Sesame Street Ep #123
Ernie rings a bell for Bert.
And after complimenting Gordon on a prank well played (Ernie of course appreciated its cleverness, vs. Bert, who would’ve been ticked off had he been the victim), he devises to lay a similar trap for Bert. He, however, foolishly gives Cookie a whole box of cookies before the deed is done, and so when Bert arrives and Ernie tries the “What will happen next?” question, nothing happens when Bert rings the bell other than bell-ringing. And Bert marches off, thinking Ernie is nuts for believing a monster would pop up.
Afterwards, a flustered Ernie asks Cookie why he didn’t play the flute. Cookie answers that he couldn’t. “Whole box of cookies in mouth!” All in all, a great sketch that teaches cause-and-effect in terms of the first two objects and then gets kid to giggle at the “monster playing a flute” silliness while also surreptitiously weaving in a more complex cause-and-effect lesson regarding when Ernie chooses to reward the compulsive monster, without calling obvious attention to it. Again, no condescension or overly obvious “edutainment” here.
In the next, briefer scene, Ernie draws a llama on a piece of a paper with an easel (which links to Big Bird’s drawing), but Bert isn’t impressed with how it looks. “I’ve known a million llamas,” he tells him, and that doesn’t look like one. Ernie suggests they ask a real llama, and the scene cuts to footage of an actual llama, looking distinctly unimpressed, a cute blending of typical Sesame Street nature footage and puppet sketch. Nothing to write home about, but cute.
More punnishly fun is when Ernie next keeps attempting to draw the number 3 and messes up each time, to Bert’s increasing frustration. The first time, he just draws a big squiggle. Bert makes him watch a cartoon about the number 3, and this time Ernie draws two curvy lines under the squiggle. Bert makes him watch it twice more, and finally Ernie a bunch of vertical lines under the curvy lines. “Do you call that a three?!” Bert practically yells. “No,” Ernie responds, “I call that a tree.” Which is, of course, what it is. “K-k-k-k”! This is a perfect example of a classic Bert and Ernie reversal in which Ernie will actually very convincingly pretend to not know something, causing Bert to take the time to desperately explain it to him, and then after all is said and done, turning it around, revealing that he’d been messing with him all along.
Ernie draws a tree.
Bert actually gets the better of Ernie in the next sketch, though! It’s rare but it happens. Ernie has a box full of different-sized R’s, some of which he very well might have gotten from Lefty the Salesman (who would often try to sell letters to Ernie). He tells Bert it’s his R collection, showing him one he supposedly got from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, one from the Rutgers/Rhode Island football game, and one from Little Red Riding Hood. “Knock it off,” Bert tells him, “Don’t be ridiculous. Nobody collects R’s. You’ll be the laughing stock of Sesame Street!” A horrified Ernie responds by tossing his precious collection away. Shortly after, Bert asks him if he can have his now-empty box. “What for?” Ernie asks. “My J collection,” Bert responds! Score 1 for the yellow guy!
Finally, we come to my favorite early Cookie Monster sketch so far, in which Ernie is awaiting a very important phone call from Bert, when Cookie enters and asks him if he can please use his phone. He promises that it will be a very short call. Ernie reluctantly agrees, as long as it’s very short, at which point Cookie launches into the longest phone call that may have ever happened. He calls his “Mommy,” and in a moment that will greatly please trivia buffs, refers to himself as “Tiny”! He then launches into a huge story about his day at school. A shocked Ernie had no idea that monsters went to school, but this will actually recur again later on at some point, when the show would do a sketch about Cookie’s first day of school.
Anyway, Cookie goes on and on and on, telling his mommy about everything that every other monster brought for Show and Tell, and then tells her about how well he jumped rope, proceeding to count his jumps all the way up to 4614! We mercifully don’t have to hear all the numbers, because the show cuts to various other clips and cartoons, although poor Ernie clearly had to suffer through the whole thing. At one point, he even offers him cookies if he’ll hang up, and instead Cookie just shoves them in his mouth and keeps going! And, then, just when he seems to be done, he asks his Mommy about her day and then about his brother, Fred (Trivia alert, again!). Despite driving Ernie crazy, Cookie comes off as extremely sweet to his mommy throughout–loving, attentive, and kind. It’s an early glimpse at the heart underneath the ravenous monster that will help add greater depth to his character as the years go on.
Ernies bribes Cookie with cookies.
Finally, finally he ends the call. “I just wanted to give you a short call, Mommy! Mwah!” And Ernie has had it, which is really fun to see, since he so rarely loses his temper. “Do you realize that was probably the longest phone call in history?! I didn’t think you’d ever be finished with that telephone!”
But he actually isn’t! A moment later, he devours the receiver, just in time for Bert’s call to come in, and Ernie ends up having to talk to his “old buddy” through Cookie’s open mouth. (Now, of course, technically speaking, this doesn’t actually make sense. With the phone off the hook, it shouldn’t have rung at all, but it’s easy to handwave this for a fun gag.) But, yeah, a great example of just how well Sesame Street could obscure its lessons. This was, of course, largely a demonstration of long vs. short, while also being a great riff on the idea of the person who says they’ll be “right off the phone” and then lasts forever, which itself weaves in a higher concept idea of perceived long vs. perceived short. Kids who always feel like any length of phone call their parents are on is neverending would have particularly gotten a kick of it.
And there we have it, Episode 123! And for the next few Sesame Street entries, I’ll be taking a look at highlights from the rest of Season 1, which I’m guessing/hoping will make for a much more appealing way to watch this early material!
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