Anyone else think This may be just a tad more weird than even Jim Henson intended?
I’m laughing, but even I think it’s a bit zanny for kids.
Some of the stuff that Sesame Street does is explicitly not aimed at the children. In particular they do parodies of movies and TV shows, sometimes for grown-up movies and TV shows, such as Mad Men, Boardwalk Empire or Homeland.
And even some of the references in the childrens’ show are aimed at the parents. My friend remembered seeing Susan Sarandon as the guest on the show. She was shown arriving at The Count’s castle, with a newspaper over her head to shield her from the rain. (This is a reference to the beginning of the movie The Rocky Horror Picture Show.) So that’s a little joke that the toddlers will not notice but may make their parents smile.
They parodied Hungar Games with Cookie Monster and Zoe, all the jokes went over my 3 year olds head.
There is nothing that could be more weird than Jim Henson intends.
What’s so weird about it?
You really think a 4 or 5 year old is going to relate to it?
I was 9 when SS first came out and even then I thought it was weird as hell.
Well, the appeal is limited to some urban areas, but I think kids who live in cities with a subway system can totally appreciate a song about riding the subway.
It’s not any weirder than footage of a pierogi factory with the pierogi version of the Hallelujah Chorus playing in the background.
I didn’t think anything of it at all for the first minute and a half, but thought I’d better listen all the way through. What did that old lady mean by losing “something worse” than your purse, and what is getting “taken for a ride?” I mean, sure, I have some ideas, but what’s a 3 year old supposed to imagine there?
It’s from 1977, so I assume that Jim Henson, who was alive, active on Sesame Street, and was the voice of Kermit and the cop in that skit, was ok with it.
I don’t find this inappropriate at all. 
Who said inappropriate? I said weird.
What’s weird about it, though? It’s a bunch of hand puppets on a train car singing about riding a train. Why is that in particular any weirder than the Muppets in general?
Weird only relative to the rest of the show. It’s grittier and more frenetic and less positive than the usual Sesame Street fare. Little humor, too. The style is more like something from the Muppet Show, although it’d need more action and humor to fit in there, too.
I don’t have any real objections to it. I just feel that it’s a bit out of place.
When Sesame Street was first created, it was intended in large part for poor children in the inner city, who were suffering from a performance gap when they entered school as compared to children in suburban and middle class families. One of the goals of the show was not just to teach reading and mathematics, but also socialization and getting kids familiar with ordinary events and experiences, which, in cities like New York, means the subway. But, I mean, here’s one where Forgetful Jones and Kermit teach kids how to use the telephone:
and here's one about having a song in your head that you can't remember the lyrics to:
[quote=“Captain_Amazing, post:16, topic:716480”]
and here’s one about having a song in your head that you can’t remember the lyrics to:
[/QUOTE]Dammit! I don’t even have to click on the link, and that song is stuck in my brain, where I had all but forgotten it since the last time this happened. 
Do you remember the name of the song?
Eh, I think that subway bit is one of the least-weird things I’ve seen on Sesame Street.