Sesame Street – SparklyPrettyBriiiight

Sesame Street parodies strike again: Witness the tasty fun of Orange is the New Snack

Sesame Street is the unquestioned monarch of parody.

From Game of Thrones to Harry Potter, True Blood to Pirates of the Caribbean and many more in-between, the parodies from the unquestioned originator of the gold standard in televisual children’s education have amused and instructed in equal measure, proof that teachable moments can be as silly as they are important.

The latest addition to this stellar line-up is Orange is the New Snack, a homage to the Netflix series which is about to enter its fifth highly-successful season Orange is the New Black, in which the inmates of Litchfield Aacdemy find out that oranges are far yummier and better for you than the usual snacks (Cookie Monster may disagree, of course).

It’s madcap, silly and makes frequent allusions to the show it is parodying and if you’re a fan of Orange is the New Black, or simply of Sesame Street‘s gift for silliness-based learning, you’ll find a lot to love about their latest effort.

Even if you have to watch it from The Shoe!

Get Ur Freak On with Missy Elliott and the Teletubbies

It’s true what they say – you can’t keep a freaky good Teletubby down!

Actually no one likely says that at all, but they should with a brand new mash-up video, by YouTube user Robert Jones, giving the Teletubbies, who ran for 365 episodes in 1997-2001, before being revived for 60 episodes in 2014, a chance to get their freak on Missy Elliott-style.

The song was originally released as part of the soundtrack for Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), a compulsively listenable song in a collection of similarly-strong songs. The movie, which I quite enjoyed in a pulpy switch-your-brain-off kind of way, may not have met with critical acclaim, but the soundtrack, which gathered together Missy Elliott, Nine Inch Nails, The Chemical Brothers and Basement Jaxx among many others, was a resounding success.

Now 16 years later, the Teletubbies, who as noted have experienced a pop culture Lazarus moment of their own of late, are giving “Get Ur Freak On” a whole new brightly-coloured lease on life and we are all the better for it.

So you heard them – off you go and well, you know …

(source: Laughing Squid)

And just so you have a reference point, here’s the non-Teletubbies original clip.

Dance your way from A to Z with Disco Grover!

Get on down! (image via YouTube (c) Sesame Workshop)

SNAPSHOT
Step aside and let the King show you how it’s done. Grover is the King of ABC Disco and he is going to boogie oogie oogie through all twenty-six letter of the alphabet. Watch him get down!

I have long been a fan of the absolutely impressive, endlessly talented Grover who is rivalled in my Sesame Street affections, only by the engaging twosome of Ernie and Bert.

Suffice to say then that Grover doing pretty much anything enthralls and delights me, meaning of course that were he to hit the disco dancefloor as he does in his clip then I would have of course have to watch.

And sing my ABCs at the top of my disco-loving voice as I boogie with dear old Grover.

There is something incredibly endearing about Grover who never quite seems to get things completley right but who is nonetheless lauded for giving it a go and being willing to plunge on regardless of the likely, less than graceful consequences.

At least he tries … well until it all, rather sweetly and hilariously, becomes a little too much for him.

Even then he is unfailing polite, lovely and adorably Grover-ish.

Get on down but make sure you don’t tread on Grover OK?

Cookie Monster and the delicious history of cookies #nomnomnom

Eyes on the cookies (image via Mashable (c) Sesame Workshop)

SNAPSHOT
Kids try 100 years of cookies with special guest Cookie Monster including mallomars, sugar cookies, nutter butters, macarons, and more. (synopsis via Laughing Squid)

If you wanted to learn everything you could be about the last 100 years of cookies, and why wouldn’t you, then the person to go to would have to be Cookie Monster!

So that’s exactly what Bon Appétit did, handing the floor to Sesame Street’s most ardent lover of small baked items to teach two eager, sugar-loving kids about cookies from every decade of the last 100 years.

It’s every bit as messy and fun as you’d expect, a fun educational reminder to us all that eating cookies is truly only done right when there’s as much on you as in you.

Eat up everyone and remember, it’s history you’re gobbling up!

