Is it weird I remember watching Seaseme Street, but I literally remember no sketches except for the Elmo's world bits? (which were the most kiddy-est sketches of the show)

Either you're twelve or your memory sucks. So yeah, weird.

The last one was... something. I was like this isn't so bad, then the bird got all trippy! I never watched Sesame Street as a kid, not sure if missed out or not.

Awesome review. The Count is my homeboy.

OK, as a kid this music video would send me running out of the room. I have no idea why.

The premise? A green anything Muppet in a viking helmet and his new wave band splashed paint around a room and sang about it. Presumably, they're teaching the kids the "Wet Paint" sign and why to avoid it.

All I know is that when it would come on, I would take off. I'd run into the kitchen to be with my mom until it went away.

How Now Brown and the Moo Wave--I almost had their other song, Danger's No Stranger during the closing credits until I re-discovered the funky music that played during the credits when I was a kid, then I had to use that.

That birtd from number 1... It looked like a spawn of Chtulu.

Ok, I'm exaggerating but I can see how someone could find it scary.

And count? Well I would be more scared of him from the censored version of his song (chec it on youtube if you don't know it yet) and Blockbuster Buster's usage of Count's voice in Golden Compass review (he was counting dead bodies, so many dead bodies HAHAHAHA)

You're exaggerating, it's only the spawn of Satan.

About Jim Henson's twisted sense of humor: I remember a biography of Jim Henson that included an interview that had to do with Jim taking a naked picture of a man for a sculpture called something like "In The Mind Of Bert". It was a strange interview.

It was Frank Oz. Frank, I believe, mentioned it in his eulogy at Jim's Funeral.

I don't really remember anything that particularly scared me about Sesame Street. I used to love it no matter what. Never seen #9 before though. Twin Peaks and Sesame Street... Never expected that to happen.

Yeah, Seseme Street never freaked me out as a kid as I recalled. But it was the first show that groomed me for skits and parodies of shows that were geared towards adults.


Seriously, I never got the Vincent Twice reference until I was introduced to the actual Vincent Price movies. And what I really loved was not only thier use of celebrities but how they were used to teach a lesson or get a child and parent's attention. But now that everyone is bringing up Elmo...I have to admit the way he would get this frustrated psycho-stare whenever Zoey would talk about her pet rock was very unsettling to say the least.

It was like you knew one of these days he was going to snap and they would make it a "episode that was too graphic to show to children" so to speak.

I never found Sesame Street scary and it baffles me to this day that others did. And this is coming from a child who was afraid of everything! Maybe it was because I grew up watching the Muppets nonstop and I had a weird sense of humor as well, so it all seemed normal. I don't know. Though I will admit that the old Harry Monster was definitely pretty creepy. Had I seen that version of him as a child, it probably would have scared me. Everything else... meh.

I remember Twin Beaks from its early airing. Those double-beaked birds were weird.

"Me find out something very interesting about the birds in this town. They each have two beaks. But no like to talk with either of them."

I downloaded the Resident Evil Revelations demo to my 3DS despite being a big wimp. I directed Jill Valentine to the bathroom, drained the tub and got myself a screwdriver. Then the telltale sound of the first monster happened, so I walked back into the bedroom to shoot him. I missed his tentacle-filled head three times, then he cornered me and used an extruding organic blender in his face to shred Jill to death. That's when I turned the demo off and quit, probably never to return.

I'm bringing this up because that bird at #1 was MUCH scarier than the monster was.

I recall being scared of the Snuffelupagus when I was a kid. There were two reasons why. One was this haunting tune that would play every time he came in and the monotone voice as well as the creature as a whole felt creepy to me. Even getting a stuffed plushie version from my grandmother at a young age didn't help overcome my fear. I can't remember how I did, but I think it was after seeing Follow that Bird or something. That's all I can recall.

Another thing I also find strange is that some are scared of the Yip Yip Martians, to which I think are the funniest thing on the show next to Ernie and Bert. Still, there are two friends of mine that get a little uneased when I show them a clip, so I guess that says something there.

Either way, intersting list.

