#and he was from one of the Elmo segments of the show

[cursed-elo-images]

Kelly Groucutt is so amazing!

[queenimmadolla]

Maybe could you write a dad Eddie x reader fic where penny wants to have a baby of her own so she can be a mom like reader

You were cuddled up to Eddie’s side on the couch, your toddler playing with her toys on the floor and your newborn curled in your arms, his face nuzzled against your bare breast as he nursed.

  The TV was on, but you and Eddie had long forgone your horror and dark fantasy movies for child friendly films and shows like Sesame Street, which was currently displayed on the screen. It was far from your favorite thing to watch, for either of you, your daughter was entranced with reruns of the show, and had a special love for Kermit and Elmo.

  “I’m telling you, there is no way they’re just roommates.” Eddie remarked with a scoff, during the Bert and Ernie segment.

  “They so are! I mean, the romantic tension is obviously present but neither has acted on it yet. Ernie’s too oblivious to do anything about it, probably thinks it’s only one-sided, and if Ernie’s not showing his interest, Bert’s not gonna make a move.” You countered, sinking further into Eddie’s side. His arm was around your shoulders, hand stroking along your forearm before latching onto his son’s tiny sock covered toes and giving them a gentle wiggle to which baby Wayne curled his feet further into his body, depriving his father of access to his toes. It didn’t distract the little glutton from the task at hand, your baby just mouthed a little at your nipple, head moving around until it was in place before latching once more.

  Eddie chuckled at that, watching with affection as his baby continued to stare up at you with wide eyes while he nursed, before his gaze moved back to the characters in question.

  “Sweetheart, they are clearly in a domestic partnership, they’ve just grown very comfortable around each other. We don’t need to see their affection to know they’re in a relationship.”

  “They sleep in separate beds, Eds.”

  “Okay, you got me there.”

  Penny chose then to get up from the floor, rushing over with the baby doll you’d gotten for her when you’d told her you were pregnant. She leaned against Eddie’s leg, resting her head on his thigh and letting him stroke over her curls before she pushed herself up and held the doll out to you.

  “Is that your baby doll?” You asked, assuming she was trying to show it off and she nodded, continuing to extend it and you realized she was trying to give it to you.

  “Hew you go, mama.”

  You made sure your actual baby was secure against you, glancing down to meet his unwavering stare as he ate, satisfied grunts sounding from him every so often, before you took the doll into your free hand, “Oh, you want me to hold…her?”

  You didn’t know what gender it was supposed to be, you’d heard Penny change it constantly.

  “Uh huh!” She nodded, grabbing onto Eddie’s knee and using it to sway back and forth. Sounded simple enough, you could play along, “She’s hungwy.”

  “You want to hand me her bottle then?” You could see the toy baby bottle, it had come included with, on the floor where Penny had previously been playing.

  “No, you has to feed the babies.” Penny released her dad’s knee to poke at her chest with both index fingers. “Fom wight hew.”

  You could hear and feel Eddie choke beside you, trying to muffle his laughter as you realized your toddler wanted you to breastfeed her doll.

  “Oh. Um.” You tried to think of a way to get out of it, casting Eddie a glare when you caught sight of his wide smirk from your peripheral vision. “Brother is eating right now.”

  “Udda one.” She pointed at your freed up, covered boob rather than the one your son’s wispy curl covered head was blocking for her.

  Damn it, Penny was beginning to become too self aware.

  Reluctantly, and very awkwardly, you held the baby doll’s plastic head against your other breast as Eddie literally started shaking against you. He might as well have just laughed outright with all the wheezing he was doing. Even Penny was casting him a few side-eyes.

  You turned your head towards him, eyes narrowing as Eddie continued to try to muffle his amusement behind a fist, face turning red with his effort but not even his fist was large enough to conceal the grin at your expense.

  Penny, however, looked like the cat who got the cream, happy you were once again complying with her demands. 

  You thought you’d be able to put the doll down once she went back to the toys, no luck, she’d apparently come over with the intention of watching you ‘feed’ her baby. So for like seven entire awkward minutes, you held the doll to your boob, its plastic face pressed against it, while she stared at you and Eddie suffocated on his amusement. The reason he didn’t just openly laugh at you was because he knew Penny would get mad at him. He could tell this wasn’t a game to her and if he laughed at something she didn’t intend to be funny, he’d have an angry toddler on his hands.

  Then you’d be the one laughing. 

  Mercifully, Penny eventually grew bored of watching you and reached up for the doll, which you were all too happy to give back. “You want to burp her?”

  The answer to that was no. Penny adjusted the baby doll in her hands until its face was smashed to her chest. It was half her size, but her motive was clear as she beamed up at you.

  She was imitating you.

  “Look! I A MAMA, LIKE MAMA!”

[bobcatmoran]

Just got back a bit ago from seeing Bill Irwin's "On Beckett," a one-man show that alternates readings of Samuel Beckett's work with Irwin's personal interpretations of it.

This sounds like the most pretentious nonsense ever, but those of a Certain Age might know Bill Irwin better as the OG Mr. Noodle from the Elmo's World segments on Sesame Street (I am not Of That Certain Age, but had younger siblings who very much were). He's a trained, professional clown, as well as an acclaimed actor who's played multiple roles on Broadway and Off-Broadway productions of "Waiting for Godot" to critical acclaim, and a lot of his analysis had to do with drawing on the historical vaudeville tradition and silent film clown tradition (i.e. Chaplin, Keaton, et al) that Beckett grew up with, and talking about that influence on how he interpreted performing Beckett's works.

The physicality of his performance, the very pointed usage of hats and how they can convey character based on how they're worn, and his passion for the topic plus his responsiveness to the audience really made it a gem of a performance which I'd never have seen had it not been for my Guthrie Theater season subscription, and I'm glad to have spent my evening this way.

[beardedmrbean]

Nunya it’s zoomer Huey, so as you know that Elmo was choked by Larry David on live tv.

Now I hearing that Elmo is a black 3 and half year old child

Now I know Sesame Street was created mostly as a way for inner cities kids can get knowledge as the places their in several lack the resources to let them to learn

Jeez almost like most cities planners never thought about kids and such

But anyways can you look up the idea that Elmo is meant to represent a black boy? Of course Elmo represents all kids now. But I find it interesting as that group of kids are often forgotten.

Perhaps I’m sound weird as I just got off my shift as I wrote this

You're fine I saw that whole thing.

I don't believe that Elmo was put in as a substitute for a black kid, just on the basis that it's Sesame Street and they don't do things like that, or they didn't.

No dancing around things there, the first lesson on death I had was Big Bird bringing a picture he'd drawn of Mr Hooper to him to show him, but Mr Hooper had died.

And Sesame Street handled that in a honest and age appropriate way that made death real but not scary, so if they'd wanted to introduce a black kid Muppet they'd make em a black kid.

All that and I remember Elmo from when I was a kid, before he became "ELMO" and there was nothing like that there either to my memory.

And we had human performers of all kinds even then, back when everyone was supposed to be wanting to treat everyone equally regardless of external factors, which apparently is racist now.

I could be wrong though, so I'll look and regardless of what I see I'm leaving that top bit.

Go easy first.

Elmo Monster is a red Muppet character on the children's television show Sesame Street.[3] A furry red monster who speaks in a high-pitched falsetto voice and frequently refers to himself in the third person, he hosts the last full five-minute segment (fifteen minutes prior to 2017) on Sesame Street, "Elmo's World", which is aimed at toddlers. He was most often puppeteered by Kevin Clash, but since his resignation in late 2012, he has been puppeteered by Ryan Dillon.

However, in 1985, Hunt was so frustrated with the puppet, he squeezed it and threw it at Kevin Clash, who then performed Elmo. Clash said that Elmo should be a character who is kind and loving. Sans says of Clash, "one day in 1985, Kevin Clash, a talented puppeteer, raised him up and brought energy and life into Elmo and from that day forward we would all write for Elmo." Modern Elmo debuted with the Season 17 premiere of Sesame Street, episode 2096 (first aired November 18, 1985, following the release of the Sesame Street film Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird). In the episode, Big Bird is tired of the adults refusing to believe him about Snuffy, so he decides to arrange for them to come to his nest and meet Snuffy, and Elmo offers to help. Snuffy returns, then tells Elmo he had better go home and brush his fur to prepare for the grown-ups' arrival, but Elmo holds on to his snuffle so he cannot go; as such, the adults meet Snuffy for the first time ever. Clash cites a moment later in season 17 (from Episode 2215 in which Elmo packs for an imaginary vacation) as the moment when he "found his voice" as Elmo, and by 1987, he became added to various episodes and product lines. __________________

There's lots more but nothing to indicate he was supposed to be any kind of stand in for a black child, people may be projecting because the guy playing him was a black dude, but didn't start that way so not looking good for that theory.

Before moving on, we'll get to that elephant in the room about the guy that does the voice.

Since this is the dude doing it now, and there would be hell to pay somewhere if he was actually supposed to be black. _______________

Not gonna vouch for facts DOT net, but with a URL like that I think it's likely they're going to know what they're talking about even if it is obviously a clickbait site.

OOP maybe this is something

That's Roosevelt Franklin, not Elmo. So there's another nope.

But as I've said if Sesame Street wanted a black character they wouldn't have used a red monster.

They'd have made a black human(ish) Muppet. _____________

Sesame Street was created so there could be a quality educational program for kids of all walks of life, it was set where it was set for reasons I don't know but could look up if I felt like it, but likely convenience since that's a easy enough place to see everything that's there with all the shops and stands and what not, gotta be in a urban area for that to work.

