7 ms·

I've always wondered how many classic Sesame Street sketches were made by artists and animators while tripping on psychadelics. All the sketches below are ones

I've always wondered how many classic Sesame Street sketches were made by artists and animators while tripping on psychadelics. All the sketches below are ones I've seen when I was little. The legendery Pinball Number Count, with music by the Pointer Sisters : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZshZp-cxKg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZshZp-cxKg Totally tripped-out alphabet, and I mean totally tripped-out : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waxmzwxpKOo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waxmzwxpKOo Multi-armed guru counting to twenty a few times including in Spanish : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOkbuwRUTZo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOkbuwRUTZo Little kid gets lost in a weird neighborhood : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqPcQeMEnFc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqPcQeMEnFc

MarkLowenstein 5y ago
People often wonder this about psychedelia art. But is it even possible? The alphabet one, for example. It takes awhile to draw the stationary design behind any of those letters, let alone an animated sequence that transitions to the next one. Surely the mind of someone hallucinating would have moved on to many other fleeting visions before even finishing the letter A.
- jeffwass 5y ago
  That's a good point. They could have designed the overall vision for how and what to create while under the influence, for example.
- girvo 5y ago
  In my experience, you use the psychedelics to give inspiration, and then you complete the artwork once you're (mostly) sober. Anything else and I and my friends couldn't complete anything coherent. But the dose makes the poison too: low doses of psychedelics can help with creativity and the flow state without making it impossible to focus or complete less-fun specific tasks.
SavantIdiot 5y ago
Philip Glass scored an animation for Sesame Street. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JWwOzEDGss https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JWwOzEDGss I blame this for my interest in modern classical. I can't imagine them doing something so progressive today. But that's because they had a captive audience in the 70's.
- jeffwass 5y ago
  Wow!
- Diederich 5y ago
  Good God that's awesome! I must have missed that episode.
- dang 5y ago
  That's amazing! I wonder if I saw that and tuned it out as one of the 'boring' segments. It's genius, of course, but I'm not sure I would have felt so at 6. (I did recognize it, though, from this great thread a few years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18253445 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18253445.) One of the great things about Sesame Street was how they could entertain the parent along with the child. I remember a sketch about some composer struggling to write a song which is obviously "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", who somehow gets coaxed into the following instead: Twinkle twinkle little bird Isn't eating crumbs absurd Try a ham and cheese on rye Or a piece of cherry pie If the crumbs are all you want Don't come in my restaurant That appeals perfectly to the small child who immediately recognizes the song and thinks it's ridiculous to rewrite it; perfectly to the adult with an ironic sense of humor; and perfectly to anyone who appreciates the craftsmanship it takes to pull something like that off. (Edit: I found it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jfqc07-C4Vw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jfqc07-C4Vw - I forgot the Kermit news reporter. What a brilliant thing. The nuances of those puppets are incredible.) (Edit 2: oh gosh, there were tons of those! https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Don_Music https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Don_Music.) Another example: using "To be or not to be" and "Let It Be" as devices for teaching the letter B: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPb8oRJfNpQ#t=1m45s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPb8oRJfNpQ#t=1m45s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPb8oRJfNpQ#t=4m3s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPb8oRJfNpQ#t=4m3s (I wonder why they changed the melody - surely it would've been fair use)
moralestapia 5y ago
The myth that drugs make you more creative is, well, a myth. I've had a few content-producing startups and I can tell you that there was literally no correlation between the amount/quality of the art produced and whether the person making it was a drug-addict or not (everybody was treated equally at my place). If you want to know the secret behind creative genius, it is, as in other things, hard work and dedication. No substitute for that.
- jeffwass 5y ago
  I think you're misinterpreting my point. I'm only referring to the particular style of visual artwork and audio in those clips and others from that era of Sesame Street, which connects to psychadelic imagery and music.
  - moralestapia 5y ago
    You are right, there's definitely a connection regarding the style. Perhaps as other commenter suggests, has to do with it being one of the predominant visual styles of that time.
- ipaddr 5y ago
  Drug addict or not? Where does the part time smoker weed smoker vs crack whore fit at your startups? Are they all addicts? Did you notice a difference with the microdosers? Was your offices setup to foster a more productive environment with the addicts or did you put them in cub-farms.
  - moralestapia 5y ago
