length (a tiny portion of an hour-long show) and are incredibly effective in communicating
informal learning skills, which speaks to the powerful nature of this type of narrative and visual
tool for educational purposes. HBO’s dark comedy, Six Feet Under, was parodied in a
segment that featured Count Von Count counting six feet under a dinner table. Those familiar
with the original show, such as myself, may be amused by Sesame Street’s innocent, yet
effective use of the show’s name to teach children how to count to the number six. Another
example is Cookie Monster’s Share it Maybe, which is a parody of the popular, and highly
imitated, song Call me Maybe, and as the parody title indicates, the song conveys the
message on the importance of sharing. There are far too many parodies on Sesame Street to
be covered wholly herein, but I believe that these examples provide a solid foundation for
analyzing productive parody on Sesame Street, as well as other children’s television shows.
Conclusion
Throughout this paper, I have attempted to explain and subsequently demonstrate two
main concepts: how Sesame Street functions as postmodern pastiche, and how specific
segments within the show serve as a form of productive parody. When I first began reviewing
literature on postmodern pastiche and parody, as well as Sesame Street, I noticed a research
gap that never tied these two ideas to one another. This struck me as odd, and it ultimately
became the main impetus for delving deeper into postmodern theory and analyzing Sesame
Street in the process. As I mentioned before, I am not an educational scholar and I cannot
speak to the level of direct cause and effect in terms of Sesame Street and its efficacy in
educating children. Even though that is not what I set out to address in this article, I am
confident that most parody segments on the show serve a precise function in its goal to
educate pre-school children on basic literacies, and in turn better preparing them for school.
Another important focal point lies within the contextual shifts, whether large or small,
which are inherently present in every episode of Sesame Street and nearly all parody
segments. After providing a closer analysis of the constant change in context within the show,
we may now have the ability to better assess exactly how productive parody functions as a
whole. As we have covered thus far, Sesame Street is a postmodern television pastiche, but
this is not done without an underlying purpose that stems beyond entertainment. Parody, in
and of itself, creates a contextual shift simply by moving from the original to the imitation, but
when we link this shift with an attempt to entertain a mature audience and simultaneously
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