Like many of you, I grew up watching Sesame Street, but the show of today is nothing like it was back then. For one thing, they do more parodies of TV shows-- a lot more, a number which is up from the zero I remember from my childhood. Granted, after 42 seasons, they may be running out of ideas, and their "Change-O-Bots" sketch was petty damn entertaining, but it still doesn't explain why so many of the parodies are of explicitly adult programs. Perhaps, in a world where there are plenty of choices for children's programming, Sesame wants to put out a product that parents will choose because they like it, too? Smart thinking, and the only reason I can find to explain "30 Rocks," but I really have to question the decision to present kiddified versions of late-night dramas to pre-schoolers. I'm sure plenty of you will call it harmless fun, but here are ten of the most disturbing parodies in my eyes, although I expect this list to change once they figure out how to make The Walking Dead into a sketch about counting.
10) "G" (Glee)
While Glee is largely presented (and accepted) as family entertainment, its focus on teens and equally hormonal adults keeps sex in the forefront of its subject matter. And while the glee club's lone gay member, Kurt, is frequently part of the most chaste storylines, he is also what can only be described as a walking stereotype. Interior decorating, singing showtunes... the complete package. And yet, somehow, Sesame Street has managed to make Kurt even more stereotypically flamboyant, simply by explaining that "G" is for gasp, glitter and GORGEOUUUUUS! Also, Sue Sylvester makes a joke about M. Schuester's proclivity for hair gel, which, I'm sorry, no.
9) "RSI: Rhyme Scene Investigation" (CSI)
Sesame's parody of The Closer is a little disturbing, with its syrupy-sweet of Kyra Sedgwick Muppet, but it at least teaches the difference between "open" and "closed" in a fun and clever way. Meanwhile, in this "RSI" sketch, the act of rhyming is made to seem utterly dire and procedural. Also, call me old-fashioned, but I think we need to protect our children from David Caruso.
8) "Smell Like a Monster" (Old Spice Commercials)
Grover is usually naked, but for some reason it's hard to deal with Grover in a towel, trying to seduce us with his eyes and offering us tickets to an event of some kind. Maybe it's the original actor's raw sexuality coming through in the parody, maybe it's the commercial's flexible sense of reality, or maybe it's just the fact that Muppets shouldn't advertise personal hygiene products designed to make you more attractive to the opposite sex. Don't make me want to smell Grover's musk.
7) "Mad Men" (Uh, Mad Men)
They don't even bother to change the name -- or the premise -- of the AMC drama for this sketch, in which 1960s advertising executive Don Draper emotionally analyzes several pitches from underlings for a big honey account. Nobody sleeps with their secretary or has a drinking problem, but we do get to see Muppets quiver with rage and suck up to their superiors. Sure, kids learn the difference between "mad," "sad" and "happy" from this sketch, but they also learn the word "sycophant," which I'm not sure is such a good thing. (As an alternative, I recommend the classic "Twelve Angry Men", which manages to educate and entertain without actually re-enacting the terse courtroom drama.)
6) "The Heaviest Catch" (The Deadliest Catch)
Deep-sea crab fishing has never seemed so much fun as in this sketch, which morphs the original show's unflinching look at the pressures and dangers of the job into a wacky chase for heavier and heavier sea creatures. And yet the sketch carries over many of the show's most disturbing themes: the captain obsesses over heaviness quotas, is injured by falling clams and squid, and the entire ship sinks at the end from too much weight. The only way it could be more like the original would be if it was implied that the captain had a fatal heart condition. Wait... his name is "Captain Heartburn"? Oy.
Glee: I'll concede this one is inappropriate, for having all its characters be smug pricks or embarrassing stereotypes.
RSI: Kind of useless, because the rhymes come too fast for a kid to follow. I assume there's a missing conclusion where they find out it was his cat? Middling as parody and education, but inoffensive.
Smell Like a Monster: If you hadn't seen the ad, you'd assume this was just Sesame Street up to it's everyday shenanigans. Changing backgrounds, random props falling on Grover's head? Par for the course.
Mad Men: This one is actually great. It teaches kids to interpret emotions based on context clues within an image. That kind of empathy and reasoning is a key part of social development, and the skit conveys the principles effectively.
The Heaviest Catch: While it does get across the idea of relative weight and comparative adjectives, it is a bit vague, and ends on a potentially fatal cliffhanger. But I wouldn't call it inappropriate.
Special Letters Unit: Aside from boasting a flawless caricature of Richard Belzer, this skit deals with the difference between a symbol and its denotata: The letter "M" itself and its application as a sound in words. That's a complex concept to grasp, but here it's laid out simply and clearly. And it's got some great jokes: "Who listens to a piece of talking poultry?" *Looks at viewers, who are presumably familiar with Big Bird*
A's Anatomy: Avoid's the authentic ABC show's awful acting, asinine attempts at medical accuracy, and over-abundance of erotic antics, allowing for an astute analysis of alphabetical aptitude.
Spidermonster: Yeah, pretty worthless.
Twin Beaks: Not terribly educational, but features some great CM shenanigans, captures the atmosphere of the show (and its tendency to string along the viewers), and points out that observation and deduction are useful alternatives when asking questions doesn't divulge sufficient information. A fine skit.
True Mud: Weird, and not terribly informative. Would have been better if Oscar had been the grouch.
What? No reference to the Seventh Seal parody where, you guessed it, Elmo is at a pier counting seven seals. Not exactly the most clever, but it's either that or explain death (Done that.) and explain chess (The audience is three.).
"They try to explain it away by making him a filth-loving grouch (as in Oscar), but that just raises more questions, like why he doesn't look like any grouch we've ever seen[...]"
