So tell me about Sesame Street...

[flexagon]

I want to learn about the world of Sesame Street so that I pick up any allusions I might see in Avenue Q next week. I know the following:

Pretty much everyone in the show lives on Sesame Street. Right?

Ernie and Bert live together. Ernie is the short one, and Bert is the taller one (and more serious or something, so Ernie makes fun of him). Some people think they're gay.

Big Bird is uh... Big Bird. I don't know anything about him. Can he talk?
Glover is the blue one with the red mouth. Ditto.

The Cookie Monster is also blue. Mention this one and people sing C is for cookie, that's good enough for me. So, that must be his song. :)

Oscar the Grouch lives in a trash can.

The Count does mostly arithmetic. He says things like ONE bolt of lightning. Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha! TWO bolts of lightning...

Kermit the Frog... well, until last night I thought he was a muppet, but now I know he's on SS as well. He's a reporter. This is the only one whose profession I know anything about.

Snuffalupagus (spelling?) is a big wooly mammoth that only kids and puppets can see.



I doubt I can ask a question like this publicly without facing the question of how I could grow up in this country and not know more than that. Well, a, there was no television for me to have seen it on, and b, from what I hear it was mostly reading-centered, and I learned to read so early I can't remember it. So, yup. Culturally deprived.

Is there more I should know about the world, the relationships between the characters, etc?

Comments

[savage-rose.livejournal.com]

Ernie and Bert: yup. Ernie is the more right-brained one. Bert is the "Scully", if you will. The Greg to Ernie's Dharma.

Big Bird: Yup, he talks. He's the main protagonist, and is sort of the "Child's Eye View" puppet. He has that "open heart of a child" thing...occasionally stupid question. His best friend is Snuffalopagus (sp?), and he's the only one on SS who can see Snuffy. As he calls him.

Glover: Is actually Grover. He's scared of stuff, but tries it anyway. He was the breakout fave before Elmo (there used to be a lot of books, etc. about him--one of my favorites was "The Monster at the End of this Book", where he alternates between trying to get you not to turn the page, and "hiding" in the pages to hide from the Monster (check it out sometime, it was cute).

The Cookie Monster: Yup. He eats a lot of cookies, although SS is going to try to write him as a "cookies are a sometimes treat" monster in the future. Uh, whatever SS!

Oscar the Grouch: yup. He's crochety and sarcastic.

The Count: yup

Kermit the Frog: I think he's the only one who HAS a profession. The SSers are all on welfare ;)

Snuffalupagus: Actually, only Big Bird can see him. So everyone else thinks Big Bird is crazy...I think Snuffy might be supposed to represent his imaginary friend or something. Snuffy and Grover were my favorites.

[flexagon]

Yay, thank you! Glover/Grover... you know, I think I knew that. Sigh. And I do think I vaguely remember The Monster at the End of This Book. (Books, and I guess media tie-ins etc, are mostly how I know what all these guys look like.)

This also rather explains the origins of Tickle Me Elmo. What does Elmo look like, btw? I didn't know he was on SS either.

[webrat.livejournal.com]

Elmo is all red. He's the smallest of all of them and annoying as hell.

[savage-rose.livejournal.com]

Like a red version of Grover. He was introduced after I stopped watching. There's also a character named Zoe. She's orange, I think.

[webrat.livejournal.com]

I thought they changed Snuffalupagus so that everyone could see him?

[savage-rose.livejournal.com]

Not as far as I know. But I stopped watching sometime in the 80's, so it might have happened.