Katy Perry song banned from Sesame Street Season 41

[frogboy4]

Bunk!

I was actually excited by this video and it made me really like Elmo! That's a rare feat!

SW knew about Katy Perry when they hired her. They approved the song, the wardrobe and she went through hair and makeup before even starting the shoot. Let's remember that this whole video is greenscreened! Her clothing choice was obviously scrutinized for color and functionality. Also, she is wearing a shear color to cover her top half to keep her boobage in tact and diffuse it a little bit.

This either smacks of a stunt or SW dumbing down Sesame Street yet again. Either way I think they’ve lost perspective of what made the show great. It's why I don't watch the program anymore. Too many darn PTA mother-minded executives. My opinion - can them and start with fresh people who grew up under a better Sesame and get the dynamic of the show, not the politics of it. SW had Kobe Bryant on their program after his much publicized lascivious (and possibly unlawful) activities and nobody made a stink.

Kids won’t care. And by the way…Katy Perry is an admitted Christian. Sure, she’s cheeky and married a strange enigmatic entertainer, but she’s a Muppet fan and a rather balanced role model in my book. Nobody cares less about her cleavage than I do, but I don’t mind it and don’t think kids will even notice. Bad call by SW.

Katy Petty with Muppety dress ... and ... Katy with Muppety boobage

Just my two cents.

 

[Convincing John]

For anyone who hasn't seen it yet, here's a report about the clip on the Today Show:

http://tv.msn.com/tv/article.aspx?news=597279&GT1=28103

If you want to see the clip, you better hurry up and download it before it's yanked off all the Youtube channels completely.

The reason I say that is, I'm also curious about other things that never aired on Sesame Street (or got the axe shortly after they were aired). The original version of "Imagination" (with the monsters that freaked out Ernie), the Anything Muppet version of "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" and the Snuffy's Parents Get a Divorce episode to name a few. Unless we magically get access to the clip vault at SW, we'll never see 'em.

Convincing John

 

[Nick22]

i watched the video yesterday, and i LOVED it. wake up this morning to see it all over the news. ridiculous. absolutely ridiculous. i honestly am unable to even comment on how annoying this entire situation is. unbelievable.

 

[Drtooth]

This either smacks of a stunt or SW dumbing down Sesame Street yet again. Either way I think they’ve lost perspective of what made the show great. It's why I don't watch the program anymore. Too many darn PTA mother-minded executives. My opinion - can them and start with fresh people who grew up under a better Sesame and get the dynamic of the show, not the politics of it. SW had Kobe Bryant on their program after his much publicized lascivious (and possibly unlawful) activities and nobody made a stink.

The worst part is it isn't even a big fat PTA/Family First letter writing movement. They listened to comments on Youtube. And those things are superficial at best. Half of everyone just uses videos to whine about how much they hate how it's 2010 and who's president. I once saw a classy post on an episode of Battle of the Planets that said "Thanks for bringing us back to a simpler time before 9/11 and gay marriage." And then there was some ultra right wing nut on a Bugs bunny video whining about how they get away with all this stuff on TV and whining about Sharia law (dude... that guy wanted the Christan equivalent of Sharia law). And that's not even counting teenagers who basically thumbs down or rate everything 1 star or whatever to fill in their valuable time. It's Youtube. Only thing on it is illegal videos, idiots who film their cats, even bigger idiots that film themselves lit on fire, pointless vlogs (if you have one, I'm sorry... yours are probably GOOD), and official channels putting previews and poorly streamed movies and TV shows. Now, what kind of goofballs does that attract?

Spineless isn't even the word. I say, we get a writing campaing to get them to put it BACK on TV and BACK on the internet. They paid a crapload of money to get a celebrity and a smaller crap load to pay for filming. It's money down the tubes, and who are they listening to? An actual group? No. Idiotic comments. I dare you to look at other comments on their officially posted videos. Spam... idiocy... OMG FIrsT coMMent... and they basically ignore them. Why actually start paying attention now?

 

[Gelfling Girl]

Just my two cents...

