What Oscar's done to avoid being bothered

[muppet maniac]

The ones I know of are when he hangs a "wet paint" sign on his can and the adults keep telling him that the paint's dried, and when he fakes being sick.

Any other times?

 

[SSLFan]

Well, one thing he always does is say

: SCRAM!

Yep, that's Oscar alright.

 

[sesameguy]

The list is endless! He's tried wearing earmuffs made out of tin cans, Putting "stop" signs all around his can, and even briefly moving away.

There was a "little golden book" put out years ago called "Oscar's book" that featured him trying to think of ways to be left alone. At one point he put on a blonde wig and pretended to be somebody else, but when Big Bird saw him, he called everybody to come over and meet the new neighbor on Sesame Street. He can't win, I tell you.

 

[SesameMike]

long reply

Six years ago I posted this on another message board. Here it is again with a few edits. As usual, not all spoken phrases or details are exact.
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• In the wake of some particularly noisy ball playing around his can, Oscar makes like he's a doctor. He wears a corroded stethoscope along with one of those forehead reflector thingies. As the adults gather around to investigate, he "examines" them one by one and summarily diagnoses each person as having an illness that requires laying in bed for a few days, and hence off the street. Even Susan protests that she's a nurse and would know if something was really wrong. Finally David, who says he'd been going to medical school for a few years (there were also episodes where he was in law school), informs Oscar that he has the "Quiet Mumps" ((?) exact wording uncertain). The treatment? He has to listen to people playing and making noise, "AND YOU GOTTA LIKE IT!" as everyone returns to their mini ball game.
  
  
• Oscar decides to conduct a vocal orchestra, and assigns everyone a voice note to reproduce on his cue. ("Now you go, 'laaaa'", person went "laaaa") First Oscar "conducts" the sky with his baton (which is silent of course), then disappears into his can to conduct the furniture (also silent). Everyone quietly waits outside, but then the kids start complaining that they want to sing their part. So the count of 3, they all simultaneously sing their notes into the can. "That wasn't supposed to be for another 1/2 hour." His next plan...
  
  
• Oscar opens a library, consisting mostly of some torn and threadbare tomes on a shelf near his can. He did this because, as everyone knows, you're supposed to be quiet in the library. Everyone then comes by and starts quietly reading and enjoying the books, and Oscar feels success! But then he realizes that everyone, though whispering, are happily joking and even laughing over the contents of the books. "Hey, what are you all whispering about?" SHHHHHH! they all reply. "OK everyone, the library's closing!" SHHHHHHHHHHHH!
  
  
• When Susan rolls up a stroller with a baby she's babysitting, she tells Oscar "Shhh, the baby's sleeping". Oscar protests "it's a free country", and gets all indignant that no one is ever quiet when HE's sleeping. So in the next scene, Oscar dresses up like a baby, in dirty and wrinkled baby clothes (I think he was in a torn and rusted carriage), and tells everyone to be quiet because he's sleeping. Bob calls his bluff and says "so you're a baby? And you're going to sleep? Then let me sing you a lullaby." Ironically, Oscar's reaction was a "wahh-ha-ha-ha", akin to crying like a baby. Bob, of course, sang with his usual fine singing voice.
  
  
• Oscar is P.O.ed at all the noisy playing in and around the street, so he puts on earmuffs with cotton in them to block out all sound. But he still sees people having fun, so he puts on a blindfold (actually a red scarf with a 70s-ish pattern on it). Then someone walks up with a bouquet of roses, and, complaining that he can smell them, puts a clothespin on his nose, (wherever that is). Then the adults start patting and kissing Oscar. So he goes in his can one more time, and puts a mesh-metal trash can over his body to block out all physical contact. Susan remarks "he doesn't even know we're here" as the adults all walk off. Oscar is all happy that he is finally isolated, and misses 3 visitors: the mud man, Bob bearing a gift of some rusted tin cans, and a stinkweed salesman. This presented the unspoken message that isolating oneself keeps out the good along with the bad (or in Oscar's case, the bad along with the good?)
  
