The new What Made You Smile Today thread

[fuzzygobo]

Yeah, don’t mind me, I’m gonna enjoy this day finishing up the arc where Big Bird goes to Camp echo rock under the influence.

I remember that when it was brand new. My cousin was viewing age at that time, so I had an excuse to watch it with him. (Being his appointed baby sitter, it was my duty!)
I remember them singing around the campfire, then the cartoon with the Yellow Yahoo came on.
Who wouldn’t want a day like that? Sleep late, eat, go back to bed. Just don’t fall out of the tree.

 

[LittleJerry92]

The Yellow Yahoo cartoon was sadly phased out by the time I started watching in ‘94. Something tells me the colors and music would have really fascinated me.

 

[fuzzygobo]

I was amazed to find the narration (and ukulele) was done by a guy named Mel Leven.
For the longest time, I would’ve thought Allen Swift.

 

[CoolGuy1013]

I’m Currently watching a lot of SST segments on YouTube that defined the show for me as a celebration of the anniversary.

Also, given how the recent seasons have been released on HBO Max, the 53rd season will probably premiere on the actual 53rd anniversary.

 

[fuzzygobo]

I found out a little more about Mel Leven, probably the best voice artist you never heard of.
In the late 50s he and his ukulele did a few shorts for UPA, one especially noteworthy called “The Three-Horned Flink”.
By the late 60s, most studios shut down their animated shorts departments because cartoons were getting ridiculously expensive, and there seemed to be less demand for them in theaters.
Disney did some, Universal kept cranking out ever-cheaper Woody Woodpecker cartoons until 1972.
In 1969, Disney, in one of its last efforts, hired Leven to sing and narrate a short called “It’s Tough To Be A Bird”, which won an Oscar for Best Animated Short.
Too bad the category was becoming a dying breed.
Then Sesame let him narrate the Yellow Yahoo. I believe it first appeared in episode 16 or so, and the Yahoo had a long shelf life.

 

[LittleJerry92]

Finding this.

Vampire Girl - TV Tropes

Vampire Girl is a Webcomic miniseries that debuted December 8, 2011 created by Joseph Scarbrough. The comic centered around a vampire girl named Levana, who lives a life of irony, in that she doesn't want to be a vampire, as the life of vampire …

tvtropes.org

 

[The Count]

Posting today, this happened last Thursday.

Went to a park near/between my home and my second brother's home where my family had food from Wendy's as a sort of picnic lunch for the benefit/enjoyment of my two-year and older niece. Since she, my sister and mom were there first, my niece was all excited happy when my first younger brother and I arrived that she came to take my hand as we walked to the set tables. She also took some of the fries from my batch which made me laughingly smile.

We ended up going back on Friday morning with one of our neighbors for her to just play, and then a family lunchish gathering at my second younger brother's home yesterday afternoon.

 

[CoolGuy1013]

Finding this.

Vampire Girl - TV Tropes

Vampire Girl is a Webcomic miniseries that debuted December 8, 2011 created by Joseph Scarbrough. The comic centered around a vampire girl named Levana, who lives a life of irony, in that she doesn't want to be a vampire, as the life of vampire …

tvtropes.org

Lucky! I’m still waiting for Harrisverse to get a page on there.

 

[fuzzygobo]

My friend sent me a few TikTok videos of people pulling pranks. I didn’t know this was a thing on TikTok.
One was particularly good. On a random street corner, someone left a backpack.
Various people would pick it up and steal it. As they ran away, they didn’t know the backpack was attached to a bungee cord.
At some point, the bungee cord would snap back, pulling the thief off their feet and slam them on the sidewalk.

Way back when in the 60s and 70s, we saw this on tv called Candid Camera.
I gotta hand it, whoever came up with a prank like this is pure genius.

 

[CoolGuy1013]

10 years ago today, a 7-year old boy in Bridgeport, WV, went to the movie theater at the Meadowbrook Mall to see the Muppets (the 2011 film).
While he’d been an avid Sesame Street viewer for years and knew the names of the most iconic Muppets, this would be his first time watching a major project featuring the Muppets.
And he loved it.
So much, in fact, that he’d spend the next decade obsessing over the Muppets. He’d watch projects old and new, learn new things about them, and of course join numerous fan-sites.

Spoiler

That boy was me!
Happy 10th anniversary to my love of the Muppets!