What sketches scared you as a kid?

[ISNorden]

ANother one that sent me screaming was this animation (if you could call it that!) of an elephant counting to twenty. I was frightened by the Spanish version. It was so long too! He counted twice and everytime he got to fourteen, he'd angrilly repeat it (Fourteen) over and over until it appeared on screen!

The counting-elephant cartoon was actually made for a Swedish children's show in the 70s; the title of that show translates as "Five Ants Is More Than Four Elephants". The original Swedish soundtrack of the counting cartoon had the numbers set to music (barely audible in the English version); the angry frustration over "14--14--14" was part of the song, too.

The pink elephant was a recurring character on "Five Ants" (sometimes part of a father/son duo); he usually taught letters and numbers. (He's probably best known for a very catchy alphabet-song cartoon, in which he corrects the younger elephant's mistakes from time to time.)

Incidentally, the elephant cartoons came from the same artist as the "Swedish Number Animations" that some of you might have seen on Sesame Street in the 80s; CTW borrowed those from the "Five Ants" program to use in their Swedish co-production of Sesame Street, and later dubbed them for use in America.

 

[ISNorden]

surreal elephant sketches

And does anyone remember the weird cartoon
where an elephant counts to four by kicking
its legs? When it crashes to the floor, the trees
around it end up being cardboard set pieces
that crash, too. I loved this one!

That one appears in one of the episodes where the cast flew to Hawaii, though I forget the exact episode number. (Search YouTube for "Sesame Street" plus "elephants have four legs"; it'll turn up!) I agree, those crashing trees and the elephant landing flat on its back scared me a little when I was younger--another "character falls and gets hurt" moment, which always used to bother me.

 

[ISNorden]

I remember the anti-pollution skits! But they never scared me...they made me cry!

Welcome to the proverbial club. I always felt sad when Willie Wimple did his damage to the world, and sadder when I saw the "if every kid did it" extremes. At least, the intended lesson hit home; seeing trash out of place brings back those awful memories!

 

[ISNorden]

Re: What about these two?

However, there were also a few (non-Jim) animated bits that were bizarre - namely, the one where a little toad is berating a cow. "You think you're so big?" The frog keeps puffing itself up with air until it's all pear-shaped and wobbly, saying "Bigger... BIGGER..." And then finally it explodes and the screen goes white! We never see that it's "ok" (in that Bugs Bunny explosions-just-made-their-faces-sooty way), we are to assume that the arrogant little amphibian died. How upsetting! I hated that one but would love to see it again today.

I remember that poor toad--proclaiming that she** was "bigger than a mountain...[puffs up for the last time]...BIGGER THAN THE WORLD!" before she exploded. And like you, I inferred that the explosion killed her ("pride goeth before destruction", anyone?). Very disturbing; they'd never air anything like that on Sesame Street now!

**The toad had a female-sounding voice, so I'm assuming it was a "she".

 

[Stephen's Girl]

Hi there! There was one other clip that also made run and scream, it was an apple tree on a hill with creepy bagpipe music, it almost sounded like Irish music! Well it finally showed up on YouTube! I froze in my chair came and got my husband and kids so they could see it and understand why I'm terrified of bagpipes! They thought the clip was funny!
What my hubby did was grab the from YouTube and place it in photoshop and chopped it all in pieces so I looked at all the pieces separately then I got up the courage to watch it from beginning to end and it was ok but it looked different from what remembered, I guess things do look more intense through a four year old eyes.
I was proud of my self that I was able to watch it sort of but I definaitly won't go out of my was to see again though!
That was my third most scary clips from ss, but the two others that I mentioned in the previous post by far was the severe trauma I encountered! I dont think that any amount of clipping in photoshop would help me face my fear with those clips!
~Clarkie~

 

[jgidley]

Anything with the Count(even though he's one of my favorites now) and Oscar

 

[crackmaster]

The "world's greatest counter" Ernie and Bert also scared me. Bert running into the camera should make everyone scream with terror. I don't even wan't to think about it.

How does that one go? Also, is Rumia the "world's greatest counter"?

If you don't know about her, search "Rumia" on Google.

 

[crackmaster]

I must ad one thing... am I the only one who isn't afraid of clowns? I just didn't care way too much for them, outside of Krusty and Binky, of course....

But then again, weird things scare me, and weird things make me laugh.

But I forget if I said This one Scared the heck out of me... that horrible organ music.... and it took forever to end. I remember one time I hid in the other room until it was over.

Woah - cool!

 

[crackmaster]

Just sayin'. I am scared of that Oscar "prince" sketch. Thanks.

 

[mo]

I was'nt scared of any of the sketches just my giant big bird toy...