Again I could be wrong, but either way.

Elmo isn't black and wasn't meant to be seen as a stand in for a black kid to the best of my knowledge, which now includes the stuff here as well as about 8 other sites I skimmed through.

I think people might be trying to make something bigger than a joke out of a Jewish man having a laugh by attacking a Muppet, wonder if there's anything going on in the world that might be generating that kind of need to misdirect people and make something like that out to be something it's not. ______________________

And finally, I gotta say thank you Elmo.

When you sent that tweet out there you weren't expecting to get the level of truth and honesty you got, but you and the rest of the gang really stepped it up and brought the conversation front in center.

In the most absurd way I can think of.

And even us old's are gonna get some good out of it by revisiting our friends at Sesame Street I think.

[meganmodeste]

St.Lucian Music is praised but not recognized

The Caribbean Music Awards aired for the first time on August 31 in Brooklyn, New York. Hosted by Haitian musician Wyclef Jean at Kings Theatre, this was the first award show to be solely for Caribbean music. Musicians from all Caribbean islands attended though some islands had more attendees than others. Honorary Awards were given to a few artists from the islands of Jamaica, Trinidad, and Haiti. Some of the winners include Buju Banton, David Rudder, Mikaben, and more.

Soca, Dancehall, Kompa, and Reggae music were the focused Caribbean music genres at the awards. Within these genres, each island makes its style of music. Many other genres in the Caribbean were not represented such as Bouyon and Dennery Segment. These genres can be found in Dominica and St.Lucia. Dennery segment and Bouyon are forms of soca music.

Many well-known Caribbean artists attended the awards as well as new artists. Only one artist from the island of St.Lucia was present. Teddyson John, well known for his hit Vent, attended the awards and performed alongside Nailah Blackman and Jada Kingdom. Teddyson John doesn’t sing St.Lucia’s Dennery segment but he does sing soca music. Some of St.Lucia's biggest artists like Motto, Umpa, Mata, Shemmy J, Ricky T, and many more were not even invited to the event. St.Lucian music was even played during the award show but no light was shed on the genre's achievements.

The Dennery Segment originally came around in the late 2010s. The music genre grew in popularity in St.Lucia and spread throughout the Caribbean. In 2017 the genre got lots of recognition when a single called Split In Di Middle was released by Freezy. West Indian islands all over the Caribbean began to play Dennery segment at parties or events on the island and internationally. The genre continues to produce more artists and great soca hits for the Caribbean islands. Some Dennery segment hits include Split In Di Middle by Frezzy, Plat by Umpa, Fire by BlackBoy, and Big Ride by Motto featuring BlackBoy and Ezra.  

Motto Lashey Winter has made one of the biggest impacts on St.Lucian music. Motto has produced and recorded many of the Dennery segment hits from the past to the present day. He spreads St.Lucia's music culture yearly performing in all Caribbean islands, Europe, and America. Motto was not invited to the Caribbean Music Awards which was eye-opening to many soca music lovers. When I asked Motto why he thinks this happened his answer was simply “I don’t know”.

Here is one of Motto’s hit songs:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeGsSjhkXa8   

Elmo Norville, a young rising musician, born in St.Lucia also was not invited to the awards. Norville has produced hits for artists in many different Caribbean islands. Elmo also plays many instruments including the ukulele and bass. His instrument playing has been featured on many tracks in the Caribbean. Although he wasn’t in attendance, Norville still celebrated, a track he performed bass on called “Down Dey” by GBM Nutron, and DJ Spider won the Collaboration of the Year Award. Norville said, “The fact that I didn’t know it was nominated and it won an award was shocking”. The win brought emotions for him and he was proud of himself for the achievement.

Both Norville and Motto wasn’t even aware of the awards. St.Lucian music was even played at the award show but the musicians who made these songs were not present. St.Lucian music has been mainstream for a few years now. Norville even said, “All soca songs now have an element of the Dennery segment in the beat”. If the music from St.Lucia was able to make such an impact why are the musicians not respected like others?

Norville believes the problem begins with the St.Lucian people. “St.Lucian people don’t support St.Lucian people like other islands like Jamaica and Trinidad do,” said Norville. Envy and fear are the root of why some St.Lucian artists fail to grow. Norville said, “If we don’t respect and uplift each other, how can other people”. Not all artists are like this and it shows through their work and progress. Many artists respect themselves and their craft and push hard to reach their successes.

Desray Desir, a St.Lucian going to school in New York, tuned into the Caribbean Music Awards and was excited to see all her favorite artists. Desir saw that Teddyson John was at the awards and was excited saying “ I saw him and I was excited because it was my first time seeing an artist from my country on a platform like this.” Desir was hoping to see more artists and was confused when she didn’t see Motto present, “ I thought he would be there after I saw Teddyson there because they are a part of the well-known artist but I was looking for him”.

This was the awards show's first airing, maybe next year they will bring more people to represent St.Lucia. The island has created a big influence on soca music while growing in the last nine years. Some St.Lucian people may have toxic views causing other islands to reflect these views onto other Lucian people. On the inside, you can see the truth more than you can from the outside. This may be why misconceptions are created. St.Lucian artists working internationally like Motto and Elmo Norville have found ways to push through these toxic habits and reach for their biggest dreams.

Soca and Dancehall music are continuously evolving and for Caribbean people, this is nothing new. All Caribbean genres and subgenres should be celebrated because the standard style of the genres is not the most known in the present day. Hopefully next year, The Caribbean Music Awards will be more inclusive and bring more of St.Lucia's biggest artists to represent St.Lucian music. The award show has the platform to help push these artists to the place they should be based on their talent and streaming numbers.

[1-dollar-bottomless-void]

1002F

A VHS tape with "1002F" written on it. When played, it shows episode 76 from season 8 of Sesame Street (episode 1002 overall). The video is exactly the same as the episode as it aired, but features an Elmo segment not included in the release.

This is odd because Elmo's first appearance occurs in season 11, episode 90 (1405 overall).

The VHS only shows the aired episode when digitized. In order to see the missing segment, it must be watched on a VHS player.

The following is a transcript of the segment:

[A plain white background, with Elmo in the center of the screen]

ELMO

[Gasp!] Hi everybody! Elmo is so happy to see you. Elmo always love to see Elmo's friends. Elmo believes everything is better with friends!

[There's a bit of digital fuzz and audio distortion. Elmo appears to stretch horizontally before the distortion disappears]

ELMO

Elmo also loves sharing friends. New friends, old friends, Elmo loves when Elmo's friends meet each other.

In fact, Elmo has a very special friend Elmo wants you to meet! Come on! Let's go!

[Elmo walks off screen. The scene changes to a badly lit set of a street. It looks like one of the sesame street sets, but everything is faintly tinted blue. Elmo is sitting on a cardboard box]

ELMO

She should be here any second... there she is!

[A human walks onto the screen. She is wearing a very short skirt and high boots, and a large yellow hoodie with a pixilated smiley face on it. Her face is obscured by video static]

THE GIRL

Hi Elmo!

ELMO!

Hey Girl! Everyone, this is Elmo's friend, The Girl! Say hi to everyone!

[The Girl waves]

THE GIRL

Hi everyone! Thanks for having me on the show, Elmo.

ELMO

You're welcome!

THE GIRL

A little big bird told me that we're here to talk about friends?

ELMO

He did? He's such a snitch!

THE GIRL

He really is.

ELMO

Did you know that snitches get stitches?

THE GIRL

I did, Elmo. That's a very good thing to remember.

ELMO

Elmo would never snitch Elmo's friends. Like you!

THE GIRL

Thank you Elmo! I wouldn't snitch on you either! And you know why?

ELMO

Why?

THE GIRL

Because friends don't snitch.

[The sound of a lightbulb bursting and glass falls on the stage. Neither Elmo nor The Girl react]

ELMO

You're right! Friends don't snitch.

THE GIRL

And friends are what we're here to talk about, right?

ELMO

Right! Elmo has lots of friends. Girl, do you have other friends?

[There's digital static for a second, and the video distorts in a sort of swirl, only lasting a couple frames, after which the pixelated face on The Girl's hoodie is now a spider]

THE GIRL

In certain way, I guess you could say that I do. In another way, you could say that I used to have other friends.

ELMO

That's okay. Elmo knows making friends is hard.

THE GIRL

That's right. And keeping them can be even harder.

ELMO

What do you mean?

THE GIRL

Well, sometimes people change, Elmo. Sometimes they become so different, it's hard to be friends with them anymore.

ELMO

Elmo has a friend who changed once!

THE GIRL

Really?

ELMO

Yeah! She was living for a long time, then she changed. Elmo doesn't think she's ever going to change back.

THE GIRL

Sometimes change is permanent. Did the two of you stay friends?

ELMO

Oh yes! Elmo is still good friends with her.

THE GIRL

You two must be very close. That sounds like a very good friendship.

ELMO

Absolutely!

[Another lightbulb breaks. Neither react]

THE GIRL

You know, I used to have a very close friend. He changed a lot, too. We didn't stay friends after that.

ELMO

You didn't?

THE GIRL

Mm-mm.

ELMO

Why?

THE GIRL

Well you see, Elmo, he tried to—

[The audio distorts and three more lights burst]

THE GIRL

—so I had to—

[The audio distorts again, and The Girl's hoodie is suddenly soaked through and dripping a thin black liquid. The pixel spider is now a face again, this time laughing]

THE GIRL

—him.