In my opinion, I certainly would have preferred if the dress wasn't as short (on both the top and the skirt), but the skit itself is rather cute.

 

[minor muppetz]

I wonder if it would be good if Sesame Workshop would at least refilm the segment with a Muppet caricature of Katy Perry and reuse the vocal track.

 

[ISNorden]

If Perry's outfit hadn't looked more appropriate at a nightclub than on a kids' show, I wouldn't have objected to the video staying on Sesame Street. Come on, how many adults dress like that to play with a 3-year-old friend--especially a friend of the opposite sex? (Even though Perry mentioned playing dress-up at the beginning, I doubt the average mom would choose such revealing clothes for the game.)

Still, Sesame Workshop did spend a lot of time and money on Perry's appearance; with the economy hitting them as hard as it does everyone else, they shouldn't let the soundtrack go to waste. Reworking the song, either as an all-Muppet parody or a live-action reshoot, would be a reasonable compromise in my opinion.

 

[Convincing John]

In my opinion, I certainly would have preferred if the dress wasn't as short (on both the top and the skirt), but the skit itself is rather cute.

I wonder...is it really the dress and what you can (and almost can) see, or is it because of Katy's past work and the original video this is parodied from that bothers people?

This thread reminds me of the whole issue with Snoop Dogg on IAVMMC. As I remember it, the cut scene was just him and Floyd chatting a little. No dirty words, no innuendo, but a lot of Snoop's "-izzle" suffixes. Zoot says something like "That's the most I've understood from anyone in 30 years." (or something like that).

The scripted dialogue was harmless, but I think it was because of Snoop's reputation and past work that influenced the decision to pull it. (The claim was that it didn't have anything to add to the story, which could be true, too).

It's true that there have been a lot of celebrities famous (or infamous) for certain things. They reworked "Put Down the Duckie" in later years and Pee-Wee Herman's cameo was cut. I'm not sure about any complaints arising when Richard Pryor was on the show. (Something tells me Jon Stone was the main guy who stood his ground against any naysayers).

I was listening to "Street Gang" on audiobook recently and it discussed "The Fishermen Song" by Judy Collins and what she was going through in that time of her life. The clip turned out well-done, clever and there was a mention of "drinking beer" and no one complained.

Maybe to parody the adult stuff on SS and get away with it, you have to be a Muppet. A celebrity doing these songs might get in trouble and the segment might get pulled (like what happened with Katy), but if you're a Muppet, you can get away with it for years:

Alphabet Time
Eating Cookie

And also...listen to what Cookie Monster says at the end of this sketch (immediately after he eats a crumb off the plate). I wouldn't be surprised if Frank Oz inentionally repeated verbatim the slogan of a certain adult beverage.

They Not Take that Away From Me

Convincing John

 

[dwmckim]

I've got to admit, i'm a bit divided on this.

Pulling it because of Youtube comments is really pretty stupid given the maturity level of a lot of people who post them...and for frog's sake - they can pull this clip because of Youtube feedback yet they can ignore the humongous amount of feedback that's steadily shown up for years under a wide range of clips on their channel from people complaining about how the show's been dumbed down or has WAY too much Elmo! That more than anything gets my goat.

I also don't think stuff outside of the clip such as some of Katy's other songs people may have a problem with shouldn't be as heavy a factor.

Yet at the same time, there was a certain amount of "what were they thinking?" involved with the original clip. I mean, yeah Sesame Street's always worked on different levels as per being entertaining for kids and adults but there's a distinction between that and bordering on adult entertainment if you get what i mean. People of a certain age can watch that clip and read all kinds of out there things about it and i can't believe no one wasn't aware of the various things that may be an issue when it was being produced.

Yes, kids are exposed to so much on tv anyway and as someone mentioned many SST aged kids saw Raquel Welch's number on The Muppet Show in THAT getup - but the big difference here is that TMS, while having much kids appeal was not A Childrens' Show. Sesame Street is very specifically For The Kids. So things like wardrobe, possible double entendres (which aren't always bad if they're smart and subtle and SST has done quite a bit), or ways things could be read, seen, or interpreted should always be on everyone's mind. You do things that are appropriate. ESPECIALLY because of the wide proliferation of stuff elsewhere on the dial, parents need that reassurance that Sesame Street and other "childrens' programming" are safe havens.

