Questionably Educational SST Skits

[CensoredAlso]

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

Yeah I think that was pretty much "expose the kids to opera early," lol.

 

[Drtooth]

All I can say is:

That's the most questionable thing ever in the history of the show. Moog synthisized music puzzle segments... twin George Washington busts in elevators, giving Elmo 15 minutes at the end of every episode for almost 15 years to talk about feet and yo-yos? None of that has me so much as raise an eyebrow.

But that segment.... here's the thing...

there's nothing educational about it... there's nothing appealing to a child of that age in it... it's terrifying beyond belief... it's not fun to any extent... it's pointless in every single aspect. Why would that be on Sesame Street? Heck, ANY kid's program? I've seen some disturbing animations in my life, but even they have some existential reasoning behind them. That's just creepy for no reason and does nothing. I bet a lot of kids ran to their mommies and hid under couches when that horrifying rabbit came on screen. Even that terrifying bird:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSMNeqI30HY
At least taught how to say the word "bird."

How did that ever get past anyone at the Children's Television Workshop is beyond me.

 

[MJTaylor]

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.

Yeah, I used to wonder about the educational content of that as well, in fact, I started another thread about it:http://www.muppetcentral.com/forum/threads/does-anyone-remember-this-cartoon.15949/ Actually, it wasn't all that different to that one where Oscar and Danny De Vito had a laughing contest, you can watch that one on Youtube.
http://youtu.be/N1uIIY2glaY

 

[BobThePizzaBoy]

Since no one's mentioned it yet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHROHJlU_Ng

 

[D'Snowth]

Since no one's mentioned it yet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHROHJlU_Ng

I'm pretty sure that object of that one was to teach kids about puberty. I could be wrong.

What did I get from it? Katy Perry has a mousy speaking voice, despite having quite a big singing voice.

 

[Oscarfan]

Since no one's mentioned it yet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHROHJlU_Ng

I'm assuming from D'Snowth's post that the vid's the "Hot and Cold" song (can't see what it is on my school comp.) If so, the song's supposed to teach opposites (with "around" thrown in there too for some reason). It all happens so fast that I'm not even sure the point gets across very well.

 

[CensoredAlso]

If so, the song's supposed to teach opposites

Yeah that's pretty much what I gleaned from it as well.

And I still say there is nothing objectionable in that video.

 

[Nyperold]

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?

Well, some of the song content does have good advice: Telly's caution about soap comes to mind. Also, double meanings: "Come on, everybody sing / make the bathtub ring" (i.e., with sound, and referring to the dirt and stuff that floats to the top and sticks to the walls at the water level). (Not to mention this lesson: have fun, but don't forget that there are other people wanting baths, too. )

I wonder if anybody ever became afraid of going down the drain from that sketch. I mean, Mister Rogers had a song intended to reassure us about that, so obviously, some kids had been known to be afraid of it...

 

[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.

Well, recently the wiki has gotten info on that particular scene. Turns out it was part of the original season one performance of "Up and Down", which had hippies singing and cut-aways to a few things, including this instance. So it indeed taught up and down, but wasn't its own segment.

 

[Flaky Pudding]

The orange singing Habanera Carmen. I like this sketch but that talking orange about as educational as this one: