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    Tropes brought to you by the letter D 
  • Dagwood Sandwich: In episode 3718, Telly comes into Hooper's Store for his usual cheese sandwich lunch, but after seeing a different patron eating something different Mr. Hanford tells him you can put anything on a sandwich. Afterwards Telly gets a passion to make the world's first "everything" sandwich.
  • Dance Party Ending: The nineteenth season finale is Luis and Maria's wedding; the episode ends with everyone dancing to a salsa remix of the theme song at the reception in the arbor.
  • Dark Reprise:
    • The special Elmo Saves Christmas has three in a row:
      • Elmo and Lightning sing a melancholic reprise of "Every Day Can't Be Christmas" as Elmo finally realizes having Christmas Every Day is a horrendous decision, resulting in all of Sesame Street (except for Oscar) becoming unhappy.
      • Elmo and Lightning's first glimpses of Sesame Street in the Bad Future is accompanied by a mournful and lustful instrumental version of the theme song.
      • When the carolers have lost their voices, this results in an out-of-key variation of the special's opening number, "It's Christmas Again".
    • In Episode 4265, "The Good Bird's Club", Big Bird is bullied and rejected by a trio of birds who mock him over his appearance; this causes his initially excitable "I Am Great!" Song to gradually degenerate into uncertainty until finally becoming straight-up sad and heartbroken over himself.
    • Episode 4525, "Grover Does it All" features the eponymous very energetic and upbeat song, where Grover sings about he can do several different things at the same time. The song has two reprises just as peppy as the first renditions, before a depressed and defeated Grover sings "Grover Just Can't Do It All".
  • Darkest Africa: Subverted in a 1970s segment. Smart Tina claims that Africa is just one big jungle because she saw it in a Tarzan movie. But Roosevelt Franklin shows on a map that only a small portion of Africa is jungle. The continent is really a mix of different environments dotted with big cities and valuable resources.
  • Debating Names:
    • At the end of one "Ernie and Bert" sketch, they argue over what to name their puppy — Bert wants to call him "Norman", but Ernie prefers the name "Godzilla the Wonder Dog".
    • In one episode, Mama Bear gives birth to a girl. Papa Bear wonders if they should call her Grizzly, but Baby Bear thinks it doesn't suit her and names her Curly instead due to her curly facial fur.
  • Demographic-Dissonant Crossover:
    • The Star Wars episode that feature appearances by C3PO and R2D2. Even though Star Wars is a family franchise, the violent fight scenes make it appropriate only for children older then 7.
    • The celebrity expanded version of Monster in the Mirror ends with a cameo from The Simpsons, a show for an audience far more adult that that of Sesame Street.
    • Three skits (one about the letter W, one about body parts, and one about brushing teeth) featured characters from Happy Days (Fonzie was in all three and Richie also featured in the tooth-brushing skit). While Happy Days isn't an adult show, it contains risque jokes that make it more suitable for around middle school age and up.
  • Demoted to Extra: Has happened with numerous cast members and Muppets over the years, but the most notable would have to be Big Bird during the 2000s, being overshadowed by Elmo's skyrocketing popularity since The '90s. It's gotten to the point where Big Bird now basically serves as Elmo and Abby Cadabby's sidekick.
  • Denied Food as Punishment: Oscar's ice cream sundae was taken away by Brian Williams in the Mine-itis episode.
  • The Dentist Episode: Episode 5213 reveals that Julia is afraid of dentists. Elmo, Alan, and Charlie act out a game of dentist to help Julia overcome her fear. Later they go to the real dentist, since Charlie has a checkup there.
  • Descent into Darkness Song: During the "Good Birds Club" street scene, Big Bird's song "Happy To Be Me" starts off optimistic but gradually degenerates further and further into sadness and depression as the president continues mocking his appearance thus not letting him in.
  • Department of Redundancy Department:
    • Intentionally done with Vincent Twice, a Muppet parody of Vincent Price that hosted the Mysterious Theater segments and would often repeat his name twice when introducing himself, hence his name. Even Sherlock Helmock does it when in one installment, Vincent Twice turns out to be the culprit of the mystery.
      "I am your host, Vincent Twice Vincent Twice."
    • This particular line in the song "Where's My Bear?":
      I miss his fuzzy fur/I miss his buttony eyes/I miss his hairy hair.
  • The Diaper Change: Natasha has her diaper changed in one episode.
  • Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: In the TV Movie Don't Eat the Pictures several of the human cast and Muppets are accidentally locked in the NYC Metropolitan Museum of Art overnight. Big Bird's subplot involved him and Snuffleupagus helping the 4000-year-old ghost of an Egyptian boy confront the god Osiris when he refused to let the boy into the afterlife. Repeat: Big Bird confronted a god and told him he was wrong. And won.
  • Didn't Think This Through: In the Cookie Monster and the Cookie Tree Golden Book, a witch who owns a cookie tree casts a spell on it so it would only give cookies to people who share them to keep Cookie Monster from eating them. This spell works, but a little too well, as now the tree won't give the witch any cookies, either. When Cookie finds out, he calls the witch out on this, and she can't help but agree with him. The two form an alliance and agree to share the cookies with each other, but Cookie soon gets carried away and eats all the cookies from the tree.