ELMO

Ohh.

THE GIRL

Yeah. Sometimes I miss how it was before.

ELMO

You do?

THE GIRL

Yes, Elmo, I do.

ELMO

That sounds sad. Can Elmo give you a hug?

THE GIRL

Of course Elmo!

[The two hug. The Girl's hoodie rapid shifts through multiple colors—grey, yellow, cyan, green, magenta, red, blue, black, white—before returning to yellow]

THE GIRL

Thank you, Elmo.

ELMO

You're welcome, Girl! It's always nice to hug your friends.

THE GIRL

It sure is. But remember to ask first, since not everyone likes being hugged.

ELMO

And they might be made of knives!

THE GIRL

That's very true.

[Elmo turns to the camera. The Girl shifts her stance in a way that seems to imply she's also looking at the camera]

ELMO

It's okay if you don't have many friends. Making friends can be really hard, and it doesn't always work out.

THE GIRL

Sometimes they change.

ELMO

Or you change.

THE GIRL

Or you change. But that's okay. Because even if you feel alone, there's always people you've never met, and even if you feel alone, there's always people you've never met, and even if you feel alone, there's always people you've never met—

[Two more light bulbs burst. The girl keeps repeating the words "and even if you feel alone, there's always people you've never met." The blue tint becomes more intense. The screen is covered in distorted static. Suddenly both Elmo and The Girl are facing away from the camera, their backs to us, their heads angled upwards. The entire screen is now tinted magenta. The girl is still talking, but there's another voice, deeper and crackling like a record. Played backwards, the second voice is saying "two from gee and two from see, the cortex spasms rhythmically, from the heart and through the veins, and back into the heart again, alterations incomplete, with ghost intent in formless meat." The second voice repeats this again as more lightbulbs burst. Suddenly everything returns to normal: the screen is tinted slightly blue, The Girl and Elmo are facing each other, The Girl's hoodie is dry. The pixel face is now an eye]

ELMO

Elmo loves you, Girl!

THE GIRL

Aw, I love you, too, Elmo!

[Both turn to face the camera]

ELMO

And Elmo loves all of you, too!

THE GIRL

I will find you. I promise.

ELMO

Bye bye, friends!

THE GIRL

Bye bye, friends!

[Both wave. The screen turns to static snow. For a single frame, Elmo can be seen falling limp and The Girl stretches a hand out toward him. The hand is split between the middle and ring finger, all the way up to her mid forearm. Teeth line the flesh along the split and the inside of each finger, a mix of canines and molars. The set is covered in splattered black fluid. Then the screen goes dark]

[intern] found the VHS in a cardboard box with "erase" written on the side in blue paint. The box was left outside my boss's office yesterday morning. Video surveillance doesn't show how it got there. There was just a weird glitch and then there it was. This happens a lot, but usually there's at least a return address or a name.

Compare to the note I found about the Girl. Same person??]

[noirandchocolate]

Zim’s Use of His Name as a Replacement for First-Person Pronouns

I recently did a small project and went through every single Invader Zim episode script to discover just how much Zim actually replaces first-person (I/me/my/myself) pronouns with his name, and whether he ever replaces first-person pronouns with third-person pronouns (he/him/his).  The answers to these questions pretty much lined up with what I remembered about his canon use of his name as a pronoun-replacement, and I would now like to share my findings, and a list of every time Zim refers to himself in the third person, with all of you fine people here on the Tumblr dot coms.

Observations

1)  Zim uses I/me/my pronouns the vast majority of the time he refers to himself.  He uses his name in place of a pronoun to refer to himself in 18 out of 27 full episodes, or 21 out of 46 segments (but see #5 below).  He says his name in a couple more instances than that but not in place of a pronoun. Technically, 'I am Zim!' is not an instance where he is replacing an I/me/my pronoun with his name, any more than me saying, 'Hi, I'm KidK' is such an instance.  Really, when Zim says, 'I am Zim!' he is reinforcing the fact that he uses I/me/my pronouns regularly and the fact that he likes to say his own name, without suggesting he replaces pronouns with his name as often as, say, Elmo the Muppet.  I therefore didn't count instances of 'I am Zim!' as pronoun replacements, but have made a separate list of them for the sake of interest.

2) Zim replaces 'me' with his name as the object of a sentence rather than replacing 'I' as the subject.  The only exceptions to this in the entire run of the show are 'Zim needs no vacation!' from “The Frycook What Came From All That Space,” ‘No one will say Zim never tried!’ from “Hobo 13,”and ‘Zim needs no meat!’ from “Tak: the Hideous New Girl.”  A more typical usage is lines like 'There is none so worthy as Zim!' or 'Victory for Zim!' Also, Zim only uses the possessive 'Zim's' once--'No one takes Zim's mission!' in “Tak.”  In all other lines when Zim wants to say something is his, he says 'the [thing] of Zim'--or, much more often, uses first-person pronouns 'my' and 'mine.'

3)  Zim really really very does not speak like Elmo.  He tends to replace one first-person pronoun in a sentence with his name and leave the rest intact, rather than substituting 'Zim' for every first-person pronoun in the line.  For example, in “The Halloween Spectacular of Spooky Doom,” he says, 'I break free and now I have to go back to rescue that little rat that left Zim to rot?'  Even this kind of sentence reinforces the fact that Zim uses I/me/my regularly and Zim-as-a-pronoun as a more infrequent thing to add emphasis or drama. 

4) The other way in which Zim is not like Elmo is that he never, ever replaces a first-person pronoun with a third-person pronoun.  Using the same example, notice he did not say, 'Zim breaks free and now he has to go back to rescue that little rat that left him to rot?'  (Zim did use ‘he/him’ for himself when he pretended to be a future version of Dib and thus needed to speak in third person about himself to keep up the ruse; these instances are not included in my count/list because that was playacting and not pronoun-replacement.  He also uses he/him and she/her to refer to other people, including other Irkens, but that’s a subject for a different kind of post.)

5)  Several of the times Zim refers to himself by name that I’ve included on the list are edge cases and may not be true pronoun replacements.  These are noted in the list.

6)  Zim starts referring to himself in third person more about halfway through the show's run.  He does it a few notable times in episodes 1-15 but all the episodes where he does it a lot are from “Hobo 13″ on.  In fact, there are a few episodes where Zim does it a lot, and then in the others where he does it it's only once, maybe twice.  The episode segments where Zim refers to himself by name in third person the most are “Hobo 13,” “The Voting of the Doomed,” and "The Frycook What Came From All That Space.”

7)  The first few instances of 'I am Zim' aren't just random exclamations, but places where Zim telling someone his name is a natural part of a conversation. It's not until “Hobo 13″ and beyond that Zim starts yelling 'I am Zim!' for no apparent reason other than to assert that he is, in fact, Zim I guess.

And now without further ado, below the cut is a list of Every. Single. Time. Zim refers to himself in third person in the series, broken down by episode, with a bonus list of every 'I am Zim!' at the end.  In every other instance besides these listed times, when Zim refers to himself, he does it with a first-person I/me/my/myself pronoun. Yep.  He sure does know what those are, and uses them very frequently.  Use this information however you like.

Episode 1--The Nightmare Begins

Invader Zim reporting, sirs. The mission goes well. (edge case/military speak)

Invader Zim, signing off!  (edge case/military speak)

Episode 2--Bestest Friend/Nanozim

These human filthies should be honored to even be considered as possible friends of Zim! (Nanozim)

Episode 3--Parent-Teacher Night/Walk of Doom

None.

Episode 4--Germs/Dark Harvest

None.

Episode 5--Attack of the Saucer Morons/The Wettening

There is none so worthy as Zim!  (Saucer Morons)

Episode 6--Career Day/Battle-Dib

None.

Episode 7--Planet Jackers/Rise of the Zitboy

Now, time for another amazing plan from me, Zim! (Planet Jackers, edge case/name used as clarification not really as a pronoun)

Episode 8--Invasion of the Idiot Dog Brain/Bad, Bad Rubber Piggy

Zim!  Don't use the time machine!  Love, Zim! (Piggy, edge case/used as saluation & closing in letter, not really as a pronoun)

Episode 9--A Room with a Moose/Hamstergeddon

Now, kneel before Zim!  (Hamstergeddon)

Episode 10--Plague of Babies/Bloaty's Pizza Hog

None.

Episode 11--Door to Door/FBI Warning of Doom

Give to Zim!  (Door to Door)

Nothing can stop Zim!  (FBI Warning)

Episode 12--Bolognius Maximus/Game Slave 2

None.

Episode 13--Battle of the Planets

Invader Zim reporting in, sirs.  (edge case/military speak)

Invader Zim, signing off!  (edge case/military speak)

Well, Invader Zim, signing off.  (edge case/military speak)

Episode 14--Halloween Spectacular of Spooky Doom

I break free and now I have to go back to rescue that little rat that left Zim to rot?

Episode 15--Mysterious Mysteries/Future Dib

None.

Episode 16--Hobo 13/Walk for Your Lives

Untrained?  Invader Zim? (Hobo 13)

Zim, out!  (Hobo 13)

Zim shall lead!  (Hobo 13)

No one will say Zim never tried! (Hobo 13)

Victory for Zim!  (Hobo 13)

Do not question Zim!  (Walk for Your Lives)

Episode 17--Megadoomer/Lice

Vengeance for Zim!  (Megadoomer)

Victory for Zim!  (Megadoomer)

Episode 18--Abducted/The Sad, Sad Tale of Chickenfoot

Gir!  Come to Zim! (Abducted)

Episode 19--Gir Goes Crazy and Stuff/Dib's Wonderful Life of Doom

Soon the name of Invader Zim will be synonymous with dookie!  (Gir Goes Crazy)

 Episode 20--Tak, the Hideous New Girl

Zim needs no meat!