Ernie: "Those are grouches?"Oscar: "They are grouches, and it is a long story... We do not discuss it with outsiders."
I've always been a fan of Guy Smiley.... And that Grover on a boat parody was kinda funny, speaking as a person who was the original target age group when this show started! While I don't watch entire episodes anymore, I stay abreast of the happenings on the Street. Good to know the writers are staying fresh, and at least trying to be "just like Mom and Dad's shows" without being totally inappropriate for a 4 year old! (While also appealing to the older, more stoned original demographic!)
Sesame Street parodies are creative and entertaining. They encourage families to watch television together. I think all of these skits are tasteful and appropriate for children. Moreover, I take particular exception to the comments Mr. Barish made about "G". As an early literacy teacher I found the distinction between the two phoneme types of "G" were made very clear. As a parent of two children, I liked how they captured the feel of the show to make it entertaining (including the hair gel comment). I am particularly concerned about Mr. Barish's comments about the famboyant gay character. As a gay man, I loved the fact that Sesame Street had a gay person represented. Join the 21st century. Children's television needs more gay puppets showing not just the flamboyant foam heads but the laid back ones too. Next year I'm hoping Bert and Ernie will get married and stop living in sin.
The muppet show AND sesame street both did a lot of parodies of everything. One was turning billy idols "Rebel" Yell into "Rebel L". And the muppet show did a parody of "NYPD Blue" which was infamous for its vulgarities. Plus Sesame street parodied the very brief Lambada dance craze by having sheep dancing the "Lam-Baaa-Da".
Sesame Street has always done this. When I was a kid they had a parody of Casablanca, Dolly Parton, (Polly Darton, remember?), Masterpiece Theater (Monsterpiece Theater, with Cookie Monster as the host), and lots of others.
And yes, the point is to make it appealing to the parents, so that Sesame Street is a social time between parents and children, since they'll hopefully watch it together.
And I'm sorry, but the Old Spice and Spidermonster parodies are in fact the funniest things I've seen in a long time.
I think I am missing the point here. How is any of this inappropriate? They are funny and my kids love the show. There are a lot worse things out there than kids learning the word sycophant, or learning that fishermen have quotas. I think the problem is most parents need to get a life or learn to deal with the one they have. There is a lot of bad stuff out there, and being scared of stuff like this is a luxury of a sheltered life.
They always parodied songs in our childhood (Letter B, Baby We Were Born To Add), but yes, no TV shows. Still, I have to watch a 2 year old occasionally, and when these come on, they are pretty funny for me. I don't think these harm the kids at all. Probably most of the little kids don't even know they are adult show parodies, so in the end, it doesn't matter. they are learning something, and the adult gets to laugh.
Some of this were first run back when my daughter was still in the age range that Sesame Street is made for, and I never got any weird questions about the skits. Why? Because by the time kids are old enough to really start making connections between the parody skits and the existence of the real shows they're pretty much past watching Sesame Street anyways. I sure as heck wouldn't have let my daughter anywhere near watching something like Law & Order, so really the similarity is only noticeable by the adults. I guess some clarification on the list would be cool; Inappropriate because kids might pick up on it, or just because it may be awkward for the adults? Not really offended or anything, but I would like to know the context the author of the list meant for it to be read in.
I'd love to see them do a parody of MST3K called 'Monster Science Theater 3000' where Grover, Cookie and Sully watch old clips of Sesame Street and riff them.
I'll toss in Desperate Houseplants as an honorable mention. "The story of some houseplants who are not getting what they need." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
Right with you, Rob (edit: Not Rob, Jay). But I'm surprised that you missed (what I find) the most egregious one of all - "Socks in the City" which playfully parodies a group of... well, you know.
Another point: most of us have whined / complained that the Muppets have lost the semi-chaotic edge that they had in the 70s in the post-Muppets-Tonight era (and even then, it's really just about the Prince episode being so insane that the rest of the series is dragged upwards).
But this is the type of stuff that the Muppets should've been doing all along, and it's only now that they're getting back to it via the YouTube videos.
What about "Waiting for Elmo"? No kid is going to get that reference - hell, 90% of adults wouldn't get it - and without context, the sketch is just kinda dumb. http://youtu.be/ksL_7WrhWOc
BTW, no hatin' on Old Spice Grover. Loved that sketch so much, it's become one of those pointless couple exchanges - "I am on a horse." "Moo." "Cow."
I originally read the title as "10 Most Head-Shakingly Inappropriate Parody Sketches Of Sesame Street." Off the top of my head, the Robot Chicken sketches with the bird flu epidemic and Gordon the Gecko would rate high, but the top slot would belong to "Kneehigh Park" from Chappelle's Show.
This is what I get for not being a new dad these days. If the show did parodies when I was watching (late-Seventies/early-Eighties), I don't remember them.
Clever concept, Mr. Barish, but I don't think these are as inappropriate as you might think: Kids stay up later these days than they did when I was a lad (I'm 34--my bedtime was 9PM, but I've come to understand that was relatively rare back in the 80s), and thus the dividing line between childrens' and adults' programming is much thinner.
The kids these parodies are aimed at may not fully grasp these shows--but the names and characters are familiar enough to them through watching TV with their folks. Plus, as mentioned, they're a nice treat for parents watching the show with their children: You can laugh at the play on a popular series, while your offspring learn about letters and numbers--everyone wins! ^_^
So... having the characters mistakenly bring this guy things that rhyme with "mud"... in a sketch that's a rhyming pun on "blood"... doesn't seem like such a good idea.
