Rare "Cracks" animation from 1970's Sesame Street

[Blue Frackle]

There's nothing more I love doing on a Sunday night than revisiting the Crack Master drama.

Comment of the year here from a user on John Armond's documentary:

Like they really are going to care that much that an obscure as **** clip is uploaded onto youtube. Like there isn't already hundreds of people uploading clips without legal consent. The worst thing that would happen is it would get removed by youtube. What is this ****, an ARG? "Come over to my house"? Is this the Underground Tapes Railroad?

I did some further digging into this thread to a post I hadn't seen before, which was such an interesting development to me:

4. He also suggested (in the audio clip) that his source seemed uncomfortable that that the cartoon existed in the first place.

This is so *bleeping* fascinating; this is a real-life creepypasta here folks.

So more mysterious than the actual short itself is why the *bleep* was it so heavily kept under wraps by Armond's source? Jon basically indirectly confirmed in his docu that his copy was acquired from someone involved in the creation of the short, or one of their family members; why did they not want it to be seen? What's the difference between Jon seeing it vs. the internet? Maybe the creator felt bad that it terrorized so many kids so they wish to remain nameless? Reminds me of the abandoned Beach Boys' record from the '60s, 'Smile'. Something doesn't add up.

 

[dycaite]

There's nothing more I love doing on a Sunday night than revisiting the Crack Master drama.

Hehe, yeah, I like revisiting all the old threads and such every once in a while

 

[Blue Frackle]

Hehe, yeah, I like revisiting all the old threads and such every once in a while

Hey, you came around! Huge fan!

The mystery still isn't over to me...

Then a miracle happens. The party who owns the rights to the cartoon contacts him. They're very private. Jon gets a copy of the clip on condition that he wasn't to copy or publish any of it. Anywhere. No exceptions.

Why? Why do they care so much about a 40-year old cartoon clip no one has seen? Sometimes I wonder what they would've done, if anything, to Jon if it got out. I don't know; it kind of seems like those people need a reality-check, but we can thank them for the whole aura surrounding this.

Btw, ever hear anything about the second documentary Jon was supposed to make? I think you stole his thunder, rendering it pointless.

 

[dycaite]

Hey, you came around! Huge fan!

The mystery still isn't over to me...

Why? Why do they care so much about a 40-year old cartoon clip no one has seen? Sometimes I wonder what they would've done, if anything, to Jon if it got out. I don't know; it kind of seems like those people need a reality-check, but we can thank them for the whole aura surrounding this.

Btw, ever hear anything about the second documentary Jon was supposed to make? I think you stole his thunder, rendering it pointless.

Thanks

And yeah you're absolutely right, there is so much to this that is still shrouded in mystery. There's been loads of speculation (and a few decent leads) as to things like who narrated it, who animated it, etc. but still no concrete info either way. I still have no idea why Jon Armond was put under such restrictive circumstances in the beginning, but I would really like to know -- I'd contact him myself to try and find out, but something tells me I'm not exactly his favourite person right now, heh...

On that note, while it certainly was not intentional, yes, I think that I may have as you put it, stolen his thunder. It's a shame, because I would still love to see a documentary on the topic, but I haven't heard anything about it for years, so I doubt it's still happening. But yeah, there was no way I wasn't releasing the clip the second I got it, so... Sorry Jon :/

 

[Blue Frackle]

I still have no idea why Jon Armond was put under such restrictive circumstances in the beginning, but I would really like to know -- I'd contact him myself to try and find out, but something tells me I'm not exactly his favourite person right now, heh...

I bet he loves you, but I wonder how the original owners feel about it being online. A woman who worked for CTW said they don't own it, and have zero rights to it, so so much for their strict guidelines.

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More thoughts...

"Divergent thinking"... how?

Maybe it's time to add a 'Cracks' page to MuppetWiki? I don't see why not. That could garner some more interest.

I know the articles are supposed to be concise, but it'll be hard to create a page for it without at least saying something about its rarity and ensuing search for it. It will be my first Wiki article submission, so I will try my hardest! I wonder if someone tried to before and MuppetWiki wants nothing to do with it, but just like any other Sesame Street animated segment it deserves its own page. I don't know how much I can talk about the drama though; I fear I'm pushing it by even bringing up Jon Armond. Half of my article appears to be a creppypasta, which I know MuppetWiki wants no part of.

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Literally a minute after creating the article:

This page has been deleted. The deletion and move log for the page are provided below for reference.

• 19:29, June 11, 2016 Aleal (wall | contribs) deleted page Cracks (too much "unknown" and rumored stuff, we generally create animated segment pages only for series or songs, not one-shots )

I'll debate with him for a little, though I know there's no chance.

 

[Oscarfan]

What's all this obsessing over one cartoon from the show's like 2,000+ of them?

 

[Blue Frackle]

What's all this obsessing over one cartoon from the show's like 2,000+ of them?

Did you read the thread?

 

[Oscarfan]

Yes, and my belief is: Who cares?

 

[Blue Frackle]

Yes, and my belief is: Who cares?

You might as well just go and shut down the Lost Media Wiki.

It's just a real interesting real-life mystery. I guess now would be the right time to introduce you to A Day with SpongeBob...

Someone wrote this on the Lost Media forums and it is the honest truth: "A group of people try to find some bootleg movie and end up stumbling onto a money laundering front for a sex business and things become a roller coaster ride as things don't go the way they planned at all. And all they wanted was to find a crappy bootleg movie."

9:30 I laugh my *** off every time.

Yeah, but I'm under the belief 'Cracks' is more suitable for a page on the creepypasta Wiki than MuppetWiki because it really isn't all that important.

 

[Drtooth]

What's all this obsessing over one cartoon from the show's like 2,000+ of them?

It's not so much that it's a cartoon to obsess over, so much as when something's that frustratingly out of reach, the fact that it is impossible to find makes the obsession.

That said, there's a crapload of Sesame Street stuff that hasn't been released to the public legally or otherwise. I can see the need for trying to put those pieces together as a fan effort if SW is too short handed or does know or care about older, rarer, not big name skits. The cracks thing seems to me to be the thrill of the hunt more than anything. Especially since 7 Little Monsters just randomly popped up without any need for a search.