# 70s Sesame Street shorts that freaked you out **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 11, 2002, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-sesame-street-shorts-that-freaked-you-out/131769 "2002-10-11T03:32:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2002, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-sesame-street-shorts-that-freaked-you-out/131769/41 "2002-10-12T02:15:58Z")
_“In the garden, in the land of Six There lives a queen, \ix The queen knows lots of magic tricks Like making trees from candlesticks – One two three, four five six!”_ (The Queen’s stop-motion animated furball kittens were kinda freaky, though.) ---
**Author:** ![screech-owl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@screech-owl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/screech-owl)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2002, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-sesame-street-shorts-that-freaked-you-out/131769/42 "2002-10-12T02:39:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by delphica \* > **…The guy who painted numbers on things…** Wasn’t he the guy who played Mr. Bentley (the British neighbor) on _The Jeffersons_? I just thouht of something that freaked me out from _Sesame Street_, but the thought just escaped me. I’ll remember it, but I swear I got more than a few shudders reading this thread… ---
**Author:** ![Interrobang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/interrobang/32/17463_2.png) [@Interrobang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Interrobang)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2002, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-sesame-street-shorts-that-freaked-you-out/131769/43 "2002-10-12T03:48:43Z")
> [@](#): > > Does anyone remember a counting skit that was live action, had dancing girls that were singing about whatever number represented how many of them. Then one of them would fall in a hole or get pulled away by a hook and they’d sing about the new number. > > It messed me up good. I always thought there was some strange fetish to it that I never quite understood. Oh, my, yes, I do remember that skit. I thought the women were really pretty – they wore those faux tuxedo tops and nylon leggings, and I still think that’s a pretty sexy look. I remember wanting to “marry” the last woman to disappear, who was my favorite, after saving her from the danger presented by the crooked cane. Weird, but it still has a certain influence on my fantasy life. Remember those two similar live-action shorts that followed a pink rubber ball along a roller-coasteresque track? I remember that one was fine, but one ended with the ball falling into a hopper and being ground into pink dust. That disturbed me a little, and I always watched hoping it would be the one with the “happy ending.” ---
**Author:** ![scott\_evil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/91b2a8/32.png) [@scott\_evil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scott_evil)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2002, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-sesame-street-shorts-that-freaked-you-out/131769/44 "2002-10-12T04:02:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Alphagene \* > \*\*There was this really surreal muppet sketch about two aliens on the Planet of Snoo. I think it was supposed to teach about cooperation, but the set was dark and surreal and the music was all cacophanic and trippy in an attempt to sound alien. It freaked the hell out of me every time. I used to run out of the room screaming in terror whenever that came on. > \*\* I remember that. One was short but had long arms or something, the other had a long neck. So they picked a nectarine - through cooperation. Sorry, cooo- op- er- ATION! Wow. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2002, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-sesame-street-shorts-that-freaked-you-out/131769/45 "2002-10-12T04:35:01Z")
Good grief, I think I had repressed the memory about the fruit picking creatures. Thanks, **Alphagene** , for letting me relive this particular horror. As I recall it, the worst part was really how grave the situation was, you definitely got the impression that one or both of the creatures was going to STARVE TO DEATH right before your eyes. Another short action film – not really scary, but as long as you all seem to be good at identifying them from vague descriptions – there was one (live action) that showed little kids at a big family celebration, and the mom or the grandmother was making some sort of ethnic dish. For the life of me, I don’t think I have ever identified the food they were preparing – I think it was a hispanic family (could be completely wrong), and the things were very similar to tacos, but somehow, not like any taco or other mexican food I have ever seen. The biggest difference, if memory serves, is that the filling was pink, like raw meat. What WERE those people eating? ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2002, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-sesame-street-shorts-that-freaked-you-out/131769/46 "2002-10-12T04:43:35Z")
The only thing that seriously freaked me out about Sesame Street was the skit when Bert and Ernie are in a Egyptian tomb and the mummy comes alive (well not really a mummy, but another Ernie with a pharoh’s headdress on) and starts talking to one of them and I would seriously freak at this every time. From what my mom says, my brother was scared of some Sesame Street film of a koala in a tree. He’d be scared of it falling out of the tree. That doesn’t seem to fit with the common “trippy-ness” of the scary sketches in this thread, tho. heh ---
