Shake Your Head One Time

[minor muppetz]

Today I saw this Sesame Street segment for the first time. I don't recall knowing about it before (I probably saw it mentioned and pictured on Muppet Wiki without thinking enough about it to remember), and it sure is a fun song.

One thing that's interesting is how Bert and Grover both appear but are silent. I wonder if Frank Oz performed them in this, or if another performer was under them (the song was copyrighted 1995, before Eric Jacobson would have been an alternate performer). Of course, Elmo is pretty much silent as well (aside from brief giggles).

And man, Bert is kind of weird in this, holding onto his ears. He doesn't show any signs of doing it reluctantly. I know that Bert doesn't dislike playing games and has often played games without being pushed by Ernie, but this feels like it could have been done by a different character. In fact, considering Ernie is the only one to get a lot of dialogue, it would have been great if they included a Richard Hunt character like Forgetful Jones or Don Music, since they wouldn't have been talking anyway (Don Music segments were still being shown at the time and he wouldn't have been banging his head on anything in this anyway).

I wouldn't be surprised if this segment appeared in an episode of Play with me Sesame.

 

[antsamthompson9]

You have to realize that even though the song is from 1995, this particular version is from 2006. Look at the way Grover and Elmo are built.

 

[minor muppetz]

You have to realize that even though the song is from 1995, this particular version is from 2006. Look at the way Grover and Elmo are built.

I didn't realize that. Of course, this is the only version of the song mentioned on the Muppet Wiki page. Makes me wonder if this was written in 1995 and just didn't get performed until a decade later, or if the original is a segment that's just so rare/obscure that it's unknown to the wiki (or maybe it is mentioned on an earlier episode page but not noted there), or what.

 

[antsamthompson9]

I didn't realize that. Of course, this is the only version of the song mentioned on the Muppet Wiki page. Makes me wonder if this was written in 1995 and just didn't get performed until a decade later, or if the original is a segment that's just so rare/obscure that it's unknown to the wiki (or maybe it is mentioned on an earlier episode page but not noted there), or what.

The mystery has since been solved. Skip to 10:59 to see the original version: