I heard someone talking about how the voices for characters on Sesame Street have changed, and I just realized how long its been since I’ve ever seen that show. Why, I stopped watching long before that silly Elmo character was all the rage (the schizophrenic Big Bird who hallucinated seeing a wooly mammoth was the most popular character in my day), and, as a result, I’ve started forgetting my alphabet, how to count, and what’s the difference between “near” and “far.” So, anyone with kids seen the show recently? Has it changed a lot since the first half of the eighties where we learned our letters and to hate the Commies? Has it taken a hard stance on the war?
ELMO: What’s a word that starts with K?
BIG BIRD: Kill, such as in “killing our enemy.”
ELMO: Isn’t killing wrong?
BIG BIRD: Not if they deserve to die– which they do!
Is it true the letter ‘Q’ has pulled sponsorship because of the controversy?
I actually remember first watching the show back when I was three-years-old. I missed one show, though, so I knew the number one, two, three, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten, but didn’t know about four. Thus, one day I found a number of blocks in front of me that was more than three and less than five and was like, “Holy st! What the fk is this? Fkity fk fk fk; this is blowing my f**king mind!”
And my dad was like, “You be quiet there, boy, or I’ll whup you with the back of me hand more than three times and less than five!”
That’s my dad; always keeping the order.
What was I talking about?
First! LOL
LOL. Actually I find Sesame Street to be a bit socialist… share everything, give what you have to everyone else even if it leaves you with none… bleh.. But yeah, Big Bird is the funniest.
Frank, you are certainly in a saucy mood today aren’t you?
Actually the voices on Sesame Street have changed (I am exposed to the show on a regualar basis around here). Since Jim Henson died, they had to get someone else to do Ernie and Kermit. I noticed most recently that The Count doesn’t sound the same either.
The show is not as good as it used to be. All of the celebrity guests (with the exception of Laura Bush) are liberals. I have to watch it with my kids and say “yes, I think it’s cute when Robin Williams sings that song too, but did you realize he’s socialist who says nasty things about our president honey??” Anyway, it’s like the public school system. It was fine when they were just teaching the 3 R’s, but now there’s an agenda. That’s all I have to say about that.
My 6-year-old watches sometimes. I remember seeing an episode a couple years ago that had the performers from STOMP the musical on there. Super cool!
Voices have definitely changed. Jim Henson used to do most of the voices, but he’s been dead for at least 10 years now. RIP, Kermit.
Didn’t Jim Henson die of some wierd flesh-eating virus. Coincedence or evil socialist plot?
Brass
Pneumonia
Brass,
Yeah pretty much. ‘cept it’s called Pneumonia I think.
Jonag,
Sorry for the repeat. You were just faster at the punch. Or key-stroke.
I grew up with Sesame Street in the late 1970s and early 1980s. When I was a teenager with younger siblings, I enjoyed watching it now and then because it was totally funny for teens and adults. Seriously, most of the jokes were for parents, not little kids. That was part of the beauty of Sesame Street; they entertained parent and child to attract an audience.
Yes, I said “was” part of the beauty. I now have a three-year-old who stopped watching Sesame Street at age 2.5. He got bored with it. This is because Sesame Street has been adjusted to a younger audience.
And why has it been adjusted to a younger audience? It is an interesting result of government and politics. In the beginning, Sesame Street was targeted to poor preschool-aged kids (3-5) whose families couldn’t afford to send them to preschool (by the way, this explains the show’s setting in a poor city neighborhood). But since Sesame Street began, the federal government has created Head Start, free preschool for children in poorer families. This means that poor kids now go to preschool while middle-income kids stay home (since they can’t afford preschool). Rather than keeping the Sesame Street format and targeting the middle-income kids, which would be mean-spirited and insensitive, Sesame Street now targets poor infants and toddlers.
If you’re an adult, or if you’re my three-year-old, Sesame Street is hardly watchable nowadays. No funny jokes, and too much Elmo. When I was little, Elmo was funny because he was rarely used; you knew he was on the show, but he showed up only once in a while. Now it’s all Elmo all the time. The final 20 minutes of the show are devoted to His Red Obnoxiousness in an odd cartoon world. Elmo and his poor grammar and pronunciation often dominate the rest of the show as well. Sometimes they show old sketches, ala “One two three, four five six, seven eight nine, ten eleven twelve; the Ladybugs Twelve at the Ladybug Picnic,” etc. But it’s usually Elmo and other anti-funny baby stuff, which is sad.
