Sesame St S5: Highlights #2
Bert can’t believe the nerve of Ernie!
And speaking of cookie-sharing, Ernie similarly cons Bert out of a cookie…well, half of one, at least, in the next sketch, which is one of the most blatant Ernie-basically-just-being-a-jerk-to-Bert examples I’ve seen thus far. In many other cases, you can often excuse Ernie either due to his being overenthusiastic or non-maliciously careless or even just clueless. I mean, to be honest, I think he’s often a lot cannier than he puts on, but an argument could often be made the other way around or at least that he’s essentially innocent due to just being so Ernie, he doesn’t realize he’s doing anything wrong.
Here, though, he marches in, seems to feel himself entitled to Bert’s cookie because he’s hungry and then essentially talks him around in circles until he gets what he wants. “If it were my cookie, I would share it with you,” he tells Bert, then haranguing him into imagining that it were Ernie’s cookie. Finally, Bert reluctantly plays along, asking Ernie to share the cookie, and Ernie agrees, dividing it and then eating half before Bert can say anything.
And I was actually entirely on Bert’s side this time around. There was no question that that was Bert’s cookie, and Ernie was basically being completely childish. At the same time, the stinger at the end when Ernie then comes up to Bert and asks if he’d share his half a cookie with him is genuinely hilarious, particularly due to Bert’s pained reaction. You can watch it here.
I was actually a little concerned about the next sketch I watched before turning it on, because it had the potential to be culturally insensitive in a way that would be uncomfortable to watch today. It’s called “The Unhappy Empire” and is part of a series of Japanese Stories presented by Sesame Street in the ’70s. And while I knew that, being Jim Henson and Sesame Street, there certainly wouldn’t be any deliberate offense caused, I was a bit worried that their idea of cultural sensitivity at the time might not have aged as well as possible, particuarly because I recall a multicultural episode of The Muppet Show that, despite its best intentions, feels a tad…unenlighted, shall we say, today.
As it turns out, however, I think it actually came out very well, overall. Now, I can’t speak for Japanese people so I can’t say that no one would take any offense, however from my perspective, at the very least, the Japanese Muppets’ eyes aren’t overly exaggerated and neither are their accents. They are clearly putting on Asian accents, but they are very softly textured, indicating the ethnic origin without cartoonizing the voices, so to speak. This may not be the most accurate depiction of Japanese culture or mythology. I really don’t know. However, there are no racial stereotypes here, harmful or otherwise, that I could find.
In short, it’s the story of an evil prime minister who rules an unhappy empire after the previous emperor’s death. The rules are that another official emperor can only be chosen if someone were to present something entirely unique to the prime minister, and for a long time, no one is able to succeed. Finally, a young woman arrives, bringing nothing but herself. “There’s no one and nothing exactly like me in the entire world,” she says, going on to show how, while there are other women in the world, as the prime minister argues, none have her exact eyes, hair, walk, personality, etc.
“The Unhappy Empire”
And so he is forced to yield the empire to her–a great combination of a very Sesame Street message about taking pride in oneself and one’s own uniqueness with a nicely feminist addition. Granted, they do have to qualify that she will be an “empress,” not an emperor, but in a time when women’s lib was becoming increasingly prominent, this is a fascinating cultural shift to behold, particularly on a show that began with not the greatest gender equality track record. You can watch “The Unhappy Empire” here.
And we finish today with the rest of the “Mad Painter” films. I had watched #3 and #5 already but love them so much that I wanted to make sure I watched all the rest. Luckily I was able to find a compilation of all them here. What struck me this time that hadn’t before but should have is what a debt they owe to silent film. The Mad Painter is very much a Charlie Chaplin-esque character, going through life with a determined focus and the slightest touch of mischief. Possibly more than slight. That’s even more apparent in many of the other ones, in which he has an actively antagonistic relationship with another guy who wants him to stop pursuing his passion of painting numbers on random things.
In #2 (as far as I can tell from an internet search, they didn’t make one for 1, for some reason), he paints a 2 on a sailboat’s sail, only to have to flee in another boat as soon as its owner discovers what he did. In #6, he actually trades in the paint for a bag of icing when he happens upon a baker and his cake. As soon as the baker (played by the same man as the sailor, Jerome Raphel) leaves the room for a moment, the Mad Painter draws a 6 on his cake in icing. When the baker returns to discover the fate that has befallen his dessert, he outwits the painter by cutting off a slice and handing it to him, and while the painter is distracted by his generosity, the man smashes the rest of the cake in his face and then takes back the slice!
In #8, the same man is lounging in his pool, his shiny bald head naked for all the world to see and particularly enticing to the painter. Amusingly and ironically, the man is completely distracted himself at the time by a newspaper with a headline that reads, “PAINTER STRIKES AGAIN!” While he reads it, the painter paints his 8 directly on the man’s head, only to be chased out of and around the pool moments later. This one, however, does qualify as a solid win for the painter, as he gets away and the 8 remains where he put it.
This stands in contrast to #9, the number of which he paints on the street, only for the bald man to appear as a street cleaner on a huge truck, washing it away the instant he discovers it. He also gets rid of the painter’s number in #10, in which he sits on the stool the painter had just painted the 10 on! And thanks to film magic, the 10 disappears completely off the stool without a trace (rather than just splattering there) and instead appears perfectly formed on the man’s butt. We can’t call this a win for the man, however, as he doesn’t realize he’s walking around with a 10 on his rear, and neither is it one for the painter, as he loses his 10, so I guess we’ll have to call this one a draw–pun entirely intended, and I’m not apologizing.
The other man does basically win in #11, however, in which the painter sneaks into a doctor’s office–played by Stockard Channing again, and it’s another sign of the changing times that the doctor is a woman!–to paint an 11 on her door, but each time he’s about to, he gets distracted by Stockard popping her head in and summoning her next patient. Finally, he gets a moment to do his work, but an instant later, the man discovers what he’s done and washes it off with a squeegee. And to add insult to injury, a moment later, the doctor appears again and drags him into her office, despite his protests!
Stockard Channing is shocked at the Mad Painter’s behavior.
And then we have the other 2, which also feature Stockard. In #4, she’s a bedraggled lady walking on a city street, clasping an umbrella, despite the fact that it’s stopped raining. The painter paints a 4 on top of her umbrella, and then gestures at her to lower at her umbrella and look at it. She does what he says and is actually quite pleased to see the number…that is, until, a huge downpour of rain gushes down on both of them!
And, then finally, #7, which is likely the cleverest of them all. In it, the painter is attempting to draw a 7 on an elevator door, but, without realizing it, keeps accidentally drawing it on various people standing inside the elevator whenever it opens. The first time, he draws it on a box that a man is holding, but the instant he looks up, the door has closed and his number seems to have vanished! The next time, Stockard is standing there, portraying a rich woman in a fur coat who is absolutely appalled when he draws the 7 on her beautiful purse. Again the door closes! The third time, however, just as he’s about to draw his 7 again, the door opens, and who should be standing there but a football player with a white 7 already emblazoned on his jersey. And it looks like the Mad Painter’s met his new best friend! The end!
Next week: even more Season 5 highlights!
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