even shouts "FOUR!" at one point like a stereotype golfer.
- Sting: Lampshaded and put to extensive use in "The Golden Triangle of Destiny".
- Stinky Flower: 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.
- Story Arc: 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 seasonsnote , 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.
- Straight Man and Wise Guy: Bert is the Straight Man and Ernie is the Wise Guy.
- Strange Minds Think Alike:
- In Episode 3139, Gordon and Susan need a place to spend the night since their apartment is being painted, and they can't spend the night at Angela's apartment since her baby has the chicken pox. Big Bird suggests Hawaii, the park, and his nest, the first of which Susan and Gordon turn down for being too far away, and the latter two Big Bird turns down because it might snow in the former, and some dogs and cats might escape from a pet shop truck if it goes over a bump in the latter. He eventually suggests the Furry Arms Hotel, which is unfortunately overcrowded with a flock of basketball-playing chickens. When Humphrey and Ingrid try to come up with somewhere else Gordon and Susan can stay, they too suggest Hawaii, the park, and Big Bird's nest, but turn down the latter two options for the same reasons as Big Bird.
- In the 38th season finale, when Oscar visits Maria's bathroom as a reporter for Grouch News Network, he remarks that the only way to get the elephant out of her bathtub is to offer him peanuts. Seconds later, Bob shows up (in his only new appearance that season) with a sack of peanuts.
- Strictly Formula: The Journey to Ernie sketches after Season 33 follow this format: Big Bird is doing something, but is suddenly interrupted by the announcer announcing the beginning of the game. Ernie comes by and gives a clue to where he is hiding. Big Bird covers his eyes and counts to 10 and once he's done, he ends up in a fantasy world according to the clue Ernie gave. Then Big Bird instructs the viewer to help him find Ernie. Big Bird often makes an incorrect guess three times, encountering nothing or the Two-Headed Monster. On the third try, Big Bird looks closer and finds a hidden detail he missed. He checks that detail, and Ernie is found, and the sketch ends with them singing "We Found Ernie".
- String-on-Finger Reminder:
- 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 he and Ernie forgot to buy the oatmeal.
- Strong Family Resemblance:
- Granny Bird is a splitting image of Big Bird but with a few minor differences (wears glasses, has paler eyeshadow, her forehead feathers are grey).
- In the ending of Episode 1576, Big Bird mentions to the bird watchers that he has a bunch of family members who look exactly like him but with a few minor differences (his Auntie Maureen from Chicago has blue eyes; his cousin Floyd from Los Angeles is purple instead of yellow and is a surfer; his Uncle Slim from Wyoming has a mustache and is a cowbird).
- Elmo got his fur, eyeshadow, and nose colors from his father Louie, while his body type came from his mother Mae. In addition, his oval nose shape seems to be a mash-up of Louie's triangular nose and Mae's round nose.
- Abby is a near-complete splitting image of her mother Maggie, with the exception of the wing design. Her stepbrother Rudy is also almost identical to his father Freddy, with the addition he has a hair tuft.
- Stunned Silence: In Snuffy's reveal episode, all of the adults are reduced to a half minute of jaw-dropping silence when they finally get their first look at Snuffy.
- Suddenly Speaking: 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.
- Swapped Roles:
- Episode 807 does a brief role swap as Snuffy comes down the block in his striped pajamas; Bob is the one who sees Snuffy going by, but it's Big Bird who doesn't believe him, because he claims "Snuffy doesn't have stripes."
- One of the Journey to Ernie segments has Big Bird and Ernie swapping places with the former hiding and the latter seeking instead of the other way around.
- Sweet Seal:
- 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 "Swim Like Sea Lions" that features footage of children swimming along with sea lions.
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Tropes brought to you by the letter T
- Take a Number:
- Naturally, the show does this with Grover and 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.
- Take a Third Option:
- In the "Birdy-Pox" episode, the Count wants to count Big Bird's spots, but Big Bird says it's his naptime and would rather have him sing a lullaby. So the Count thinks of a perfect way to cooperate: he sings him a special counting lullaby to help him sleep while counting his spots.
- In the "Birdseed Cookies" episode, Baby Bear shows up for his usual porridge snack at Hoopers; coincidentally, porridge happens to be one of the ingredients for Big Bird's birdseed cookie recipe for Granny Bird. But since that's the only porridge they have left, Big Bird and Alan have to decide whether to let Baby Bear have the porridge and make the cookies with one ingredient less, or keep the porridge. Baby Bear then decides to select a third decision to have his father's favorite food instead — a fruit salad, which also allows Big Bird and Alan to proceed with the recipe as planned.
