Ernie and a basketball

[Ziffel]

Wondering if Sesame Mike, mikebennidict or any other classic SS fans with great memories knows any details of an early 70's Ernie and Bert skit with a basketball. The skit was listed as "Ernie puts the basketball away" in another thread. It's one skit of Ernie and Bert I saw but recall virtually nothing. Seems like it was one of their bedroom skits. Maybe they had played basketball earlier and were now going to bed but Ernie still had the ball with him in his bed?

 

[mikebennidict]

best i can remember is he was trying to remember what to do and Bert reminds him to put the basketball away witch was what he was trying to remember. then Ernie goes into all this talk about remembering though i can't remember exactly what he said other than it was to help him remember to put away the basketball. well Bert gets into bed and Ernie still has it in his lap. Bert says you forot to put it away and Ernie goes into this long discussion again about remembering. of course i'm sure he was just trying to annoy Bert.

 

[Ziffel]

Thanks Mike. I forgot a lot of this remembering skit! A lot of these old skits would be so fun to see again. The ones I recall totally would be great to enjoy seeing again. The ones I recall some of would be great to see how the forgotten parts went. And the ones I remember virtually nothing of like this one would be like seeing a classic SS skit for the first time, which would be a real treat. Kind of like when they released the lost "Honeymooners" shows from the early 50's. We got to see classic Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton that we never saw before. Say, wouldn't that be wonderful if someday they announce that there is lost Ernie and Bert and other SS clips from around 1970 that never aired before?! I know, I'm dreaming.

 

[Xerus]

This was how Ernie remembered.

"I remember things with my brain. And my brain is inside my head. And my head is round. The basketball is round!"

But when he found he was still in bed with the basketball. Ernie started his system. But he suddenly forgotten it. "And my head is round. Let's see, a marble is round. A melon is round!"

And Bert just crammed his head into his pillow in frustration.

 

[Ziffel]

Ding Dong!! Another bell has been rung in this skit! As soon as you said, "A marble is round." I remember Ernie saying that and Bert's exasperated "ahhh!"
And then the music at the end. I recall precisely how that music went too, but very hard to describe. It had about five or six tones. Thanks Xerus.

 

[Xerus]

Ding Dong!! Another bell has been rung in this skit! As soon as you said, "A marble is round." I remember Ernie saying that and Bert's exasperated "ahhh!"
And then the music at the end. I recall precisely how that music went too, but very hard to describe. It had about five or six tones. Thanks Xerus.

Your welcome Ziffel. And I remember the ending music had a sad sounding tone. Which Bert was feeling.

 

[MartyMuppets]

Poor poor Bert.

Sometimes I wonder how he could cope with having Ernie for a best friend. I suppose that's the running dark joke about Ernest and Bertram. If anybody really exasperated his roommate as much as Ernie did Bert somebody would be either kicking his buddy out or packing his bags to move out himself a long time ago.

 

[SesameMike]

There was one episode in which Bert really did move out. An educated guess would put it at about 1973 or 74.

You know the skit in which Ernie yells "HI BERT IT'S TIME FOR OUR CHECKER GAME! I'M HERE!"? And at the end, Bert proclaims "But I'm not" and Bert walks toward the door to the sound of a snare-drum march. On one episode, that was immediately followed by Bert on the street with familiar characters around, as he announces that he's through with Ernie. I think Bert made a parenthetical comment about Ernie "losing his paperclips" and "stepping on his bottlecaps (??)". Through the rest of the episode, Bert sought out other quarters (shared with Big Bird? Oscar?), but none of the others were to his liking so he eventually moved back in with Ernie. Upon returning, Ernie expressed his excitement by showering Bert with confetti/streamers or whatever, but that only ended up annoying Bert.

 

[mikebennidict]

WOW that was interesting. Never knew that.

 

[Ziffel]

I never knew that one either. And yes, Bert storms out in anger at the end of the hilarious checker game skit. Ernie prompted him to leave the premises on other occasions too, such as that one where Bert was feeling a little chilly and Ernie goes bonkers putting all these winter clothes on Bert, only to then switch to the other extreme and get Bert an ice bag, open the window, turn on a fan, etc. Bert exclaims, "I'm getting out of here!" But he doesn't actually exit at the close of the skit but rather shouts, "Leave me alone!" and then looks at the camera and raises his eyebrows. Then there was a more recent one where Ernie is disturbing Bert's sleep yet again and Bert takes his blanket and says, "I'm gonna go sleep in the kitchen." But I guess Bert was pretty forgiving and conciliatory, since he always returned soon. Like in that skit where Ernie eats one of his pieces of chocolate cake and then tells Bert the farfetched tale of a monster being responsible, Bert walks off in anger. But moments later, Bert walks back in with a friendly spirit, "Hi Ernie, I...." (but then walks away again in disgust because he sees the other piece of cake is now gone too). And after Ernie and Bert had a fight that led to the fuse blowing, Bert initiated the apologizing.
There was also that one with Bert, Ernie, and Maria. How exactly did that go? I remember it having a mostly serious tone to it, with Ernie and Bert being very upset at each other. Maria acted as mediator and got them back together. I recall Ernie apologizing for eating Bert's cookies. Not sure if Bert did anything to anger Ernie or if the cookies were the sole reason for the big fight.
But yeah, Bert sure did put up with an awful lot! Buried in the sand TWICE, getting thrown out of the theater because of Ernie, having his sleep constantly disturbed, having his cookies, cake, pizza, grape juice, and licorice taken, and having his nose taken off at least a couple of times! And besides the times where he storms off, Bert also fell backwards in frustration a number of times, chased after Ernie one time, and wildly ran around the room screaming and banging his head on a table four times! (after Ernie took forever to count to ten, then decides to say the alphabet!)