Will being told the minor key way to Sesame Street make you happily sad? It just might

One of the most noticeable and much-loved parts of Sesame Street, which is currently in the midst of its 47th season and now broadcast on HBO, is its extraordinarily upbeat theme song which asks eager boys and girls (and let’s be honest more than a few adults) “Can you tell me how to get,
How to get to Sesame Street?”

It’s bright, shiny, enthusiastic and full of childlike fun, as it should be, since it’s the lead-in that’s meant to instil an air of eager anticipation for the kind of education that Sesame Street has found itself enormously talented at delivering.

And while it’s unlikley that the show will be changing its theme song anytime soon, YouTube user and talented singer/musician YOAG has made a good case for giving the show’s theme song, as part of his Will it sad? series, a little more melancholy and introspection than it usually possesses.

The results are strangely soothing and not at all depressing, proving that getting to Sesame Street may be just as effective if you slow down a little, stop and smell the roses (that begin with the letter “R”) and meander your way to the home of Grover, Big Bird and Oscar.

Maybe not all the time, but occasionally? I have a feeling even Oscar wouldn’t mind that.

(source: Laughing Squid)

For comparison, here’s the original theme song in all its cheery glory …

There’s a new letter on Sesame Street … or is there?

(image via YouTube (c) Jimmy Kimmel Live!)

Let’s face it – you get to a certain point in life and you feel like you’ve seen it all.

The good old “there’s nothing new under the sun”, a phrase drawn from the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible, that laments the unsurprising monotonous feel of life begins to feel more and more like it’s the defining paradigm of life.

And yes that kind of ennui can affect anyone and anything – even good old Sesame Street.

So Jimmy Kimmel, host of nightly talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live!, decided to shake things up a bit when he visited the venerable show, unveiling a brand new letter to an understandable sceptical Cookie Monster, Elmo and Grover in the hopes that the 26 rather over-used letters in the existing alphabet could have a break.

Alas, while the new letter, pronounced “yuke” is a daring move, opening all kinds of status quo-unsettling possibilities, it soon becomes obvious, in this highly-amusing piece, that its uses may be a tad limited.

Back to the alphabetical drawing board and the 649th featuring of the letter “T” it is then (which in the hands of the awesome people and muppets at Sesame Street will be just as good as the first) …

SMOOTH … Sesame Street seamlessly delivers a stunning rendition of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony’s “Tha Crossroads”

Grover and Ernie get on down with Bone Thugs-n-Harmony (image via YouTube)

Sesame Street has always been way up to the minute and astutely hip to the groove.

And now thanks to Adam Schleichkorn, who previously gave us the mash-up gem of The Muppets performing the Beastie Boys’ “So What’cha Want”, they just got even more street cred thanks to his clever bringing together of Grover, Elmo, Ernie and the gang with Cleveland Ohio’s Bone Thugs-n-Harmony’s “Tha Crossroads.”

It’s smooth, soulful and pinpoint-perfect in the bringing together of visuals and song though it was not without its challenges according to Schleichkorn:

“This was, by far, the toughest song choice out of all the mashups I’ve ever created, but it’s one of the best rap songs ever, so it had to be done.”

We’re glad he did and no doubt so the ever-hip, ever-with it denizens of the funkiest street in the world.

(source: Mashable)

Cookie Monster hungrily handles a giant edible dinosaur in Sesame Street’s Jurassic Park parody

(image via YouTube (c) Childrens' Television Workshop) — (image via YouTube (c) Childrens’ Television Workshop)

Technology is a marvellous thing isn’t it?

It gives us the power to speak to a friend far away in an instant, or even fly quickly to see them, allows us to cure disease, throw together a dazzling, motivational Powerpoint presentation on a whim … and yes, create giant rampaging cookie dinosaurs from prehistoric crumbs trapped in amber …

Wait … wait … what what?!

You heard me, or read me rather, thanks to the power of advanced scientific-ness and a damn good oven, it’s possible to whip up a walking, talking, lumbering edible dinosaur who may or may be out to eat you (he could, if you’re paying attention, be after something else entirely).

Which is exactly what Cookie Monster does until one day in Jurassic Cookie as the rampaging and the lumbering kick into top gear, and he wonders how he can stop this beast conjured up from ancient slivers of butter, eggs and sugar.

The only trouble is, the warning sign, which gives clear instructions on what to do in the case of an emergency, has had most of its final word chomped off, leaving only a tantalising letter “H” behind.