  • Diegetic Soundtrack Usage:
    • Characters can often be heard singing or humming along with the opening theme in the first scene.
    • Bert sings a bit of it in this sketch.
    • At the beginning of Episode 1781, Big Bird and Maria sing a bit of the theme song in an attempt to help Forgetful Jones remember Sesame Street's name.
    • Big Bird hums it at the beginning of the "Letter B Museum" .
  • Digging to China: The Big Bird In China TV-movie special. Oscar and Telly feel left out, so they decide to dig (Oscar makes Telly do all the actual work). As soon as they get there, Oscar decides that "Ehhh, it's not so special!" and immediately turns around to go home.
  • Dinner and a Show: In one insert, Maria is trying to have coffee with Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, but they are repeatedly interrupted by an argument among Muppets. Things have to be settled before the women can get back to their coffee.
  • Disease-Prevention Aesop:
    • Two skits are about preventing flu.
    • The song "The Right Way to Sneeze" is about sneezing into your elbow.
    • There is an animated skit called "Don't Be a Snerd When You Sneeze" about covering your mouth and nose while sneezing and coughing.
    • One animated skit shows a talking sun which tells some anthro dogs to sneeze into their arms (even though only one had a cold, the other two were sneezing because of pepper and allergies.)
  • Disney Acid Sequence:
    • Many early episodes had a series of sketches on numbers (1 through 10) that involved a baker who holds in his arms that number of desserts but falls down a flight of stairs, ruining the desserts in question. The sketches started with a very flashy animated intro in which the voices of kids are heard counting up from 1 to 10, then back to 1, and finally up to the featured number in the sketch, in choral voice over, while that number, in animated form, zoomed around the screen.
    • Also, "Counting to 10 with Nobody".
  • Disrupting the Theater:
    • 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 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 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, much to the couple's ire.
  • The Diss Track:
    • In "Don't Be a Bully", some monsters tell off another monster in song for stealing their ball, calling him a bully.
    • In "The Wasteroon Song", three sentient water drops chastise two kids named Freda Bailey and Sheldon Cox for leaving the tap running, calling them "wasteroons".
    • In "We've Got a Brand New Baby", a monster girl sings about how she finds her baby brother annoying because he can't do much, doesn't wear clothes, is bald, makes annoying sounds, cries a lot, and she doesn't know why he was even born.
  • Distant Duet:
    • The "Postcard Song" from the "Camp Echo Rock" saga, as Big Bird and Maria are writing to each other.
    • "Maria" from Big Bird Gets Lost, as Big Bird and Maria are separated from each other in the store.
    • "One Little Star" from Follow That Bird, except that it's done with three characters.
  • Diurnal Nocturnal Animal: Inverted in the “African Animal Alphabet” sketch, which mentions that “C is for cheetah running underneath the moon”. The cheetah is one of the few diurnal cats.
  • Do-Anything Robot: S.A.M. the Robot was designed to be a machine that could do anything, having such attachments as a camera, a clock, a faucet, a gumball machine, and a telephone. However, a lot of S.A.M.'s humor came from him boasting that machines were superior to humans despite providing evidence to the contrary, as his gadgets wouldn't work the way they were meant to.
  • A Dog Named "Dog": Big Bird and Little Bird. Also, Baby Bear. Cookie Monster also shared a rock named Rock.
  • Dog Walks You:
    • In later appearances by the pair, Barkley pulls Bob around Sesame Street while Bob struggles to keep up. In one episode from 1998, Barkley chases after a cat; they're followed by Telly and Baby Bear as Big Bird and Oscar look on.
    • The picture book 1 2 3 Count with Me depicts a number and animals on each page. The one for the number 10 shows "10 friendly dogs" and depicts Ernie being dragged along by those dogs and shouting "Whoa! Slow down, you guys! What's the rush?"
  • Double-Sided Book: I'm My Mommy – I'm My Daddy is formatted this way, with the central page being a two-page spread showing an aerial view of the family's living room.
  • Downer Ending: The Monsterpiece Theater send-up of West Side Story entitled "Inside/Outside Story," where Tony and Maria are separated by one being inside and the other outside. Much like the musical, the two don't get a happy ending even when they try to switch places.
  • Dripping Disturbance: One early Bert and Ernie sketch involves a dripping faucet that keeps Bert awake, so he sends Ernie to take care of the problem. How does Ernie solve the problem? By turning on a radio to play loud music to drown out the dripping. Then, when Bert tells Ernie that he still can't sleep because of the radio music, Ernie turns on a vacuum cleaner to drown out the music.
  • Driven to Suicide: Everything King Minus touches simply ceases to exist, including the damsel he tried to save. His reaction gives new meaning to the phrase "died by his own hand". (Although it may have been an accident, or disappearing might be non-fatal).
  • Duet of Differences:
    • "But I Like You" is a song by Ernie and Bert about how they have different likes and dislikes but both like each other.
