Have you seen the new Sesame Street video they call “Celebs Sing Rubber Duckie Song with Bert and Ernie?” It goes a little something like this:
Just like the title says, it’s a new version of Ernie’s familiar bathtime song, with a few famous people joining in. Sesame Street does this kind of thing every few years. They’ll choose an existing song, and then throughout a production season when they have celebrities stop by, they’ll say, “Hey, as long as you’re here, Mr. or Ms. Famous Person, how’d you like to sing this other song so we can make a montage featuring you and your fellow Famous Persons?”
Watching the “Rubber Duckie” video, this occurred to me: The number of celebrities I recognize in these things at the time they come out is a pretty good indicator of how well-versed I am in the current pop culture of the day. I’ll explain further.
As far as I know, the first one of these they did was “Put Down the Duckie” in 1988. I was just a kid at the time… a little older than Sesame Street‘s target audience, but if I was in the room when my younger siblings were watching it, my eyeballs were on the TV too. Back then, I failed to recognize most of the so-called “celebrities.” I knew who this lady was:
She was the lady who asked Kermit to buy her a drink in The Muppet Movie. And the lady who sang “Be My Echo” with Grover, of course. But I didn’t know this guy:
I knew Danny DeVito because he was a very famous movie star, and I recognized the lady from Cheers, a show my parents watched:
But I probably didn’t know this extremely serious man:
And I didn’t know Gladys Knight OR the Pips:
But I absolutely knew this fellow, one of my favorite TV and movie stars and a personal hero. Mr. Pee-wee Herman:
So I did the math. I added up all the celebrities I would have recognized in 1988 compared to the total number of celebrities in the segment, and I’ve determined that I knew 29.63% of them. Not bad, and perhaps better than many young folks in the audience… but I certainly didn’t have my finger on the pulse of pop culture.
In 1991, they did another one. This time the song was “Monster in the Mirror,” and by this time I was considerably more celebrity-savvy. I knew all these people:
Theo from The Cosby Show! Geena Davis! Bo Jackson, star of the Saturday morning cartoon Pro Stars! The Dwayne Wayne guy from A Different World! Whoopi Goldberg! And either the Frugal Gourmet or the Galloping Gourmet. I also knew all of these people:
Jeff Goldblum! Tracey Ullman from TV! Glenn Close, star of Hallmark Hall of Fame’s Sarah, Plain and Tall! Murphy Brown‘s Candice Bergen! Whoopi Goldberg again! And of course, Robin Williams! I also kind-of knew most of these people:
Ray Charles! The inescapable Whoopi Goldberg yet again! A guy… in an orange shirt! Okay, him I didn’t know. But there’s either Kid or Play from Kid ‘n’ Play! And then I was surprised to see these people on Sesame Street, but I knew who they were:
The Simpsons, from the TV show of the same name, which I was not allowed to watch!
I did the math on this one, and I’m happy to report that in 1991, I knew 57.69% of these celebrities.
Now we zip ahead a few years, to 2000. By this time, I was an extremely mature, sophisticated college student, with a wide variety of cultural interests. Also, I still watched Sesame Street whenever I got the chance. This is when Sesame Street had a bunch of celebrities do one of their all-time most beloved songs: “Sing.” I knew this guy:
Conan O’Brien, whose late-night talk show I watched all the time! And I knew this woman:
Katie Couric, whose morning news & talk show I was rarely up early enough to watch if I could help it! And I knew these guys:
REM! (From left to right, E, R, and M.) And okay, maybe I couldn’t have told you who this football man was:
But I knew this dude:
Good ol’ Doug E. Doug!
Are you ready for the results on this one? According to my calculations, I knew 78.26% of the celebrities who sang “Sing.”
Wow! I just keep getting better and better at identifying celebrities. So let’s take a look at the newest one, the aforementioned rendition of “Rubber Duckie.”
Hmm… I don’t know her:
And I don’t know him:
Oh! But I know him:
He’s talk show host James Corden, a chap who enjoys singing in his car. And I know her:
She’s Sia, who is… a singer? I think?
And so on. Anyway, let’s take a look at the numbers. So far, my ability to identify celebrities has been on an upward trajectory for my entire life. I can’t wait to see what new heights I’ve reached. So if I add that, add that, divide that, press that button on the calculator: I know 66.67% of these celebrities.
Wait a minute… I got WORSE?! Oh, man. I guess it was bound to happen: I am now old and out of touch. Ugh… I need to go take a long, hot bath. Where’s my rubber duckie?
Click here to recognize famous people on the Tough Pigs forum!
by Ryan Roe – Ryan@ToughPigs.com