**Author:** ![Bullwinkle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8491ac/32.png) [@Bullwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullwinkle)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2002, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-sesame-street-shorts-that-freaked-you-out/131769/47 "2002-10-12T04:55:40Z")
Does anyone remember the melon with the rubber band mouth singing the Habanera from Carmen? Let me see if I can remember: We all live in a capital I, In the middle of the desert, in the center of the sky, And all day long we polish on the I (can’t remember this line, darn it!) Rubbing it here and scrubbing it there, Polishing the I so high in the air And as we work we sing a happy tune, It’s great to be so busy on a busy afternoon, And when we’re through with the day’s only chore, we go into the I and we close the door Capital I, capital I, Capital I, capital I. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2002, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-sesame-street-shorts-that-freaked-you-out/131769/48 "2002-10-12T05:06:24Z")
There ONCE was a camel named GUMP, Who [something something etc.] HUMP, [???] LUMP, …?? 😕 The sheer trauma of this skit has apparently short-circuited my memory of it. Suffice it to say, I used to bolt from the TV when it came on (I remember being freaked out by it on two separate occasions!), which my parents thought was hysterical. But not quite as hysterical as I was. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2002, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-sesame-street-shorts-that-freaked-you-out/131769/49 "2002-10-12T05:56:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Remember those two similar live-action shorts that followed a pink rubber ball along a roller-coasteresque track? I remember that one was fine, but one ended with the ball falling into a hopper and being ground into pink dust. That disturbed me a little, and I always watched hoping it would be the one with the “happy ending.” Did the “happy ending” one have a kid take the pink dust and mix it like Kool-Aid in a glass of water? I seem to recall seeing that ending a few times. ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2002, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-sesame-street-shorts-that-freaked-you-out/131769/50 "2002-10-12T06:15:33Z")
I actually loved the “scary” skits (the 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9 -10 song has been dropped. It really did give a lot of kids nightmares). The only thing that scared me was the “My Beautiful Balloon” sketch. At the end, the muppet singing loses control and floats off, never to be seen again. And in the interest of getting bits of Sesame Street stuck in everyone’s head, I’d like to add: Watuh. Watuh. Watuh watuh watuh. Watuh-watuh-watuh-watuh-watuh-watuh-watuh-watuh Ah-hah-hah-hah-hah! ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2002, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-sesame-street-shorts-that-freaked-you-out/131769/51 "2002-10-12T13:29:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by DrFidelius \* > \*\*The baker was portrayed by JeanPaul Jenack, a long-time acquaintance of mine. He has been active in childrens circus projects for the past twenty years or so, produces juggling equipment, and writes poetry. He has given up on teaching me to ride a unicycle. \*\* I thought the baker was a Muppet performed by Jim Henson himself. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2002, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-sesame-street-shorts-that-freaked-you-out/131769/52 "2002-10-12T14:10:45Z")
The baker **DrFidelius** is talking about is the one that appeared at the end of one set of counting sketches. He was a real live guy who would always be standing at the top of a staircase holding some quantity of baked goods, singing triumphantly: “_Niiiiiine … coconut-custaaaaard … piiiiies!_ Woops!” trip, crash, fall down stairs, get coconut-custard pie all over himself – and then the kids would sing, “And thaaaaat’s theeeee sooooong ooooooof niiiiiiiiiine!” ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2002, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-sesame-street-shorts-that-freaked-you-out/131769/53 "2002-10-12T14:14:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Bullwinkle \* > **Does anyone remember the melon with the rubber band mouth singing the Habanera from Carmen?** No. I don’t remember that. I **refuse** to remember that. I don’t remember all the parts of her face rolling into place assembling themselves. I don’t remember the fact that she was an orange, not a melon. I don’t remember the first-generation electronic synthesizer musical accompaniment. And I **certainly** don’t remember those freaky eyelashes of hers! La la la la la, I can’t hear you, I’m not listening!! ---
**Author:** ![screech-owl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@screech-owl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/screech-owl)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2002, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-sesame-street-shorts-that-freaked-you-out/131769/54 "2002-10-12T14:17:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Bullwinkle \* > **Does anyone remember the melon with the rubber band mouth singing the Habanera from Carmen? …** No, but I remember another one that freaked my sister and me me out. It was a face made from three rubber bands: two small ones for the eyes and a large on for the mouth. Set on a black background, the face would count small spinning flowers (early computer hih-tech graphics) or balls that would cross the screen. Some of the balls would bounce or spin, but a couple would _whoosh_ past, taking the mouth with it. Scared the crap out of