Sesame Street turns 40 – part 1: television spoofs and goofs

When I learned that Sesame Street was turning forty, my reactions were roughly as follows:

1. I love Sesame Street!
2. Holy crap, I’ve only been alive for half of that and I still feel old.
3. I’ve got to clack about this.

And then, of course, I went about doing so.  But it’s a bit more complicated than that. Because when you write about Sesame Street, it’s not like writing about your average show. Sesame Street is more than a show, it’s an institution. It’s a universal that almost everyone I know watches and relates to. It’s something I still enjoy watching with the kids I babysit (more than they enjoy watching it, usually). It’s a visual representation of my childhood, and not just mine, but multiple generations worth of kids.  It’s such a big deal that  Newsweek had a great article exploring the cultural impact of Sesame Street, about its dedication to sending messages of peace and acceptance to children, about how for forty years they have faithfully depicted people of all races, ethnicities, and religions playing and living together as a peaceful community, and how groundbreaking that was to see, especially on a children’s show in 1969.

Sesame Street spans not just outside of our televisions (hello, the Tickle Me Elmo craze?) but into other shows. Both Scrubs and The West Wing have featured Sesame Street character cameos. MADtv has a running Sesame Street spoof, and it has been satirized on both Family Guy and the “Smile Time” episode of Angel. Hell, there’s even a satirical Tony-winning musical written about this show.

And Sesame Street gives back as good as its got. Spoofs of television shows are a mainstay in Sesame Street humor. Below are my favorite spoofs, almost all of which are recent, because if they made fun of older shows, I just wouldn’t get it.  My parents, however, assure me that they’ve been doing this schtick for years, and apparently it just never gets old. But here are some of my favorite spoofs, most of which are recent, all of which are awesome.

In 30 Rocks, a plucky young lemon named Liz is asked by her boss to make sure her order of 30 rocks for her sketch comedy show is, indeed, exactly 30 rocks. But can she count that high? Drama! Intruige! Suspense! Talking lemons!

On this gripping episode of A’s Anatomy, Dr. Grover of Alphabet Grace hospital is forced to surgically put back together an injured letter A. But will he succeed? My one suggestion for making this better is if Grover could maybe have some voiceovers with useless, obnoxious navel-gazing.

Houseplants are simple creatures. They need only two things — water and sunlight. Two simple things! And when those needs are not fulfilled, can you blame them if they turn to the sexy gardener? And by sexy, I mean that he’s a muppet.

I think this may (may!) be my favorite, at least in terms of sheer satire. Every detail is just so spot on and, as a bonus, you learn about the letter M. What more could you possibly want?

As part of the new, more modern push towards healthy eating, Sesame Street is proud to present its newest segment in a long line of game show spoofs (often with CliqueClack staff favorite Guy Smiley), Meal or No Meal. Anything I say would be spoiling the pure wonder of this segment, so I’ll just tell you this — when I was showing my parents which I’d selected, this was by far my mother’s favorite. And my mom is a really, really hard to please lady as far as new Sesame Street goes  because of her extreme hatred of Elmo’s World.

A longstanding segment that never fails to please is Monsterpiece Theater. I’m not sure which is greater, the literary in-jokes or the fact that Cookie Monster wears a cravat. For me, it’s personally the cravat.

Let’s harken back to a time when MTV showed music videos and thus, this spoof was ten times funnier. Ah, the good old days. Of course, if we harken back that far we suddenly are confronted with crimped hair, Hammer pants, and Zoombas. Perhaps we should just stay where we are.

Clacked by Julia Hass
on Jun 04, 2009 @ 15:00 EST5EDT