And enjoy your shrill cry of having been rejected by Zim!

No one takes Zim's mission. No one!

Episode 21--Backseat Drivers from Beyond the Stars

None.

Episode 22--Mortos Der Soulstealer/Zim Eats Waffles

None.

Episode 23--The Girl Who Cried Gnome/Dibship Rising

Think, Zim.  (Gnome)

Listen to Zim!  (Dibship)

Episode 24--Vindicated!/The Voting of the Doomed

Pick Zim! Zim is me! Zim is me!  Zim shall rule! Pick Zim!  Zim! (Voting)

Vote for Zim or I'll destroy you. Vote for Zim or I'll destroy you. (Voting)

No! Treachery! Lies! Zim! (Voting)

Zim, lose? Impossible!  (Voting)

Thank you, human, for helping Zim!  (Voting)

Episode 25--Gaz, Taster of Pork

None.

Episode 26--The Frycook What Came From All That Space

Zim needs no vacation!

Laugh now, Sizz-Lorr!  But you will know not to mess with Invader Zim!

Have fun, Sizz-Lorr! Enjoy your defeat at the Zim hands of Zim!

A sweet victory for Zim! It is good to be back, good to be Zim!

Get out of the house of Zim!

Episode 27--The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever

Why does no one give moneys to Zim?

Every 'I Am Zim!' in the Show

I am Zim! Take me to the meat!  (Career Day, responding to MacMeaties worker asking where he can find Zim)

I am Zim, Irken Invader Zim. I am responsible for the safe obliteration of the human race, not you! (Planet Jackers, asserting his status as Irken to express that Irk will be mad at Jackers)

I am Zim!  Run a scan to verify that I am Zim!  (Bolognius Maximus, asserting to his computer that he is not an intruder)

I am Zim!  Bring me the tanks! (Hobo 13, for big drama upon completing training but otherwise no reason)

I am Zim! (Walk for Your Lives, at the end for no apparent reason)

I am Zim!  (Megadoomer, at the end for no apparent reason)

An assistant worthy of me.  I am Zim! (Gir Goes Crazy and Stuff, for no apparent reason)

I am Zim! (Girl Who Cried Gnome, for no apparent reason)

Yes... I am Zim! Who are you? (Vindicated!, responding to Dib and Dwicky's fake alien call)

Me! I am Zim! (Voting of the Doomed, just yelling at the candidate picker)

I am Zim!  (Voting of the Doomed, during the campaign for no apparent reason)

That’s all, folks!

[hecksupremechips]

Penny for your thoughts on puppetry

Okay OKAY so in case nobody knows I fucking LOVE puppetry. I’m a fucking Sesame Street/muppets ass son of a bitch. A lot of people like to jump on this stupid bandwagon of hating puppets cuz "uwaaaa they’re sooooo scarrryyyy!!!11!1" and that just ughhhh PISSES ME OFF. PUPPETS ARE HERE FOR WHOLESOME PURPOSES ARE YOU TELLING ME YOU FEEL NO BLISS WHEN WATCHING COOKIE MONSTER YOU JERK??/? Very annoying

I’m obsessed with just like sesame street lore and fun facts like. First off the show was waaaayy ahead of its time it started in like 1969 as a way of making preschool accessible to kids who were low income but it did it in such a way where like adults who were watching it would also have fun too. When they teach kids the alphabet they do funny skits or silly songs about it to make learning seem fun! Not to mention that any kids who’d be in those segments weren’t actors or anything it’d be their genuine reactions and so often they’d be trying not to laugh cuz holy shit they’re talking to elmo! Plus the show would just be so casually integrated with people of different races who all respected each other and it makes me think of my mom who grew up in very white area saying that sesame street was literally how she learned about like, the existence of black people. And it gave some black actors a chance to be in roles where they weren’t mocked or brutalized. Though a lot of progress had to be made throughout the show like one of the black actors early on thought that the show was too white and wasn’t reaching black youths like it should. So he created Roosevelt Franklin, a black-coded muppet that he performed

His role was essentially to teach the same basic education shit but trying to add black culture into it. He said he wanted black kids to have their race be a positive experience for them. The character was really controversial though, many black people not in favor saying he was too stereotypical and felt like a caricature of black identities. Whether or not the character was indeed Problematic didn’t really matter in the end though because he was removed from the show just a few years after he was introduced. I’ve no clue about what the show is doing today but as far as I know they’ve made better choices with black characters and have black muppets who are less of a caricature. Also important to mention that while the concept of Roosevelt was created and performed by a black actor, there were still many white performers playing a part which is what could’ve caused more offensive writing. Plus many black people had different opinions on the subject so I’m not gonna say they all felt one way or another

I also just wanna go over some of my favorite techniques and effects the puppeteers made and used on some of the muppets. One of the most iconic ones being Kermit on a bike

Where he miraculously is able to ride without any visible puppeteers in view. And it’s not a small model either, that’s without a doubt the full sized muppet. Essentially what they did was attach invisible wires to Kermit’s limbs and the bike and a puppeteer was using a crane above camera for some marionette style puppeteering. Remains to be an absolute hit to this day. There’s also the big bird mechanism where he is essentially a suit puppet. Because of this, one hand must be in the head in order to control mouth, eye, and head movements. That means only one arm is available to be an actual arm, and there clearly isn’t anyone else operating the other arm. What’s happening in that the empty arm is actually stuffed and has wires attached to the occupied arm that allows it to move in relation to it. Plus Carrol Spinney had to wear stupid big ass bird pants all the time I just think that’s funny. As for smaller effects theres the simple technique where an arm rod puppet can have their arms easily removed and reattached if the scene calls for a live hand substitution. Blinking puppets have a handle behind their eyes that can be moved by fingers. Puppeteers for shows and movies like these absolutely have to stand in close proximity to each other with their arms straight up which mean that they better be buff and use good deodorant. It’s not an easy job to do and it shouldn’t be underestimated

I have sooooooo much more I could say but ummmmm I’ve already said a lot and I need to move around 🤪

[popculturebuffet]

Dog City: The Big Squeak Review (Birthday Review for BlahDiddy)

Hello all you happy people! And it’s time for my first regular review of the year and as the start of the year tends to be i’m still dealing with some old buisness. In this case it’s another one of my birthday reviews I do for my friends.. and so far the only one I hope is late. 

The reason for this is simple: when I came up with the idea I found out my longtime friend BlahDiddy’s birthday was in october.. which was already jam packed because october. 

As such i’m just now getting to his birthday present, though he was fine with delaying it. And we’ve got a hidden gem here as this is a series i’d only barely heard of but man on man was I missing out. 

Dog City is a cartoon, with live action muppet segments, created by muppet god Jim Henson. Yes really. It started as a one hour short for the Jim Henson Hour, an anthology series where Jim tried out new things I really need to check out more of. I couldn’t find anything on the making of this cartoon why it came to be, only tha tit comes from Nelvana who have the ENTIRE SERIES on thier retro rerun youtube channel. As such I got to check out a high quality copy of the pilot. Should this cartoon have stayed or played dead? Join me under the cut to find out

So rather than do my usual recap style, i’m breaking form format a bit.. which is approriate as while the episode is MOSTLY an animated story it does have a unique gimmick that I find truly special.

See Dog City itself.. is a show within a show. We watch the episodes.. but as their crafted by animator Elliot Shag, played by Muppet’s legend and Elmo Portrayer Kevin Clash. As such Dog City’s lead, Ace Heart talks with Elliot every so often and vice versa, with Elliot able to impact the plot by drawing things or changing thigns up due to crafting it and almost accidently killing ace by writing his hero into a death trap.. but not knowing how to write him out. It’s a premise that honestly needs to be used again, having the cartoonist able to actively impact the story. He also draws it from his own life, heh: in this ep his boss wants a new cartoon “You hated it... oh no DESPISED it my mistake”, and Elliot can’t think of anything till he gets an idea from his assitant worrying someone will steal his squeaky when he lends it to elliot. This leads into the main plot where Ace has to solve a rash of squeaky toy thefts all over the city. Simple stuff but the interplay between ace and elliot is what makes the series special. While a toon talking to the animator isn’t new, hello Duck Amuck, the idea of him and his creator being buddies and having back and forth like this... while also not ENTIRELY new hasn’t been used in aninatiom all that often. Elliot feels less like a cruel god and more like Ace’s buddy, best exmplified in one scene where Ace wants the usual femme fetale to come in.. only to get an angry swedish woman dog ranting about her lost squeaky toy. We then get some gags as Elliot tries out some other ideas from a sumo wrestler to what ace actually wants, playing with both the cliches of the genre and just being funny. While the two only interact about twice, they just have a really nice dynamic that helps add flavor to the show. Otherwise I can’t say much about the wraparounds with elliot as this episode only has so many and only a fraction of his supporting cast.. but I do like them. 

The one thing I can say is that the puppets for these segments.. are uhhh.. well look

You get used to them, they aren’t bad, but they are WEIRDLY realistic and it really took me out of things the first time I saw them. Which likely worked fine for the noir parody, as these are repurposed from the pilot just giving them new clothes and such, but not so much for what’s supposed ot be slice of life fun. BUt eventually you get conditioned to accept these muppety mouths of madness and life goes on so I can’t say it detracts from the show but I also can’t sleep at night because of them so yeah. 

