The Sheila Variations

Oscar the Grouch. Because he's an asshole. Asshole puppets are funny.

Grover. He's a screw-up but he's lovable. And he keeps on trying despite all his screw-ups. He doesn't become bitter or suicidal (ewww, a suicidal Muppet, what an awful thought) or negative about it. He's always very upbeat despite everything.

And how can you not love SUUUUUUUPER GRRRRRROOVER!!!

ricki - Gonzo was a blatant masochist. I mean, is suicidal really that far of a cry?

Grover always seemed dangerously fragile to me. Like at any minute, he could crack. Emotionally, I mean.

Oscar, for the reasons Emily listed.

Like - one day Grover would start to weep and he wouldn't be able to stop.

Okay. That's a bit dark. Sorry.

I liked Oscar, too. First of all: what exactly IS he? I never knew. I loved his angry grumpy eyes. I also liked his random acts of kindness which he always performed so grudgingly - just so you knew he was still a Grouch.

I have to say, though ... I know this might be a bit unpopular: I always liked Bert.

Grover. Because he doesn't crack, even when he has a horrible day as a waiter.

Tweedlebugs too.

And old school Snuffy, when he was invisible.

Oh yeah, the Count - cos he's got OCD with mad cape style.

Old school Snuffy. DEFINITELY

I also think that Don Music is absolute comedic genius.

I never got a "suicidal" vibe off of Gonzo (Do you realize how bizarre it is that we're talking about the psychological motivations of Muppets). Rather, I got the feeling he was kind of a cockeyed optimist who knew he was essentially indestructable...kind of like a teenaged kid with his first car, out driving too fast.

Or at least that's how I thought about it as a kid. As an adult, yeah, I can kind of see the masochist thing, but I think he ENJOYS it way too much to be considered suicidal. Manic, maybe, but not suicidal.

It's been a loooooong time since I saw Sesame Street so I don't remember the latent emotional fragility in Grover.

(I will admit that that Count scared me when I was a kid. My mom used to do the "Count voice" to tease me. I don't think she realized how much it actually terrified me to hear that evil laugh.)

"OCD with mad cape style"

ROFL. That's awesome. I just love that. Despite that, I STILL don't like the Count.

Bert, yeah, Bert had some sort of endearing tendencies. Anyone who likes oatmeal and argyle socks is OK in my book.

I am sure I was projecting my own emotional fragility onto Grover.

Or maybe it was because of his complete failure as a superhero.

I liked Bert because he had one eyebrow, because he was obsessive, and because he was a perfect straight man to Ernie's open insanity. Bert always tried to rein Ernie in ... Ernie would have been totally out of control if it hadn't been for Bert's disapproving one-eyebrow.

There's much to be said for the uni-brow.

hee. "Bert the Unibrow"

he really was the adult figure to Ernie's child. Or perhaps super-ego to id.

You know, I liked Bert better than Ernie when I was a kid. I think it was because he was the 'adult' and I was one of those kids who craved rules and structure.

Damn. I'm sure there are a ton of Cultural Studies Master's theses waiting to be written on these shows. They go far deeper than most people realize.

Oscar is a grouch, what else does he need to be?

For my own preference I can't decide between Oscar and the Count. Two! Two favorite Sesame Street muppets, ah, ah, ah.

I can still sing Oscar's anthem, I Love Trash:

Anything dirty or dingy or dusty,
Anything ragged or rotten or rusty,
Yes, I love trash.

Dios mio, now I have sesame street songs in my head... C is for cookie, that's good enough for me...

But I have to say - all in all - my absolutely favorite Muppet from Sesame?

Cookie Monster. Cookie Monster has been making me laugh like a maniac for over 30 years. I can't get over it. He is NEVER not funny to me. The googly eyes, the caveman speech patterns, the UTTER lack of intellect ... I find him deeply deeply deeply funny.

Like - Cookie Monster's need for cookies is so deep that THAT IS HIS NAME.

His NAME describes his LIFE.

I just find that so funny.

Now I'm remembering him as "Alastair Cookie" introducing "Monsterpiece Theatre." ROFL

I know!! So completely ridiculous!

That growly voice, the insane eyes - he was this blur furry raging lunatic strolling down the sidewalk. And his consciousness was ALWAYS bending towards cookies ... no matter what he was doing.

Cookie Monster rocks.

Unfortunately, Bert has some rather unsavory friends.

I was just waiting for that to show up, Bill. ;-)

The count! They seem to have toned him down a bit (not as dark/scary). I loved the bits with Kermit doing reports like a beat reporter.

I love the way he was always Kermit THE Frog when he was on the beat.

Grover, all the way.

He was like the Basil Fawlty of the preschool set, always on a comic slow burn but always ending up OK. He taught us the lessons that, as I grew up and had kids of my own, were the ones that lasted the longest.

I always liked Guy Smiley because of the weird way his mouth moved. Instead of a stationary head with a moving jaw, his jaw was stationary and the entire top of his head moved. Years later I met a who could somehow move his head in a way that replicated it perfectly. It would crack me up ever single time he did it.

Plus, Bert is a fashion nightmare.

Bert is a fashion nightmare

stereotype mode

which kind of puts to rest those ugly rumors about the Bert-Ernie "friendship"

/stereotype mode

Ernie.

