How can Sesame Street be a BAD influence on your life?

[ssetta]

As we all know, Sesame Street is one of the most successful children's programs ever on TV. So nothing bad should come out of it. However, for me, a few bad things did come out of it. Remember the iconic "Cowboy X" animation where he marked X's on everything in town? I actually did the same thing once when I was little, except it was with the number 12. I carved (not wrote, carved with a knife) number 12s in almost every piece of furniture in my house, including a then-new grand piano. My mother was furious. She was ready to kill me. We still have that piano more than 30 years later, and the 12 is still there.

But further more, everybody on Sesame Street has always been very friendly and so welcoming. There are very few communities like that in the real world. And I have to say I think Sesame Street has corrupted my life in a lot of ways. I always thought that anybody who I meet should be my friend, and if they don't wanna be my friend, it will make me miserable.

And lastly, it has made me want to be a kid forever. I live only with my dad and we do not get along at all. And he says we need to clean out this house and I gave him a huge argument because I like things messy (like Oscar the Grouch) but he doesn't (like Felix the Grouch from episode 3891). There actually are grouches in the real world, and they're usually a LOT grouchier than Oscar. And interestingly enough, I think they could even be more like Felix. Because if you remember, Felix was really grouchy and mean to everyone he saw and treated them like dirt, but he was NOT messy like Oscar. In fact, he liked everything neat. I wouldn't even be surprised if he got a job as a cleaning person.

The Sesame Street characters have never grown up. Well, the Muppets haven't. But I feel like the old humans (and even some of the Muppets) are like family to me. And I wish that's how the world was. And I will never be happy until the world is that way.

 

[LittleJerry92]

If I’m being honest, I don’t think Sesame Street has “made you want to be a kid forever.” It sounds to me more like you have Peter Pan syndrome. And if that is the case, it’s something you’re going to have to eventually move on from because life only gets tougher as you get older. It’s a part of growing up.

 

[YellowYahooey]

I remember, as a toddler, carving 7s in walls in my house. My parents were likely angered about it, and I may have likely gotten spanked. But I don't know if the "Cowboy X" cartoon may have influenced it. But regardless, the walls were plastered over. It makes me wonder if the behavior may have had nothing to do with the segment and somewhat to do with autism, but it had more to do with consuming too much sugar which caused hyperactivity - in my case, my hyperactivity was so bad, it was the equivalent of five Dennis the Menaces. Thankfully, I am more mature now and have regretted my problems from prior to 2010.

The Cowboy X cartoon was not the only segment involving marking letters on others' property. There was also an Old West segment with Sinister Sam complaining about someone who stole the final box of crayons and he wanted to use the black crayon to mark the letter Y on a poster. I don't think I ever got to see that segment until the early 1980s on PBS broadcasts because the moment I saw a letter Y segment on a CBC broadcast, I would quickly turn off the TV or change the channel - because I was afraid of the capital letter Y due to the scary Y for yawn cartoon.