Grover the epitome of a benevolent ruler
uncle frogy
The Mellow Monkeysays
It’s probably going to ruin some of the pathos if I picture “Grover Bluejoy” every time Theon shows up.
Which will probably improve the show, actually.
iiandyiiiisays
I for one will not stand for these continued insults to that which I hold most dear! You take that back, PZ!
AlexanderZsays
Why? Why would Sesame Street do it?
The people who get all the GoT references (probably) don’t watch Sesame Street and don’t need the counting exercises, whereas the kids that do watch Sesame Street and do needto learn about counting (hopefully) don’t watch GoT. So what does Sesame Street get out of this? How is this good advertisement?
Gaebolgasays
It’s like the old Looney Tunes cartoons; it’s geared for the both the kids and the parents.
The parents (those who read or watch GoT) get the jokes, which makes them less likely to sigh internally when their kids want to watch Sesame Street again for the 3 millionth time….
The Mellow Monkeysays
AlexanderZ, lots of parents of small children watch GoT. They are also subjected to children’s programming over and over again, because kids love watching their favorite things over and over again. So a little something to amuse the parents relieves the tedium.
Gregory Greenwoodsays
iiandyiiii @ 4;
I for one will not stand for these continued insults to that which I hold most dear! You take that back, PZ!
Suffice to say that… PZ is not what you would call a fan of A Song of Ice and Fire or of G R R Martin, as sveral earlier posts on the topic attest. Retraction is not going to be forthcoming.
Well, unless you are someone like Ramsey Bolton (formerly Snow) that is, and have a similarly difficult time with rejection. In which case… I’ll be going now…
Gregory Greenwoodsays
The Mellow Monkey @ 3;
It’s probably going to ruin some of the pathos if I picture “Grover Bluejoy” every time Theon shows up.
Which will probably improve the show, actually.
At least Grover Bluejoy doesn’t have a certain peice of anatomy to lose in the horrible way Theon did. While I rather like Game of Thrones on balance, the extended Theon-torture-thons from season three really began to nauseate me.
We get it already; the Bolton’s are viscous arsehats. The whole flayed man standard thing kind of gave it away. Do we really need torture scene eleventy seven just to hammer home the point?
unclefrogysays
much of children’s programing on PBS does not talk down or dumb down things for kids. It never has, it tries to connect with the greater world and not a walled off kid play land, it is not Pee Wee’s playhouse. Sesame street has done that from the very first episode, which I saw at a Jim Henson retrospective show recently.
I am reminded of the Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood program I watched with my 4yr old where a man from De Beers came and cut a diamond in half.
uncle frogy
AlexanderZsays
Gaebolga #6, The Mellow Monkey #7
And does it work? Does it make the prospect of watching more Sesame Street less dreadful?
It’s like the old Looney Tunes cartoons; it’s geared for the both the kids and the parents.
Looney Tunes were geared towards early teens who shouldn’t have watched adult stuff, but did so anyway. That’s why they didn’t have counting segments and the morals, on the few occasions when they did have a moral, always were always a parody.
Doug Hudsonsays
I imagine Sesame Street did the skit because they thought it would be funny, and they were right–I lost it at “can we hurry this up? I have a wedding to go to!”
Sesame Street has always played fast and loose with adult jokes. Consider the classic “Monsterpiece Theatre”, with Sir Alistair Cookie. How many kids would get that joke?
I’d say a lot of classic children’s shows blur the line between “child” and “adult” topics. Take Mr. Rogers, for example–now, that wasn’t a particular funny show, but it certainly tackled adult topics, without condescension. (Of course, Mr. Rogers was a living saint, so that may be atypical.)
Gaebolgasays
Actually, the original Looney Tunes were shown in theaters before the headlined movies and were greared towards a wide range of ages, not just teens. The two Bugs Bunny cartoons that spoof opera, for example, are pretty clearly including adults as their target audience.
As for whether or not the Sesame Street skits whose humor targets adults as well as kids work, well, I was certainly happier when my kids wanted to watch that than when they wanted to watch Barney; anecdotal evidence, to be sure, but I suspect persuasive nonetheless….
tbtabbysays
Really, this is news to people? Why do you think Sesame Street is such a long-running show? It’s not because they made a show that parents can watch with their kids. Any doofus can do that. It’s because they made a show that parents WANT to watch with their kids.
drivenb4usays
Too bad it ends before showing Grover tying down one of the other muppets and slicing off his wang, then shagging the Cersei muppet doggystyle.
latveriandiplomatsays
Would have been more true to the show, though, if Miss Piggy had made a nude appearance.
FWIW, Grover usually works nude, I think. And I wonder if “House Bluejoy” has a Kraken coat of arms like House Greyjoy. Another point in favor of this ending?
EvoMonkeysays
I love Sesame Street. The writing and the production are still very good. I don’t have kids but I still watch Sesame Street and it usually always makes me smile or chuckle.
I do think they have gone overboard with all the licensed products in the toy stores. CTW really know parents control the remote and every Holiday season the kids drive the toy purchases.
And this… this is why I still love Sesame Street when I “should have” outgrown it a good 30 years ago. It’s chock full of Parental Bonuses while being easy on the senses and providing a nice, mellow wake-up.
andyosays
the word sesamestreet is morphing into links
It’s one of those invasive ad scripts. I’ve been meaning to mention this for a while, actually. On my Android devices (and I assume it also happens on iOS), at FTB I get redirections to install worthless apps at the Play Store. This might be a security issue as well.
drstsays
EvoMonkey @ 17 – IIRC they had to ramp up the merchandising when the federal government started slashing funding for public television & radio. Republicans insisted that Sesame Street could support itself and shouldn’t be mooching off the tax payers.
latveriandiplomat says
Heh.
unclefrogy says
Grover the epitome of a benevolent ruler
uncle frogy
The Mellow Monkey says
It’s probably going to ruin some of the pathos if I picture “Grover Bluejoy” every time Theon shows up.