As for Dog City itself.. the cartoon is fucking senstational. The premise is simple: Ace Hart is your standard noir detective solving crimes, chewing ass and kicking bubblebgum. You get it. He has a flirty relationship with head detective Rosie O’Gravy, his frenemy on the force and your standard late 80′s early 90′s kid sidekick in Eddie and takes on the crminal genius of Bugsy Vile, his goofy henchman and his lounge singer gun moll Kitty who owns their base.  Simple cartoon setup. 

What makes it work so well though.. is the humor. Good god this series did it for me. Picture the Naked Gun but following a PI instead of a police squad detective and you have this series. The dialouge is fast, the jokes rediculous and all of it is played completely straight. As a result you get Ace and Rosie doing the i’m rubber and you are glue thing or a literal british bulldog sitting calmly while the bad guys have him leashed in the corner, while our climax has the bad guys dropping a safe on our heroes, only for ace to draw him a wench to knock a beam to knock the safe out the of the way because the show became an early ds game for a second. We also get a TON of Dog Puns. oh my god the dog puns. From Ace walking eddie home at the end complete with leash, to various fetch jokes I was amazed at how many dog jokes they not only made funny but crammed into 20 minutes. I loved this sort of thing in Bojack Horseman and i’m glad to see it wasn’t the first show to have fun animal behavior based gags like this. I don’t know if the series can keep this up for all three seasons, but i’d certainly love to see them try. 

As for the plot it’s approriatley silly: our villians steal a vault to get a mouse for Kitty, and I love the owner: an unflappably british bulldog, a literal one so he’s on far less cocaine and more tea. He dosen’t react to being frisked, kidnapped.. only to near murder. Tis the british way. He uses a squeaky toy to open the vault, hence the thefts to try to use a diffrent one to do the same, to no avail. But if there’s a problem, yo, ace will solve it, and from there it’s pretty standard. But again... it’s not really the PLOT that makes this one go. It’s the jokes, too many to relist. It’s just got that dry, rapid fire zucker style humor that really makes this work, something Henson himself had his own brand of. And while this leans more into naked gun than muppets it’s still a winnder and worth checking out

So i’d like to thank blah for getting me to review this. He’s been aa good friend to just talk about stuff with from ninja turtles to spider-mans various bizzare rouges to CREEPER

No not him

No not the grinch’s penis

There we go there’s the boy. And yes that’s a real character. Even was on Batman the Animated Series. No really here’s my proof

If you have any context for what the hells going on here... send it to me I haven’t seen this episode. Maybe next year. Til lthen while this was a short one i’ts a hearty see ya real soon to all of you. Please consider joining my patreon or discord. 

[agent-bridgette-waters-bau]

Bridgette was sitting on the couch with her daughter on her lap. Tonight had not gone like how she had thought it would, after a long work week she had planned to go to dinner with her boyfriend Spencer. But she had gotten a call from the babysitter she had hired saying that she was not able to watch Bridgette’s daughter as she was too sick which meant that her and Spencer’s dinner date had to be cancelled when Bridgette could not find a last minute sitter for her daughter.

Bridgette hated having to cancel but she couldn’t just leave her daughter home alone since her daughter was only 2. Plus there was the fact her daughter was also on the autism spectrum and nonverbal. So she had to have someone she trusted with her daughter and could give Kimberly the specific she needed.

So when the doorbell rang the woman was surprised. She put her daughter down on the couch carefully, but since her daughter was watching one of her absolute favorite shows, Sesame Street, the woman knew she’d be fine. As soon as Bridgette opened the door and saw Spencer there on her front porch.

They had of course talked about having Spencer introduced to Kimberly but none of all it had been finalized. But now it looked like that they were about to meet each other.

When Spencer said that he had brought dinner for them it was really sweet and it did touch bridgettte that he had done this for her after they had to cancel.

“Oh wow that’s really sweet of you.” Bridgette said as she stepped aside so Spencer could come inside. “You’re just in time. Elmo’s World is about to start.” Bridgette chuckled know that the Elmo’s World segment was her daughter’s favorite. She felt underdressed now in her t-shirt and sweat pants that Spencer was here but it would be so nice to get to spend the evening with him.

Spencer hoped he wasn't about to royally screw up.

They had talked about this, sure, many times. Had tossed around various ways of making the introduction, but they'd never settled on anything concrete. Ideally they'd wanted a public place. A kids museum. An ice cream shop. The zoo. Not her home and not on a Friday night, but hey, Spencer was trying to be more spontaneous.

It had been hard to anticipate what Kimberly might like from the Thai place where he had planned to have dinner with Bridgette that evening, but the hostess helped him pick out a noodle dish that other kids liked, and he'd bagged up dinner for three and headed to her place.

He rang her doorbell and tried not to look as nervous as he felt when the door opened. "I, uh, I know we had to cancel, but I thought I'd...bring dinner to you. "

@agent-bridgette-waters-bau

[justforbooks]

Federico Fellini, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI, was born on January 20, 1920 in Rimini, then a small town on the Adriatic Sea. He was an Italian film director and screenwriter known for his distinctive style, which blends fantasy and baroque images with earthiness. He is recognized as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time. His films have ranked highly in critical polls such as that of Cahiers du cinéma and Sight & Sound, which lists his 1963 film ​8 1⁄2 as the 10th-greatest film.

For La Dolce Vita Fellini won the Palme d'Or, was nominated for twelve Academy Awards, and won four in the category of Best Foreign Language Film, the most for any director in the history of the Academy. He received an honorary award for Lifetime Achievement at the 65th Academy Awards in Los Angeles. His other well-known films include La Strada (1954), Nights of Cabiria (1957), Juliet of the Spirits (1967), the "Toby Dammit" segment of Spirits of the Dead (1968), Fellini Satyricon (1969), Roma (1972), Amarcord (1973), and Fellini's Casanova (1976).

Personal and highly idiosyncratic visions of society, Fellini's films are a unique combination of memory, dreams, fantasy and desire. The adjectives "Fellinian" and "Felliniesque" are "synonymous with any kind of extravagant, fanciful, even baroque image in the cinema and in art in general". La Dolce Vita contributed the term paparazzi to the English language, derived from Paparazzo, the photographer friend of journalist Marcello Rubini (Marcello Mastroianni).

Contemporary filmmakers such as Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam, Emir Kusturica, and David Lynch have cited Fellini's influence on their work.

Polish director Wojciech Has, whose two best-received films, The Saragossa Manuscript (1965) and The Hour-Glass Sanatorium (1973), are examples of modernist fantasies, has been compared to Fellini for the sheer "luxuriance of his images".

I Vitelloni inspired European directors Juan Antonio Bardem, Marco Ferreri, and Lina Wertmüller and influenced Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets (1973), George Lucas's American Graffiti (1974), Joel Schumacher's St. Elmo's Fire (1985), and Barry Levinson's Diner (1982), among many others. When the American magazine Cinema asked Stanley Kubrick in 1963 to name his ten favorite films, he ranked I Vitelloni number one.

Nights of Cabiria was adapted as the Broadway musical Sweet Charity and the movie Sweet Charity (1969) by Bob Fosse starring Shirley MacLaine. City of Women was adapted for the Berlin stage by Frank Castorf in 1992.

​8 1⁄2 inspired, among others, Mickey One (Arthur Penn, 1965), Alex in Wonderland (Paul Mazursky, 1970), Beware of a Holy Whore (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1971), Day for Night (François Truffaut, 1973), All That Jazz (Bob Fosse, 1979), Stardust Memories (Woody Allen, 1980), Sogni d'oro (Nanni Moretti, 1981), Parad Planet (Vadim Abdrashitov, 1984), La Pelicula del rey (Carlos Sorin, 1986), Living in Oblivion (Tom DiCillo, 1995), ​8 1⁄2 Women (Peter Greenaway, 1999), Falling Down (Joel Schumacher, 1993), and the Broadway musical Nine (Maury Yeston and Arthur Kopit, 1982). Yo-Yo Boing! (1998), a Spanish novel by Puerto Rican writer Giannina Braschi, features a dream sequence with Fellini inspired by ​8 1⁄2.

Fellini's work is referenced on the albums Fellini Days (2001) by Fish, Another Side of Bob Dylan (1964) by Bob Dylan with Motorpsycho Nitemare, Funplex (2008) by the B-52's with the song Juliet of the Spirits, and in the opening traffic jam of the music video Everybody Hurts by R.E.M. American singer Lana Del Rey has cited Fellini as an influence. His work influenced the American TV shows Northern Exposure and Third Rock from the Sun. Wes Anderson's short film Castello Cavalcanti (2013) is in many places a direct homage to Fellini.

Various film-related material and personal papers of Fellini are in the Wesleyan University Cinema Archives, to which scholars and media experts have full access. In October 2009, the Jeu de Paume in Paris opened an exhibit devoted to Fellini that included ephemera, television interviews, behind-the-scenes photographs, Book of Dreams (based on 30 years of the director's illustrated dreams and notes), along with excerpts from La dolce vita and ​8 1⁄2.

In 2015, the Blue Devils Drum and Bugle Corps of Concord, California, performed "Felliniesque", a show themed around Fellini's work, with which they won a record 16th Drum Corps International World Class championship with a record score of 99.650. That same year, the weekly entertainment-trade magazine Variety announced that French director Sylvain Chomet was moving forward with The Thousand Miles, a project based on various Fellini works and first developed with Demian Gregory and Tommaso Rossellini, including his unpublished drawings and writings.