  
• Oscar tries to get everyone to quiet down, as he's trying to sleep. The adults tell him he should do his sleeping at night. Oscar then plays a tape with a hideous sound of a night owl, and shows everyone an alarm clock that says 8:00, time to go to bed. Susan reminds him that it is 8 a.m., not p.m., and that it is dark at night. So Oscar hangs up a wizard-like banner over his can; the cloth is is dark and has multiple stars on it and TWO moons. When the adults see it, they decide to play along and say "Gee, it's night time, I guess we'd better get to sleep" -- and proceed to "sleep" right there in front of his can. (I had the TV turned off on me at this point when the show originally aired, but I suspect some exaggerated fake snoring and such raised his ire).
  
  
• Oscar claims to have the "Duck Pox", a disease similar to Chicken Pox but more contagious, so everyone had better stay away. The symptoms were red cutout dots of construction paper pasted all over his fur. But then the Count shows up and eagerly waits to catch the disease so he can count the spots on his body (recalling that when he had the Chicken Pox, the spots were too small for him to count). Frustrated, Oscar disappears into his can, rips off the spots, and throws them out on the street; the Count proceeds to count the dots right then and there.
  
  
• Oscar told everyone to get indoors because a blizzard was coming. All I remember is that Oscar simulated the cold wind by aiming an electric fan at a large block of ice. However, as the show's closing music was beginning, I think Spinney did some ad-libbing with "look at the cumulonimbus clouds up in the sky" (which BTW are indicative of impending thunderstorms, and in extreme cases tornadoes, but not blizzards)
  
  
• Oscar put up a supermarket-style pyramid of grocery cans (soup cans?) between his garbage can and the curb, so no one could walk by him (and no one would dare walk around it, because walking in the street you might get hit by a car). Susan, however, knocked down the pyramid to walk through. When Oscar asked how she'd clean up the mess she made, she rolled her hands, and the stack re-assembled itself! (running the videotape backwards)
  
  
• Oscar installed a repulsive-sounding doorbell. When pressed, you'd hear some chimes do a rigid arrangement of the "shave-and-a-haircut" routine, but with the last note replaced by a sickening "ehhhhhhhh" sound.
  
  
• Oscar had Ralph install a lock on his can. Oscar supervised the construction from outside his can, then asked Ralph...
  
  Oscar: Now open it.
  Ralph: (thinks for a second) Give me the key
  Oscar: The key is inside the can.
  Ralph: Then I can't open it.
  Oscar: That's great. You locked me out.
  
  As Ralph and Luis discuss ways of prying the lid open, Oscar states that he has a pet worm, whom he instructs to retrieve the key he left on the coffee table. (Although I reported other times that this was Slimey's debut on the show, Muppet Wikia states that an earlier episode had Oscar enter Slimey in a pet show.)
  
  
• In one earlier episode, Oscar put up a slew of "NO _____-ing" signs around his cans (including "No Dumping", "No Trespassing", and even "No Nothing". Another time, Oscar had Ralph build a series of perimeter walls around the cans, hemming him in.
  
  
• After Oscar was disturbed by some people playing Simon Says outside his can, Oscar asks if he can lead a round of the game. After the usual drill of hands on head, etc..., Oscar says "Simon Says, disappear into your trash can", which he did while everyone else crouched down with hands over folded over their heads. Not sure if he kept them that way indefinitely, tho.

Note: The mudman was a recognizable muppet who regularly delivered sealed jars of mud to Oscar. Never did find out exactly what he did with the mud, however. Exactly once, he arrived while singing "Oh a mudman is a person in your neighborhood" informally: that line only and without musical accompaniment.

 

[SesameMike]

Wow, it was only 16 short years ago that I posted a description of this scene (fourth point above). I concede that it was Maria, not Susan, who brought the baby over.

 

[Sparkina]

The ones I know of are when he hangs a "wet paint" sign on his can and the adults keep telling him that the paint's dried, and when he fakes being sick.

Any other times?

Once, he disguised himself as a bush. “I am not Oscar. I am a BUSH.”

 

[YellowYahooey]

He used Disappear-O - an invisibility spray - in a 1992 episode.