Sesame Street Season 45 Episode 4523 - Upside-Down Nursery Rhyme

[Phillip]

Episode 4523 - Upside-Down Nursery Rhyme
Friday April 3, 2015

Mother Goose (Tina Fey) is visiting Sesame Street to have some of her creations performed. The only problem is that Little Miss Muffet and Little Jack Horner feel anxious and disappointed when they recite their rhymes. Mother Goose might have to create new rhymes for her performers.

Subject: Self-Regulation, Literacy
Brought to you by: C & 18
Word on the Street: Applause – Clapping your hands to show that you like something or to cheer someone on.

If you've seen "Upside-Down Nursery Rhyme" please like this post and share your thoughts below.

 

[antsamthompson9]

Mother Goose cracked me up with her modern lingo: Cray-cray, epic, Mother G. The WOTD bit was fun. The Old MacMurray tune-ins were cool. I liked that they used unusual animals to make sounds in the song.

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

"Wubba-wubba!" I thought that was Grover's line. I couldn't help but wonder where Ovejita was in that one though. When Murray was singing about different animals, I was thinking the lamb would be the first thing we'd see.

 

[sesamemuppetfan]

Mother Goose cracked me up with her modern lingo: Cray-cray, epic, Mother G.

That's Tina Fey for ya!

 

[antsamthompson9]

That's Tina Fey for ya!

Yep. She's wonderfully funny.

 

[sesamemuppetfan]

Yep. She's wonderfully funny.

She most certainly is!

 

[Drtooth]

This was more entertaining than it needed to be and sounded. And I can only thank Tina Fey for that. While I do like the idea that they've been teaching kids how to behave, I'm totally freaking sick of this initiative. ESPECIALLY the use of fairy tale characters. But hey. At least here they weren't jumping around and screaming. Nice to see an episode with Big Bird in it. But why not a story about Big Bird? Any character could have been in the street story and it would have been exactly the same. But it's Big Bird, so we'll take it.

 

[SpinneyBigBird1]

This episode was finally put up online so I just got to see it. I really liked it. I agree with the posts above, Tina Fey cracked me up. I love how Mother Goose was so desperate for acclaim. For some reason it just made me laugh a lot.And I'm of course always happy to see Big Bird get a central role in a story.

The curriculum is again very blatant in this episode, the same as most of the episodes this season. I sort of wish they found a way to incorporate the lesson smoother into the storyline so it doesn't feel like you're actually being taught. The show used to sort of hide the lessons within the story line so it just seems like you're watching any other entertaining show. Every episode that deals with behavioral help this season always has to use the word "strategy" a bunch of times and it stops the story dead in its tracks to go through the belly breathing and other solutions.

But again, solid street story. Tina Fey should come back every season as Mother Goose or as a different character or whatever. She's really great.

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

Yeah. I could see her "Muppets Most Wanted" character visit the street for some reason or other, if Disney would allow it.

 

[Drtooth]

The curriculum is again very blatant in this episode, the same as most of the episodes this season. I sort of wish they found a way to incorporate the lesson smoother into the storyline so it doesn't feel like you're actually being taught. The show used to sort of hide the lessons within the story line so it just seems like you're watching any other entertaining show. Every episode that deals with behavioral help this season always has to use the word "strategy" a bunch of times and it stops the story dead in its tracks to go through the belly breathing and other solutions.

Agreed. That's why I hate initiatives. For the most part, when they do the same thing in Cookie's Crumby pictures, they manage to keep the flow and humor of the segment while teaching the same lessons. Sure, there are weak CCp's, The Furry Potter one was a huge disappointment. But overall, they managed to keep the message fun and hitting hard enough to leave an impact, but not too soft to be Anvilicious.

But the thing with this episode is, it feels like they could have done it without the breathing techniques or any behavioral lessons of any kind and it would have worked just as good. The rewriting fairy tales bit, while well worn anyway, didn't need that extra boost of "remember the calmly breathe." Especially since it's at the fault of logic. Fear is a perfectly natural response to danger. Who's not afraid of spiders, especially at a young age? They have all those eyes and legs... and that sideways fang mouth thing. Especially out of scale (ever see a close up?), that's terrifying. Sure, telling Miss Muffet to calm down makes sense, but the whole point is to be afraid of a creepy arachnid, especially one the size of a human. And then there's Jack Horner's part. He seemed to take disappointment with enough maturity to not whine, just take a disappointed dislike and grumble a little about it. Calm down? He was pretty rationally calm about it. Taking a big breath while being disappointed is called "sighing," and usually that's when you relent.

The flow was all off because of that, good point. Though it was refreshing to see just past rational amounts of fear, but not a huge screaming freak out and a disappointed pie eater resigning his fate to plum pulling rather than some spastic weirdo jumping around and screaming. Need I have to say how much I wish that Penny Penguin was in the background of a certain Japanese beer company funded Penguin themed remake of The Deer Hunter? (Seriously. Click that link. The knowledge of that movie will either enhance your life or irrevocably destroy it). The Jack jumping episode was only palatable with Fix-It Felix Jr./Wander/Kenneth the Page. Yet, with my horrible experiences with Bolt (stupid kids running around the aisles and smacking me in the back of the head) and Turbo (stupid brat wouldn't shut the crap up during the movie), I'm loathed to complain about it. That's an important lesson for little kids. Knowing they're not ready to go to the movies.