Sesame Eats
Hats off to the no or low screen households, but we rely on Sesame Street pretty heavily especially around meal times. Our daughter has always been low weight, hovering around the 5th percentile, though sticking to her growth projection. That said, meal times can be challenging, and so we do what it takes to calm her and that usually involves a sunny day sweeping the clouds away.
We used to just fire up whatever was free on YouTube but that grew monotonous quickly. Then, I discovered HBO Max has a good collection of full seasons including everything from Season 39 to Season 53. The show still has some of its staple characters, including Elmo, Big Bird, and Grover, and some solid recurring songs that we’ve incorporated into our everyday routine. We sung the “Number of the Day” song at a friend’s house recently, and I was surprised—though perhaps I shouldn’t have been—when the host, who has two kids of her own, joined us. We were all existing on the same parenting wavelength in that moment, it was beautiful.
And I’ve found that with the show, that it has become this cultural reference point for me. I saw a tweet recently that said “I don’t think Abby Cadaby should have access to such powerful magicks” and were I not familiar with Elmo’s friend, the wand-toting fairy who warps reality and summons objects from the ether at will, I would not have understood the joke. I am plugged into dad Twitter now it seems.
Though, Sesame Street has always had a viral quality to it. Remember in early 2022, when Elmo’s feud with Rocko “consumed the internet”? Or how it was big news decades ago when it was announced that Cookie monster would be eating fewer cookies and promoting healthier habits? Snopes declares Is Cookie Monster Becoming Veggie Monster? to be False, and I can report that Cookie is eating pretty much everything in sight.
One of the recurring segments on new episodes has Cookie running a food truck with a small pink monster named Gonger. I believe Gonger deserves to go viral himself, the Sesame Street analog to Jeremy Allen White in “The Bear”, a tortured soul driven by food and friendship. The segment follow this structure: The two monsters receive order requests from outside children via an iPad that fit the episode’s theme. However, when they go to make the dish or snack, its revealed that Cookie has eaten one of the ingredients, or sometimes, he eats the ingredient right in front of Gonger, who cries out in anguish, at one point saying to himself, “Why do I bother?” To replace the missing ingredient, the “Monster Foodies” as they call themselves, travel to a farm or factory and learn how corn is grown or peanut butter is made. Ingredient secured, they follow a recipe and prepare the dish which, once finished, is catapulted away, Gonger yelling out “Iz Weady!” in what I promise you is a truly crazy voice. The sweetest part, though, is that at the end, he presents Cookie with a plate of whatever they’ve made, telling him “I got this nice for you.” And Cookie shows appreciation before he gobbles it up.
I was trying to pinpoint what it is about Gonger and this segment that I find so endearing. There is conflict but also love between them. They work together to complete a task; different skill sets and personalities combining to create something. They have this dynamic that reminds me of George and Lennie from Of Mice of Men—Gonger as the brains behind the operation, and Cookie as the muscle who, though he’s often a liability, remains innocent and essential. Gonger is much too small to drive the truck, afterall, and he makes Cookie do the chopping.
Or maybe it comes back to the food of it all and I see myself in Gonger, a frustrated chef, watching my daughter toss the food I’ve prepared onto the floor. Gonger's sentiment towards Cookie of “why are you like this but I love you anyway” captures parenting well. It’s always love in the end, with more episodes and orders to come.