    >Where does the part time smoker weed smoker vs crack whore fit at your startups? As long as they behaved properly on premises, I didn't give much of a thought about their hobbies. >Are they all addicts? No. About 30%. >Did you notice a difference with the microdosers? There was a guy who did this, actually. He was kind of mediocre at work so we usually assigned him the easy but boring, repetitive stuff. n = 1 so I won't draw conclusions here. >Was your offices setup to foster a more productive environment with the addicts ... ? No, it was just a regular office. And no, they had no special benefits nor special handicaps because of their drug use. They never complained or requested any sort of special treatment. If anything, they were kind of ashamed for it, but I never brought the subject up. I know it's hard to believe for some, but you can really treat everyone with dignity and things just ... work.
bitwize 5y ago
The Sesame Street creators weren't stoners who tripped balls while creating content. They were very meticulous about what they were doing. The colorful, abstract, "trippy" visuals engaged young minds so they were tuned in for the preschool lessons presented. They even layered social messages in a very subtle, non-preachy manner on top of the primary lessons. Here's one of my favorites: A car appears to have trouble starting. Its driver, a Pam Grier-like woman, struts out, pops the hood, and drops a lowercase letter 'r' into the engine compartment. Now that the engine is capable of making appropriate 'rrrrrrr' noises, she drives off: https://youtu.be/L8AJATJoo5s https://youtu.be/L8AJATJoo5s What a lovely little lesson! Its primary purpose being to teach a letter and its consonant sound, they didn't stop there, they built a narrative around that premise featuring a black female character oozing confidence (positive depictions of black and other minority characters being a Sesame Street priority since the early days). Sesame Street was full of stuff like this, engaging children of all backgrounds in a positive way in multiple dimensions.
- MarkLowenstein 5y ago
  My son had some trouble at age 2 or 3 speaking his Rs. I remembered exactly that cartoon (30 years later) and tried to get him to imitate a car noise with it. Worked like a charm!
  - owyn 5y ago
    The current poet laureate of the US famously struggled with the letter R as a child. L and R are also kind of hard to differentiate for some non native english speakers. Interesting brain stuff, and I think sesame street really was working on a great level there.
- SyzygistSix 5y ago
  >The Sesame Street creators weren't stoners who tripped balls while creating content. I'm sure it wasn't while creating content. But in their off time, that was part of the culture. Lots of intelligent and creative people use or used marijuana and/or psychedelics. The idea of reducing those people to a label like "stoners" is disingenuous.
xvedejas 5y ago
I'm a bit taken aback that YouTube won't let me add these to a private playlist, because they're oriented towards kids. Huh? What does this accomplish?
- 101011 5y ago
  Interesting, according to this blog post: https://blog.youtube/news-and-events/better-protecting-kids-privacy-on-YouTube https://blog.youtube/news-and-events/better-protecting-kids-... > YouTube now treats personal information from anyone watching children’s content on the platform as coming from a child, regardless of the age of the user. This means that on videos made for kids, we limit data collection and use, and as a result, we need to restrict or disable some product features. For example, we no longer serve personalized ads on this content or support features such as comments, live chat, notification bell, stories, save to playlist, and others. So it's to keep kid behavior from being tracked. Kinda cool.
  - hoseja 5y ago
    How does "save to personal playlist" track you? Are they trying to say they don't even internally log videos kids watch?
    - SyzygistSix 5y ago
      I guess that means YouTube tracks everything in playlists so rather than give up on tracking people they would rather disallow putting content marked as "for children" in playlists.
    - lrem 5y ago
      First mistake: you're trying to apply your usual reasoning to an area governed by emotions. Second mistake: you're glossing over the obvious. "Save to personal playlist" tracks you by keeping a list of things you told it to save. Third mistake: you're forgetting the wider context. Google is such a juicy target, that the criteria are becoming "can an adversary convince a clueless person this deserves a jillion credits fine?" Children's data is as toxic as medical data and you don't want it anywhere near your service, unless you really really have to and both legal and privacy agree there's no remotely viable alternative. Source: I'm regularly taking the mandatory trainings in Google.
bitlax 5y ago
They were eating rotisserie chicken.
adolph 5y ago
Thank you for the pinball number count link. The days they included that in Sesame Street were the best days and now that I have this link every day can be a best day.
TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
> Little kid gets lost in a weird neighborhood : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqPcQeMEnFc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqPcQeMEnFc Thank you so much. That was in the cobwebs of my memory and you restored it.
pedrow 5y ago
I remember one about "The Seventh Seal" where a character is looking for his pet seal and counting. I don't imagine many of the target audience would get the Ingmar Bergman reference but respect to the show's creators for putting it in anyway!
Nursie 5y ago
Jazzy Spies numbers, with Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WSHvbGM6oE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WSHvbGM6oE So .. yeah I reckon there was a psychedelic influence at play.
soylentcola 5y ago
The "Lost Kid" one is very Yellow Submarine, for sure.

