--- title: Sir Ian McKellen Teaches Cookie Monster to Resist on Sesame Street description: Specifically, how to resist delicious cookies canonical: https://time.com/3638457/sir-ian-mckellen-cookie-monster-sesame-street/ author: Samantha Grossman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-17T19:37:15.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:15:25.709Z og:title: Watch Sir Ian McKellen Teach Cookie Monster About Self-Control og:description: Specifically, how to resist delicious cookies og:url: https://time.com/3638457/sir-ian-mckellen-cookie-monster-sesame-street/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8375d6b4781a3a0e/69876f7c8e0601582845949c/screen-shot-2014-12-17-at-2-01-25-pm.png?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Screen Shot 2014-12-17 at 2.01.25 PM og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch Sir Ian McKellen Teach Cookie Monster About Self-Control twitter:description: Specifically, how to resist delicious cookies twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8375d6b4781a3a0e/69876f7c8e0601582845949c/screen-shot-2014-12-17-at-2-01-25-pm.png?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch Sir Ian McKellen Teach Cookie Monster About Self-Control by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Dec 17, 2014 7:37 PM UTC  by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Dec 17, 2014 7:37 PM UTC Back in October, we were lucky enough to see Ice Cube [perform magic tricks](http://time.com/3546255/ice-cube-magic-tricks-sesame-street/) on _Sesame Street_. Now, we get to see another, older, more British celeb make an appearance on the show. This time, it’s Sir Ian McKellen. The _Lord of the Rings_ actor has graciously arrived at _Sesame Street_ to teach Cookie Monster a new word: “resist.” He starts with a simple definition: “The word resist means to control yourself and stop yourself from doing something you really want to do.” McKellen uses a few examples that Cookie Monster does not relate to — until, of course, the actor busts out a cookie and forces Cookie Monster to resist it. Or at least, _try_ to resist it. _Read next:_ [_5 Things You Didn’t Know About the Early (Sunny) Days of Sesame Street_](http://time.com/3563830/sesame-street-trivia/?xid=time%5Freadnext) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3638457/sir-ian-mckellen-cookie-monster-sesame-street/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3638457/sir-ian-mckellen-cookie-monster-sesame-street/"},"headline":"Watch Sir Ian McKellen Teach Cookie Monster About Self-Control","datePublished":"2014-12-17T19:37:15.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:15:25.709Z","description":"Specifically, how to resist delicious cookies","url":"https://time.com/3638457/sir-ian-mckellen-cookie-monster-sesame-street/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Sesame Street","celebrity"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8375d6b4781a3a0e/69876f7c8e0601582845949c/screen-shot-2014-12-17-at-2-01-25-pm.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Grossman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8375d6b4781a3a0e/69876f7c8e0601582845949c/screen-shot-2014-12-17-at-2-01-25-pm.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Screen Shot 2014-12-17 at 2.01.25 PM","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3638457/sir-ian-mckellen-cookie-monster-sesame-street/","name":"Watch Sir Ian McKellen Teach Cookie Monster About Self-Control"}}]}] ```