    • Zigzagged for "Loud and Soft". Bert and Ernie sing about their singing styles, and often the singing styles are opposite to one another and the line "Two good friends, me and you, each with an opposite point of view" crops up repeatedly, but sometimes, their opinions do match.
    • "Good Night, Wake Up Lullaby" is sung by Big Bird and Hoots the Owl over their respective ways of nighttime; the former needs his sleep, while the latter is constantly active.
    • "Big and Little Song", sung by Big Bird and Shivers the Penguin over their respective sizes. Similarly done with "Big and Small" by Big Bird and Elmo as they list different things associated in return.
    • The Season 50 premiere gives us the "Packing Song", sung by Big Bird and Elmo as they share what each Muppet packs that the opposite doesn't, as well as what they both pack.

    Tropes brought to you by the letter E 
  • Eagleland Osmosis: It was rumored that in a British primary school, a teacher showed this clip to her class and later asked where milk comes from. Their response? America. This was no fault of the Children's Television Workshop. The CTW, when asked, will help other nations to create their own versions of Sesame Street tailored to the host nation's cultures, concerns, and budget. BBC turned down the CTW's offer, due to the outcry from teachers who were horrified by Sesame Street's content. They also felt CTW's involvement would be insulting, considering the BBC already had 20 years of experience producing children's educational programs.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness:
    • Early seasons were much slower-paced, and frequently relied on lengthy lectures, making it more in line with competitors such as Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and Captain Kangaroo. note  Also, some segments tended to repeat at least twice, since they were modeled after real TV commercials. They abandoned this around the mid 1970s.
    • The street scenes were originally vignettes based around a theme. Later on, research showed that preschoolers could follow a storyline throughout the hour.
    • Some of the Muppet characters looked and sounded very different, too. Oscar, for example, was orange, and only his head was visible. Big Bird missed most of the feathers on his head, and had the mindset of a dim-witted adult bird rather than a child. Cookie Monster was slightly more menacing at first, acting as a disruptive nuisance with a very limited vocabulary. Plus, Grover was green, and Ernie and Bert had noticeable New York accents.
    • Rowlf, who was the best-known Muppet character in 1969, starred in the Children's Television Workshop pitch reel for the show alongside Kermit, but only made one appearance in the series proper (in the Henson-made "Song of 9" film from season 1). Oddly, in the pitch reel, Rowlf was the Only Sane Man and Kermit was a Deadpan Snarker (though he did get the honors of coming up with the title for Sesame Street, after a Running Gag of other Muppets straining to think of a good title for the show).
    • Before Elmo gained his own distinct identity, he was an occasional background character. Sometimes he would have a deep or raspy voice.
    • Bert was a bit meaner in his sarcastic responses to Ernie's antics, often calling him a "meatball."
    • Animated segments originally outnumbered Muppet segments. Also, the characters broke the fourth wall more frequently, addressing their audience as well as introducing and commenting on segments, as if they tied into each other more.
    • In a first season segment where Ernie cleans up the apartment, Ernie points out his paperclip collection. Later on, Bert would be the one who collects paperclips, while Ernie would typically think they are boring.
    • The street set used to look much more authentically New York inner-city back in the old days, with litter and dead leaves covering the sidewalk, grit on the buildings, and the sounds of traffic, car horns, sirens, and whistles heard in the background.
    • The very first version of Snuffy teeters into Accidental Nightmare Fuel.
    • Ernie, Bert, Grover, Cookie Monster and even Kermit the Frog were far more frequently seen on the street with the other characters in the first ten seasons, since Jim Henson and Frank Oz were more readily available, though after The Muppet Show and other subsequent projects took up much of their time, Ernie, Bert, Grover, Cookie and Kermit were then relegated to mostly inserts, as Jim and Frank were then only able to dedicate one week out of each year for such. (Those characters started to make regular appearances in street scenes again in the 1990s and 2000s, following Jim's death and Frank's semi-retirement.)
    • Although always possessing a golden voice, Bob wasn't always a music teacher; in fact, during the show's earliest episodes, he was a shop teacher instead.
    • The first season featured performances of popular (and copyrighted) songs; it was not uncommon to find things like Bob singing "Good Morning Starshine", or the Muppets belting out some tunes of The Beatles. Of course, you won't be seeing these on DVD, which is why YouTube is your best bet.
      • This continued to a lesser extent into the second season. The Muppets' cover of "Help" is from that season, as is Grover singing "I Whistle A Happy Tune".
      • A rare instance of a popular song being sung on the show after the first season was when special guest star Gloria Estefan sang her famous song "Conga" on the show in 1991.
    • Count von Count was more sinister when he debuted in 1972. Although he wouldn't drink blood or turn into a bat and would still often be out in sunlight, he was much more vampiric, such as possessing hypnotic powers so he could get others to let him count something, and his Signature Laugh was more villainous-sounding, and he wouldn't let anything get in his way of counting. He was significantly toned down and got much friendlier by the end of the 70s, and they gradually phased out rerunning older segments featuring his earlier self (most notably any where he uses his hypnotic powers).
