Lemme say this. As someone who just cannot get through the Jim Henson tribute past the Marching Accountant Society bit, I get pretty emotional during these things and hope that there's a lot more yukks than tearful moments. This episode was absolutely wacky and funny, and I had a ball with Alan, Telly, and Elmo failing to impersonate Count. Even lampshade hanging Elmo's verbal tick that render's him completely unable to say "I am" instead of his own name.
Then Telly gave the line about how The Count made millions of people happy and I freaking lost it. The elegance and subtlety of just giving that huge manner of reflection into just one powerful line... rest assured, there's NO doubt that this was a tribute. The Nobel Prize looking like Jerry (I think, I need to look at it again), the "I am Spartacus" bit they did at the end... those were nice touches. But that one line managed to be incredibly powerful. I dunno, maybe it's because it almost exactly echo's Kermit's lines from The Muppet Movie. That was just a deeply moving thing to say without breaking the fourth wall too hard.