Ugh, those martians… they phase into your house. They never stop their weird, aggressive chanting. They imitate sounds from your daily life (probably to lure unsuspecting people). And then they eat your phone with their gaping mouths.

Fuck those guys.

The scariest, or creepiest rather, bit I remember from Sesame Street is this: "Sesame Street: Creepy toys, robots, and satellites" (search for this on Youtube)

remember "tales from the dark side" i grow up watching the show and thare one episode "chose and effct" that still scare me

The only one on the list that I remember was #4 don't remember the zombie bit though must have suppressed it. :P

Yeah, I don't get the "zombie" thing. Sure, you could joke and say that he's a zombie, but he's obviously delirious from a lack of sleep and counting because the Count kept him up all night doing just that. It made sense to me as a kid and makes sense to me now. Just makes me laugh.

Well, aren't you the party pooper. "Sure you can have fun with it and exaggerate, but it's better to be serious about it and take it literally."

Yeah, that Bird one was really creepy at the end. The animators must have been smoking a lot of weed and doing a lot of cocaine back then.

Thank you for including the Count Sleepover skit! I remember that being funny as a kid, but I can see how other kids would've been scared by it. Then again, I have a thing for vampires...

cool vid though i thought the skeleton laughing is one of the scariest moments you listed

I loved the counting sheep one. Still the scariest moment for me would actually be back then, the Swedish Chef Trying to cook big bird in the christmas special. I didn't watch the entire thing because I thought he went through with it. Now I look back and laugh because BB guilt him into crying.

Very cool review and list. I never saw sesame street but here is a link to a Norwegian childrens show back in the day. Norway got colour Tv pretty late.
http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=jyCBrRuG_GQ

I know the title card's supposed to be disturbing but I just find it hilarious. It's like some parallel universe Sesame Street where instead of teaching you how to count or anything, they teach you how to smoke, deal drugs, and steal cars.

Exactly.

lol, that kind of Seseme Street show would just be freaking awesome! :D

Im 31 and terrified of Yo Gabba Gabba

My Sesame Street fear was one I had to deal with every day and that was Ernie's laugh. That scared the living shit out of me as a kid and even now I have a hard time hearing it without jumping a little bit. I don't know why, but it's just the scariest thing to me. When I used to watch the show, I would run out during the theme song (in which Ernie jumping into a shot and laughing occurs), which I had timed in my head, and come back in once I knew it was "safe". And every sketch that I saw that featured Ernie I would immediately block my ears for. I wasn't scared of Ernie as a character, and I was actually interested in what he said, so I would try to figure out the context of his stories with my ears blocked, but that laugh freaked the flying fuck out of me.

For me the scariest thing I remember from childhood are "Moomins". But not the Japanese cartoon, oh no. The Polish version:
http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=0qMrP0FpgO4

The top 4 were actually pretty creepy (the fuck was with #1?). But the voice that does your countdown was the creepiest thing of all.

I had to log in and say... personally I never found Sesame Street scare me as a kid, oh no, that was left to this little bastards

-->http://epguides.com/ Wombles/cast.jpg

@_@, but very interesting list!

I imagine the creators watched "Duck Amuck" on an acid trip and thought "The children like that sort of thing! Let's do that but better and creepier! Like an ostrich with lemur rainbow eyes!"

Duck Amuck is the funniest cartoon short ever made, as far as I'm concerned. Either that or What's Opera Doc or Robin Hood Duck. Daffy Duck used to be the funniest creature in the universe. Now, he's a jerk. Oh well.

The ghost train was pretty scary in "Thomas the tank Engine."

Indeed- I was also an ardent Sesame Street viewer (before the Elmo Era made that little red fuzzball take up 25% of each show).

Back when the Snuffleupagus was an imaginary friend. Back when the show referenced Springsteen. Back when Grover was SuperGrover. Oh, let's face it- back when Jim Henson was still alive. *sniff*

And yet, I do remember vividly some of those "scary moments" in the video. And much like what you said, they're not scary *now*, but back then, instant quivering lips.