Which will probably improve the show, actually.
iiandyiiii says
I for one will not stand for these continued insults to that which I hold most dear! You take that back, PZ!
AlexanderZ says
Why? Why would Sesame Street do it?
The people who get all the GoT references (probably) don’t watch Sesame Street and don’t need the counting exercises, whereas the kids that do watch Sesame Street and do needto learn about counting (hopefully) don’t watch GoT. So what does Sesame Street get out of this? How is this good advertisement?
Gaebolga says
It’s like the old Looney Tunes cartoons; it’s geared for the both the kids and the parents.
The parents (those who read or watch GoT) get the jokes, which makes them less likely to sigh internally when their kids want to watch Sesame Street again for the 3 millionth time….
The Mellow Monkey says
AlexanderZ, lots of parents of small children watch GoT. They are also subjected to children’s programming over and over again, because kids love watching their favorite things over and over again. So a little something to amuse the parents relieves the tedium.
Gregory Greenwood says
iiandyiiii @ 4;
Suffice to say that… PZ is not what you would call a fan of A Song of Ice and Fire or of G R R Martin, as sveral earlier posts on the topic attest. Retraction is not going to be forthcoming.
Well, unless you are someone like Ramsey Bolton (formerly Snow) that is, and have a similarly difficult time with rejection. In which case… I’ll be going now…
Gregory Greenwood says
The Mellow Monkey @ 3;
At least Grover Bluejoy doesn’t have a certain peice of anatomy to lose in the horrible way Theon did. While I rather like Game of Thrones on balance, the extended Theon-torture-thons from season three really began to nauseate me.
We get it already; the Bolton’s are viscous arsehats. The whole flayed man standard thing kind of gave it away. Do we really need torture scene eleventy seven just to hammer home the point?
unclefrogy says
much of children’s programing on PBS does not talk down or dumb down things for kids. It never has, it tries to connect with the greater world and not a walled off kid play land, it is not Pee Wee’s playhouse. Sesame street has done that from the very first episode, which I saw at a Jim Henson retrospective show recently.
I am reminded of the Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood program I watched with my 4yr old where a man from De Beers came and cut a diamond in half.
uncle frogy
AlexanderZ says
Gaebolga #6, The Mellow Monkey #7
And does it work? Does it make the prospect of watching more Sesame Street less dreadful?
Looney Tunes were geared towards early teens who shouldn’t have watched adult stuff, but did so anyway. That’s why they didn’t have counting segments and the morals, on the few occasions when they did have a moral, always were always a parody.
Doug Hudson says
I imagine Sesame Street did the skit because they thought it would be funny, and they were right–I lost it at “can we hurry this up? I have a wedding to go to!”
Sesame Street has always played fast and loose with adult jokes. Consider the classic “Monsterpiece Theatre”, with Sir Alistair Cookie. How many kids would get that joke?
I’d say a lot of classic children’s shows blur the line between “child” and “adult” topics. Take Mr. Rogers, for example–now, that wasn’t a particular funny show, but it certainly tackled adult topics, without condescension. (Of course, Mr. Rogers was a living saint, so that may be atypical.)
Gaebolga says
Actually, the original Looney Tunes were shown in theaters before the headlined movies and were greared towards a wide range of ages, not just teens. The two Bugs Bunny cartoons that spoof opera, for example, are pretty clearly including adults as their target audience.
As for whether or not the Sesame Street skits whose humor targets adults as well as kids work, well, I was certainly happier when my kids wanted to watch that than when they wanted to watch Barney; anecdotal evidence, to be sure, but I suspect persuasive nonetheless….
tbtabby says
Really, this is news to people? Why do you think Sesame Street is such a long-running show? It’s not because they made a show that parents can watch with their kids. Any doofus can do that. It’s because they made a show that parents WANT to watch with their kids.
drivenb4u says
Too bad it ends before showing Grover tying down one of the other muppets and slicing off his wang, then shagging the Cersei muppet doggystyle.
latveriandiplomat says
FWIW, Grover usually works nude, I think. And I wonder if “House Bluejoy” has a Kraken coat of arms like House Greyjoy. Another point in favor of this ending?
EvoMonkey says
I love Sesame Street. The writing and the production are still very good. I don’t have kids but I still watch Sesame Street and it usually always makes me smile or chuckle.
I do think they have gone overboard with all the licensed products in the toy stores. CTW really know parents control the remote and every Holiday season the kids drive the toy purchases.
chigau (違う) says
the word sesamestreet is morphing into links
WMDKitty -- Survivor says
And this… this is why I still love Sesame Street when I “should have” outgrown it a good 30 years ago. It’s chock full of Parental Bonuses while being easy on the senses and providing a nice, mellow wake-up.
andyo says
It’s one of those invasive ad scripts. I’ve been meaning to mention this for a while, actually. On my Android devices (and I assume it also happens on iOS), at FTB I get redirections to install worthless apps at the Play Store. This might be a security issue as well.
drst says
EvoMonkey @ 17 – IIRC they had to ramp up the merchandising when the federal government started slashing funding for public television & radio. Republicans insisted that Sesame Street could support itself and shouldn’t be mooching off the tax payers.