    • The first few Waiter Grover sketches had Grover being the victim of Fat Blue's demands (i.e. missing letters from his alphabet soup, his sandwich order not looking like the picture on the menu, being indecisive about whether to have the soup or the sandwich first), but soon, Grover became more and more inept with his job, giving Fat Blue quite a hard time.
    • In early seasons, there could be as many as three letters and two numbers of the day. Somewhere around season 3, it was standardized to two letters and one number.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: In the end of The Princesses and the Stick when the fish (Bob) tells everybody to take turns with the stick.
  • Ear Worm:
    • In a 1998 episode, Big Bird just wants to go about his day, but he can't stop thinking about the song "C is for Cookie".
    • Played with in an episode where Oscar gets the theme in his head. The reason why he dislikes it is because the song is too happy for grouches.
    • In another episode everybody across Sesame Street gets the Martians' "Yip-Yip Family" song stuck in their heads.
  • Earth Song:
    • "Don't Throw Your Trash on the Ground" talks about how you should never litter but use trash bins instead.
    • "The Wasteroon Song" is about how if you leave the tap running, you're wasting water and are thus a "wasteroon".
    • "Don't Waste Water" is about why water is important and shouldn't be wasted.
    • The similarly-titled "Don't Waste the Water" is about how you should never leave your faucet running.
    • There are three songs featuring a character named Willie Wimple, about environmentalism— one is about deforestation, one is about littering, and the final one is about water pollution. They show Willie doing the bad thing and sing about the terrible thing that would happen if all children did it.
    • In "Just Throw it My Way", Oscar sings about how you should throw your trash into his bin instead of on the ground.
    • "Good Morning, Mr. River" talks about how rivers are disappearing due to pollution.
    • "Love the Ocean" is about how you should never throw garbage into the ocean.
    • "Turn off the Tap" is about how you should turn off taps when you're done using them.
    • "Pond Full of Fish" tells the audience not to pollute ponds.
    • "Water" is about the uses for water and includes a verse on not wasting it.
  • Eat the Camera: A not-uncommon means of ending skits, particularly (considering his shtick) featuring Cookie Monster.
  • Edible Theme Naming:
    • One little girl in a cartoon skit is named Cookie. Downplayed for Cookie Monster, which is a nickname.
    • The "Noodles and Ned" skits feature Noodles the cat.
  • Educational Song: A major foundation of the show, covering a wide array of educational concepts and music genres.
  • Edutainment Show: Not the Ur-Example, but very much the Trope Maker for shows that try to present educational content in an entertaining fashion. With its colorful Muppets, witty comedy sketches, catchy songs, and memorable film and animation inserts, it became a big hit right out of the gate.
  • Either/Or Title:
    • A 1991 special based on Big Bird's Birthday is entitled "Big Bird's Birthday, or Let Me Eat Cake".
    • The sixth and final chapter of The Exciting Adventures of Super Grover book is entitled "Super Grover and the Hole Story, or Gone Fishing".
  • Elderly Ailment Rambling: One cartoon skit consists entirely of an old man narrating a time he had the flu. He mentions that "all [he] wanted to do was stay in the sack", his mouth was dry, and he even thought he might die.
  • Election Day Episode: The Season 15 finale sees "No Electioneering" signs plastered all over the street, as Big Bird learns that David and Olivia are off to the voting booths because it's Election Day. David and Olivia explain to Big Bird that people vote for who they want to run in certain offices in the government, so Big Bird and Snuffy decide they want to vote too, but they can't because they're not old enough to register to vote (and because Snuffy was still "imaginary" at the time).
  • Elmuh Fudd Syndwome: Baby Bear speaks with an Elmer Fudd lisp, and so does his superhero creation Hero Guy.
  • Embarrassing Damp Sheets: Bedwetting gets its own verse in the song "Accidents Happen".
  • Embarrassment Plot:
    • One episode focuses on Baby Bear being embarrassed about his baby doll because he thinks dolls are for girls.
    • In one "Abby's Flying Fairy School" skit, Blogg is embarrassed when he visits the city of trolls because he is half-troll and half-fairy so he looks like a troll with wings and feels like the odd one out.
  • Emo: Abby's classmate Gonnigan. He's shy and pessimistic, wears a striped hoodie, has a floppy hairstyle, and becomes transparent when he's nervous... which is a lot of the time. ("Where's Gonnigan?" "He's gone again.")
  • Endless Winter: In the film Elmo Saves Christmas, Elmo wishes that every day was Christmas. However, he takes it back after he's shown what would happen if he made that wish.
  • Epic Fail:
    • In Episode 0539, Big Bird wasn't very good at hiding during a game of hide and seek with Maria, Bob, and the kids, so he offers to be the seeker instead. However, once Big Bird finishes the count, he winds up falling fast asleep, thus the others had to continue without him.
    • In Episode 1416, Olivia and David build a new desk to surprise Luis and Big Bird promises not to tell. When the two build the desk outside however, Big Bird realizes this is another surprise for them; Luis then comes and reveals since they built the desk outside, there's no way to get it inside.