King Minus especially unnerved me to no end- if only because of the nihilistic nature of the cartoon. He fights and fights for his love, but in the end, he causes her to disappear, and in his despair, he casts himself to oblivion. The End. The only thing left was his glove. Remember kids- doesn't matter what you do, you'll just die in the end. And now, here's Bert and Ernie.

If I were to put together a list, I'd also include the following:

Letter of the Day Pageant: I have no idea why this irked me when I was little, but I think it was due to my ignorance on what a "first runner up" was. The 5 finalists were vowels, and Guy Smiley said that the first runner up was the letter O, which I thought was the winner. All of the sudden, the letter E emerges as the winner, and Guy sings a song about it for another 10 minutes. Bugged me to no end. To this day, some friends of mine kid me on my "fear of the letter E".

The Henson-directed number segments (the ones with the baker falling down the stairs): I know that it was supposed to be slapstick comedy, but that baker looked like he was getting hurt to me. Plus the numbers jumping out at you at the beginning- when the number of the day appeared, it would shoot the number at you repetitively.

The Bert and Ernie sketch where Ernie tries to count sheep, fire engines, etc.: Two words- The Balloon. Instant nightmare fuel. It gets bigger... and bigger... and biggeBOOOOOOM! Bert screams. Blimey. There's another similar sketch that I saw more recently where Bert simply loses it and rampages off screen with dishes crashing everywhere. It wasn't shown on TV that many times again.

Peligro: While it was supposed to evoke Danger (obviously), I think it was the screaming voices that did me in. PELIIIIIGROOOOO*BOOOOOOMM MMM*. Now, I think it's hilarious.

Bert & Ernie with the "H" broken TV: This is the one where nothing's on their TV except the letter H. I find it funny now, but the droning music with Jerry Nelson's deadpan voice saying "H" over and over again was dissonant at best when I was a kid- especially at the very beginning of a sketch. You're watching the talking "nu-nu-nu-nu-nu" typewriter get sucked up by a vacuum cleaner and then all of the sudden "H! H! H! H!". *shudder*

The "No Exit" Cartoon: A guy is following si...

I think this got cut off, so I'll just continue this here:

The "No Exit" Cartoon: A guy is following signs to an "EXIT" that doesn't exist. As he's seeing more and more contrary signs, he starts to get angry until he just screams the word "EXIIIIIIT" and then goes into this high-pitched gibberish rant, picks up the sign, crashes it through the wall, and walks out the hole he created. Remember kids- when faced with a problem, damage property.

The Ten Commandments of Health: I think this was just because the number was off to the upper right hand corner while some doctor and orderlies sang. I didn't pay attention to the lyrics because I thought they were just teaching how to count to ten.

The one that bugged me the most, though, was probably innocuous to everyone else. It was a Bert and Ernie sketch where they name different lovely things that start with the letter L (with accompanying music, naturally). Bert was giving examples like lemons and lightbulbs, and Ernie was talking lullabies and lollypops. Then Bert, goes all regal and sings "LINOLEUM!" Now, linoleum in of itself- not scary. However, it was the way the letters were placed on the screen ("l i n o l e u m"). The kerning between the letters were spaced very far apart. I was not used to that sort of typography before, so that really threw me for a loop (moreso than the E in the "Letter of the Day Pageant"). For years, I would look away from the screen when that part of the sketch would appear. Again, not really something that others would find "scary", but for me it was unnerving as hell.

Thanks for doing that video. It was cool to see some classic sketches from way back.

And one other thing. Great touch using the 80s era credits music at the end. I know that for some people that music mixed with the title cards is in of itself another scary moment. I found it more to be like the "grown-up section" of the show. If anything, it taught me the meaning of "service mark" and "registered trademark."

Yay, someone recognized the music at the end XD Was looking for something to use for the end credits and found that--totally forgot about it until I heard it. I think I found it a bit "scary" too as a kid--the music is a little intense.

As for the TV that kept saying "H" ... I came VERY close to putting that one on the list, but decided to use the one with the count despite the bad audio. There is a clip of it before the list starts, tho, if you didn't notice--Bert wearing the hat.