- Take That!:
- Occasionally in the course of parodying teen and adult media, notably Pre-School Musical and SpiderMonster, The Musical.
- Including a controversy-inducing one from Grundgetta: "From now on, I am watching Pox News. Now there's a trashy news show!"
- When "Wormy Gras", a street party for worms, occured in a 2000 episode, a worm wearing a Barney costume is frightened by 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).
- Talk About the Weather: 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.
- Tears of Joy:
- Big Bird sings about having these in a Season 16 episode after he starts shedding them from reading a story with a happy ending.
- In Episode 2669, Gina sheds these as she watches Miles go off to his first day of kindergarten.
- Telephone Song:
- 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).
- Tempting Fate: There was a series of animated sketches made in the 1970s that went like this: a character would proudly tell the viewer that they are dry while someone else is wet, only to get immediately splashed on or dragged into the water. "Now I'm wet too."
- "Test Your Strength" Game: 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.
- Thanksgiving Episode: The gang celebrates Thanksgiving in a Season 48 episode, but not without learning why it is celebrated.
- That Cloud Looks Like...: In an early episode when Big Bird comes upon the adults having a rooftop picnic, he spots various animal-shaped clouds in the sky and invites them to cloud-watch with him.
- Theme Parks: 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. (1995-2020)
- Theme Tune Extended: There's a bridge in the theme song (complete with Forgotten Theme Tune Lyrics) that was never performed in the opening version, but was heard in the extended closing credits on Friday installments of the show (it was also heard in the Japanese closing credits when the show aired on NHK). This actually applied to all CTW productions which aired around the same time, including The Electric Company (1971), 3-2-1 Contact, Square One TV, and 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... - Theme Tune Roll Call: Didn't happen in the show itself, but it did happen in a special rap on The Tonight Show to celebrate Sesame Street's 50th anniversary, with Black Thought listing off most of the cast's names in what Elmo entitles "The Sesame Breakdown":Grover, Bert and Ernie, Zoe, Elmo, Rosita
Gordon, Susan, Bob, Linda, Luis, Maria
Betty Lou, Little Jerry, Julia, Gabi
Snuffy, Telly, Biff and Sully, Abby Cadabby
Amazing Mumford, Praire Dawn, Count von Count
Herry Monster, Baby Bear, Oscar the Grouch
Frazzle, Gladys, Don Music, Hoots is an owl
Forgetful Jones and Lefty tryin' to sell you a vowel
Barkley, Big Bird, Cookie Monster and Guy Smiley
Natasha, The Two-headed Monster, Yip Yips and Slimey - The Teaser:
- Episodes produced during the 1990s, as well as all episodes post-Season 46, feature a scene before the opening featuring one to three of the Muppets introducing the main subject of the episode. In the case of post-Season 46, they are often shown doing something related to the theme.
- Seasons 38-45 opened with Murray Monster's "Word on the Street" bit, where he interviews various citygoers who tell a special word relating to the episode's subject.
- The Tonsillitis Episode: In an early episode, Big Bird has a case of tonsillitis and has to go to the hospital to get his tonsils taken out.
- These Questions Three...: 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.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Sandwich: At the beginning of the street scene in Episode 4187, Big Bird is served cream of birdseed soup, but is suddenly forced to leave the food behind once Mr. Flapman shows up.
- Thing-O-Meter: A Season 50 episode has Oscar receive a "Disappoint-O-Meter" from Grungetta, a mood-detecting device which can detect the negativity of whoever it is used on.
- Things That Go "Bump" in the Night:
- Cookie Monster, despite being a monster himself, once sees a shaggy blanket at night and mistakes it for a monster, scaring him.
- In one sketch, Grover tries to talk about how fear of the dark is ridiculous, despite being afraid of the dark himself. He mentions that people who are afraid of the dark might believe there are "scary things" lurking in the dark, but there aren't... yet he doesn't seem so sure of those things' absence.
- In one skit, Ernie fears there are evil monsters in his and Bert's room that say, "Wubba wubba!". Bert tells him it's all in his head and tells him to imagine something better.
- Third-Person Person: Elmo says Elmo like referring to himself as Elmo!