    • In Episode 1650, Big Bird hosts a "Meet Mr. Snuffleupagus" party in the arbor as one of his attempts to get the adults to meet Snuffy. Everyone on the street comes to the party, but he feels he forgot something. Once he goes over everyone who came, Big Bird realizes he forgot to invite Snuffy himself.
  • Episode Code Number: Displaying the episode number is the series' Couch Gag. Originally, the show used Sequential Numbering, but switched to Seasonal Numbering around Season 44.
    • 1969-1975: Random animated episode code number sequence (for example, a man hitting a gong that reads "Sesame Street", then the gong breaking down and revealing the episode code number).
    • 1976-1992: The episode number is superimposed over the start of the opening sequence.
    • 1992-1998: The episode number appears the middle of a cloudy sky that starts the "Calypso" opening.
    • 1998-2002: Again, it's superimposed over the start of the opening.
    • 2002-2007: Super Grover flies through the air, crashes, and holds a sign with the number up in a daze.
    • 2007-2009: It shared a signpost with the Sesame Street sign.
    • 2009-2015: The episode number is written in chalk on a sidewalk.
    • 2016-present: The number flies by on a banner being pulled by an airplane at the start of the opening.
  • Episode Tagline:
    • In one episode, Baby Bear keeps saying the title of his story, "The Three Bears in Outer Space" with an inexplicable echo on that last word which disappears at the end.
    • In the episode where Gabi gets the flu on her birthday, everyone tells her, "It's OK to be sad if you're sick on your birthday" to the point where she gets, well, sick of it.
    • One episode involves trying to find out why Natasha keeps saying, "Hoongie". It turns out that's what she calls her doll.
    • Every episode in seasons 38 through 45 has a "word of the day".
  • Escaped Animal Rampage: Ernie tells Bert about his day at the zoo in an early skit. Ernie describes the trip as largely uneventful, even as he also reveals that several animals escaped their cages...
  • Et Tu, Brute?: In an early insert, Big Bird calls Snuffy from Chinatown to tell him about the dragon performer he's witnessing at the moment. Since Snuffy's not there to know, he comments on what a "great imagination" Big Bird has; Big Bird annoyingly replies, "Et tu, Snuffy?"
  • Every Episode Ending:
    • Up to three letters of the day and two numbers of the day are reviewed and given sponsor credits. Starting with Season 27 (1995-1996), new episodes generally only had one letter and number of the day. An exception was Episode 4135, which had two letters of the day.
    • Up until the end of Season 31 (2000), this was followed by "Sesame Street is a production of the Children's Television Workshop". The funding credits then were shown, which were initially silent, then had a funky rendition of the theme song (nicknamed "Funky Chimes" by fans) playing from 1972-92, then an instrumental of the then-current "calypso" version of the theme from 1992-95, and finally a jazzy version of the theme until 2000.
    • From 1995-98, every episode ended with a "Coming soon on Sesame Street" bumper, with Big Bird saying "Toodle-oo!" to wrap it up.
  • Everybody Cries:
    • The contestants (Luke Warn, Ida Normer, and Pierre Blue) on The Sonny Friendly Game Show: The Crying Game Show after the announcer says "There is no consolation prize!"
    • Little Jerry and the Monotones' song "Sad" has Jerry singing about how sad he feels, followed by the other band members also bursting into tears and hugging each other by the end of the skit.
    • One song in the mid 90's is entitled "It's Alright to Cry" and is all about how all people cry sometimes.
  • Everyone Has Standards: In the sketch where he plays Robin Hood auditioning new Merry Men, even giggling jokester extraordinaire Ernie finds Harvey Kneeslapper's wacky antics obnoxious and annoying.
  • Everything Is an Instrument: The song "What Makes Music?" is about how tunes can be played on everything from rubber bands to old tin cans.
    Bob: A paper and a comb...
    Susan: A washboard and a bone...
    Gordon: A bucket that you bang on, or a ringing telephone!
  • Evil Slinks: Intentionally subverted, in an effort to make things unfairly stereotyped as icky and scary more approachable. Sammy the Snake and his song about the letter S illustrate this nicely.
  • Exactly What It Says on the Tin: As Hero Guy's theme song puts it—he's a hero, he's a guy!
  • Exact Words: Often a source of misunderstanding and laughs.
    • In one Ernie and Bert sketch, Bert's reading is disrupted by the music of a marching band Ernie is leading outside, and Bert asks him to practice anywhere but outside the apartment - so Ernie leads the band inside the apartment.
    • In one segment, Cookie Monster teaches children about asking questions by demonstrating with Prairie Dawn and a plate of his favorite dessert. He asks if he can have a cookie, and Prairie Dawn says no, he can't have a cookie—because she wants him to have all the cookies!
  • Excited Kids' Show Host:
    • Murray, who functioned as a presenter in his own right in Seasons 40-45.
    • In a more fictional example, we have Elmo for the Elmo's World and Elmo the Musical segments. Well, being three-years-old, it's no surprise.
