Remember When Sesame Street Kept It Real?
There was a time when I didn’t defend Barney. There was a time when I didn’t know the names and educational histories of the hosts of Blue’s Clues. And there was a time when I had no plans to buy a Tickle Me Elmo.
Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
Elmo’s gone big time, and the nice people at Sesame Street released the TMX Tickle Me Elmo
Bottom line, you know damn well some horrible toddler on your gift list would appreciate it. Either that or your brother’s wife just had a baby and you want to get back at him for years of torture. Whatever. The Elmo folks donate a bunch of their cash to the Sesame Foundation, supporting the education of children at home and around the world.
Whatever side of the Elmo fence you’re on, you may as well buy it here instead of Walmart. At least this way you can drink and curse while you do it.
Not into Elmo? Don’t know any toddlers? Check out Sesame Street - Old School
This post is part of IttyBiz’s charity drive for the charity that shall remain nameless. The proceeds IttyBiz receives from you buying this item (or any other item Amazon sells, if you use the link provided) go to a Very Good Cause. Not loving Sesame Street? Try a book instead.
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Lol.
Somehow Sesame Street raw and uncensored doesn’t seem right.
Okay, you win. I’m going to pick up classic SS today. I don’ t know how many times in the past year I’ve goofed off and sang an SS song to my girl. And honestly, I wish I could see the clip the song came from again. And I’m 36.
Here are two that stick in my mind from my SS days:
The King singing, “I love 8. 8 is great. 8 is the number I do not-” and then this little bugger screams “WAIT!” and interrupts the whole funky song because some chick had a baby.
The 123-4-5-678910-1112 song. Man, those background singers had it going on. They were just hot. Trendy. They knew it all. I’m sure they did. Come on, they could count to 12! And rock!
Man, I hate “cookies are a sometimes snack.” I kind of get it, but still…
I totally relate to the fallen mighty. I have two kids watching (shudder) Dora the Explorer as I write this. (They get an hour a day and choose Dora? We’ll have to “lose” those DVDs.)
Wonder Pets. No there’s a kids show. Didn’t like it at first, but appreciate it more now. Lots of humor for the parents in there.
And from Sesame Street? “Manuh manuh do do dee di do!” Classic!
If you like the old Sesame Street, you definitely need to grab the DVDs of The Electric Company. That show ROCKED. And I’m not speaking from nostalgia. I rented them a few weeks back. My wife mostly rolled her, but I still think those old shows rock. Forget Dora. Give me Easy Reader and Fargo North, Decoder!
(wish we could edit comments…)
I used to teach high school. One time I had a series of stuff up on the board–forget what–but we needed to count them. “Okay, so we have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Six items! Mwah ha ha ha!” Sadly, only a few kids got it.
People, it comes with a warning label letting you know it’s not suitable for children.
That disturbs me. I mean, I am seriously bothered by that for some reason.
Sesame Street seriously touches a nerve. I think it’s because many Gen Xers knew Big Bird better than they knew their own parents.
Bert and Ernie live together, too. (which I personally think is just fine, thank you.)
Hm. Do they still, now that Gen Xrs are too old for Sesame Street? Or have they been “separated” from that living arrangement? (No, I don’t subscribe to satellite. We watch a lot of movies instead. None of them Sesame Street… but it’s comin’… soon. MUAHAHAH!)
“Really think about them. Envision them as real, breathing individuals. What do they eat for breakfast? How old are they? Are they Democrats or Republicans? Do they like their jobs? Do they like their spouses? How many bedrooms are in their homes?”
I hear you and business sch. said as much but then you see so-called successful companies and wonder how much they really know or if it’s just a matter of plain luck!
@lornadoon: The warning sticker is due to changing times. There’s a Masterpiece Theater spoof called Monsterpiece Theater, starring Cookie Monster, who smokes (!) a pipe.
And, apparently, another scene features Gordon inviting a little girl over to his house for milk and cookies. And she goes with him. By herself.
Maybe it’s a different age. Maybe we just wised up. Probably it’s a bit of both.
(@lornadoone: Sorry for misspelling your name the first time around.)
Cookie Monster smoking a pipe is far less offensive to me than that “Sweet 16″ show they had/have on MTV. Or about 90% of the other crap people let their kids watch these days. I didn’t let my 10-year-old foster daughter watch Desperate Housewives or Law and Order, so imagine my surprise when she came home from a weekend with her mom and was all caught up on the shows! I think there’s a difference between being overprotective and not being protective enough. The SS thing strikes me as being in the first category.
i couldn’t agree more with lornadoone. if old skool sesame street gets a warning label…what does present day britney spears need? besides a muzzle, birth control, a diet, and apparently about 10 handlers.
there is no way that anything on the old sesame street could ever offend kids today. have the ratings people heard of halloween? i saw more disturbing outfits this year on younger girls than ever. and i live in scottsdale, where you get a boob job as a high school graduation present.
besides, old sesame is like real life:
someone living in a garbage can, who is bitter and friends with an imaginary person.
two guys who live together and dress similarly.
and people who break out in song every so often.
it’s like new york, but with puppets.
You know what I hate? When I go into the comments section of my own blog and the comments are so good, I don’t have anything intelligent to contribute.
Assholes.
@erin: It’s not abou offense, I don’t think. It’s about old scenes that were fine looking bad in a modern context. Consider my Gordon example before. They don’t want kids to get the idea that it’s okay to go off with some man to his house for “milk and cookies.” Now I haven’t seen the clip, so I don’t know if the girl already knows Gordon. And all that. I think they’re just erring onthe side of caution. Actually, parents who watch it with their kids could use it as a teachable moment.
@Naomi: Crap blogs draw crap traffic. You’re getting obviously brilliant traffic, so you’ve got an obviously brilliant blog. Rejoice!
(My, that last post is typotacular. Nice work, mister freelance copyWRITER man!.)
Matt - thank you for saying that. Also, thank you for bringing the word “typotacular” into my life.