So first there’s the theme. Then we get to Sesame Street, and Big Bird starts singing the theme again. It’s a little disorienting. Other cast members and Muppets join in. They go on for quite a while, Muppets and adults and kids all singing, “Sunny day, sweeping the clouds away.” It’s becoming quite a production number. They take a second chorus. I start to get a little worried that this may go on forever. Maybe when they’re done, someone else will sing the theme. Maybe we’re trapped in an Escher loop and I’ll never escape. Then Elmo explains that today is Sing-Along Day on Sesame Street. Okay, at least there’s an explanation. I see light at the end of the tunnel.
Then there’s a whole bunch of other songs. Actually, the thing that really strikes me today is how gorgeous the production values are on Sesame Street these days. The sets, the puppets, the lighting, the choreography — everything is so amazingly polished and perfect, but not in a sterile, uncomfortable way. It’s like a perfect jewel, awe-inspiring – like your favorite song, like your first crush. I want to hug it and put it in my pocket. Maria leads a counting song in Spanish that’s really catchy. They do big production numbers for everything. They do a celebrity version of “Sing” with REM and Maya Angelou. It makes me want to be a preschooler again.
That being said, I fast-forward quite a bit. As gorgeous as the Muppets are, I don’t have a lot of patience for cartoons about 16, and I’m impatient to get to Elmo’s World.
Yay! It’s Elmo’s World. Elmo is talking about Hair today. Seeing Elmo’s World for the second time in a row, I can see what’s formula – and, like Bear in the Big Blue House, there’s some comforting repetition here. I thought “Now Elmo will ask a baby!” was a funny bit yesterday, but he does the same line today, so I guess that’s part of the format. Still funny, though. The only time I fast-forward is during the film insert of Joseph getting his first haircut. I have no time for Joseph and his haircut. I want Elmo.
On The Hair Channel, Elmo watches a fairy-tale cartoon about a kingdom where the king decides that everyone should wear their hair like his. And everyone does, except for a little black girl with dreads named Liddy LaRue. The king questions Liddy, and Liddy says: “No matter what I do, my hair won’t go that way. It’s just different. Besides, I like it this way.” Liddy asks what’s wrong with everyone’s hair being different. The king is overcome by Liddy’s reasoning, and signs a new law that says that everyone can have different hair. Liddy is triumphant.
I love Liddy. Liddy speaks truth to power. Liddy is the Rosa Parks of cartoon fairy-tale hairstyles. I can think of nothing better than a world in which cartoons about Liddy are broadcast to our nation’s pre-schoolers. We live in a Golden Age.
But there’s more! Elmo shows us a video that he made about Bert’s hair. It’s shot on handheld video, shaky and close-up on Bert’s head. Bert complains that he just got out of the bath, and his hair is all slicked down and wet. Elmo asks if he can touch Bert’s hair. Bert reluctantly agrees, and Elmo’s hand comes into shot and messes up Bert’s hair. Bert asks if Elmo is done. Elmo says he wants to play now, but Bert leaves, saying that he needs to go put gunk in his hair to make it stand up. This piece takes all of about a minute, and I can not express in words how happy it makes me.
Bert’s hair. Liddy LaRue. Dorothy the goldfish. Maya Angelou. It’s all so beautiful. And there’s still three more days left in this week. How do little kids do this every day?
Jon L. wrote in about his 4-year-old daughter Sage: “You and Sage respond to Elmo similarly. Other popular shows cut to ‘real kids’ (Arthur and Teletubbies do it), and it really bothers Sage. She shouts, ‘Bring back the show!’ Someone should tell the producers that we don’t like the documentary footage of toenail clipping and pencil sharpening.” I like it when people send funny stories about their cranky kids. Send more of those, please.
by Danny Horn