Yes, Sesame Street is ruined. I blame George W. Bush and his cronies, since that seems fashionable.
I know what you’re thinking: “Get your own blog!” Yeah. Sorry for the novel. But since I have looked into this topic recently, I thought I would share.
Sorry. Turns out my tinfoil hat was on to tight.
Brass
You blame George because that seems fashionable. That’s a sound reason for sure.
Vomit,vomit,vomit,vomit,vomit,vomit,vomit,vomit.
I used to love the two silhouette faces that practiced phonics. we should bring that back.
F – Uck
F***
la da da da da
Sc – rew
Screw
La da da da da
B – itch
Bitch!
la da da da da
k – ill
kill!
la da da da da
d – ead
DEAD!
la da da da da
As the father of a 20 yr old, a 10 year old and a 1.5 year old, I can tell you from experience that SS has been in a “death spiral” for quite a while now.
Through the years, my wife and I have collected quite a few Sesame Street tapes, and interestingly enough my youngest likes the older tapes better, and has become quite the genius, unlike her old pops.
She is learning to count (we are up to 20 now) she knows her alphabet completely, she has manners (please, thank you, you’re welcome) and she can understand EVERYTHING those annoying puppets say, and works as our interpreter.
For the most part, I grew up with the Sesame Street everone seems to have. Unfortunately, my younger brother and me were the only two of the five to grow up with the good old Sesame Steet. As I got older, the younger three in my family watched that crap all the time, and that fat assed dinosaur telling me how to feel… any way, it’s been changing, for the worse.
On a side note, anyone remember when it was cool to watch G.I. Joe fight those dirty Cobras? Anti-communist propaganda at it’s best. Come to think of it, that show sucks…
I loved the phonics thing too. That was the Electric Company and that is the only fu-king, f***ing thing I remember from that show
What famous actor started in the Electric Company? Was it Morgan Freeman?
Lawrency Fishburne was on the Pee Wee Herman show. is that what you’re thinking about, Frank?
morgan freeman, yes.
Frank, Yes it was Morgan Freeman. But they also had Rita Moreno. She would yell “Hey yoouuuu guuuuys!!!”
And my dad was like, “You be quiet there, boy, or I’ll whup you with the back of me hand more than three times and less than five!”
Now THAT’S some good parenting! And yeah, Sesame Street sucks.
Don’t listen to Pam. Her kids flinch every time she lifts her hand to scratch her nose!
My Sesame Street Story.
So in high school I took a class called Television Production. The school had it’s own cable TV channel. 2nd year of the class we produced an interview show once a week. So one week I’m editing my piece for the show and as I’m looking for an edit spot I hear something odd. I run the tape forward a bit and slowly rewind it. Yep. Sure enough there it is and I start laughing. My friend hears me and wonders what the hell I’m laughing about so I play it for him as well. What, you may ask, did we hear?
The school’s wrestling coach, played backwards, said…
“I love Snuffalufagus.”
Am I the only one that was kinda bugged when no one else could see Snuffalufugus?
I felt badly for Big Bird. Apparently it became an issue, they made the Big S visible next season.
Why am I talking about this? Where’s the scotch?
I watched the show back in 1969; turns out, it was all a Cointelpro plot by Nixon’s CIA to make Republicans out of toddlers…worked, too.
Muhahahahaha
Rightwingduck: I cannot believe that someone else out there does that! I do that ALL the time…and all I get are weird looks.
Anyway, Frank, another good thing about Sesame Street is that we watched it in Germany…in German, (duh) and learned quite a bit of the language that way. Now, you wanna talk about some different voices! (Don’t get me started on Star Trek in German….Spock sounds like such a pu…!)
I think everyone on S. St. has seen Snuffle… y’know…the wooly mammoth!…What’s up with that?!?!? I missed the episode when Big Bird shared his acid and they all saw the same hallucination!
Oscar the Grouch was my favorite, especially when he ragged on the other muppets. The time called got all high on crack and held up Mr. Hooper’s store was classic.
okay eberybody’s been telling me morgan freeman was on electric co. but i rememebr him on at least 1 episode of seasame street. he was singig no body like an ump ( umpire).
was i high on flinstone chewable vitamins or did someone else see this. please help. been bugging me for 30 years.
I hope the classic Sesame Street DVD set comes out at the end of this year and my boyfriend is waiting for it as well. I hope we can watch those DVD’s so we can laugh at all the classic sketches.