# 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:** 6
**Author:** ![BraheSilver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@BraheSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BraheSilver)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2002, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-sesame-street-shorts-that-freaked-you-out/131769/101 "2002-10-16T07:54:25Z")
I remember one bit which would scare the hell out of me… It begins with Grover sitting on a hill wearing lederhosen and classic Alpine climbing gear. For some reason the hilltop starts rocking back and forth while “The Hills are Alive” from _The Sound of Music_ played, and Grover would be sitting there screaming “The hills are alive! The hills are alive!” The fact that the music was coming from nowhere (in retrospect I guess the hill was singing, but it had no mouth so I don’t know)freaked me out. I always thought the hill had something against Grover and was trying to throw him off. It looked like a long fall. ---
**Author:** ![Velma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/85e7bf/32.png) [@Velma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velma)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2002, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-sesame-street-shorts-that-freaked-you-out/131769/102 "2002-10-16T16:05:35Z")
This one didn’t freak me out, but it did perplex me. I remember a song about washing your hands before you eat, all fine and good, right? But the second verse told you to wash your feet before you eat, and showed a boy with one foot in the sink, washing it with a bar of soap: What do we do, before we eat? We wash our feet, we wash our feet. Why do we wash our feet before we eat? 'Cause we don’t eat, without feet. WTF? I remember watching that one and being confused every time. We don’t eat without feet? Another song popped into my head last night as I made supper: It is I, Captain Vegetable! With my carrots, and my celery! Eating crunchy vegetables is good for me, and it’s good for you, so eat them too, They’ll make you strong, your whole life long, Eat celery and carrots by the bunch! They’re so fun to munch! Then there were verses about Eddie who liked spaghetti, and Andy, who liked candy. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2002, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-sesame-street-shorts-that-freaked-you-out/131769/103 "2002-10-16T16:28:41Z")
OK here’s a couple that I think were actually from _Electric Company_. The first was live action. I guy in a 60’s-70’s style detective/newspaper office telles the other guy to "Find him a ‘20’ ". The 2nd guy pokes around the office poitning at various numbers (such as on a clock) wherupon the Boss guy yells “No that’s a twelve, now get out of here and get me a twenty”. So 2nd guy wanders out of the building and has assorted random encounters that have him seeing the numbers 13-19 sequentially with some vaugely mumbled narration. Finally he ends up fighting with a guy in a gorrilla suit over a sign that has the number “20” on it. I know I am not making this up. The seond was a bunch of live shots of signs on the street with Kids singing what the sign says to a bouncy tune “Gas!!” “Car Wash!!” “No right turn!, No left turn, whaddle ya doooo!” Ffff — aaaat Fat! KKkk — aaat Cat! _Sesame Stree_ had a couple of shorts that were freaky and looked like they were filmed in a school basement. One was a balloon being filled up then deflating…with an emphasis on the sound. Not a “blpbpblblb” of fast deflation, but the high pitched whine of slow deflation. To this day I’d rather pop a balloon than let it deflate slowly as a result of that short. I remember another sketch/song the letter I. It went somehting like “I’d like to be with the letter I cause he’s sooo Iiiires-iiiii-stible” ---
**Author:** ![SisterCoyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@SisterCoyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SisterCoyote)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2002, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-sesame-street-shorts-that-freaked-you-out/131769/104 "2002-10-16T17:08:29Z")
Oh. The elephants and the letter H, wherein the big elephant fell on the little elephant, who then wheezed out “heavy.” Also…the alligator song, where the king alligator with his seven sons had one give him rubies, which he tried to eat, breaking out all his teeth. ---
**Author:** ![samboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cdc98d/32.png) [@samboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samboy)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2002, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-sesame-street-shorts-that-freaked-you-out/131769/105 "2002-10-17T05:37:45Z")
how 'bout the rhymees? ---
**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 17, 2002, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-sesame-street-shorts-that-freaked-you-out/131769/106 "2002-10-17T06:43:16Z")
> [@](#): > > I always loved the Milk song, and “Everybody Sleeps” and the kids who painted on glass (with Pablo Picasso!) I realize it’s been a long time and I only have vague memories of the shorts BUT THAT WAS PICASSO? Of course, when I first saw them I was around 6 and the only thing I remember thinking was that kid who was painting on the glass really didn’t know how to paint. ---
