Showing posts with label Sesame Street. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sesame Street. Show all posts
Parodies Refrained
When a friend demanded a complete version of my “Yoda Clone” lyrics back in 2019,
I replied that I’m a fan of Jorge Luis Borges — the magical-realist, postmodernist master known to reference and review books that didn’t actually exist.
Like many others throughout cyberspace, I enjoy creating images of merch for imaginary movies, etc. Just a snippet of and/or allusion to a work not fully realized can be as satisfying as, if not more satisfying than, making or reading/watching/hearing the entire work itself. Plus, I simply don’t have enough mental bandwidth and time, so my choice is usually to cobble together either a little bit or nothing.
The problem comes when I get a brainstorm and then let what I’ve sketched out sit
for a while expecting that I’ll bring it to fruition — lots of Top X lists and mashup ideas languish unfinished in virtual folders, some of whose inspirations have long since left the zeitgeist. Here are the choruses to a few songs that will probably, and perhaps to your relief, never go any further.
Oliver and Company
I praised the pleasant surprise that was John Oliver’s hosting of The Daily Show
when Jon Stewart took a sabbatical last summer. And I was not alone. Many TV critics predicted that Oliver would be promoted from correspondent to host of his own show — probably someplace other than Comedy Central, since a third half-hour* of satirical news and punditry there wasn’t likely. That someplace turned out to be HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.
3 for 3/3
OK Go has made a nifty music video for Sesame Street called “Three Primary Colors”. You only get one guess as to the subject — although it covers what happens when you mix the three primary colors to produce the three secondary colors as well. I’ve linked to the band’s inventiveness before; more than once, in fact.
Related: G Love • Muppet Monday • Emerald Sit-In
Muppet Monday
When these posts began their avowed purpose was to make sure the blog had some content while my focus was largely directed elsewhere, stoking my own and hopefully my readers’ enthusiasm for the new Muppet movie.
These past few months have ended up being among the busiest on the blog, however, not only in terms of posts posted but viewers viewing them — one big reason why I decided to keep fresh content flowing, Muppet Monday included, even after the movie opened. I’ll share an update on bloggy business down the road a bit; right now I’m wrapping up this feature with links to a half-dozen sites for Muppet lovers interested in further exploration, most official and most mentioned on the blog before.
Muppet Monday
Photo © 2011 and characters TM/® The Muppets Studio LLC.
Above is a neat homage to the iconic, oft-mimicked Robert Freeman photograph
used on the cover to 1963’s With The Beatles and early the next year for the US release Meet The Beatles! It’s from a recent Parade article titled “Meet the Muppets (Again!)” — which is also the general theme of this post.
Muppet Monday
I’m very sorry that this post is going up late. And I realize that there was no Muppet Monday installment at all last week, although I’ll try to make it right by doubling up on them soon. What can I say? Accidents happen. Things fall apart. If you don’t believe
me, ask the cast of that hit musical Spider-Monster... [1:21]
Related: No-Spin Zone • G Love • Muppet Monday • On a Boat •
The Amazing Spider-Man Minus Andrew Garfield Plus Garfield
G Love
Was your life was lacking Glee tonight due to baseball playoffs? Maybe this will get
you going again. Sesame Street has given us some great goofs on popular songs and TV series, from a Billy Idol lookalike Muppet singing “Rebel L” to the detectives of ABCD Blue. Now give it up for... G. [3:48]
I got a grin out of Rachel’s lines in the crowd noise that opens the skit, the bearded piano player who pops up out of nowhere, and more, but the grandest giggle goes to the amazing likeness of “Mr. Goo”.
Related: Harmony and Irony • Muppet Monday • Brittality
Muppet Monday
Grover and I share a birthday, according to the 1972 Sesame Street calendar — Oct. 14th.
Image from Sesame Street 711 © 1975 CTW.
A prototype of Grover called Gleep appeared as early as 1967 on an episode of The Ed Sullivan Show. I get that info from the Muppet Wiki link at the beginning of this post, which is not to be confused with The Monster at the End of This Book (on which more quite soon). Nearly all proper nouns seen in blue hypertext during Muppet Mondays, if not otherwise specified, head over to that expansive and entertainingly informative resource.
Muppet Monday
Here’s a 15-minute segment featuring Jim Henson that aired on Iowa Public Television in 1969.
I thought about running it last week but decided to start my Muppet Monday posts
with more of a bang; while it’ll surely suck in any Henson admirer, it’s longer and slower-paced than your usual Internet video link. Henson is so mellow that he makes Mister Rogers look like Gilbert Gottfried.
On a Boat
I’m sure that everyone and their furry blue brother have successfully viralized it by
now, but just to do my part here’s Grover with a preposition for you.
Sesame Street keeps up with pop culture admirably in spots like this one (riffing on
the instant-classic Old Spice ad starring Isaiah Mustafa) as well as through of-the-moment goofs and guest spots on the show itself — even if once in a great big while they go awry. [Update: I should have warned folks that my last link is to the infamous spot with Elmo and Katy Perry yanked by Sesame Workshop after outcry that her outfit was inappropriate.]
Related: G Love • Swift Kicks • Muppet Monday
The Doodles Abide
Google’s logo of the day is a weird one. I wish you luck clicking on it to find out what it represents...
There have been a few articles speculating on its meaning, but I suspect we won’t hear anything from official sources for a while yet.