"Sunny day, sweepin' the clouds away..."

Many people still don't believe that a large part of the work I do on my research project is to watch Sesame Street clips. Honestly though, it's not always as cute and fluffy as it sounds. There's only so much of a little red self-referential, third-person speaking muppet one should be allowed to tolerate in a day, and watching 20 years worth of Who Are the People in Your Neighborhood gets just that tad asphyxiating after about 10 hours.

There are moments of course, when I'm watching these things, and one or two of them just jump out at you, and you go, "Ok, for this, the past 4 hours of Elmo's World was worth it..." These are usually the ones that either remind me of when I was a kid, or the ones that have something entertaining for the child, but also a sly side joke for the adults watching with them (invariably featuring some celebrity guest). And that was one of the founding principles behind Sesame Street- that it would be a program that encourages low-income families to watch together. Here's are just some of my favorites:

One of my all-time favorite celebrity appearances on Sesame Street: R.E.M. doing "Furry Happy Monsters". It even has a muppet version of Kate Pierson from the B-52s doing back-up vocals for those adults craving that element of authenticity. We're using this clip to teach children about Emotions:


The letter "Y" is always a difficult one to teach children because they sometimes confuse the sound with "E". But why worry when you have chanteuse, Norah Jones to help? (the video's a little wonky in the beginning...)


This one got my entire research group roaring in laughter when we saw it. Patrick Stewart doing the "To be or not to be" soliloquy from Hamlet, but about the letter "B" instead. I'm not sure how accessible this is for kids though- I think this one definitely tickles the parents more:


Ok, I have to confess, I've watched this next clip at least 20 times. Every time someone new joins our group, we make them watch it as an initiation rite of sorts. If they choke up at it too, they're ready to join the project. Until today, NO ONE who's watched this has not liked it (except maybe Jude coz he's heard me- and all my friends- talk about it to death). For you parents out there, this is a really good one to show kids just before they go to bed- I promise :)