my sister: she thought i someone threw a baseball past her, her mouth would run away. (Sidenote: I’d love to hear the melon singing the _Habanera_ - sounds too strange not to appreciate.) (Sidenote on preview: I was told that the tripping baker was Jim Henson himself. Damn, another childhood ‘fact’ gone to hell.) ---
**Author:** ![trishdish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d2c977/32.png) [@trishdish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/trishdish)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2002, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-sesame-street-shorts-that-freaked-you-out/131769/55 "2002-10-12T15:33:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Bullwinkle \* > \*\*Does anyone remember the melon with the rubber band mouth singing the Habanera from Carmen? > \*\* That was one of my favorites. Her hair was a mop top and when she hit the hight notes, it would rise above her melon head and spin. ---
**Author:** ![trishdish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d2c977/32.png) [@trishdish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/trishdish)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2002, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-sesame-street-shorts-that-freaked-you-out/131769/56 "2002-10-12T15:40:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by NDP \* > \*\* > Did the “happy ending” one have a kid take the pink dust and mix it like Kool-Aid in a glass of water? I seem to recall seeing that ending a few times. \*\* YES! I always wondered what a ground up pink rubber ball would taste like. Probably not good. ---
**Author:** ![Blackclaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e68b1a/32.png) [@Blackclaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackclaw)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2002, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-sesame-street-shorts-that-freaked-you-out/131769/57 "2002-10-12T15:57:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Interrobang!? \* > \*\* > Oh, my, yes, I do remember that skit. I thought the women were really pretty – they wore those faux tuxedo tops and nylon leggings, and I still think that’s a pretty sexy look. I remember wanting to “marry” the last woman to disappear, who was my favorite, after saving her from the danger presented by the crooked cane. Weird, but it still has a certain influence on my fantasy life. > > \*\* Well at least now I know I didn’t imagine it. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![curwin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@curwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curwin)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2002, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-sesame-street-shorts-that-freaked-you-out/131769/58 "2002-10-12T17:58:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fingolfin \* > \*\*The lambs that would kidnap Bert in the middle of the night! The lambs!! No!!! Aaaahh!!! \*\* We have this one on our kids tapes. It’s a great song, and a really funny bit. But in classic Sesame Street fashion, the fact that the lambs kidnap Bert is done very discreetly, so a kid just singing along with the song might not notice Bert’s abscence, or even Ernie singing “…as the lambs take my chum…” The funny thing in that bit, as my brother pointed out a few years ago, is that we later see Bert peeking in from the window, but Bert and Ernie live on the second story! The bit that scared me the most as a kid, and I’d be really interested if anyone else remembers it, was something with a couple of human actors putting up a picture of a tunnel, with faster and faster music, and at the end a train coming out. Very scary!! ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2002, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-sesame-street-shorts-that-freaked-you-out/131769/59 "2002-10-12T19:23:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by curwin \* > \*\* > The bit that scared me the most as a kid, and I’d be really interested if anyone else remembers it, was something with a couple of human actors putting up a picture of a tunnel, with faster and faster music, and at the end a train coming out. Very scary!! \*\* I remember that. > [@](#): > > The funny thing in that bit, as my brother pointed out a few years ago, is that we later see Bert peeking in from the window, but Bert and Ernie live on the second story! I thought they lived garden-level? I remember seeing people’s legs walk past their window in one of the B&E sketches. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Man\_Who](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c2a13f/32.png) [@The\_Man\_Who](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Man_Who)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2002, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-sesame-street-shorts-that-freaked-you-out/131769/60 "2002-10-12T19:30:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Alphagene \* > \*\*There was this really surreal muppet sketch about two aliens on the Planet of Snoo. I think it was supposed to teach about cooperation, but the set was dark and surreal and the music was all cacophanic and trippy in an attempt to sound alien. It freaked the hell out of me every time. I used to run out of the room screaming in terror whenever that came on. > > The Planet of _Snoo-Snoo_ would have much more fun to watch. \*\* The Geekle and the Gonk. I believe someone has beaten me to the tangerines. -Myron [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-sesame-street-shorts-that-freaked-you-out/131769.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-sesame-street-shorts-that-freaked-you-out/131769.md?page=4)