Filmography

As a director

1950 Variety Lights co-credited with Alberto Lattuada

1952 The White Sheik 

1953 I vitelloni

1953 Love in the City Segment: Un'agenzia matrimoniale

1954 La strada

1955 Il bidone

1957 Nights of Cabiria

1960 La Dolce Vita

1962 Boccaccio '70 Segment: Le tentazioni del Dottor Antonio

1963 ​8 1⁄2

1965 Juliet of the Spirits

1968 Spirits of the Dead Segment: Toby Dammit

1969 Fellini: A Director's Notebook

1969 Fellini Satyricon

1970 I Clowns

1972 Roma

1973 Amarcord

1976 Fellini's Casanova

1978 Orchestra Rehearsal

1980 City of Women

1983 And the Ship Sails On

1986 Ginger and Fred

1987 Intervista

1990 The Voice of the Moon 

As a screenwriter

1942 Knights of the Desert

1942 Before the Postman

1943 The Peddler and the Lady

1943 L'ultima carrozzella Co-scriptwriter

1945 Tutta la città canta Co-screenwriter and story author

1945 Rome, Open City Co-scriptwriter

1946 Paisà Co-scriptwriter

1947 Il delitto di Giovanni Episcopo Co-scriptwriter

1948 Senza pietà Co-scriptwriter

1948 Il miracolo Co-scriptwriter

1949 Il mulino del Po Co-scriptwriter

1950 Francesco, giullare di Dio Co-scriptwriter

1950 Il Cammino della speranza Co-scriptwriter

1951 La città si difende Co-scriptwriter

1951 Persiane chiuse Co-scriptwriter

1952 Il brigante di Tacca del Lupo Co-scriptwriter

1958 Fortunella Co-scriptwriter

1979 Lovers and Liars Fellini not credited

Television commercials

TV commercial for Campari Soda (1984)

TV commercial for Barilla pasta (1984)

Three TV commercials for Banca di Roma (1992)

Documentaries on Fellini

Ciao Federico (1969). Dir. Gideon Bachmann. (60')

Federico Fellini - un autoritratto ritrovato (2000). Dir. Paquito Del Bosco. (RAI TV, 68')

Fellini: I'm a Born Liar (2002). Dir. Damian Pettigrew. Feature documentary. (Arte, Eurimages, Scottish Screen, 102')

How Strange to Be Named Federico (2013). Dir. Ettore Scola.

Fellini died in Rome on 31 October 1993 at the age of 73 after a heart attack he suffered a few weeks earlier, a day after his 50th wedding anniversary. The memorial service, in Studio 5 at Cinecittà, was attended by an estimated 70,000 people. At Giulietta Masina's request, trumpeter Mauro Maur played Nino Rota's "Improvviso dell'Angelo" during the ceremony.

Five months later, on 23 March 1994, Masina died of lung cancer. Fellini, Masina and their son, Pierfederico, are buried in a bronze sepulchre sculpted by Arnaldo Pomodoro. Designed as a ship's prow, the tomb is at the main entrance to the Cemetery of Rimini. The Federico Fellini Airport in Rimini is named in his honour.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

[persianatpenn]

کلاه قرمزی

This weekend I discovered a classic Iranian character named Red Hat, or Kolah Ghermezi (کلاه قرمزی). Kolah Gheremezi was created by Massoud Sadeghian Boroujeni and introduced in 1980s children’s programming on IRIB (Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting).

Appearing first as a character in various segments, Kolah Ghermezi gained true popularity in a series of movies from the 1990s. Since, Kolah Ghermezi seems to have become something like an Iranian-Elmo character. He’s a funny and mischievous puppet whose purpose is to help children identify with Iranian life. Many sources claimed that Kolah Ghermezi is still popular today, having several TV shows, movies, and even two video games.

Who is Kolah Ghermezi?

           Kolah Ghermezi is a young boy with a red hat and striped shirt. He’s a funny nasal voice and lives in a town outside of Tehran. Meant to resemble many children of the time, Kolah Ghermezi regularly visits his family in Tehran and helps his grandmother with the chores of daily Iranian life. 

Kolah Gheremezi va Pesar Khaleh (کلاه قرمزی و پسرخاله)

For “research purposes,” I watched Redhat and Cousin (1994), or Kolah Ghermezi va Pesar Khaleh (کلاه قرمزی و پسرخاله), on IMVBox. This film is one of the most financially successful and recognizable films in Iranian history. The movie reminded me a lot of Sesame Street, with puppet characters interminged with human actors. 

The plot begins with Kolah Ghermezi getting expelled from school on the first day. His grandmother tells him to “grow up” and find a job. After hilariously attempting to be a doctor, a barber, and driving instructor, Kolah Ghermezi sees a TV program made in Tehran. Kolah Ghermezi and his cousin, named “Cousin” or Pesar Khaleh, find the TV producer in Tehran and face the funny and charming obstacles of being TV showmen. After becoming close friends with the TV producer, Kolah Ghermezi realizes that he must return to his home and finish school.

           After just one movie, I definitely saw the charm in Kolah Ghermezi. I’m interested to see how the character has changed since the 1990s, and if he’ll continue to be popular in the near future.

--BH

Sources:

https://ajammc.com/2012/05/04/kolahghermezis-enduring-popularity-humor-solidarity-and-cultural-values-in-iranian-state-tv-childrens-programming-2/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolah_Ghermezi#Early_life

[infinitelytheheartexpands]

Okay, so inspired by @madmozarteanfelinefantasy’s absolutely amazing (and hilarious) recent opera odyssey post, here’s mine:

My first memory of hearing any sort of opera or classical music was the absolute masterpiece of early 2000s children’s television...Elmo’s World. Yes, that show.

Anyway there was this one episode where they were talking about different music styles and during one of the segments, they had Mr. Noodle sing ‘La donna è mobile’ from Rigoletto. And I still remember being, as a two-year-old, like OH MY GOD THAT’S SO AMAZING I DIDN’T KNOW PEOPLE COULD MAKE SOUNDS LIKE THAT wowiewowiewowiewow

It was also about this time that both Baby Einstein and Little Einsteins appeared on the scene and I adored both. Especially Little Einsteins. That show was the damn best and I watched it practically obsessively until I was...nine, maybe? I was a weird child.

(Brief semi-digression: when I was about six I got super-into ballet and my bemused parents would rent full VHSs of ballets from the library and I would sit in the living room and watch and then very often jump up and start dancing along, imitating the moves I saw. This is how I am relatively decent at ballet despite a) being kinda a klutz and b) only taking a year of formal beginning dance classes.)

The reason the above is only a semi-digression is because at some point around the same time (I was probably seven), said bemused parents, for reasons I do not know but were probably similar to why they rented ballets despite the fact that neither of them were interested in ballet, brought home a VHS of Carmen from the local library. I believe it had Julia Migenes as Carmen, but I could be wrong. In any case, I happily traipsed up the stairs with my seven-day prize and demanded my older brother to put down the video games for a few hours and let me take over his TV and couch, and somehow he agreed. And I watched the whole thing. Unlike @madmozarteanfelinefantasy, I do not recall being thoroughly freaked out by the ending, but I do remember absolutely falling in love with Carmen, both the character and the opera, and subsequently barging into my brother’s room every day for the next week just to watch Carmen’s first scene. I loved the Habañera to death. (and I still do, although I will say my favorite part of the opera now is actually her aria from Act II. But I digress.)

Not long afterwards, I transferred to a different school that was much better at both academics and arts, and they had a huge library, including so many books about the arts- and a couple with just opera stories. I devoured these despite honestly not understanding at least sixty percent of the stuff that happened. For instance, I pretty much did not get the plot of La bohème at all. (I thought it was about four guys who teamed up to take care of these two girls they were friends with but one of them got sick and died so oops.) Oddly, I actually understood the plot of Fidelio better and I thought Leonore was a total badass (ed.: and I still have never fully seen Fidelio. The thought of Beethoven opera is so weird tbh.)

I had so many different interests, though, and I kept bouncing back and forth between them all, so while I still really liked opera and thought it was cool, it kinda got lost in the fray a little bit.

Until spring semester of seventh grade. That was when my school ended up playing host to the local opera company’s production of Kurt Weill’s Down in the Valley. My dad thought it’d be cool to take my older brother and me because even though he didn’t like opera, he figured that since it was in English and it was short and some of my brother’s classmates were in it and we had season tickets to my school’s concert series program, we might as well go. So we did. My dad and brother ended up hating it.

Me? I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. There was something about it I couldn’t quite place, and still can’t, that made it even more awesome than all the musicals I’d seen and done. Maybe it was the fact that even though it was small-scale, it was still musically and emotionally larger-than-life. I mean, I’ve always been someone with extremely intense feelings. I feel things really deeply, even though I try so hard to hold those feelings in, mostly because in my world, it’s not normal to show feelings like that. But that is what 99.9% of operas are about.

In any case, I haven’t looked back since.

[themuppetmasterencyclopedia]

Telly Monster

PERFORMERS Martin P. Robinson 1984-present

Brian Muehl 1979-1984

DEBUT 1979

Telly Monster is a slightly neurotic young monster who lives at 1304 Sesame Street.

