Grover and Oscar skit

[Ziffel]

Another classic skit that I really loved. Grover talking Oscar into playing an alphabet game where they take turns saying something that each letter of the alphabet stands for. Grover chooses all positive words and Oscar, of course, selects negative ones (and the WAY he says them are sidesplittingly funny). It takes place at Oscar's trash can. Grover begins:

A is for apple
Oscar: B is for blecch!
Grover: C is for cute
Oscar: D is for disgusting!
Grover: E is for enjoy
Oscar: F is for frightful!
Grover: G is for Grover
Oscar: H is for horrible!!
Grover: I is for ice cream
Oscar: J is for junk!
Grover: K is for mmmmmmmmmwah (he kisses Oscar) kiss
Oscar: (after grimacing in disgust) Well L is for lousy!
Grover: And m is for marvelous and ... ( a brief pause) n is for nice, n is for nice
Oscar: O is for Oscar
Grover: Oh? Heh. P is for play
Oscar: Q is for quit!
Grover: R is for run
Oscar: S is for sickening!
Grover: T is for terrific
Oscar: U is for ugly (it sounded to me like he said "a ghoulie" , but I'm sure ugly was the intended word)
Grover: V is for vanilla
Oscar: W is for worst!
Grover: X is for xylophone

And then comes Oscar's extremely funny close:

Oscar: And Y is for yucky and Z is for Zero! And that's what playing this game is with you yucky and a great big ZERO!! (I'm sure there was supposed to be a little pause between the words you and yucky. That would make the sentence make the most sense. But I remember Oscar saying it all so fast and that just made it even funnier. Because then it sounded like he was calling Grover yucky ( You Yucky! ) instead of Grover's game!)

Oscar then did one of his infamous trash can slams. Grover then says,"I liked it."

Haven't seen this in about 30 years but saw it a bunch of times in the early 70's that I recall it almost perfectly word for word!

 

[mikebennidict]

son't recall that 1 though i rememebr 1 Oscar did with Gordon where when Gordon said a letter such as A it would appear nice like you'd normally see with a bell sound and when oscar said a letter such as B, it would appear ugly looking on the screen and these wierd sounds would be made when the letters he said appeared.

 

[ISNorden]

Mike: Thank goodness I'm not the only one who remembers that segment with Oscar and Gordon! In fact, I didn't remember which human actor took turns with him until you said so. *offers you a virtual high-five* Oscar's letters looked as though they were painted very clumsily, then left to drip. The sound accompanying his letters reminded me of an off-key, broken bicycle horn.

 

[ISNorden]

Another classic skit that I really loved. Grover talking Oscar into playing an alphabet game where they take turns saying something that each letter of the alphabet stands for. Grover chooses all positive words and Oscar, of course, selects negative ones (and the WAY he says them are sidesplittingly funny).

Although most of Grover's choices are indeed positive, I'd judge a few as neutral words myself: "apple" and "xylophone" are standard ABC-book entries to most Americans who grew up watching Sesame Street. "Run" and "vanilla" would be neutral to at least some children (unless running happened to be their favorite activity, or vanilla their favorite flavor). The same applies to both Grover and Oscar choosing their names when the right letter comes up; the characters may like their own names, but a child who hasn't reacted strongly to either character wouldn't prefer/dislike one name more than the other.

It takes place at Oscar's trash can. Grover begins:

A is for apple
Oscar: B is for blecch!
Grover: C is for cute
Oscar: D is for disgusting!

..........................

[ISN: E-J alternations cut for space]

Grover: K is for mmmmmmmmmwah (he kisses Oscar) kiss
Oscar: (after grimacing in disgust) Well L is for lousy!

Grover's planting a big kiss on Oscar's face: now that's a great blend of staying in character and graphic physical comedy. Those CTW writers picked the perfect foil for Oscar in that sketch...

Grover: And m is for marvelous and ... ( a brief pause) n is for nice, n is for nice
Oscar: O is for Oscar
Grover: Oh? Heh. P is for play

Wonder if Frank Oz and Carroll Spinney were having trouble remembering their lines there? If they were, add this to the "bloopers which still got broadcast" list.

[ISN: Q-X alternations cut for space]

And then comes Oscar's extremely funny close:

Oscar: And Y is for yucky and Z is for Zero! And that's what playing this game is with you yucky and a great big ZERO!! (I'm sure there was supposed to be a little pause between the words you and yucky. That would make the sentence make the most sense. But I remember Oscar saying it all so fast and that just made it even funnier. Because then it sounded like he was calling Grover yucky ( You Yucky! ) instead of Grover's game!)

I'd have to hear a sound file to know whether anyone else would easily interpret the "yucky and a great big zero" as an insult against Grover, not the game. Still, putting that ending in Oscar's mouth is fair to him: Grover's already made him angry enough with the kiss and the two-letter cheat (M/N).

Oscar then did one of his infamous trash can slams. Grover then says,"I liked it."

That's a far cry from the Oscar who actually calls Slimey a friend...and tells him at the end of a Spanish lesson, "I'm feliz [happy] that you're feliz; just don't let anyone else know, OK?"

 

[Ziffel]

Although most of Grover's choices are indeed positive, I'd judge a few as neutral words myself: "apple" and "xylophone"

Well yeah certain words of his like "terrific" were more obviously positive than others he used. I guess it'd be more accurate to say that Grover's whole attitude was positive during the game, whereas Oscar's attitude was negative. And their word choices (along with the way they said them) were big reflections of that.

I'd have to hear a sound file to know whether anyone else would easily interpret the "yucky and a great big zero" as an insult against Grover, not the game. Still, putting that ending in Oscar's mouth is fair to him: Grover's already made him angry enough with the kiss and the two-letter cheat (M/N).

Oh I'm sure Oscar was talking about Grover's alphabet game, not Grover himself. I was just saying that I always thought it was hilarious how Oscar ranted those closing lines so rapidly that it made it sound as if he was calling Grover himself yucky. (i.e. actual intended lines in the script: "And Y is for yucky, and z is for zero. And that's what playing this game is with you; yucky and a great big zero!" but saying it so fast made it sound like: "...and that's what playing this game is with YOU YUCKY AND A GREAT BIG ZERO!") Made for an extremely funny unintended juxtaposition!

And I quote from this thread here because I just checked youtube and found this clip there, but in Dutch. But it was great to still see it. And since I recall all of the lines, it's easy to follow along. Be really great someday to get to hear Frank Oz and Carroll Spinney do this one again. Spinney was just such vintage grouchy Oscar in this one. A brilliant skit. I also love the basic street and light traffic sound effects in the background that were so typical of SS street scenes. They easily could have just set up the props and muppets and shot the scenes with no other noise whatsoever. But this atmospheric touch was always a welcome addition. And notice how long Grover kissed Oscar during the letter k! Wish I could hear Oz doing his "mmmmmmm" that he did! Big time LOL!
And I see you viewed this clip at youtube too, IsNorden, and placed a comment.

 

[nickcoffee12]

the grover and oscar abc clip is on your tube but it is in duch

 

[Ziffel]

Yes I know, that's what I just said in my post:

And I quote from this thread here because I just checked youtube and found this clip there, but in Dutch.