I could relate to Ernie. Bert & Ernie was like life with me and my brother. He was a square stick in the mud, and I was always running around, doing 'fun things' I'd want to do something that I thought was fun, and he'd always stop me from doing it.

That, and my Dad would always say that from watching sesame street, that I knew how to do Ernie's laugh.

Ok, now, I'm feeling vulnerable...

Reading these makes me long for the days of Sesame Street past, the pre-Elmo era. We spend a great deal of time with some friends of ours who have 3 year old twins, and as a result we've been exposed to more Sesame Street than we have been in years, and I have to say, that Elmo sucks. Half the show is now devoted to Elmo's World, and nothing short of stupid.

As far as my favorite, I'd have to say either Bert or The Twiddlebugs. Bert is a no bullshit kinda guy, and he reminded me a lot of my Dad, even while growing up. The Twiddlebugs were just so damn cute, in their mini world in Ernie's window sill planter. I think one of them used a matchbox for a bed. The Two-Headed Monster was another one I really liked, with their constant bickering.

On a side note, I was talking to a friend the other day about the singing grapefruit, which I know you remember, Sheila. Said friend has no recollection of it, and looked at me as if I were on crack. I need to find some kind of screen shot or something of it, because it was the coolest damn skit Sesame Street ever had. I think whoever wrote it may have been on crack, because no person in a normal frame of mind could think of something like that.

The singing grapefruit was truly creative, and TRULY unexplainable. It had no educational value. It was sheer weird entertainment.

I LOVED it. What was she singing? I think it was the seduction song from ... Carmen was it??

hahahaha

There was no value to it other than to make people of all ages look at it and think "what the?" but it was still very cool. I remember she hit some high note and her face flew off, then she was reassembled and continued her performance. And for a grapefruit, she was quite lovely with her long eye lashes and large earrings, she had good fashion sense. Where a grapefruit finds the means for such accoutrements is left for the imagination.

I love Grover - because he never gives up even when he fails miserably. (I also am truly fond of the Wubba Wubba song... granted, much for the last almost whispered line of "I wubba you" that cracks me up)

I have a Grover t-shirt, and am very glad that after a few years Elmo-imposed hiatus he's back on the show. (I have a 2 year old. I have an excuse)

You Cookie Monster fans - did you realize Sesame Street is committing heresy by having him stop eating cookies? Isn't that ridiculous?!?

Oh! The operatic grapefruit! Yes, I remember that. She sang L'Amour est comme une oiseu rebelle from Carmen. Yes, I think that is the seduction song. Interesting.

I also remember Teeny Little Super Guy. I loved that segment - that was the one with the cups and glasses and silverware come to life, and T.L.S.G. was painted on the side of a glass. (When I got a bit older, I wondered how they did that).

They're making Cookie Monster stop eating cookies?!?!?! That's unpossible! Is this some kind of Atkins-fueled plot? Is this some kind of nanny-state "our kids must ALLLLLVVVVAYYSS eat HEALLLLLZZZZZY FUD?" thing?

I mean, geez. If Cookie Monster were a real, live being, and they told him to stop eating cookies on the show, he'd go postal. They'd have to start medicating him. That's just horrible.

The Count. It makes me smile, mornings with a little blonde haired angel on my lap and that song. The Brat is now 22, but we still both know the words:

Counting, counting, always getting faster.
When I start to counting, it's very hard to stop, HEH!

ricki:

The thought of a medicated Cookie Monster is horrible ... but also, extremely funny.

Cookie Monster eats cookies. He is the part of children that could eat cookies ALL DAY LONG if they didn't have parents to stop them. That's why kids love him. I mean, jeez, I'm an adult, and there are certain unhealthy things that I could eat ALL DAY LONG but I stop myself. But when I look at Cookie Monster, I see someone with no impulse control. This is why he is funny and cathartic.

Sheila, I'm so with you on Cookie Monster. He was and will always be my favorite. That "num num num" noise he makes while devouring cookies kills me. As a lover of cookies, I find it hard not to do the same. Howeve, I do often find myself appropriating his poor grammar: "Give me cookie," or "Me like cookies." And no one corrects me.

Now I have "'C' Is for Cookie" stuck in my head. D'oh.

Grover the waiter .... I don't think there was a lot of education in that sketch, it was more like a little Jerry Lewis done for fun.

Also: the Muppets created for 'Octopus' Garden.'

And the Twiddlebug family.

Sheila - you forgot to tell us all which letter and number this thread was brought to us by. And in the spirit of all things "Sesame Street", I want you to go and practice saying the Spanish word for open: abierto (this word was chosen because it is the only one I can actually remember learning from the show).

Abierto?

Cerrado!!

Abierto?

Cerrado!!!!

That's exactly the one I was thinking of, except I couldn't remember how to say "closed".

Cerrado!!

C is for Cookie
That's good enough for me.

Who hath taste buds, let him eat (cookies).

Okay, now that's out of the way, when do we pick our favorite SNL Muppets? I can't decide between Skred or the Mighty Favog....

Yipyipyipyipyipyipyipyipyipyipyipyipyipyipyip...

uh-huh...uh-huh...uh-huh...

Those two aliens were SOOOOOOOOOOOO weird, yet I had to follow their every gesture.

Those aliens were some of the most odd characters to ever appear on that show, but oddly captivating.