Telly was initially conceived as a monster obsessed with watching television; his name is short for Television Monster. In his early appearances on Sesame Street, Telly had antennas coming out of the top of his head, and his eyes would whirl around when he watched TV. A segment of his first appearance appears on the 40 Years of Sunny Days DVD set. This one-note personality, along with the antennas and whirling eyes, was soon dropped, and Telly became the worrying, easily frustrated character he remains today (however, in the Talk, Listen, Connect episode Deployments, he is still shown to be an expert on TV and computers).

Telly was originally performed by Bob Payne for his first few appearances in 1979, then by Brian Muehl who used a low, gruff-sounding voice. Muehl also developed Telly's worrywart personality, making Telly a character who always needed reassurance in order to be confident. When Martin P. Robinson took over in 1984, he originally began with the personality Muehl already established for the character, using a voice similar to Muehl’s Telly voice. However, Telly evolved over time, gaining a much stronger emotional range. “His main thing now is that he believes totally in whatever he’s into,” says Robinson “And he can turn on a dime and that doesn’t belie what he was feeling before. He can go from great joy to great sorrow and it’s all totally genuine.”

Early on, Telly was often paired with Oscar the Grouch, whom he tries to befriend against tremendous odds. The two were traveling companions in Follow That Bird, and Telly is a member of Oscar's fan club, the Grouchketeers. The two starred in two recurring sketches together: "Ask Oscar," which Telly introduced; and "Sneak Peek Previews." Their most recent pairing together was in a sketch demonstrating words that begin with the letter B. (First: Episode 4248)

In recent years, Telly has often been seen in the company of his good friend Baby Bear. Telly has a great love of triangles, and owns a pet hamster named Chuckie Sue. Telly has a favorite toy doll which he named "Freddy." When Telly was a baby monster, his favorite toy was a stuffed animal horse which he named "Clark" before he got "Freddy". In the video Bedtime Stories & Songs, when Telly comes to Big Bird's nest for a sleepover, he brings a menagerie of different stuffed animals that almost overflow the entire nest. He also plays the bassoon, the tuba and, of course, the triangle. He also occasionally appears as a Monster on the Spot reporter. He also often jumps on a pogo stick, after Mr. Handford taught him how to in a 1993 episode.

Modern versions of the Telly puppet have movable eyelids to let his eyes widen, a handy technique when the monster is in panic mode. There are also two Telly puppets that have been interchangeably used throughout the show. The more frequently used version is a "sack puppet", similar in design to Cookie Monster or Rowlf the Dog, where the arm sleeves are directly attached to the base of the puppet. The second version is a full-body version of the character, with legs and feet attached. The puppet's arms are stuffed, with visible arm sleeves similar in design to the arms of Ernie or Fozzie Bear.

For Sesame Street's 40th season, Sesame Workshop featured a digital promotion called "Muppetbook", which featured profiles similar to those seen on Facebook. The profile listed squares, circles, and Woody Allen movies (too much anxiety) as Telly's pet peeves. Among his favorite songs are "I Whistle a Happy Tune," "Don't Worry, Be Happy," and "Don't Cry Out Loud."

FILMOGRAPHY

Sesame Street

Big Bird in China

Don't Eat the Pictures

The Muppets Take Manhattan

Follow That Bird

The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years

Learning About Letters

Sleepytime Songs and Stories

Sesame Street, Special

Sesame Street: 20 and Still Counting

The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson

Big Bird's Birthday or Let Me Eat Cake

Sesame Street Jam: A Musical Celebration

Sesame Street's All-Star 25th Birthday: Stars and Streets Forever

Sesame Street Stays Up Late

We All Sing Together

The Great Numbers Game

Sesame Street 4-D Movie Magic

Elmopalooza

Elmo's Musical Adventure: Peter and the Wolf

The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland

CinderElmo

The Street We Live On

Let's Make Music

↑ hide

BOOK APPEARANCES

The Sesame Street Circus of Opposites (1981)

City (1982)

More Who's Who on Sesame Street (1982)

Bert's Big Band Paint-with-Water Book (1983 reprint)

People in Your Neighborhood (1983)

A Baby Sister for Herry (1984)

Lovable, Furry Old Grover in Please Don't Push the Red Button (1984)

A Silly Sesame Street Story: The Three Little Pigs (1984)

Big Bird's Book of Rhymes (1985)

Big Bird Joins the Carnival (1985)

Ernie's Finish the Picture (1985)

Follow That Bird Activity Book (1985)

Follow That Bird coloring book (1985)

Sign Language ABC (1985)

A Bird's Best Friend (1986)

Find the Shapes (1986)

Through the Year (1986)

The Runaway Soup and Other Stories (1987)

Colors (1987)

Shape Up! (1987)

Big Bird's Square Meal (1988)

Going Places (1988)

A New Playground on Sesame Street (1988)

Oh, I Am So Embarrassed! (1988)

The Sesame Street ABC Book of Words (1988}

Come As You Are (1989)

The New Who's Who on Sesame Street (1989)

Museum of Monster Art (1990)

How to Get to Sesame Street (1991)

Sesame Street 123 (1991)

We're Counting on You, Grover! (1991)

What Do You Do? (1992 edition)

Grover's 10 Terrific Ways to Help Our Wonderful World (1992)

Happy and Sad, Grouchy and Glad (1992)

We're Different, We're the Same (1992)

Elmo's Mother Goose (1993)

From Trash to Treasure (1993)

Around the Corner on Sesame Street (1994)

Bright and Early with Elmo (1994)

Elmo's Big Lift-and-Look Book (1994)

Sesame Street Stays Up Late (1995)

B is for Books! (1996)

Elmo's Lift-and-Peek Around the Corner Book (1996)

Rise and Shine! (1996; reworked as Up, Up, Up! in 2011)

Elmo's Christmas Colors (1997)

Pumpkin Patch Party (1997)

The Sesame Street Word Book (1998)

Elmo's ABC Book (2000)

Watch Out for Banana Peels (2000)

Elmo and the Monsters (2001)

Clap Your Hands! (2002)

[hellofastestnewsfan]

ASTORIA, NEW YORK—Inside the Sesame Street studio in Queens, Elmo is playing “monsterball” with his friend, a new Muppet named Karli who has lime-green fur and two ponytails. (Monsterball, for what it's worth, appears to be the same as soccer, but with a furry ball.) Puppeteers, with their hands raised high and their heads cranked to the side to stay out of the camera’s shot, run around, making Elmo and Karli kick, laugh, and throw the ball.

Outside, it’s a chilly gray December Monday, but on set the monsterball park is brimming with plant life, and butterfly puppets held up on long metal wires flap their wings. Looking on are Elmo’s dad—yes, he has a dad now, as of 2006—and two of what Sesame Street calls “anything Muppets,” puppets with no particular character attached that are made as templates and can be adapted as needed. These Muppets—a fuzzy teal monster in an athletic jersey and a gray monster with pink and purple feathers for hair—have become Karli’s foster parents, Clem and Dalia.

In between cheering for Elmo and Karli, Elmo’s dad (whose name is Louie) asks Clem and Dalia: “How has everything been going, since becoming her foster parents?”

Clem hangs his head and sighs. “Changes like this can be really rough for kids. And for adults, too,” he says.

Next to me, Kama Einhorn, a writer and senior content manager at Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit behind Sesame Street, drops her head and mimics Clem. “Things are really rough,” she says in a deep, exhausted voice. This, apparently, is not exactly what Einhorn had in mind.

Between takes, she confers with the puppeteer playing Clem, and gives him a note to pep it up a little. He was being too morose, Einhorn explains to me. That’s not the vibe she wants this segment to have.

In the final version of this video—part of Sesame Workshop’s new set of materials on foster care, released today—Clem’s head is held high, and a measured acknowledgment that sometimes things can be tough gives way to excitement when it’s decided that Elmo can join Karli, Clem, and Dalia for “pizza-party Tuesdays,” because as Louie says, “everything’s better with a friend by your side.”

The foster-care resources—which include an interactive storybook and printable activities, as well as videos featuring Muppets—are the latest in a series of packages that Sesame Workshop is producing to support kids going through traumatic experiences. These online resources—which won't be featured on the television show—are intended for use by parents and caretakers, and also by therapists, social workers, and anyone else who works with such kids.

Sesame has been making various supplemental-resource packages for decades now, though they started taking their current, online form around 2010. Many of the packages on the site have nothing to do with trauma but are geared toward topics that affect every kid—healthy eating, tantrums, sharing, math. Starting in 2013, Sesame began to focus on tougher topics, starting with a package for kids whose parents are incarcerated. (All of these resources are available in both English and Spanish.) Over the past year or so, the organization has chosen three topics to focus on: family homelessness, the resources for which were released in December 2018; foster care; and substance abuse, the resources for which are slated to come out in October.

[Read: How uncertainty fuels anxiety]

Through its Sesame Street in Communities initiative, Sesame Workshop partners with organizations around the country that work with young children. Sesame picked these issues—homelessness, foster care, and substance abuse—because it heard from these partner organizations that they didn’t have many resources addressing these things from a child’s perspective, a spokesperson told me.

“Historically, I think we’ve tended to believe that young children won’t remember or don’t really have the ability to make sense of what’s going on, and therefore it doesn’t impact them. And that’s clearly not the case,” says Phil Fisher, a psychologist at the University of Oregon who studies child development under adversity, and who was not involved in creating the Sesame Street resources.

He notes, for example, that after traumatic events, children can experience changes in stress-hormone levels and have trouble paying attention. Even preverbal children, he says, understand when big changes are happening around them. “A 2-year-old is likely to be able to understand that their parents are having a hard time, or that their life circumstances are chaotic and unpredictable, even if they probably couldn’t articulate that on a verbal level,” Fisher told me.