- The Thing That Would Not Leave: Episode 3564 dealt with Big Bird being forced to share his nest with a cuckoo bird family who refuse to leave no matter how hard he tries.
- This Is My Chair: An earlynote Ernie and Bert sketch has the two of them, along with Herry Monster, battling and pranking each other for control of the TV-watching armchair in their living room. Finally they realize they can all sit in the chair together. Bert, who has been watching "his favorite rock band" (playing a John Philip Sousa march of all things), then mentions The Wonderful World of Pigeons will be on shortly. Ernie and Herry can't clear out of the room fast enough, and Bert gets the chair to himself.
- Tired After the Song:
- 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.
- Title Drop: 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.
- Toilet Training Plot: In "Elmo's Potty Time", Curly Bear gets potty-trained and several other characters talk about potty-training.
- Tongue-Out Insult: Discussed in Oscar's Anti-Christmas Song "I Hate Christmas", in which he sings, "Christmas carols to be sung, decorations to be hung. Oh yeah? Well I stick out my tongue! I hate Christmas!".
- Tonto Talk: An animated insert from The '70s 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.
- Totally Radical: Some characters would veer into this during the "Around the Corner" era of 1993-1998.
- To the Tune of...: Big Bird's "You Can Be a Birdketeer", a follow-me song to the tune of "London Bridge" as he teaches how to be a Birdketeer.
- Toy-Based Characterization:
- Ernie is (probably) fully grown, but he still plays with a rubber duck and a toy truck. This characterises him as a fun-loving Cloud Cuckoolander.
- In a Very Special Episode, Karli, whose mother, up until recently, had been a drug addict, plays with two toy elephants and has one keep making sandwiches for the other. This is because, while her mother was an addict, she kept having Karli make her food.
- Trademark Favorite Food
- Cookie Monster's "COOOOO-KIEEEEE!"
- Big Bird's love of birdseed milkshakes.
- "A la peanut butter sandwiches!"
- Baby Bear and porridge.
- Oatmeal for Bert.
- Training the Pet: Inverted in one episode — Oscar adopts a dog and names her Cranky, but being a Grouch, who think Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad, he finds her too well behaved and tries to teach her to be mean. When this fails, he sends her away, but he finds himself missing her, so he readopts her.
- Trash the Set: 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.
- Trivial Tragedy: In one episode, Ernie is happy because he's about to eat a cookie, but Cookie Monster is sad because he hasn't had a cookie all day. Ernie gives him his cookie, but now Cookie is happy and Ernie is sad. This continues as they keep passing the cookie back and forth. At last, they decide to share it—but the cookie falls and breaks into tiny pieces, leaving both of them in tears.Ernie: Well, at least now we can be sad together!
[They start crying into each other's chests.] - Trumplica:
- The series' 25th anniversary special, "Stars and Street Forever!" features (human) real estate developer Ronald Grump (Joe Pesci) 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.
Tropes brought to you by the letter U
- Unconventional Food Order: On one of the records has Oscar the Grouch ordering a strawberry sundae with pickles and sardines on top. He informs an appalled Mr. Hooper that it is not just his favorite dessert, but that of ALL grouches. (The confection was also mentioned in least one early episode of the TV show.)
- Unconventional Food Usage:
- 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 soap if they were polite.
- In one "Ernie and Bert" skit, they build a snowman and give him a carrot for a nose.
- Un Evil Laugh: Ernie's imitation of the Count in one episode includes one; after counting something, Ernie shouts, "Thunder! LIGHTNING!"... followed immediately by his own Signature Laugh.
- Unexpected Kindness:
- 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.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Downplayed example. When Cookie Monster plays Kermit's mystery box game with the promise of a cookie as a prize and technically doesn't guess right (he says the right answer after being told), Cookie Monster gives a rousing speech about why he should still get the cookie, and Kermit obligues, only for Cookie to then say "one measley cookie? Speech like that deserve five cookies". However, Cookie happily settles when Kermit tells him that he only had one cookie.
- Unsatisfiable Customer: Mr. Johnson, Grover's customer in the "Charlie's Restaurant" skits, is sometimes this.
- Unsuccessful Pet Adoption: When Big Bird tries to keep a turtle named Seymour, Seymour runs away to the park and Gina says that he probably belongs there.
- Unwanted Assistance: Baby Bear often tells Goldilocks to stop helping.
