I thought I'd take a break from my general whining about the national security state, tax policy, and other malfeasance and highlight what, IMHO, is a case of truly modern genius: Cookie Monster.
My elder son is 3 and so we have had occasion to peruse episodes of Sesame Street, including buying a set of Sesame Street "Old School" DVDs for long car rides and plane flights. One of those DVDs has a sketch of the good Messrs. Monster and Hooper (which I sadly cannot find on youtube), in which Mr. Hooper presents Mr. Monster with a bag of cookies and asks him to make an empty plate of cookies look like a full plate of cookies. You can imagine what ensues.
But what I find ingenious is not the inevitable cookie destruction (though that's fun too), but Cookie's dialect, much of which I have to assume was aimed at the adults who were watching and/or is wonderful improve from the folks animating Mr. Monster (Frank Oz, it turns out, now that I look, which explains a lot). It's wonderful (as is a lot of the other "asides" in the other muppet sketches, which you have to listen for).
Take this skit with Kermit ("it a rump roast!"). Or this with Ernie ("you putting me on") and this ("and you call this state of art?"). More recently, the SNL audition tape (complete with hilarious scare quotes at the end, and a good skewering of SNL's formula), and the apparently viral video parody of some song I've never heard. I also like this Elmo's World Parody, which includes a scene with Bob (or, "Mr. Bobble" as Cookie refers to him), who has been on Sesame Street for more than 40 years (and for which he should receive a fncking medal).
That is all.
Modern Genius
Jul 17, 2012 by UghComments
Jul 17, 2012, 21:43:55 libjpn wrote:
My first daughter was a child of Sesame Street, singing Elmocize and basically wearing the VHS out. My second daughter came at the time we got cable and has had Disney channel. Huge huge mistake. The older one is in 2nd grade of JHS and is inhaling books. The younger one is 2nd year of elementary school and evinces no interest (very little at least) interest in English and is way behind where the older one was.
Talking about Sesame Street, this is a clip I like to show my students who are taking up teaching to demonstrate how to draw out something from a student without directly correcting them.
http://www.youtube.com/watc...
I got it from a blog that had wonderfully insightful posts about various aspects of Seseame Street that I have somewhere as a bookmark and you've reminded me I've got to find it again.
Jul 18, 2012, 02:50:57 sapient wrote:
Ugh, we've found another point of agreement. Although I haven't watched Sesame Street for some time, I always knew that it was a program made for adults to fool them into spending time with their children. http://www.youtube.com/watc...
Jul 18, 2012, 05:20:25 Ugh wrote:
sapient - I suspect we agree on most things, differences being highlighted by the nature of the Internet, I would guess.
Jul 18, 2012, 08:47:18 sapient wrote:
Oui, c'est vrai.
Jul 19, 2012, 04:40:49 russell wrote:
so, i clicked through on lj's link. while it's playing, my wife comes into to room:
"hey, is that john john! why are you listening to john john?"
there are a few characters that make my wife, in her sensible practical feet-on-the-ground midwestern ohio girl way, swoon.
luis bonfa.
goran visnjic.
frank langella, sometimes.
and now, i come to find out, john john.
it's cool, i've come to terms with it.