    • Big Bird was also this in the Journey to Ernie segments.
  • Expository Theme Tune:
  • Expy: The many co-productions around the world contain their own versions of certain characters.
    • Each country has a full-bodied Muppet similar to Big Bird, but not an exact replica. One example is Abelardo Montoya from Plaza Sésamo (the Latin American version of the show), a large green parrot (and officially Big Bird's cousin). They even met once.
    • Zigzagged on Zhima Jie. Big Bird In China was a hit in China, so the Chinese producers insisted on actually having Big Bird on the show. Eventually Sesame Workshop decided to let them have a Big Bird puppet, but have the character, Da Niao, be Big Bird's identical cousin.
    • Co-productions also have their own versions of Oscar, usually another grouch. Sometimes, though, inserts with the original Oscar will be dubbed and used.
    • Elmo is international now, too. His South African equivalent is named Neno.
    • "Fruta Manzana", a singer in this animated spot about eating fruit for health and this one about not littering is based off the Chiquita Banana mascot for Chiquita, with maybe a little Carmen Miranda thrown in.
  • Extreme Omni-Goat: In an interstitial cartoon demonstrating "zero". A complaint was received from the Dairy Goats Association, leading to a follow-up clarifying that dairy goats only eat healthy, sensible foods. See them both, one after the other, here.
  • Extreme Omnivore: Cookie Monster eats anything, as do his family occasionally. Oscar eats some extremely strange food combinations — like sardine ice cream with chocolate sauce — but they are generally at least edible. Narf also eats a helmet at one point.

    Tropes brought to you by the letter F 
  • Faceless Masses: The anything muppets. The reason why they're called this is because they can be anything as needed, but the most memorable are The Count, The Amazing Mumford, Guy Smiley, Prairie Dawn and of course Forgetful Jones.
  • Fainting: Happens quite a bit with Muppets (i.e. they pass out or appear to), especially Grover, who tends to exert a lot of energy in the process of giving 110% to what he does and is given to being dramatic. Also a very common way to end a Muppet sketch.
  • Face Palm: In The Triangle is Right. Carl Mericana was asked what kind of shape he was being presented with, and when he responded with "a circle", Betty Lou facepalmed.
  • Failed a Spot Check: The Season 5 premiere does this twice in a row during the "follow the leader" segment, when Snuffy happens to stumble upon the game at the back of the line while the players' backs were turned. Nobody, not even Big Bird himself, actually realizes he joined in the game (because their eyes were closed while turning in a circle), nor do they even bother to hear his voice despite him being within an earshot.
  • Fairy Companion: Abby Cadabby is a fairy who serves as Elmo's friend.
  • Fairy Tale Free-for-All: Whenever the show dipped its feet into Fairy Tales, it featured an assortment of fairy tale characters as Muppets. Notable examples include Baby Bear from Goldilocks and the Three Bears along with his parents (and later, his little sister), or The Big Bad Wolf and The Three Little Pigs. There have also been smaller appearances from various Fairy Godmothers, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood, and many others.
    • Baby Bear attends Storybook Community School, which seems to be geared toward fairytale characters.
  • The Family for the Whole Family: Lefty the letter-pushing salesman, usually shown sidling up to Ernie: "Psst! Hey, kid - you wanna buy an 'O'?"
  • The Fantastic Faux: "The Furry Four" features Telly, Elmo, and Abby dressing as the titular heroes from Telly's comic. Elmo becomes the Furry Flash (who has Super-Speed), Abby becomes as the Furry Tornado (capable of Spectacular Spinning), Telly becomes Mr. Furry (having the power to turn invisible), and Furry Muscles (Super-Strength) but have a hard time recruiting a fourth person to fill that role, before eventually settling on Chris.
  • Fantastic Fireworks: The Fireworks Alphabet film shows the letters of the alphabet made out of fireworks.
  • Fat and Skinny: Ernie and Bert, although Ernie is more broad than fat.
  • Fear-Induced Idiocy: In one episode, Jack from the Nursery Rhyme "Jack be Nimble", Jack tries to jump eight candlesticks. When he fails, he gets so nervous of failing again, he forgets how to jump entirely.
  • Fear Song: In "Elmo Visits the Doctor", the title character is Afraid of Doctors. Because of this, Elmo can't decide whether to have his earache treated or not, and sings a song about it.
  • Feeling the Baby Kick: In the first part of the 3-part episode, "Three Bears and a New Baby", after the Bear family hug each other when Mama tells Baby Bear that they'll still have the same amount of love for each other as they did before, their hug is interrupted by Baby Bear's new baby sister, Curly, kicking from inside Mama. Baby Bear is impressed when he finds out that a baby can move around inside its mother, and Mama allows him to feel Curly kick.
  • Feud Episode:
    • In Episode 2814, Big Bird and Snuffy get into a heated argument while making a sign for the delivery man despite promising he would help Snuffy with one of his puppet shows; when he messes it up, they blame each other for it.
    • In Episode 3227, Davey gets angry at Joey because Joey ate one of his bananas.
