Muppetology 101: Muppet Automobile Mechanics, Part 2

Ryan Dosier – Sorry I missed class for the past two weeks, guys. But, c’mon, it’s summer and school is just so… blah. Er, don’t tell the Dean I said that. As you’ll remember from last class (probably, although even I had to look it up), we highlighted Muppet vehicles from the Muppet movies. This week, we’re running with that theme and looking at vehicles from Sesame Street.

The Sloppy Jalopy

• Perhaps the most well-known and popular Sesame vehicle is Oscar the Grouch’s Sloppy Jalopy. The famous junk Jalopy appeared prominently in the film Follow That Bird, where Oscar went searching for Big Bird with Maria, Telly Monster, and a Honker (for the car horn). The Sloppy Jalopy went on to make appearances in various episodes of Sesame Street and direct-to-video releases. The car appeared most recently in an episode from 2006 where Oscar and Grungetta race the car.

The Zoemobile

• One of the newest additions to the Sesame car cavalcade (albeit still 15 years old) is this wooden pedal racer built by Maria for Zoe in 1998. The car features a wooden frame, a steering wheel, a seat, a horn, a dinger, and a cup holder (of course). The Zoemobile was featured throughout the late 90s and into the early 2000s on Sesame Street but has not been seen in recent years.

The Countmobile

• This is one, one hot roadster! Ah! Ah! Ah! The Count von Count’s legendary Countmobile is one of the other many cars featured in Follow That Bird. Driven by Count von Count alone to search for Big Bird, this Transylvanian truck features bat wings on the back and a classic purple color. First introduced on Sesame Street in 1975, the Countmobile also has a fantastic license plate reading “12345678910.”

Gordon & Susan’s Volkswagen

• Gordon and Susan owned two Volkswagen cars since 1969. On Sesame Street they owned a blue Volkswagen and in Follow That Bird Gordon drove he, Olivia, and Cookie Monster in a yellow Volkswagen to find Big Bird. The yellow car is the most well known thanks to Follow That Bird and thanks to Cookie Monster, who devoured so much of the car during the course of the trip that it couldn’t be driven by the time they got back to Sesame Street.

Bert & Ernie’s Biplane

• The most outrageous vehicle featured in Follow That Bird (and that’s saying something) was the red biplane piloted by Bert and Ernie. The duo took flight from Sesame Street to soar across country in search of Big Bird. They came the closest to finding Big Bird in a cornfield, but Ernie started singing “Upside Down World” and took the plane on a wild ride, losing track of Big Bird and all of Bert’s bottlecap collection.