Wednesday, Feb 6:
The Furry Feeling of the Day
Wednesday, Feb 6:Ray Romano is here to tell us about Frustrated. You see, Frustrated is a feeling that you get when — he’s interrupted by Grover, who wants to help. Grover thinks that Ray’s talking about Pineapples, so he gets a Pineapple. No, Grover! Ray is trying to talk about Frustrated. Then Grover thinks Ray’s talking about Hats, so he gets a Hat. And I think you can pretty much get where this is going.
This is Sesame Street’s Emotional Literacy curriculum, where we take normal, whiny, spoiled children and turn them into overtherapized communicators who announce “I’m Frustrated!” instead of hitting people.
I like this. I’m in favor of this. I say, the more emotional literacy training that kids get from Grover, the less likely they’ll be to cut in front of me at Starbucks. This is a good thing.
Monster Clubhouse has a Furry Feeling of the Day, too, which is Surprise. I’m not entirely sure how the Surprise curriculum applies to the Starbucks thing, but why not. Surprise it is.
And hey, speaking of Surprise — the Street story today is about Rosita, Zoe and Lulu learning to sing together, with Telly being the Monster Music Reporter. They’re taught how to sing by Gabi, and a tall boy who I don’t remember… Then Gabi calls the boy “Miles.” Miles! That’s Gordon and Susan’s kid! Is that really Miles? He’s enormous! I don’t know if this is the same kid who’s been playing Miles all along, or if they “aged” him like they do with kids on soap operas. But the Furry Feeling of the Moment for me is Ancient.
The three monster girls who love to sing apparently also love to try different foods. There’s not a lot of conflict in this story today. Every time Telly sets up a big conflict — Will they like their cheese sandwiches? — then a second later they’re just like, yeah, cheese sandwiches are okay. I’m not gripped by this story so far. I long for another grease fire. That was exciting. We want more grease fires. Hey, Sesame Street! I’m Frustrated! Set something on fire for me!
But one nice thing about the new format is that if you’re bored, just wait a minute, and something fun will happen. Cookie Monster finds the Letter of the Day written on a cookie — but, once again, he doesn’t want to eat the cookie. “Letter of the Day too important to eat!” So he wraps up the cookie in a box and calls for a mail carrier. Grover shows up, from Federal Impress. “Let me guess,” Grover says, looking at the box, “You did this yourself. It looks like a home job. You have truly impressed Federal Impress!” Grover takes off with the package, then comes in a moment later from the other side. “Package for Mr. Cookie Monster!” It’s the same box. Cookie opens the box, finds the Letter of the Day, and eats it. Crunch crunch crunch! Grover does a take to the camera. “I do not think he understands the concept of the postal service.”
So the Furry Feeling of the Day is Love and Appreciation for pretty much everything that involves Cookie Monster and Grover. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to fight my way through those three year olds to get my coffee. I’m Thirsty!
by Danny Horn
