…and now, Elmo will ask a baby!

That would be the Munchkin’s dream job, if she had any idea what that was.

During the 20-minute-a-day “Elmo’s World” segment on Sesame Street, Elmo picks a topic and then proceeds to beat it to death and sing songs about it. At one point, he always asks a baby – one sitting in a highchair, and about 9 to 15 months old – what they think. Naturally, they do nothing, or drool, or smile, but after 2 seconds, Elmo thanks the baby and gives it a kiss.

Good work if you can get it, kids! Seriously. Five seconds of immortal fame on Sesame Street. Big-name stars go for it – why not the kids? The Munchkin is too old and too verbal for that segment – she’d want to hug and kiss Elmo herself, and then never leave.

As I lose more primetime TV shows, I gain more children’s shows experience. Friend (who likes cheese) and I talked about this on Sunday. The Brain was singing a ditty from Between the Lions (a show which I really like because of the emphasis on books and phonics), and Friend and I talked about our favorite skit from that show: the parents’ cooking show. The parents (the grown-up lion puppets) go through a recipe on how to cook a piece of raw meat (conveniently using the sound or vowel of the day in the course of the recipe several times), and then they come to the end, which usually says to cook the meat. At that point, they say to each other, “Naaah,” and proceed to devour the raw meat. (Call PETA! Lions eat raw meat!!)

Friend and I were laughing about some of the more – ahem – adult banter that the lions (a happily married couple with two cubs) engage in while cooking. Nothing that is outright inappropriate, but just goes straight over a kid’s head and is funny to the adult ear. (“Here you are, my little lamb chop,” and the like.) Friend speculated that someday, the Brain and the Munchkin would “get it” and then be shocked that we let them watch that.

Hey, we let them watch The Muppet Show, and Crazy Harry blows things up. I doubt they’ll be shocked about that. Besides that, they’ve seen the Raquel Welch episode of The Muppet Show. Ever seen Muppets drool? They do in that episode.

It may be kid-friendly entertainment, but the adults have to watch it, too. And a good show knows to slip in a few jokes that will make everyone happy.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 24th, 2005 at 6:34 pm and is filed under Media.
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