Bring Your Own Can Night

[minor muppetz]

I thought I'd start a thread about this sketch, listed as "Bring Your Own Can Night" on the 40th anniversary DVD, but otherwise doesn't appear to have anything to do with the title.

The plot involves Oscar and Bruno going to a place called the "Cha Cha Palace". At the beginning the voices sof the adults are heard protesting to Oscar from inside his trash can as Bruno carries it, and Oscar tells them to keep quiet. Oscar tells the grouch that's selling tickets that he'll need two tickets, but then the others keep shouting at Oscar, begging him to reveal how many people are really there. Olivia eventually pulls Oscar into the trash can, and one by one each human sticks their heads out to tell the ticket taker how many people there are. As there are 8, it costs 8 dollars, which oscar doesn't have (the others should have paid their own way then).

This is a very funny scene. I don't quite know whether it was part of a street story or if it was a stand-alone sketch. It looks like it could have been stand-alone, but we don't know why the cast was with Oscar in the first place (and if it was part of a bigger story then the title would have made more sense). Although I normally don't watch clips on youtube if I already have a copy, I watched this on youtube to see the comments, and one person claims to remember an episode where the cast all got locked outside in a rainstorm and seeked selter in oscar's trash can.... This doesn't seem to make much sense, but we don't know if the memories are corrct (nor do we have any evidence that it didn't).

When I first saw it I thought maybe Oscar was trying to sneak everybody in, though they didn't want Oscar to lie about how many tickets were needed. Considering the ticket taker was a grouch, maybe Oscar felt he would be embarrassed beign seen with all them at a grouch establishment (he wouldn't have been embarassed beign seen with Bruno... But then again, I guesds Bruno was needed... Or Oscar could have walked with his legs sticking out). We also don't know if that was a grouch establishment... It could have just been a place that just happened to have a grouch employed there.

And that grouch seems both nice for a grouch and nasty for oen at the same time. His attitude makes him seem like such a seedy character, but his line "My mommy warned me about taking the night shift" makes him appear to be a bit of a softie.

 

[ErnieBertGonzo]

Maybe it was just a working title or something. I think it was possibly part of a stroyline. I dunno why they included it on the DVD.

 

[minor muppetz]

Maybe it was just a working title or something. I think it was possibly part of a stroyline. I dunno why they included it on the DVD.

Probably because they had behind-the-scenes footage to go along with it.

 

[ErnieBertGonzo]

Probably because they had behind-the-scenes footage to go along with it.

Hmm, maybe.

 

[minor muppetz]

For a long time, I have wondered if this was a stand-alone segment or part of an episodes plot (and I've seen somebody point out that the clip is too out of context to just be a stand-alone sketch), but as I was watching the behind-the-scenes footage, I found that I'm so close and yet so far from knowing the answers.

In the behind-the-scenes footage, the clapboard for that scene is visible. It could list an episode number, indicating it to be part of an episode plot, or it could say "wild", indicating it was meant to be an insert (then again, I have seen rare examples of clap boards listing numbers for what's clearly an insert, the only example I'm sure of off-hand is Sesame Street News: A Chimney Sweep, though according to the Muppet Wiki page for the episode noted on the clap board - and I forget the number - it's not in the episode).

Early on, we can clearly read the left half of the clap board, but there's things in the way of the other half, blocking whether it lists an episode number (also blocking the taping date, which I wouldn't have cared so much about until recently when I saw Muppet Wiki has a page for taping dates). There's also a shot of somebody holding the clapboard, but the clapboard is at a diagonal angle, making it hard to make out what's in the "episode number" box (I think I saw 1557, but I'm not sure... that episode number is from season 12). Near the end of the behind the scenes footage, we see a full-on shot of it on TVs in the control room, but it's difficult to make out what it says there (interestingly, I've noticed that some of the other monitors appear to be showing Gordon, who's not in the clip, on the stoop of 123 Sesame Street. I thought the monitors would just be showing stuff for one segment, unless that actually wasn't happening during the taping of that segment but they tacked random monitor footage there.... In fact I've been wondering a bit about how the behind-the-scenes footage was put together if a documentary was never completed, but that's for another thread somewhere).