    • In Episode 4401, Telly calls Baby Bear a "show-off" because Baby Bear's parrot Ralphie is The Ace, whereas his own hamster Chuckie Sue either can't or won't do a selection of things. This leads to a brief feud.
    • In Episode 4914, Rosita and Zoe accidentally knock down Big Bird's block tower while playing ball. This causes Big Bird to think that Snuffy knocked it down without giving him a chance to explain what really happened. Alan teaches Snuffy to stand up for himself and Nina teaches Big Bird to listen to Snuffy so they can apologize.
    • Any episode featuring Rocco will have an argument between Zoe and Elmo on whether or not a rock can be a pet.
    • In That Makes Me Angry!, a book based on the series, Ernie and Bert decide to go to the park for a picnic so the former can fly a kite and the latter can watch while enjoying his picnic lunch. Things get out of control when Ernie tells Bert to meet him at the big statue in the park. Ernie goes to a statue of two children riding a horse, while Bert goes to a statue of Mother Goose. Both Ernie and Bert wait a long time for each other, with the former accusing the latter of staying home and reading his Famous Pigeons book, and the latter accusing the former of finding something else to do and forgetting all about their plans. The two become angry when they next see each other, but make up when they realize that neither of them forgot their plans and that there were two different statues in the park.
  • Fictional Board Game: In "Birdie and the Beast", Big Bird plays a board game called Spin the Piggy with the Beast. In this game, each player plays as a pig and takes turns spinning a spinner. When the spinner lands on a number, the player has to move the allotted number of spaces on the board. The first player to make it to the pigsty wins. The Beast wins this game because he doesn't give Big Bird a turn to move his pig.
  • Fictional Holiday:
    • Discussed in a Licensed Game, where Murray wonders if it was Play in the Mud Day at the zoo to try to explain why the animals are so muddy.
    • In one episode, Elmo and Abby celebrate "Who Can Wear the Most Hats on Their Head Day", which is just what it sounds like.
  • Filler:
    • The televised version of Abby in Wonderland was combined with a cover version of "(I Believe in) Little Things" and the street scenes from "The Golden Triangle of Destiny" in order to fill an hour.
    • Also, through the years, various tricks were used to fill the hour. These included the inserting of one of several stock segments - such as the famous "dot bridge" (dots would be placed, one at a time, on the screen, to form a 6-by-5 grid) - to repeating segments to a quick clip of someone (either a mainstream celebrity or cast member) making a comment a la Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. Sometimes, the end theme and "sponsors of the day" was simply started early over a generic street scene, but the camera just pulling away from the action in progress.
  • Filthy Fun:
    • All Grouches (except Felix) enjoy being dirty and hate being clean, so they "wash" with things like mud and cheese. Irvine, Oscar's niece, did want a bath in one episode, but that was seen as an unusual activity that she's only doing because she's a toddler.
    • Slimey the worm likes mud, probably because he's a worm.
  • First Day of School Episode:
    • Abby, and later Baby Bear, had episodes focusing on their having their first day at a school for fairy-tale characters.
    • One episode focused on Elmo's first day of preschool.
    • A book based on the series focused on Grover's first day of school.
    • The Count remembers his first day of school at one point during a Flashback.
  • Fish out of Water:
  • Fishing Episode:
    • In an Ernie and Bert sketch, the two characters go fishing. Ernie is able to catch fish easily with his fish call; whenever he says, "Here, Fishy, Fishy, Fishy!" really loudly, the fish jump into the boat. When Bert tries Ernie's fish call, he doesn't succeed at first, but eventually manages to yell it really loudly, and a shark jumps into the boat.
    • In "Super Grover and the Hole Story, or Gone Fishing", the sixth and final chapter of The Exciting Adventures of Super Grover book, Grover and several of his friends go fishing on a boat. When the boat starts springing leaks, Grover can't find a telephone booth to change into his Super Grover outfit (which he had packed in his fishing creel), and the others are oblivious to this incident, so he tries to stop the leaks by plugging them himself. But then he catches a big fish, which pulls him underwater. There, he finds a discarded telephone booth under the sea, becomes Super Grover, and saves the boat by carrying it in mid-air.
  • Flanderization: An inevitable side effect of a Long Runner crossed with a massive cast. Some stand out more than others, though:
    • Since the mid-1990s, Elmo has become increasingly loud and hyperactive within each season as well as a Karma Houdini. This is especially noticeable in the segment Elmo's World, as he tends to flat-out believe that every person would only be happy, even though encouraging happiness is a good thing as you should.
    • Zoe was originally a little girl monster who enjoyed dancing, among other things... but from Seasons 33 to 47, she was only seen in her tutu.
    • Cookie Monster, in his earliest appearances, just loved milk and cookies before becoming an Extreme Omnivore.
  • Fleeting Demographic Rule: See Canon Discontinuity above. Many of the topics involving Elmo now would have been explored by Big Bird thirty years ago.