Keeping the developmental level of the audience in mind,, Sesame Workshop puts a lot of work into conveying these concepts in ways that kids can understand.

Leaders at Sesame Workshop start by assembling a group of advisers, who work professionally on the topic at hand or who have a personal stake in it. The advisers get together with the Sesame team for a focus group and, as Einhorn puts it, “download to us what they know about the topic.” Writers at Sesame take the themes of these conversations and incorporate them into video scripts, activities, and a digital storybook. As the resources take shape, Sesame repeatedly sends them to the advisers for further comment, in a feedback loop that lasts up until the point of filming.

“We spend a lot of time fine-tuning language,” Einhorn told me. “How do our Muppets [portray] it? How do we make it playful? How do we have this light touch for a heavy topic without diminishing the topic?”

When talking to kids about any kind of traumatic experience, experts emphasize the importance of helping them name their emotions and understand that they’re normal. “Just like [how in order] to read you've got to know letters, if you’re going to talk about things that have happened to you, you’ve got to have feeling words,” says Ann Thomas, the president and CEO of The Children’s Place in Kansas City, Missouri, a treatment center for kids who’ve gone through trauma. Thomas consulted on both the foster-care package and more general traumatic-experience resources for Sesame Workshop. “They don’t know what this swirly uncomfortable stuff is. It’s like a knot inside of them. We have to start untangling that knot.” Sesame’s videos, Thomas says, not only give children those feeling words, but they model for adults how to help kids sort through their feelings out loud.

For example, in one of Sesame’s trauma videos, an adult named Alan, the proprietor of Mr. Hooper’s store, does just this for Big Bird, who arrives in the store looking upset. Alan asks how he’s doing, and he replies, “Not too good. I’ve got all these feelings.”

“Are they big feelings?” Alan asks. “Like sad, or angry, or confused? Anxious?” Big Bird responds “yeah” to each emotion. “It’s all those feelings, and they’re all mixed together, and I don’t know what to do!” the Muppet says. Alan goes on to teach Big Bird an exercise of imagining his safe place—his “comfy cozy nest”—in order to feel better.

The scene never states just what upset Big Bird, and this is not unusual, according to Daniel Anderson, a developmental psychologist who has consulted on many kids’ TV shows, including Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, Blues Clues, and Sesame Street, though he was not involved in creating these resources. Writers often choose not to show the inciting event to avoid upsetting young viewers. Also, “you almost never see characters crying on a kids’ program,” he told me, “even though it would be far more realistic and gripping to the audience, but if you do that then the kids can get very upset.” And it’s true that in all the Sesame Street videos on trauma I watched in researching this story, I never saw a Muppet cry, though they hang their heads and speak sadly.

[Read: Mr. Rogers had a simple set of rules for talking to children]

For each topic, the Sesame writers boil down what they’ve learned from research and heard from advisers into bite-sized phrases such as “big feelings.” Avoiding overexplaining, Thomas says, is also key. For foster care, the takeaway phrases the writers settled on were: “You’re safe, you’re strong, you belong”—which the Muppets sing in song form in one video—and “for-now parents” as a kid-friendly synonym for “foster parents.”

Adriana Molina, an adoptive mom of two children—a daughter, 3, who was formerly in foster care and a son, 10, who is her wife’s relative—has learned to pay attention to the transitions in her kids’ lives. “When [our son] came into our lives, we thought he was going to come for a visit, and he ended up staying,” Molina, who is the director of a community mental-health organization for kids in Los Angeles called Project ABC, told me. “We didn’t know to give him as many of the words for This is what’s happening, or This is what’s changing. Whereas with [our daughter], she’d only been in one foster home her entire little life. We were able to ease into that process and do some visits in her space. Slowing things down was a very concrete learning” experience, she said.

Molina was an adviser for Sesame’s foster-care resources, bringing both her personal and professional experience to the process. “‘For-now parents’ is a lovely, neutral place to be,” she said. “The language of being in foster care is it’s where you are now; it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s where you will always be.”

But that concept of temporariness is often hard for young kids to grasp, according to Anderson. “Preschoolers have such a limited time frame and sense of past and future,” he said. “And something like homelessness, even if it’s temporary, it might be temporary in terms of months, which would seem permanent to a child. That’s a very difficult thing to deal with.” Ideally, he suggests keeping conversations with very young children in the realm of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. The idea that things are a certain way “for now” and might be different in the future is “not a real reassuring kind of notion because preschool kids really crave stability and security.” But, he says, “it’s honest,” and for kids going through something such as homelessness or foster care, "I guess that’s probably as good as you can do.”

After all, uncertainty creates anxiety even for adults. And trying to shield kids from the uncertainty shaping their lives, Molina said, doesn’t work. "Part of what creates the anxiety is when they're being told one thing, but they have a sense of something else," she said.

Thomas adds that if grown-ups don't explain what's happening to children, kids will create their own explanations, which might make them feel even worse than the truth. “When bad things happen, it’s very natural [for young kids] to assume they caused it," she says. "It’s natural to have magical thinking at this age.” Her advice is similar to Anderson’s—don’t lie about what’s happening, even if you have to be ambiguous (telling them they’ll see their parents when they’re “bigger,” for example), and “grounding them back in what’s working today,” Thomas says.

The digital storybook about Karli addresses this magical thinking directly: “A lot of grown-ups are helping your mom,” Karli’s foster mom, Dalia, says in the book. “It’s a grown-up problem and it’s not your job to fix it. None of the bad things that happened at home were your fault.”

No character ever explicitly discusses why Karli is in foster care, but Einhorn told me that the Sesame Street team wrote the character with the idea that her mother is away getting treatment for substance abuse. Karli will be featured again in the substance-abuse resources that are slated to come out this fall, though they won’t reference foster care, and the foster-care resources likewise don’t reference substance abuse.

All the packages are self-contained, so kids won’t need to see both in order to make sense of Karli's story. Though as Einhorn put it, “trauma is trauma,” and there are some recurring themes in the content. Many of the resources emphasize the importance of relying on a broader community for support. And activities such as breathing exercises or artistic expression show up repeatedly. Karli draws out her feelings in the foster-care storybook, and colors a concentric heart in one of the videos to show that “a heart can grow” with love for her foster parents and new friends, even as she feels sad about missing her mom. In one of the homelessness videos, a Muppet named Lily draws dots on a chalkboard to represent all the people who love her, and connects them to form a heart.

Fisher, the University of Oregon psychologist, looked at the homelessness and trauma resources before we spoke, and said that “the messages that were employed were trauma-informed and evidence-informed, and have been found to be effective.” What’s less clear, he said, is if exercises that are effective in a therapeutic context will still work when delivered through a screen.

That’s something Sesame Workshop is studying—a spokesperson told me that the organization is currently conducting a randomized controlled trial on the effects of their trauma resources, but the results won’t be out until later this year.

“What seems to me to be the active ingredient here is the normalization of these experiences for children,” Fisher said. “[It can be] really ostracizing and isolating for children to perceive that their circumstances are different than others’. You have these familiar characters talking about it and normalizing that it’s something that can produce feelings.”

“The Muppets can often do what humans can’t,” Einhorn said. “They’ve got this special power.”

I met Molina and her son on set in December when the foster-care segments were being filmed. (Several advisers were invited to the taping.) Her son was shy when I asked him what he thought of the monsterball scene we had just watched. “It’s pretty cool,” he said. He perked up as his mom described to me the process of adopting his sister from foster care, and he interjected a few times to add details to the story. Still, the Muppets made an impression, it seems. Recently, Molina told me that when she and her son got home from the trip to New York, “he spent two weeks trying to perfect his Elmo voice.”

from The Atlantic http://bit.ly/2YBZE5p

[saegusakin]

Imagine Frisk and the monsters reaching the surface post pacifist run. They set up a life and discover how humans feel about monsters in the present day. And it isn’t perfect by any means. If humans have problems accepting even other humans, monsters are a larger problem. Most are heard, but not seen in most locations, especially jobs. Their appearances scare customers. One monster discovers the story of Beauty and the Beast....and it’s painful. The implication that you are only worth love as a human hurts.

But then a young monster child hears two words: Sesame Street. They find the show, and— “Yo! They’re just like me!”

Friendly monsters. Monsters that are good people, mean well, act as role models. And humans thought to make that. Almost immediately, the show is beloved amongst the former Underground citizens. Toriel plays it in her school. Frisk watches it daily. Even Flowey, cynical as he is, is convinced to watch it and ends up smiling by the Elmo’s World segment because it reminds him of Asriel. It reminds him of that time and how he knows even Chara would’ve loved to see a monster child on TV that loved coloring and learning and life and how it meant that at least a few humans understood. They cared.

Frisk is invited onto the show when they write to show their gratefulness. They bring Toriel, Flowey, Sans, and Papyrus, and all five end up on TV. Papyrus even ends up having a small segment where he exchanges spaghetti with Cookie Monster’s cookies. Flowey....ends up hugging Elmo and crying. Just a little. They’re all there for a song, and all the humans involved are also recognized as Underground citizens..along with Jim Henson.

From that point onwards, doors are opened. Other monster media starts to matter - Monsters Inc becomes another big name, and Sans and Papyrus in particular make the best of that (They win a costume contest at least once. Papyrus is sully, Sans is Mike, and Frisk is Boo.) Just with a little acceptance and representation, monsters find a better place in the world.