What sketches scared you as a kid?

[Jennifer]

When I browse Dejanews, I find this a favorite topic on the alt.tv.sesame-street group: What sketches/cartoons/skits scared you as a kid?

The only ones I can clearly remember frightening me were as follows. There was a counting cartoon with bugs. It started off on a blank yellow screen with a weird clicking sound. Then a rather ugly bug crawls on screen, then three more, counted off by the announcer until we have "five cute little bugs." Then the last bug turns and crawls "over" the first...and gets bigger. This is repeated until we have "one big ugly bug!" filling up the screen. That used to creep me out when I was little.

The other one was BIG TIME scary to me. This was actually a series of several, but I didn't know this till years later cause I'd always head for the hills when it came on! Yes, friends...we are speaking of the dreaded Willy Wimple Anti-Pollution Cartoons.

For those of you who don't remember, there were several folk-songish cartoons about a careless and rather nasty-looking kid named Willy Wimple, who in each one did something nasty to the environment: throwing trash on the land or in the water, and cutting down trees. The song went on to say, "Now if every kid did it, can't you see, what an icky mess it would be?" The cartoon and song would go into the consequences of what the world would look like if "every kid did it". They all concluded with a shot of the earth from space...brown and dirty...and a gruff, "YUCK!"

I think what scared me when I was a kid was that I somehow missed the "if every kid did it" line. Therefore, I thought that this one kid was responsible for screwing up the entire world. (I cheered myself up, though, by imagining a little story inside my head in which Big Bird and the gang, sans Oscar of course, tracked down Willy and forced him to clean up his mess.)

Anyway, thanks to this and other anti-pollution sketches, I became a real bear for not throwing trash around. But even now, I get a bit of a scare even thinking of them...

Other minor scares: that cartoon with the cracks on the wall turning into animals and one evil-looking "crack monster", and the News Flash with the horse running up the clock and smashing the thing to bits. But this was nothing compared to the pure stark horror that was Willy Wimple, Arch Polluter.

Some of the sketches that others have said scared them either had no effect on me or were sketches I loved. For example, the orange that sang Carmen's Habanera is often put in the scary category...but that used to crack me up no end!

Anyway, consider this thread therapy. What sketches used to scare you?

[MIKEB97]

Hi there! Quite a few things on Sesame Street have scared me. the lower case N cartoon made my heart pound but now after seeing it on tape, I feel fine. The cartoon where an M was zooming though space and a echoing voice said "M, M ,M". Another one was where a mean voice echoed "Small V!". There was a cartoon where six rainbow colored circles were forming a hexagon shape. While the circles rotated, anonomys voices chanted "Lo lo lo lo bolo bolo su so su". I kind of liked that one and it's odd that clip hasn't been seen for the past 10 years. There was a pinball animation about the number 11 and whenever a voice shouted "ELEVEN!" I jumped as if the number picked a wild goose chase with me.

[Iggy35]

When I was little, my mom always used to put on the Muppet Show album to get me to sleep.
Which was fine, until "Hugga Wugga" came on.
Then I always hid under my bedcovers for some reason.

IGGY35

[Drtooth]

Originally posted by MIKEB97
There was a pinball animation about the number 11 and whenever a voice shouted "ELEVEN!" I jumped as if the number picked a wild goose chase with me.

Yeah! I have issues with the Pinball Number count too. It was one of my favorite sketches, until one day:
I was watching this Israeli version of the show (It was Americanized , it was a special) called Shalome Sesame. They had the sketch in Hebrew or Yiddish or something and, let me tell you, the Pointer Sisters had nothing to do with this. They had these woman who sounded NOTHING like them sing fast and off key. It freaked me out!! I never really liked that sketch (even in english) again. It took me forever to get over it. I have a tape of Shalome Sesame episodes that I never touched in years because of it. I also didn't like this live film about an octopus. I dunno, the tenticles scared me!!!

[josh05]

i used to have nightmares about the big bad wolf from sesame street. now this wasnt just one nightmare this was a reoccuring thing......... i guess i never really have got over that either...............captain vegetable scares me to this day

[Splurge]

Not really Sesame, but I want to share this:

The first episode of the Muppet Show I ever saw on CBS was with Rita Moreno. (Maybe that was the first one broadcast in the US, even if it wasn't the first in rotation?) After Kermit's intro song, Rita appeared in a dress without shoulder straps and Animal sneaks up and bites her on the shoulder.

That was the first time I saw Animal, and the combination of his eyes, his sharp teeth and his biting someone. That was in 1976, though, and now of course, I see it in the flirtatious context it was meant to be seen.

[MIKEB97]

Animal looked so hideous back then! Did Frank Oz's Animal voice frighten you?

[MIKEB97]

There was a caroon that freaked me out. it was about the letter V called, "The Villian in the Panama Hat"

[Salmoto]

I got real worried when I first saw the skit where Ernie buried Bert in the sand and he can't find him, and he's all worried about Bert. Although I already figured out what happened to Bert, I was afraid that bert would sufficate under that big hill of sand.

[Blind Pew]

By far, the scariest moment for me was when they showed Kermit with teeth in one episode. I don't remember why he had teeth but he looked freaky and he was talking with a weird lisp and it gave me the willies.

My mom also says that I used to run behind the couch when the pigs rooting through the mud came on. She said I was terrified.

And the other thing that freaked me out was the segment about hand washing. They showed kids washing their hands and then eating spaghetti with their feet. It made me uneasy.

Keep in mind this was all in the late 70's and early 80's. Sesame Street has gotten a lot less weird now if you know what I mean. It was kind of strange and psychadelic in the 70's.

"I'm a dog I'm a workin' dog I'm a hard workin dog"

[Zoot]

The sketch about the two criminals stealing the "GOLDEN AN"
(Take the 'Golden AN' and put it in this tan van, Give it to stan, who'll give it to dan, that's the plan)
The part that scared me was when the police-man creeps up on them from the backround shadows - I'd always cover my eyes.

[Drtooth]

Actually, this one is more of "The Muppet Show" than Sesame, but here we go:

On the Harry Belefonte (excuse the spelling) episode, the African Mask Muppets on the Turn the World around sketch used to scare me. Come to think of it, African Masks scared me as a kid period! Now I can appreciate them, but that's besides the point. It wasn't until the tribute to Jim Henso that I overcame that one. Mainly because of the Vikings singing the song "Scurdy Murdy Mur, Scurdy Murdy Mur!"

[Blind Pew]

The shine on Gordon's head weirded me out. It was like he waxed it or something.

[Phillip Chapman]

Originally posted by Blind Pew
The shine on Gordon's head weirded me out. It was like he waxed it or something.

LOL! Hadn't heard that one before. Maybe the studio lighting had something to do with that too.

[fluffmuppet]

I would have to say those purple sock aliens that said "Yiiipp yipyipyipyipp!" Were really scary for me when I was little, and I was kind of afraid of Oscar the grouch....He still kinda scares me.

I think one time, I cried because I was really sensitive as a kid and whenever he was yelling at someone, I would get upset cuz I thought he was a "meany"..lol

It's funny, really. I got a photographic memory, and I think I remember Big Bird the most!

No characters from the muppets ever scared me though. Me and I sister watched the show religeously when we were kids! *sigh* the memories...

~fluff~