This past Friday, I signed up for a header mistakenly thinking it was the 35th of Rock-A-Doodle. When I learned that wasn’t the case, I haphazardly turned it into a thread about Cookie Monster. Well, it turns out I can’t get enough of Cookie Monster, so here he is again!
Oh, excuse me, it’s actually not Cookie Monster. It’s “The Cookie Bunny”–an entirely different monster! Or, well, bunny. Every year, Cookie Bunny hops around hiding colored cookies for all of the kids. And also, he’s not Cookie Monster, as he will repeatedly insist when asked. He has bunny ears! Of course he’s a rabbit!
This segment is one of countless examples of how well Frank Oz and Jim Henson played off each other comedically. A lot of the dialogue here sounds ad-libbed, and it probably was. This sketch is also arguably one of the only times Sesame Street vaguely referenced a holiday on the show, as that was something they rarely ever did. No Sesame Street episodes are aired at a specific time seasonally (that’s what the TV specials and home video releases are for), which means a skit like this could pop up in October during reruns. Not that kids really mind that sort of thing.
Still, possibly for this reason (this is all guesswork), it appears this sketch may have been used fairly scarcely, as finding VHS uploads of it from fans on YouTube is surprisingly difficult. And one of the few I could find is…pretty fucking baffling. It opens with no sound whatsoever before showing…human hands popping up next to Ernie to get him ready for his big bubble-blowing moment. This awkward silence lasts for nearly twenty seconds before the regular sketch actually starts, so the uploader somehow got access to a production outtake the general public was never meant to see, despite claiming it comes directly from Elmo’s Rainbow & Other Springtime Stories. You can even hear the director yell “cut” when it ends, at which point Cookie immediately reaches inside of his mouth to do…something. Like it almost looks like he’s trying to trigger his gag reflex. Maybe he secretly hates cookies in the same way Krusty the Klown can’t stand the taste of his own burgers.
Happy Easter, y’all!