MarkLowenstein 5y ago

People often wonder this about psychedelia art. But is it even possible? The alphabet one, for example. It takes awhile to draw the stationary design behind any of those letters, let alone an animated sequence that transitions to the next one. Surely the mind of someone hallucinating would have moved on to many other fleeting visions before even finishing the letter A.

jeffwass 5y ago
That's a good point. They could have designed the overall vision for how and what to create while under the influence, for example.
girvo 5y ago
In my experience, you use the psychedelics to give inspiration, and then you complete the artwork once you're (mostly) sober. Anything else and I and my friends couldn't complete anything coherent. But the dose makes the poison too: low doses of psychedelics can help with creativity and the flow state without making it impossible to focus or complete less-fun specific tasks.

SavantIdiot 5y ago

Philip Glass scored an animation for Sesame Street. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JWwOzEDGss https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JWwOzEDGss I blame this for my interest in modern classical. I can't imagine them doing something so progressive today. But that's because they had a captive audience in the 70's.

jeffwass 5y ago
Wow!
Diederich 5y ago
Good God that's awesome! I must have missed that episode.
dang 5y ago
That's amazing! I wonder if I saw that and tuned it out as one of the 'boring' segments. It's genius, of course, but I'm not sure I would have felt so at 6. (I did recognize it, though, from this great thread a few years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18253445 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18253445.) One of the great things about Sesame Street was how they could entertain the parent along with the child. I remember a sketch about some composer struggling to write a song which is obviously "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", who somehow gets coaxed into the following instead: Twinkle twinkle little bird Isn't eating crumbs absurd Try a ham and cheese on rye Or a piece of cherry pie If the crumbs are all you want Don't come in my restaurant That appeals perfectly to the small child who immediately recognizes the song and thinks it's ridiculous to rewrite it; perfectly to the adult with an ironic sense of humor; and perfectly to anyone who appreciates the craftsmanship it takes to pull something like that off. (Edit: I found it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jfqc07-C4Vw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jfqc07-C4Vw - I forgot the Kermit news reporter. What a brilliant thing. The nuances of those puppets are incredible.) (Edit 2: oh gosh, there were tons of those! https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Don_Music https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Don_Music.) Another example: using "To be or not to be" and "Let It Be" as devices for teaching the letter B: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPb8oRJfNpQ#t=1m45s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPb8oRJfNpQ#t=1m45s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPb8oRJfNpQ#t=4m3s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPb8oRJfNpQ#t=4m3s (I wonder why they changed the melody - surely it would've been fair use)

moralestapia 5y ago

The myth that drugs make you more creative is, well, a myth. I've had a few content-producing startups and I can tell you that there was literally no correlation between the amount/quality of the art produced and whether the person making it was a drug-addict or not (everybody was treated equally at my place). If you want to know the secret behind creative genius, it is, as in other things, hard work and dedication. No substitute for that.

jeffwass 5y ago
I think you're misinterpreting my point. I'm only referring to the particular style of visual artwork and audio in those clips and others from that era of Sesame Street, which connects to psychadelic imagery and music.
- moralestapia 5y ago
  You are right, there's definitely a connection regarding the style. Perhaps as other commenter suggests, has to do with it being one of the predominant visual styles of that time.
ipaddr 5y ago
Drug addict or not? Where does the part time smoker weed smoker vs crack whore fit at your startups? Are they all addicts? Did you notice a difference with the microdosers? Was your offices setup to foster a more productive environment with the addicts or did you put them in cub-farms.
- moralestapia 5y ago
  >Where does the part time smoker weed smoker vs crack whore fit at your startups? As long as they behaved properly on premises, I didn't give much of a thought about their hobbies. >Are they all addicts? No. About 30%. >Did you notice a difference with the microdosers? There was a guy who did this, actually. He was kind of mediocre at work so we usually assigned him the easy but boring, repetitive stuff. n = 1 so I won't draw conclusions here. >Was your offices setup to foster a more productive environment with the addicts ... ? No, it was just a regular office. And no, they had no special benefits nor special handicaps because of their drug use. They never complained or requested any sort of special treatment. If anything, they were kind of ashamed for it, but I never brought the subject up. I know it's hard to believe for some, but you can really treat everyone with dignity and things just ... work.

