Sesame Street

I looked and it doesn't seem like we have a thread about Sesame Street in general so I decided to start one myself.

There is something I have been looking for since I was 10 or so, and I'm not sure if it was something that actually appeared on the show itself or if it was in a dream I had that was about the show. The time I "saw" it was when I was 3 or 4 (so it would have been in the time period of 1988-1989, so it wouldn't have been in a sketch that was created in the 1990's or later), and it made me terrified of Sesame Street until I was 10 because I was afraid I would see it again. In this scene, it's in Ernie and Bert's bedroom, and they're going to bed and turn the lights out. Then this thing appears on a desk or table or something in the room. This thing looks like a doughy infinity sign that is sitting on the table like disembodied eyes. All it does is sit there and possibly wiggle a little and make "tsss, tsss" sounds. Whether it was in a dream or in the actual show, it terrified me as a young child. And for some odd reason I called it "the Moo" even though I don't think it was necessarily called by name in the show. Note that I didn't know what an infinity sign was until later, and when I did find out, it made me scared of that too because I thought it looked like "the Moo." And yes, I am aware that there is something called "How Now Brown and the Moo Wave" that was also on Sesame Street but I don't think that had anything to do with why I called it that (I didn't even know it existed until I was searching for "the Moo" and "Sesame Street" on Google). That did make me scared of cows or anything that was called "moo" for awhile, though.

So does anyone know of anything in any live-action Sesame Street sequence that might look like that? I did find one scene that looks somewhat like it, although it's not quite an infinity sign, I could have been seeing a different shape in it because when I was very young, we just had a rather fuzzy black-and-white TV so the picture may have been a bit off (and that could have explained the hissing sound as well if the TV was making static). Or it could have been like how one can see shapes in clouds. It's in a sketch where Cookie Monster is staying over at Ernie's house and sees a blanket on a toy box and when it first shows the blanket, Cookie Monster thinks it's a monster and is scared of it. The way the blanket looks in the dark might have been what I saw, although that might not have been it since it's not quite an infinity sign shape. It does fit the "appears sitting on something in a bedroom at night" part of it, though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yL0vcn_Kc7I

When I was searching for this old mystery from my childhood, I also found some other "Bert and Ernie at night" videos that were pretty funny, like one where Ernie is worried about balloons deflating and wants to set them free in the air and then thinks they would need sweaters and wants to get them back and Bert ends up throwing a tantrum.

edited 23rd May '13 6:54:27 PM by Rainbow

You might want to ask on Remember That Show?

"Two! That's two posts on this thread! Ah-ah-ah!"

But I know what show I'm referring to, unless I had seen it on something else and thought it was Sesame Street by mistake. Or am I mistaking what "Remember that Show?" is for? I did go ahead and mention "the Moo" there just in case I had mistaken some other show for Sesame Street.

And, yes, the Count is pretty funny. I was scared of him too at that same time (probably because of the thunder and his laugh) but when I later came back to the show, I found him to be funny instead because of his silly counting obsession. Especially the one where he tries to be an elevator operator and doesn't want to let Kermit off at the correct floor because he wants to go through ALL the floors so he can count them all.

edited 24th May '13 4:45:34 AM by Rainbow

I'm still curious what's gonna happen now that Kevin Clash has resigned. Will Elmo be retired, or will his segments just be rerun?

I suppose they could have a different puppeteer try to do it and do Elmo's voice, like how there are people who still voice Donald Duck in various things even though his original voice actor is dead. I'm kind of out of the loop on how important that specific actor is to Elmo's character, though. I honestly don't know whether or not they would just have someone else do Elmo, since he's so popular, or if they really would retire the puppet character. Of course, simply rerunning old Elmo segments and not making new ones is another option as well.

On the subject of "the Moo" that I was looking for, it may very well be that "Cookie Monster sleeps over at Ernie's" sketch that has it, because I checked the airdates for the episodes the sketch appears in and the two later dates match up to when I likely would have seen it on TV in 1988. I also checked it on some other videos on Youtube and the blanket monster looks a little different in each one depending on the video quality so there could be different lighting that might make it look more or less like an infinity sign.

edited 24th May '13 5:06:08 PM by Rainbow

They might stop making new Elmo things due the the *ahem* nature of Mr. Clash's departure from Sesame Street. Don't want to court controversy here.

Eh, I doubt they'll take him out that abruptly. Elmo's one of their biggest characters, and if he suddenly leaves kids will be begging about what happened and for more of him. It's like cutting R2-D2 out of Star Wars.

" They stated that other puppeteers had been trained to serve as Clash's understudy and would take over his roles on the show."

-Wikipedia with source.