- Upside-Down Blueprints: In Episode 836, Big Bird builds a snowman, but has it standing on its head. When Maria sees it, she asks him if he looked at a picture of a snowman in a book when he built it, and he tells her he did. However, he held the book upside down when he did it. When Maria builds the snowman right-side-up, big Bird tells her that he liked the snowman better when it was upside down.
Tropes brought to you by the letter V
- Vacation Episode:
- 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".
- Valentine's Day Episode: Episode 4606 has Elmo preparing a Valentine's Day gift for Abby, but needs to get it to her in one piece.
- Vegetarian Carnivore:
- 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.
- Very Special Episode
- 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.
- Video Call Fail: In "Elmo's Playdate", the characters have a video call together. However, Grover can't seem to get the hang of his new phone, leading to stuff like the screen turning upside down, muting the volume, and changing his background to outer space.
- Visual Pun: The title sequence with the CG animated blocks was introduced along with the show's block format.
- Vocal Evolution: Happens with many Muppets that have had the same performer for a long period of time...
- Compare Jim Henson'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 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.
- Big Bird has went through this in more ways than one:
- 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, which both got progressively deeper with each decade as he aged. In the later years of his life (when he was in his 80s) prior to retirement, both sound noticeably slower, quieter, and more nasally.
- Spinney's apprentice and eventual successor, Matt Vogel, initially had a high voice which sounded near to Big Bird when Spinney finally made him more innocent and naïve. When he took over Big Bird's role full-time, while still making Big Bird sound like a child, made him sound a bit older.
- Cookie Monster and Grover sounded almost interchangeable at first, until Frank Oz decided to give Cookie a guttural voice and pitch Grover's voice up.
- Kevin Clash's voice for Elmo changed a couple of times throughout the years, first it was very nasally like Baby Sinclair from Dinosaurs, later it was higher and scratchier, then his voice became a few octaves higher and softer. Around 2003, the voice started to gradually get a bit deeper, probably due to the performer aging.
- Granny Bird was initially a case of Larynx Dissonance and sounded near-identical to Big Bird but with a more wrinkly feminine tone. Following Spinney's retirement and Vogel taking over Big Bird full-time, Granny Bird now has a more proper elderly feminine voice with a slight Southern accent, courtesy of Jennifer Barnhart (who also plays Zoe and Gladys).
- Voice for the Voiceless: Deaf-mute resident Linda always has another human character (usually Bob) translate her sign language.
- The Von Trope Family: Count von Count.
Tropes brought to you by the letter W
- Walkie-Talkie Static: 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 eventually eats his.
- Washy Watchy: Elmo's Wash and Dry is a bath book from the franchise that shows Elmo doing this at a laundromat.
- Wearing It All Wrong: 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.
- We Interrupt This Program: 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.
- A few episodes have played this trope as a part of their street plots.
- In episode 3659 after the letter X quits the alphabet, the Playground Alphabet skit is interrupted after the kids shout "W!" and features the letter X in a press conference announcing his departure from the alphabet. After the new report, the skit picks back up with "Y".
- In the "Fairy Tale Emergencies" episode, the street plot returns to the old format of interspersing the other content, with every scene appearing to interrupt the program.
- The time everyone gets Mine-itis, the show keeps getting interrupted with special reports by Brian Williams who is reporting on the ongoing situation.
- A few episodes have played this trope as a part of their street plots.
- Wedding Episode: One episode had the characters prepare for Maria and Luis's wedding.
- Wham Line: "Big Bird... don't you remember we told you? Mr. Hooper died."
- What the Hell, Hero?: In Episode 4066, Baby Bear decides to rewrite the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears to include Curly, his new baby sister. In order to keep Goldilocks from eating his porridge and breaking his favorite chair, Baby Bear writes that Goldilocks drinks from Curly's bottle and breaks Curly's high chair when she tries to sit in it. Upon hearing this rewrite, Telly calls Baby Bear out for his selfishness, saying that if he had his own baby sister, he wouldn't write a story involving Goldilocks drinking from her bottle or breaking her high chair, knowing she'd be upset if it happened to her. He tells Baby Bear that as a big brother, he should be protecting Curly's stuff because of how tiny and helpless she is. Baby Bear realizes that Telly is right and decides to rewrite the story again to give Curly a happy ending.
- When the Clock Strikes Twelve: 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 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.
- Where the Hell Is Springfield?: Sesame Street is in New York City, of course, but the show has always been vague on the specific location. 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.
- Whip Pan: 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.
