For the last few years, I'd been thinking that the majority of really weird or bizarre Sesame Street segments were animated segments, with very few of the really weird ones being Muppet segments. Of course there had been some weird Muppet segments, like The Geefle and the Gonk (though after watching it recently, I've been re-thinking whether it really is weird) or the cast singing "Surprise".
But it seems like a lot of Ernie and Bert segments from the first season are somewhat weird, while many also seem to exist to have a pun as the punchline. Of course there would be E&B segments in later seasons that mainly exist for an ending pun, but it doesn't seem as common (and, somehow, the pun quality seems different). Especially many of the rare segments where details have been uncovered to the wiki from trusted sources (not to mention some of those season one episodes that surfaced from the vault in 2014).
Examples of some of the more weird/odd Ernie and Bert segments: the four-part segment where Ernie pours and drinks milk for a very long time, the section of "Up and Down" where Ernie pours milk while upside-down, Ernie being able to clean the apartment in just 15 minutes, maybe the three-part segment where Ernie gives Bert a haircut, maybe the segment where Ernie cleans the apartment in under 15 seconds, the segment with a letter B buzzing around like a bee, maybe the segment where the letter A appears on their TV, Ernie looking for a Z and finding a weird-looking thing that ends up being a Z, Ernie erasing Cookie Monster. I feel like Bert getting his nose removed (which was most common in the first season) is tame compared to these other weird examples.
And some examples of first season Ernie and Bert segments that primarily set up a pun for the ending punchline: Ernie having bacon and X, Ernie having an X-ident, Cookie Monster eating bacon and X, Ernie finding an X treasure (wow, a lot of X puns in the first season!), the "I 8 the sandbox" trick, Ernie drawing a tree instead of a three, Ernie writing a letter (M) to his cousin, the aforementioned buzzing B, and the T bit. Of course, as I said, there's also plenty of post-season one E&B segments to end with a pun - 10 Q, Happy Birthday to U... But they seem to be played different and don't seem to have occurred so frequently.
I brought this up before, but there are a few occasions where Bert doesn't loose his cool in the end: one of which is when they're trekking through the hot, steaming jungle to find Dr. Livingston -- all so Ernie could ask him, "What's up, doc?" Even Bert had a good laugh over that, when you would think he would have either blown up at Ernie or fainting over being dragged through the jungle just so Ernie could make that joke.
I included that as an example of "Actually Pretty Funny" on the TV Tropes page for Sesame Street. Especially since, when they had found Dr. Livingstone and Ernie briefly considers not asking the question, Bert points out, in a frustrated tone, that they traveled all that way.
D'Snowth said:
Then, there's occasions where Bert actually gets the best of Ernie, such as when Ernie tried that repeating game where he has Bert phonetically repeat his drum beats, which Bert is able to do precisely each time, much to Ernie's befuddlement.
I've been watching that one for the last few years, it is a great one. I feel like it's somehow different from other segments where Ernie makes Bert do something he doesn't want to do only for Ernie to be ready to end it when Bert is starting to enjoy it. Maybe Bert enjoyed it the whole time, or maybe it's because he did better than Ernie thought, or maybe it's because Bert doesn't seem to be upset that Ernie wants to end it.
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. Still, it would be really jarring if they were ever in a scene together.