 

[Oscarfan]

It's clearly a part of a street plot. It makes slight sense with no context around it, but there's definitely stuff surrounding it that we didn't see. Why would all the adults be in his trash can? Why is Oscar taking them for a night out?

 

[minor muppetz]

Another clip with Oscar and Bruno that I wonder about in terms of whether it's an insert or part of a street story is one that was available at sesamestreet.org, it doesn't seem to be there anymore (and I haven't seen it on YouTube), listed as "Everybody Knocks", where Oscar had several trash cans placed all over the street so they wouldn't be able to know where Oscar is, but since they want Oscar to get rid of all the cans, the adults and kids bang on the cans to bother him to reveal which can he's in (I wonder if they thought about just looking in each can to see if he's there and then when he's not just get rid of it) and then we see Bruno carrying a can with Oscar.

It seems like there should have at least been a second segment to bring some kind of closure, but the clip did begin with Bob explaining to the audience what the deal is. If they already showed Oscar deciding to place all those trash cans, why would he need to explain to the audience what's happened (unless they were actually being considerate for those who may have tuned in late)? Though I guess it still could have been a plot/one-time street scene in an episode with no real plot.

 

[minor muppetz]

I saw in the season 12 program guides for one episode, I think 1564, Buffy and Cody ride inside Oscar's can while Bruno transports them. Considering that episode and that this is from season 12, I wonder if that was an early concept for Bruno, to also transport the adults via Oscar's can (and who's to say they didn't say such a thing again, say, many seasons later?). Of course that would have been difficult to regularly do with the cast (since in the "bring your own can night" clip they cut to a close-up of what's clearly a different trash can, with Bruno barely in shot; they'd have to either have the adults be unseen in the can, keep doing the special close-ups, or maybe have an adult wear the Bruno costume while also sticking their heads out the trash can).

I kept looking through the season 12 program summaries and didn't see any that listed this one (I'm hoping that it's in one of the documents Scarecroe obtained that'll be documented on the wiki, I know he has documents for at least one season 12 episode). In fact I kept looking through the recently-found program guides for seasons 11 and 12, looking to see if Bruno is mentioned (there does seem to be a lot of interesting Oscar-focused episodes in those two seasons), thought I didn't see him listed until somebody made a page for the episode with Buffy and Cody leaving, I know I kept looking at that summary and don't know how I missed the fact that Bruno was mentioned until a guide was made on Muppet Wiki. Of course I'm also not too surprised I didn't see Bruno mentioned much in the guides, given that his main purpose is to carry Oscar's trash can. I wouldn't be surprised if he was in a lot of the scenes mentioned in those guides but they just didn't find his presence important enough to note in a scene description that wasn't meant to be detailed.

 

[minor muppetz]

I think I might have figured out why Oscar was taking them out.

A guide for episode 1541 was posted, saying that Buffy had spent the night in Oscar's can (without saying why), and episode 1564 mentions her going back home (and being transported by Bruno as well). So I guess she was visiting from Hawaii for a few weeks that season, and must have been staying in Oscar's trash can. So maybe everybody got in Oscar's can to visit with Buffy when Oscar needed Bruno to transport them to the Cha-Cha Palace (or maybe just somewhere for fun).

Of course I feel it'd make a bit more sense if Buffy was the first to stick her head out for the head count. I kinda feel like Olivia is the leader of the adults here (even if it seems Oscar is responsible). But then again, when they don't have enough money to get in, Buffy is the one who suggests they go home and sleep (though if she's staying there she could probably go ahead and sleep, unless she can't sleep with the can being transported).

 

[GrouchFanatic]

I don’t get why Oscar would ever do something so....nice as to smuggle a bunch of nice people to see a Grouch film