Questionably Educational SST Skits

[HeyButtahfly]

Yeah, I suppose Ernie and Rubber Duckie can be compared to Big Bird and Radar, or Betty Lou and her doll (whose head kept falling off LOL), or Elmo and his blanket and doll David.

 

[minor muppetz]

Spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down, as Julie Andrews once sang. That is what was revolutionary at the time about SS (other than the integrated races being the human stars, which was also pretty revolutionary for that time period).

You don't have to teach things 24 7.... after all, sometimes a good laugh is what kids need. Not to mention the fact the original idea was not only to make a show kids will watch, but a show thast their parents will watch as well.

But I feel that the most important lessons come from the most unlikely sources. Bert and Ernie arguing can be a great example of many things. Logic, the fact that friends can fight, difference of opinion, and various other things. the Song I Love Trash may not seem educational, but it shows that people can like different things that other people may actually hate. Plus it also shows that it's normal to have a prized possession, especially when your youngwer, to constantly carry around (same thing about the song and posession of Rubber Duckie).

It is indeed times when you aren't thinking that you tend to learn more.

For some reason I never questioned the educational value of I Love Trash.

 

[minor muppetz]

I didn't notice any educational content in Ernie and Bert's first skit from the first epsiode.

Looking at the CTW Archives "first seasoon show content" files, this is listed under self-esteem, though I can't really figure out how the sketch relates to self-esteem.

I can't really tell what Rubber Duckie is supposed to teach. And is Do De Rubber Duck supposed to teach kids that they should dance in the bath tub, and have as many of their friends dancing in the tub with them at the same time?

I noticed that sesamestreet.org lists the educational "subject" for these (and many songs that to me don't appear to have any real educational value) as "music, art, and creativity".

And I can't realy think of any educational value that appears in Sesame Street News: Rupunzel.

At the time I posted this it hadn't occurred to me that this sketch taught planning skills (which is the subject listed for the clip at sesamestreet.org) nor did it occur to me that it sort of taught the concept of "louder".

 

[minor muppetz]

Another sketch that doesn't seem to have any educational value, though I've only seen it in The Sesame Street Book of Puzzlers, is one where Ernie is upside-down on the ceiling, planning on pouring a glass of milk, with Bert saying that you can't pour milk upside-down, but Ernie manages. I know that those early books didn't include word-for-word dialogue, so I'm not sure if there was any educational value missing from this sketch in the book, and I don't think anybody here has any memory of ever seeing that sketch.

Loking at the "Miscellaneous Muppet Inserts" paper from the first season show content, it appears that that was part of a four-part sketch involving milk. So I guess it was teaching about milk, though not part of the first season curriculum.

And Street Gang mentioned a few times that all sketches must be both entertaining and educational.

 

[26MICHAEL]

One of the things funny to me with no "educational value" was when they had the rocket countdown and something would always go wrong. Water shooting out the top, premature ignition, it would fall over, etc. I guess it did teach... If at first you don't succeed...I guess it also mimicked our own space program, which ironically went to the moon the same year SS premiered.

 

[mikebennidict]

I don't know about all that has been listed but a lot of them may have value.

I mean you're teaching kids how to count backwards which has been done other times.

 

[mikebennidict]

Well I think w/the "wrong number" sketch,it was demonstrating feelings. And "Everybody Wash" was probably talking about parts of the body everyone should wash. With "Rubber Duckie" I guess Ernie's saying how much fun it is to take a bath.Same w/"Do de Duck". (although I myself wouldn't want my friends in the tub with me )

That last statement is pretty funny.



I think some skits were just for fun and not everything that SS has done over the years was ofr educational value.

 

[minor muppetz]

And what the $^& is Mahna Mahna supposed to teach?

You know for the first time ever I actually watched the clip on Youtube today, and saw that it had an introduction that I wasn't aware of. I always thought the song began with the characters singing (that's how it starts in The Street We Live On). Of course I don't ever remember seeing that segment on the show (only in specials and documentaries, which shorten the clip).

But judging by the introduction, it seems like maybe it was trying to teach cooperation. It starts with the two girls wanting to sing but for some reason needing a third singer (too bad it doesn't use this opportunity to teach counting or adding). Then the Mahan Mahan character shows up, saying Mahna Mahna (which they seem to be weirded out, in addition to just happening to know that it's a song, before they start singing).

 

[minor muppetz]

Tough Pigs had an article about an event that Frank Oz spoke at, and Frank Oz mentioned that when the Rupunzel sketch was being taped, Oz asked Jon Stone what the sketch was teaching, to which Stone asked, "Who cares?"

 

[fuzzygobo]

A few others that were fun to watch, even if they didn't teach much:

Carmen/singing orange- used to scare the crap out of me, but you could possiby file under "Music Appreciation"

There was a Hubley cartoon posted on youtube a few years back called "Jungle Abstracts" that showed a black cat chasing a bird through a very pop-art looking jungle, until the cat got scared off by a lion. Again, this was intense when I was little, but I learned to like it as I got older.

Another Hubley clip showed a blue cat chasing a brown mouse (looks like a poor man's Tom and Jerry). The mouse dashes into his hole, but the cat slams face-first into the wall.