bitwize 5y ago

The Sesame Street creators weren't stoners who tripped balls while creating content. They were very meticulous about what they were doing. The colorful, abstract, "trippy" visuals engaged young minds so they were tuned in for the preschool lessons presented. They even layered social messages in a very subtle, non-preachy manner on top of the primary lessons. Here's one of my favorites: A car appears to have trouble starting. Its driver, a Pam Grier-like woman, struts out, pops the hood, and drops a lowercase letter 'r' into the engine compartment. Now that the engine is capable of making appropriate 'rrrrrrr' noises, she drives off: https://youtu.be/L8AJATJoo5s https://youtu.be/L8AJATJoo5s What a lovely little lesson! Its primary purpose being to teach a letter and its consonant sound, they didn't stop there, they built a narrative around that premise featuring a black female character oozing confidence (positive depictions of black and other minority characters being a Sesame Street priority since the early days). Sesame Street was full of stuff like this, engaging children of all backgrounds in a positive way in multiple dimensions.

MarkLowenstein 5y ago
My son had some trouble at age 2 or 3 speaking his Rs. I remembered exactly that cartoon (30 years later) and tried to get him to imitate a car noise with it. Worked like a charm!
- owyn 5y ago
  The current poet laureate of the US famously struggled with the letter R as a child. L and R are also kind of hard to differentiate for some non native english speakers. Interesting brain stuff, and I think sesame street really was working on a great level there.
SyzygistSix 5y ago
>The Sesame Street creators weren't stoners who tripped balls while creating content. I'm sure it wasn't while creating content. But in their off time, that was part of the culture. Lots of intelligent and creative people use or used marijuana and/or psychedelics. The idea of reducing those people to a label like "stoners" is disingenuous.

xvedejas 5y ago

I'm a bit taken aback that YouTube won't let me add these to a private playlist, because they're oriented towards kids. Huh? What does this accomplish?

101011 5y ago
Interesting, according to this blog post: https://blog.youtube/news-and-events/better-protecting-kids-privacy-on-YouTube https://blog.youtube/news-and-events/better-protecting-kids-... > YouTube now treats personal information from anyone watching children’s content on the platform as coming from a child, regardless of the age of the user. This means that on videos made for kids, we limit data collection and use, and as a result, we need to restrict or disable some product features. For example, we no longer serve personalized ads on this content or support features such as comments, live chat, notification bell, stories, save to playlist, and others. So it's to keep kid behavior from being tracked. Kinda cool.
- hoseja 5y ago
  How does "save to personal playlist" track you? Are they trying to say they don't even internally log videos kids watch?
  - SyzygistSix 5y ago
    I guess that means YouTube tracks everything in playlists so rather than give up on tracking people they would rather disallow putting content marked as "for children" in playlists.
  - lrem 5y ago
    First mistake: you're trying to apply your usual reasoning to an area governed by emotions. Second mistake: you're glossing over the obvious. "Save to personal playlist" tracks you by keeping a list of things you told it to save. Third mistake: you're forgetting the wider context. Google is such a juicy target, that the criteria are becoming "can an adversary convince a clueless person this deserves a jillion credits fine?" Children's data is as toxic as medical data and you don't want it anywhere near your service, unless you really really have to and both legal and privacy agree there's no remotely viable alternative. Source: I'm regularly taking the mandatory trainings in Google.

bitlax 5y ago

They were eating rotisserie chicken.

adolph 5y ago

Thank you for the pinball number count link. The days they included that in Sesame Street were the best days and now that I have this link every day can be a best day.

TedDoesntTalk 5y ago

> Little kid gets lost in a weird neighborhood : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqPcQeMEnFc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqPcQeMEnFc Thank you so much. That was in the cobwebs of my memory and you restored it.

pedrow 5y ago

I remember one about "The Seventh Seal" where a character is looking for his pet seal and counting. I don't imagine many of the target audience would get the Ingmar Bergman reference but respect to the show's creators for putting it in anyway!

Nursie 5y ago

Jazzy Spies numbers, with Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WSHvbGM6oE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WSHvbGM6oE So .. yeah I reckon there was a psychedelic influence at play.

soylentcola 5y ago

The "Lost Kid" one is very Yellow Submarine, for sure.