Here is something to consider. The artist, Hiroshi, was played by Gedde Watanabe. You probably know him best as Long Duk Dong from Sixteen Candles but he also was in Grimlins 2 (Work a camera? I am a camera!) and UHF (STUPID! YOU SO STUPID!). As you can tell, most of his roles consist of Asian stereotypes with exaggerated accents, especially during the 80s.

Here, he played an artist that just happened to be Asian American. No fake accent, no Engrish, no karate or camera around his neck. In short, he was playing an actual character. I applaud Sesame Street for giving him a role like this during the late 80s since I know Hollywood doesn't provide a lot of good parts for minorities even to this day. It gives me one more reason to love the show.

edited 12th Jan '14 5:08:05 PM by DS9guy

Bump

Eh. I saw my younger sibling watching it a few days ago, and it's not really fun anymore. Depressing even. Probably because I'm older :/. Feel like I should show her something much more creative.

And it may just be me, but I don't remember the show being so popular in politics. Late Night, MSNBC, CNN, The New Yorker, etc. Geez!

edited 8th Nov '14 11:54:52 AM by teddy

Wow, you're right, Rainbow: The way they held on that lumpy blanket was pretty creepy. I think a hissing infinity symbol would have been cuter. I'm glad Ernie was able to save a Monster from the evil Mu.

I watch this sometimes with my niece and nephew though they are in Vancouver so I can't visit that often, though my nephew only really watches if Elmo is on. I apparently did the same thing at that age (though my reason was Elmo is red), the character seems to appeal to little kids in general though.

Sorry to double-post but it's been a day.

Anyways when my mom was watching under grandma duties the show said that during "duck, duck, goose" you run in the same direction so you chase the person, now the way it's always played around here is you run in opposite directions (well you are supposed to you probably don't because you're 5/6 and these rules are confusing, but you know you are supposed to). So my question is why is this?

edited 4th Feb '15 5:23:13 PM by phantom1

That could be a cultural/regional difference (depending on where you're from) because I remember playing Duck Duck Goose as a young girl and the rules were the same as what were said in Sesame Street. It could very well be played different ways in different regions/countries.

@Bag of Magic Food: I don't think I've ever really watched Monster Rancher except for maybe catching the end of it when it came on before Pokemon on TV, but I did think that the idea of the villain being called "Mu" was funny because of my old fear.

The Count would probably think that the infinity sign is his favorite "number" because it means he can count forever!

edited 23rd Mar '15 7:30:32 AM by Rainbow

So now it's apparently official that Bert and Ernie are gay. Which is fine, I guess. I don't think gay toddlers particularly care for representation in their television, but sure.

I was wondering, though: how old are Bert and Ernie supposed to be? I know other characters have a specific age.

One former writer on the show said this. Sesame Workshop said that Bert and Ernie are not gay; they're just friends. Frank Oz said they weren't gay, either, and got called homophobic for it.

Here is an article which goes into why it DOES matter that they are gay.

Aren't they brothers? That was always the vibe I got from them.

And this is where Fandom (if that's even the right word. Pop Culture?) and creator's intentions get into a sticky place. Creators say they aren't gay, but EVERYONE else did. Like, everyone else I've talked to where this came up either had the reaction of 'Wait, didn't they say that ages ago on the show at some point?' or 'Yeah, and next you'll be telling me Grover and Super Grover are the same person'.

Pop Culture inevitably started working on the assumption that they always were.

This is not pop culture, though. This IS the creator confirming that they are gay. It is the studio that is denying it now. That is the whole point of the controversy.

The writer is not the creator. Frank Oz created Bert, and he's denying he's gay. Jim Henson, unfortunately, is dead so he can't give his perspective.

I recall when that was a joke - after all, two guys living all alone, what do you think that is? Then it stopped being a joke, and people began to take it seriously.

If Sesame Street does add an openly gay character it ought to be a human, incidentally. Humans are the adult presence on the show; the puppets, even the nominally adult ones, are children.

Edited by Aldo930 on Sep 22nd 2018 at 6:50:27 AM

I always thought they were brothers.

I was wondering, what age are Bert and Ernie supposed to be? Bert at least seems a lot older.

I don't even think it was a joke. Two men living together alone is a very basic queer coding thing. A very obvious one. I don't think people are wrong to have assumed this from the beginning.

Muppet fansite Tough Pigs have an interesting take on the subject.

Wait, forgot to summarise the link. Basically, fans can read them whatever way they want and it's valid, the original statement was a bit of Beam Me Up, Scotty!, and even if they aren't gay the show could really use more LGBT representation.

Edited by TropesForever on Sep 22nd 2018 at 8:01:31 PM