What could it all mean for a Jeep-driving ancient cookie-summoning mogul and his grandchildren (yes Cookie Monster has progeny of his progeny in this hilarious number) and will they figure out what to do in time?

Quite a bit in fact, and of course, yes, since this is one of Sesame Street‘s enormously clever, very funny pop culture parodies, which are thankfully legion, this time taking the educational mickey out of Jurassic Park as its more modern successor Jurassic World storms its way to box office domination.

It could be that all you need is something reasonably warm and cuddly rather than all that newfangled technology but then you’ll have to watch this brilliantly entertaining video to find out.

Quake in fear invading cookies of Bon Bon for the Aveggies are here! (Sesame Street parody)

The Aveggies are all that stands between the vegetable-loving citizens of Earth and a dessert-led creaming courtesy of nefarious alien sweet-heart Bon Bon (image via YouTube (c) Childrens' Television Workshop) — The Aveggies are all that stands between the vegetable-loving citizens of Earth and a dessert-led creaming courtesy of nefarious alien sweet-heart Bon Bon (image via YouTube (c) Childrens’ Television Workshop)

“People of Earth, prepare to be desserted! Mwahahaha!”

You may have noticed that a small, low budget indie film by the name of Avengers: Age of Ultron is currently in cinemas, the latest in Marvel’s long line of super successful superhero movies to triumph at the box office.

Even if this minor teensy-weensy film has passed you buy, rest assured that the eagle-eyed creative geniuses at the Childrens’ Television Workshop, the inspired minds behind Sesame Street have well and truly noticed it and as is their wonderful way, come up with a parody to honour its presence in the cinemas of the world (where it is, of course, doing very nicely, thank you very much.)

And it is, as are all the parodies that Sesame Street unleashes upon a zeitgeist-embracing public, full of delightfully groan-inducing puns, fantastic names for the health-loving superheroes defending us from an exclusive diet of cookies and cream – Dr. Brownie (Cookie Monster as The Hulk), Onion Man, Captain Americauliflower, Black Bean Widow, Mighty Corn and Zuchin-eye – and naturally an evil calorie-rich villain named Bon Bon who unleashes a Star Trek-shaped giant cookie upon the good broccoli, carrot and asparagus-chomping people of Earth.

As you would expect from a Sesame Street parody, there’s also a message running through the piece; in this case that Cookie Monster, who is easily distracted by cookies, must focus if he is to do his part as a member of the Aveggies.

After all if he doesn’t, fine cauliflower-lovers everywhere could find themselves variously in a jam and creamed and no one wants that!

(OK I do occasionally but don’t tell the Aveggies till I’ve finished my caramel tart.)

source: zap2it

Zach Be Nimble: One comedian, a piranha and Sesame Street teach us about being “quick and light”

Zach Galifianakis and Murray, and of course a piranha show us the meaning of the word "nimble" (image via YouTube (c) Children's Television Workshop) — Zach Galifianakis and Murray, and of course a piranha show us the meaning of the word “nimble” (image via YouTube (c) Children’s Television Workshop)

It goes without saying that if you want to teach a lesson well, it must involve a piranha.

It’s an educational truth so self-evident that it’s a wonder every learning institution in the world isn’t equipped with a school of the cannibalistically-feisty Amazonian creatures.

Sesame Street, now in its 46th year of teaching kids – and let’s be honest, everyone else because we’re all watching – all the important words, numbers and life lessons they need to know, knows their importance all too well which is why when comedian Zach Galifianakis dropped into the show one day, they had an eager piranha on hand to add extra chomp to his segment with Murray.

And it’s a good thing too because Zach, sterling comedic talent that he is, doesn’t quite appreciate what the world “nimble”, defined as “movements which are quick and light”, means until said piranha makes his appearance at the end of Murray’s specially-adapted nursery rhyme.

In no time flat, Zach understands the word’s meaning all too well, educationalists cheered the world over and Sesame Street once again proves that it knows exactly what it’s doing when it comes to educating the world’s children.

And using piranhas as teaching aides.

Watch and learn, people, watch and learn … oh, and get ready to move!

Nimbly, of course.

Tag: Sesame Street