**Author:** ![OxyMoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e9a140/32.png) [@OxyMoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OxyMoron)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2002, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-sesame-street-shorts-that-freaked-you-out/131769/107 "2002-10-17T14:32:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SisterCoyote \* > \*\*Oh. > > The elephants and the letter H, wherein the big elephant fell on the little elephant, who then wheezed out “heavy.” > > Also…the alligator song, where the king alligator with his seven sons had one give him rubies, which he tried to eat, breaking out all his teeth. \*\* EEEEEEEK! We have a winner. And I still remember the _toes_ on those gators, don’t ask me why. ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2002, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-sesame-street-shorts-that-freaked-you-out/131769/108 "2002-10-17T14:34:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Velma \* > \*\*Another song popped into my head last night as I made supper: > > It is I, Captain Vegetable! > With my carrots, and my celery! > Eating crunchy vegetables is good for me, > and it’s good for you, so eat them too, > They’ll make you strong, your whole life long, > Eat celery and carrots by the bunch! > They’re so fun to munch! > > Then there were verses about Eddie who liked spaghetti, and Andy, who liked candy. \*\* This was on yesterday, with John Leguizamo playing Captain Vegetable. The show has changed since we were little. (Aaron likes it because there’s a lot of visual and audio stimulation, and it’s the one show that’ll hold his attention for longer than a few minutes.) They did do the Capital I song a little while ago, and I had a flashback. What I like about it is that it has nice little surprises for the grownups. Nathan Lane in tux singing the Carpenters’ “Sing” or REM doing a version of “Shiny Happy People” for the Monsters. And yes, the yip-yip-yip aliens are still around. Kermit, however, is nowhere to be found. We need cable so we can get Noggin. Robin ---
**Author:** ![booklover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@booklover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/booklover)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2002, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-sesame-street-shorts-that-freaked-you-out/131769/109 "2002-10-17T15:12:22Z")
Wow, I had totally forgotten about the Egyptian mummy skit until someone else mentioned it! That used to scare the bejesus out of me. I LOVE the yip-yip aliens and the way they talk to the telephone “brrring! brring! yup-yup-yup, uh-HUH, uh-HUH”. Please tell me I’m not crazy, but nobody else seems to remember it: the inside of Snuffy’s cage with all his relatives and these gauzy blue-grey drapings everywhere. I swear I wanted to live there as a kid. Does anyone else recall this or is it a complete figment of my imagination? ---
**Author:** ![Shockaholics](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Shockaholics](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shockaholics)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2016, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-sesame-street-shorts-that-freaked-you-out/131769/110 "2016-02-08T21:28:37Z")
> [@delphica](#): > > The Capital I – not scary, but those little people, cleaning that I every day. EVERY DAMN DAY. What a life. Get up, clean the I, go to bed … day in and day out. This made me very sad, I loved the little I people, I wanted them to somehow break out of their limited I life, yet I somehow knew that the mindless act of repeating the I cleaning over and over was validating for them – if they DIDN’T clean the I, would they lose direction, fail to have meaning, drift through life always lamenting the loss of their destiny? Sorry to bump an ancient thread, but you remind me of my thoughts I have about the Mega Man games. If Bass finally satisfies his obsession of defeating Mega Man, would he fail to have any more meaning? Would he kill himself now that he knows he’s the strongest? Would he understand what life really means? Forgive me if I went off topic, but it’s just your thoughts about the Capital I that reminds me of my thoughts about Mega Man. (Maybe I should stop thinking too deeply into cartoon robots.) I was born in 2002 so I don’t remember any of what you guys are talking about, but I have seen them on YouTube. However, there’s one short that sticks to me - a cartoon that demonstrated words ending in “at”, about a beatnik bat and his friend, a painter cat, meeting a dashing young rat in a nightclub one night. “Where’d you get that hat? And that was that. At.” ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2016, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-sesame-street-shorts-that-freaked-you-out/131769/111 "2016-02-08T23:48:52Z")
There was Daniel Boone: “Here bayrr…here bayrr…” And then there was the letter B short: “Bonnie and Brenda Barker, haven’t seen you since birthday! I’m Bernard BB…” The painter with his weird horror movie face: “Hmmmmmm…” A Caribbean song, “Watch the Dance” That shady muppet from Brooklyn: “Hey bud… SSHHHH… RAAAYYYTT…” Bald, bespectacled guy: “There are lots of words that begin with ‘K,’ err… let me ask you, what has a big pouch on its stomach and hops around the room?” Brooklyn guy: “Me mutha.” BBG: “No, you’re wrong, it’s a kangaroo.” BG: “No, you wrong, ever seen me mutha?” ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2016, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-sesame-street-shorts-that-freaked-you-out/131769/112 "2016-02-09T00:03:56Z")