Thanks for the comments--you're a Sesame Street watcher after my own heart ^.^

Oh, I noticed the clips- there was another one when you said the phrase "nightmare fuel for little kids". ;-) I think when Ernie took out the hamburger from the TV in that segment, even as a little kid I wondered how long that burger was in the TV, and whether it was a good idea for Ernie to take a bite out of it.

I see in another comment that you would have used "Danger is no Stranger" for the music if you didn't use the show's end credits music, which would have also been apt for this review. While I was a little too old to be affected by the Street at that point, the explosions and pixel effect at the end would have definitely thrown me in a tizzy if I were a few years younger.

Oh, and thanks for the No-sign around Elmo. I cheered when I saw that. No disrespect to Kevin Clash or anything, but once Tickle Me Elmo became a smash hit in the stores, I knew that the Street would not be the same after that...

When I was a kid, Sesame Street revolved around Grover, especially in the books. I mostly remember The Count & Cookie Monster & admittedly...as a little girl I thought Bert & Ernie were a married couple.

I was a huge fan of Nightmare on Elm Street & Tim Burton at the same age I was watching Fraggle Rock & The Muppet Show. I think I mostly avoided Sesame Street because every 5 seconds they would sing about counting to 10. I also hated the parts the didn't have muppets in it.

Looked like the Count was trying to give that skeleton a handjob.

The I Beam one is totally the cure for insomnia; play it on loop & pass out.

Looks like the Lost Kid encountered the Cheshire Cat from Care Bears.

I think I see it...Beautiful Day Monster is the personal-space-invasion dude, all up in your grill, molesting your Muppets. I'll call him Gropey.

Oh, you gotta see this hilarious clip on Youtube called "The Muppet Show: Beautiful Day (with Doglion)."

When i was a child there was only three instances when a cartoon scared me.

First one was some anime show that i loaned from a friend. I don't remember the name of the show but it had scene where the main characters found a guy that was stabbed in the back when he was sleeping. That shit caused me hard time to get sleep for years.

Another instance was when i watched a show that had some dudes fighting and the guy was actually slicing his enemies apart and there was a lot of blood coming out (don't know this shows name either)

Last one was the ugly ass rabbit general Woundwort from Watership Down. He look's really menacing when he makes his last leap.

Those were the only programs/movies that scared me. I wasn't really easily scared considering that i watched Silver Fang/Ginga Nagareboshi Gin without getting scared at any point and that show is pretty darn violent.

Heh, yah, Watership Down screwed up many kids.

I remember a cartoon segment that scared me out of the room when I first saw it.
(This might've been from "The Electric Company.")It was about a girl sitting in her room looking at the cracks in her walls.
Using her imagination, she turns the cracks into a collection of animal friends that she takes a jaunt with. Everything goes along smoothly until they come upon...
CRACK MASTER!
(Stop giggling, that's not the "crack" I mean.)
Basically, a mass of huge cracks in the wall making up a demonic face of hate and evil that loudly declares "I AM CRACK MASTER!" He attempts to make himself even more nightmarish by making more cracks it the wall. This backfires when he crumbles into dust/loose plaster as a result.
I had nightmares for months.

Ah yes, The Crack Master! Pretty sure I never saw it myself, but people talk about it all over the internet. Unfortunately, there is no video of it online and it's much sought after. Would love to see it, I hear it's disturbing as hell.

Here's some more information about Crack Master/Monster:
http:// tailotherat.blogspot.com/ search/label/The%20Crack% 20Monster

As much as can be gathered, anyway. He did succeed in finding a copy but wasn't allowed to share.

Wow a Freddy Kruger AND a Ranma 1/2 panda doll on the same couch, how nice ^_^ . Just out of curiosity, who said the numbers here? Sounded familiar

Read the credits.

I never found Sesame Street (or Sesamstraat, as it's known here) scary, just really funny and entertaining. Bert & Ernie are still hilarious, the Dutch voices were maybe even better than the originals.

It's our resident music provider, Skitch.

Okay yeah number 2 and number 1 freaked me out.
The...eyes....dear god the EYES.

I don't remember anything from Sesame Street freaking me out, but what I do remember is the Abominable Snowman from the old claymation Rudolph special. Ugh.