- Whole Costume Reference: Season 45's "Numeric-Con" finds characters dressed up as Batman, Princess Leia, Captain Kirk, and Wolverine, among others.
- Why Are You Looking at Me Like That?: In one episode, Cinderella's former fairy godmother, as played by Whoopi Goldberg, 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.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?:
- In Episode 3529, Telly and Carlo discover Elmo has a serious fear of clowns, and the two go to great lengths to convince him that clowns are fun. He finally conquers his fear by episode's end.
- Episode 4189 deals with Baby Bear revealing he has a fear of bees because of the thought he might get stung. Abby casts a spell which turns Baby Bear and Chris into bees where they discover bee behavior and he soon gets over his fear.
- Will They or Won't They?: Bob and Linda went on dates, but they didn't get married.
- Wingding Eyes: In the animated sketch Beginning, Middle, and End, which is one of many sketches animated by Sally Cruikshank, when Seymour gets on a pterodactyl who acts like a taxicab, his neighbor Mrs. Bazini gets X's in her eyes from hitting the side of her head with a trash can lid due to complete and utter shock of witnessing it right next to her backyard.
- With a Foot on the Bus: The street scene for Episode 4187 deals with Big Bird nearly leaving Sesame Street to live in a rainforest. He ultimately declines the move upon discovering the rainforest is too far away for anyone to visit him.
- Woken Up at an Ungodly Hour:
- A Running Gag is Ernie waking up his roommate Bert in the middle of the night, usually because he's worried about something, has an unusual request or question, can't sleep, or wants to play one of his strange games. In one skit, he wakes up the neighbours too by singing, just so that one of them would say what the time was because he was curious.
- In one episode, Oscar is staying the night with Maria and Luis, but he keeps waking them up at night with his Sickeningly Sweet nightmares, putting them in a grumpy mood.
- In the song "Born to Add", two people yell out addition equations in the middle of the night on the street. This wakes the neighbours, who complain, and even have them arrested.
- Words Can Break My Bones: 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 Magical Incantation.
- Worm in an Apple: 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.
- The Worst Seat in the House: One classic segment with Bert and Ernie at a movie theater saw Ernie having to contend with a woman in front of him wearing a really tall hat. Hilarity Ensues.
- WPUN: An early 90's episode had the all-dog radio station WUFF.
- Another example of this was WORM-TV from the early 80's which broadcasted all things grouchy.
- And another was the radio station WCAN from Episode 3838; the "CAN" part alluding to Oscar the Grouch's trash can.
- Writers Cannot Do Math: There are a few slip-ups in the commentary about all the Christmases in "Elmo Saves Christmas".
- Bob, Gina, Gordon and 14 Karut Soul 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 27 (or April 28 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. This could be presumed that Luis and Maria haven't worked for six months (not counting weekends, other major holidays).
- Similarly, for science, when Grover mentioned that Christmas trees are an endangered species, he says “all gone, kaput, used them all, bye-bye Christmas Trees, adios Christmas Trees”. This could be an error since endangered species are species that are not completely extinct, but their population is so few that they are seriously at risk of extinction. Extinction of a specific animal or plant species occurs when the species has completely died out. Grover could've meant that a year after that first fateful Christmas, Christmas trees have become extinct in the wild (meaning they only exist outside their natural habitats).
- Wraparound Background: Seen in the early 80s Muppet song "Let's Go Driving".
- Wrap-Up Song:
- Starting in season 46, each episode of the show ends with the characters singing "Smarter, Stronger, Kinder" while the ending credits roll. The lyrics are about how much there is to learn on Sesame Street.
- The Journey to Ernie segments end with the "We Found Ernie" song as Big Bird celebrates finding Ernie.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: In 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. Not only does Grover not turn into a prince, but after getting kissed, Cutie turns into a monster.
Tropes brought to you by the letter Y
- "YEAH!" Shot: The "Elmo's Got the Moves" dance video ends with everyone jumping and cheering as the screen freeze-frames on them.
- Yet Another Christmas Carol:
- "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 Clip Show featuring clips from past holiday specials when the different ghosts show Oscar the Christmases of the past and present.
- Yoko Oh No: 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 The '70s, 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."
- You Have to Believe Me!: From Seasons 3-16, this is Big Bird's pesters to the grownups whenever he tries to plead with them that Snuffy is not imaginary.
- You Monster!: 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!
- Your Tomcat Is Pregnant: Telly's hamster Chuckie, thereafter called Chuckie Sue.