> [@scott\_evil](#): > > “Yip yip yip yip yipyipyipyipyipyipyipyip uh huh huh huh telephone!” - those aliens. Crap, that freaked me out. > > And the most freaky that I can remember: > > “A loaf of bread, a container of milk, and a stick of buttahh.” So some mother sends her little kid out onto the streets (!) to get her friggin groceries, then said kid wanders into acid-land and has this major trip with weird creatures around her and crap like that, then eventually comes down, having somehow remembered to pick up the groceries during her acid trip. “I remembered, Mommy, I remembered!” OK, yeah, you remembered, but how long were you actually gone? > > My God, what were they trying to convey? I’m sure their intentions were honorable, but really, looking back, it’s seriously f\*\*\*ked up. > > There are more, I’m sure. Share. > > That show traumatized me. I loved the Yip Yips! Our teachers hated them, though, because we would imitate them. As for the kid buying groceries, I’m not the only person who wondered what a “potato of milk” was. In the Midwest, we called it a carton, not a container. There was one that may have been on Electric Company that was just bizarre. It showed a girl, no more than 10 years old, walking in the woods, and she begins to sink in quicksand. She pulls a gun out of her pocket :eek:, shoots down an overhanging vine, and uses it to climb out. ETA: Oops, didn’t realize this was yet another zombie thread. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2016, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-sesame-street-shorts-that-freaked-you-out/131769/113 "2016-02-09T00:07:12Z")
The grocery skit was nothing compared to the one about spilt milk. “Well, ashwally…” ---
**Author:** ![Shockaholics](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Shockaholics](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shockaholics)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2016, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-sesame-street-shorts-that-freaked-you-out/131769/114 "2016-02-09T01:26:39Z")
This is the “at” short I was talking about: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9Mf003rZCw](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9Mf003rZCw) ---
**Author:** ![troub](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troub/32/14802_2.png) [@troub](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/troub)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2016, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-sesame-street-shorts-that-freaked-you-out/131769/115 "2016-02-09T17:42:39Z")
The phone ring followed by the “yip yip yip yip BRRRRRRRRRRRING yip yip” has been my cell phone’s ringtone for many years now (sometimes I change it out for the Dethclok Dethphone ring). I remember a lot of the stuff mentioned in this thread, but I don’t remember being scared by anything on Sesame Street. Only fond memories. And sad that the Sesame Street my 2-year-old watches today is pretty boring by comparison. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2016, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-sesame-street-shorts-that-freaked-you-out/131769/116 "2016-02-09T19:05:46Z")
Only one mention of the “Cracks” short in this thread; it was one I chased after for a long time. It finally turned up on [YouTube](https://youtu.be/0y0ffj__R4g). The search went on for years. Final resolution in [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=666426). ---
**Author:** ![Soylent\_Juicy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Soylent\_Juicy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soylent_Juicy)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2016, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-sesame-street-shorts-that-freaked-you-out/131769/117 "2016-02-09T20:18:32Z")
Oh my god I’m 4 years old again reading this thread. That typewriter was my favourite and I LOVED the pinball machine. Those kids running around with the trippy auras behind them was cutting-edge graphics for the time. Was this Sesame Street? Screen divided into 4 panels: “One of these things is not like the other…” (If you know what I’m talking about the tune is in your head.) “Hi ho, Kermit-de-frog here with Sesame Street news…” There was a Muppet with wacky hair who played the piano and he’d freak out all the time. Something would keep annoying him until he lost his shit. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2016, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-sesame-street-shorts-that-freaked-you-out/131769/118 "2016-02-09T20:25:39Z")
Yankee Doodle stayed at home, Cooking for his pony. Put fat spaghetti in a pot, And called it macaroni. ---
**Author:** ![Hermione](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/cdc98d/32.png) [@Hermione](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermione)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2016, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-sesame-street-shorts-that-freaked-you-out/131769/119 "2016-02-09T22:02:51Z")
> [@Soylent\_Juicy](#): > > There was a Muppet with wacky hair who played the piano and he’d freak out all the time. Something would keep annoying him until he lost his shit. Don Music. Loved him! “Oh, I’ll NEVER get it right!!! _ **NEVER!!!** _” (bangs head on piano) That was supposedly one of the reasons they got rid of him, aside from the passing of his puppeteer Richard Hunt–kids were imitating his (literal) head-banging behavior. ---
**Author:** ![Shockaholics](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Shockaholics](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shockaholics)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2016, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-sesame-street-shorts-that-freaked-you-out/131769/120 "2016-02-09T22:13:08Z")
> [@Soylent\_Juicy](#): > > Those kids running around with the trippy auras behind them was cutting-edge graphics for the time. > > Was this Sesame Street? Screen divided into 4 panels: “One of these things is not like the other…” (If you know what I’m talking about the tune is in your head.) When were the trippy aura sketches introduced and can you find a video? Oh, and yeah, that’s SS. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-sesame-street-shorts-that-freaked-you-out/131769.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-sesame-street-shorts-that-freaked-you-out/131769.md?page=7)