  • Floating Advice Reminder: In one animated skit, a little girl goes to a grocery store and struggles to remember one of the items she has to buy. An image of her mother's face rather noisily bursts into view and repeats the shopping list for her ("A loaf of bread, a container of milk and a stick of butter").
  • Fly-at-the-Camera Ending: The musical skit "Surprise" has a Pie in the Face ending with the pie flying straight into the face of the viewer.
  • A Foggy Day in London Town: In a News Flash, Kermit has gone to London to report on the London Fog. He is interrupted by the London Frog, a Guardsman carrying the official London Log, and the London Hog. Then the fog clears up, so they all dance the London Clog.
  • Fooled by the Sound: Grover mistakes an echo for someone mimicking him and yells, "Will you knock it off?!"
  • Forgetful Jones: Trope Namer. Forgetful Jones is a cowboy who forgets a lot.
  • Foul Medicine: In "Elmo Visits the Doctor", during the song "You Have to Be Patient to Be a Patient", the young, flu-afflicted girl is shown gagging when she takes her medicine.
  • Four-Fingered Hands: According to Word of God, every Muppet has them except Cookie Monster who has five, and Big Bird who has three.
  • Fourth Wall Greeting: "Hi! Welcome to Sesame Street!", Said by one of the Muppets or humans at the beginning of the street scenes following the theme song.
  • "Freaky Friday" Flip: In a mid 90's episode, Mumford does a magic trick where he switches places with a dog but things go awry when the dog, in Mumford's body and still holding the wand, runs away and leaves him unable to undo the trick.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: In "Elmo Saves Christmas", Elmo's fireplace has a nativity set on the mantle.
  • Freudian Slip: In one episode, Gina and some children (including Elmo) are trying to avoid saying the word "nose" to Cyranose de Bergerac, since that's his Berserk Button. Unfortunately, Gina accidentally asks him if he wants milk in his nose when she meant "coffee".
  • Friendly Local Chinatown: In The Magical Wand Chase, the gang ends up in Chinatown where they chase after a bird who has Abby's wand. They later end up in two towns filled with people from Mexico and West Africa, respectively.
  • Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: The Count is one of the finest examples of this. He's a vampire, but very friendly and never seen drinking blood.
  • Friendship Song:
    • "Best Friends", a song about two friends who are close and enjoy doing things with each other. It was sung by Telly and Baby Bear in Episode 3530, by Big Bird and Snuffy in Episode 3810, and by Rosita and Herry in Episode 3886.
    • "You're My Best Friend" from Episode 1075, sung by Big Bird and Snuffy about their friendship which is what truly matters to them.
    • "Feathered Friends" from Episode 1449, sung by Big Bird and Paco the parrot over their strong friendship as birds.
    • "Near to You" from the Season 19 finale, sung by Big Bird and Gina as they appreciate sitting next to each other at the reception and how close they are.
    • "We Can All Be Friends" from Julia's debut episode, sung by the Muppets and Alan over their true mutual bond with each other despite their differences.
  • Funny Animal: Some upright-walking animals, such as the Bear family, feature.
  • Funny Foreigner: The Count is one of the Transylvanian variety. he speaks like the archetypical Transylvanian vampire.
  • Fun with Acronyms: In his debut episode, S.A.M. the Robot explains to Gordon and Susan that his initials stand for Super Automatic Machine.
  • Fun with Alphabet Soup:
    • In one "Abby's Flying Fairy School" skit, Abby and her classmates use letters from alphabet soup to make a stop sign because they Couldn't Find a Pen.
    • In one skit, Mr. Johnson the crabby restaurant customer orders alphabet soup, but he isn't satisfied until every single letter is present, and by then, the soup has cooled down.
  • Funny X-Ray: In the Oscar the Grouch's Alphabet of Trash book, the page for the letter X shows Oscar's exhibit of X-ray pictures. Cookie Monster's X-ray picture reveals a bunch of cookies inside his stomach, Oscar's X-ray picture reveals a fish bone inside his stomach, S.A.M. the Robot's X-ray picture reveals a toaster inside him, and a Goat's X-ray reveals a bunch of tin cans in its stomach.
  • Furry Confusion:
    • In one skit, teaching about frogs, Kermit is horrified when Bob tells him that frogs do not eat pizza or live in apartments, and is noticeably squeamish when Bob shows him a real bullfrog.
    • The song "Bears, Bears, Bears" is about how the Bear family are still bears even though they don't act like regular bears.
  • Furry Reminder:
    • Big Bird has exhibited non-anthropomorphic bird behavior on occasion, such as fluffing and preening his feathers with his beak, wiggling his body as he settles into his nest, curling his head against his neck and sometimes putting his head under his wing when sleeping, and taking a dust bath.
    • The Bear family doesn't hibernate, but in one episode, it's revealed that they still need to occasionally take all-day naps to make up for lost sleep.
    • Chip and Dip can both speak and meow.
    • One "Elmo's World" skit features a tiger who can talk and once demonstrates his roar.
    • The Bear family mainly talks, but they can also growl. One episode is about Baby Bear accepting that his baby sister Curly has a louder growl than him.

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