Sesame Street … CENSORED!
By raincoasterIt’s true. The new DVD release of that golden classic of the airwaves (cablewaves, whatever, I’m old, yo) has been held up, smacked on the bottom, and slapped with an R rating, just like the Mickey Rourke in lust (and in Kim Basinger) BDSM flick 9 1/2 weeks.
Well, it’s easy to see why.
Gaze, if you will, upon the singled-out-as-kid-corrupting footage of Alistair Cookie‘s Monsterpiece Theatre production of “The 39 Stairs.” Note, if you will, that Alastair holds between his toothless gums a …
pipe.
In the original, shocking footage, Alistair Cookie not only holds the pipe in his mouth, but chews and swallows it in an orgiastic, addiction-fueled frenzy of obscene enthusiasm. Clearly, children who witness this will be scarred for life, unable to discern the difference between food and drug paraphernalia.
According to Parente, “That modeled the wrong behavior” — smoking, eating pipes — “so we reshot those scenes without the pipe, and then we dropped the parody altogether.”
Actually, I saw that in the original form and look how I turned out!
Oh, wait…
(Looking for the TeenyManolo Sweepstakes? Go here)
November 27th, 2007 at 6:13 pm
Who knew that Sesame Street could be so subversive?
November 27th, 2007 at 7:06 pm
Classic! I really think that a lot of the fun of Sesame Street has been taken away and filled with Elmo. It is still one of the better kid’s shows out there, but not nearly as good as I remember it being.
November 27th, 2007 at 8:15 pm
So, did anyone ever figure out that other bit of moral depravity, whether or not Ernie and Bert are gay?
November 28th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
Yeah, my sister and I smoked candy cigarettes (around the neighbors’ baby, even!) when we were kids and now we are totally corrupt and depraved.
http://class-factotum.journalspace.com/?entryid=2248
November 28th, 2007 at 11:51 pm
smoked candy cigarettes & pipes as a child…check!!
did not end up smoking…check!!
You’d think in this day’n’age, they’d be more concerned with the wanton recklessness of sliding down a banister!!
November 29th, 2007 at 2:57 am
Does this remind anyone else of little old priests at the Vatican putting plaster fig leaves over the privates of Greek and Roman statues 500 years ago? Really, what are we trying to cover up here?
The morality police are definitely on parade!
November 29th, 2007 at 11:55 am
I agree with Awesome Mom — it seems as though all the zaniness of the show has been taken away, and replaced with the generic, saccharine-sweetness of Elmo.
Then again, I’ve always loathed Elmo ever since he usurped Grover’s role as the “cutest” muppet. (Although Grover will ALWAYS be the cutest in my book.)
November 29th, 2007 at 3:38 pm
Class Factotum, your link does not work for some reason.
Elmo. God, how I hate Elmo. Check out these links (NSFW. NSFhome either, come to think of it):
http://raincoaster.com/2006/10/28/frisk-me-elmo-drug-mule/
http://raincoaster.com/2006/10/13/big-bird-molested-by-tiny-tv-star/
http://raincoaster.com/2006/09/24/elmo-scandal-grows-a-two-%e2%80%93-two-ah-ah-ah-%e2%80%93-two-faced-snake/
http://raincoaster.com/2006/09/23/sesame-street-fires-audit-me-elmo/
http://raincoaster.com/2006/10/11/fondle-me-elmo-celebrity-sex-tape/
Hmm, maybe I should do an Elmo post…
November 29th, 2007 at 3:39 pm
Maya ‘smokes’ the air on cold mornings. She thinks cigarettes are stupid, but still, it’s fun. She doesn’t even need a candy cig.
Some folks are just too stupid for words. Like those that pulled the cookie pipe bit. I like Allister Cookie.
Maybe in these days of childhood obesity paranoia, they were afraid to show anyone actually enjoying their food?
January 4th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
In my opinion all this censure about Sesame Street is unnecessary. I grew up watching the series, as all my generation did, and frankly, I’ve never suffered thrauma from it. In fact, I’ve never tried to smoke or to eat pipes ¬ ¬.
Instead I learnt many EDUCATIONAL things, because that’s the objective of the series, to be educative.
I’ll tell you what, I’d rather my children to watch these series better than all the series that children watch today, including pokemon, shinchan and all that manga stuff.