In theory if not always in practice, SST tries to appeal to adults so they can create a program that allows the adults/older relatives/caretakers to watch with the kids and enrich the viewing experience without making those older viewers want to gag or leave the room. If SST shows a clip that makes too much of the adult viewers uncomfortable and causes them to question whether or not SST should be a part of their childrens' viewing, then it's totally defeated the purpose. And if a (somewhat valid) uproar is made by adults upset about what the kids are being shown, Sesame Workshop does have that responsibilty to reevaluate it and pull it even if they feel the clip is fine but the ultimate risk of backlash is too great. The sad fact is if something offends too many parents or adults that may cause them to steer the kids away from SST altogether then what good does it do; the kids lose out because they can't watch, the parents lose out because they have developed too negative a view and Sesame Workshop loses out because they're blockaded from reaching their target audience and accomplishing their basic goals.

People taking care of children are rightfully under much scrutiny and have a large target on their back whether it be teachers, babysitters, daycare providers, sports coaches, etc etc and when you're one of the largest and most visible educators of children reaching millions (in the US alone), said target and scrutiny is much more intense. At the end of the day, you have to watch your back.

One of SST's best kept secrets is the blooper reels/gag films shown at their end of season wrap parties. Yes, SST is made by adults, creative ones at that, and there's a lot of joking around and blue humor that occurs strictly behind the scenes. The Katy Perry clip almost borders something that might be intended for that type of situation more than something for the show itself. Frogboy pointed out that yes, everything had to be planned and pre-approved which again leads to the idea of "what were they thinking" to begin with? Especially in the current climate of the budget cuts it seems even MORE attention and scrutiny would go into every filmed clip so how this made it all the way to final edit and almost airing is beyond me. It's not that there was one problematic aspect such as Katy's wardrobe (and really, they should have had more guts to say, "let's go with something else") but a whole bunch of little things that all add up together.

I don't like to see it taken out. But given how quickly and large the uproar occurred, i do have to support SW's decision to extinguish the flames before the fire consumed everything else. Plus given a lot of things about the clip that HAD to have been seen as risky, the fact it made it as far as it did regardless seems outrageous - enough people HAD to know how it may be seen by enough people as opposed to say the "I Want a Monster to Be My Friend" controversy. Plus they at least pulled it BEFORE it actually aired as opposed to taking it out of an episode after its already hit the tv screen.

There's been the rare occasional time SW decided to pull a clip from reruns (or at least out of rotaton for future episodes) in extreme circumstances like Chris Brown's clip (even though it either won or was nominated for an Emmy before everything happened), and it's easy to focus on those but there's many other examples of stuff that was left alone despite some ruffled feathers - the Families episode of Elmo's World has the briefest of clips of same sex parents in a montage, clips with Ellen Degeneris and Rosie O'Donnell remained not only untouched but in "heavy rotation" at the time when people objected to their being out and proud, despite all the crazy amount of attention (a couple years after the original airing!), "Pox News" remained untouched. The list goes on. They get a lot of pressure to cut things or not even include them to begin with and most of the time, they stay strong. It's only in the most extreme cases do they have to bite the bullet and make a cut.

So all in all, i don't like that it came to this or a lot of reasons behind it, i don't 100% agree it's the right thing to do, but i still have to support SW's decision on this.

 

[muppet maniac]

I found this video made by someone on Youtube regarding the whole story:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_x43GgzKKY

Wait until near the end of the video: she makes a very good point as to what's wrong with the whole situation (or at least, with parents in general)

Oh, and Drtooth, just in case some idiot(s) on Youtube gets on your nerves, just have Penn (of Penn and Teller) handle them himself. Like so...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5x_-IoeSB-A&feature=related

...And the same goes to those uptight, right-wing, "parent-group" imbeciles!