--- title: <i>Sesame Street</i>'s Viral Ambitions | TIME description: With video parodies of viral ads and TV shows like Mad Men, Sesame Street is getting kids' attention online while hooking in their parents, too canonical: https://time.com/video/kZ0ZhYFn/ og:title: <i>Sesame Street</i>'s Viral Ambitions og:description: With video parodies of viral ads and TV shows like Mad Men, Sesame Street is getting kids' attention online while hooking in their parents, too og:url: https://time.com/video/kZ0ZhYFn/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/kZ0ZhYFn/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: <i>Sesame Street</i>'s Viral Ambitions twitter:description: With video parodies of viral ads and TV shows like Mad Men, Sesame Street is getting kids' attention online while hooking in their parents, too twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/kZ0ZhYFn/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # _Sesame Street_'s Viral Ambitions > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Sesame Street's Viral Ambitions [Watch (HLS stream): Sesame Street's Viral Ambitions](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/kZ0ZhYFn.m3u8) (4:34)  _Published 2010-11-09. With video parodies of viral ads and TV shows like Mad Men, Sesame Street is getting kids' attention online while hooking in their parents, too_ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:07 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [How Sesame Street Has Always Been Pushing the Envelope](/video/gVle6ToG/) ### How Sesame Street Has Always Been Pushing the Envelope [Sesame Street- When Cookie Met Sally \(When Harry Met Sally Parody\)](/video/LRv9CuKT/) ### Sesame Street- When Cookie Met Sally (When Harry Met Sally Parody) [Sesame Street](/video/OplfeF5H/) ### Sesame Street --- ## Transcript >> The Emotional Movie Channel presents: Mad Men. >> Shrek of a parody for Sesame Street is to find a way to make it appealing to the adults, but also make it-- make sense and educational for the preschool viewers. >> Honey, this makes me mad, very mad. >> Mad, mad, mad. We are mad men. >> With the Mad Men Parody for instance was just a fine piece about emotion. They don't get the dual level part of it. >> That's Carol- Lynn Parente, the Executive Producer of Sesame Street. She says there's a good reason why they make muppet friendly versions of very adult shows. Mad Men wasn't the only one. Check out this parody of True Blood, a show one would hope kids don't watch. >> What I can get for you, sir? >> Do you have any true mud? >> Did he say true mud? >> You know and we have data that shows that the educational value of what we're trying to get through to the kids is deeper when the parents are watching, and in addition, it allows you to extend to the learning beyond just the hour. >> Gather around. Everybody gather around here. >> What is he getting? >> All right. We got a missing letter and it looks like this. >> So, if you're talking about the letter M with your child, then when you go to the grocery store or the post office, you can be looking for things that start with the letter M. >> So if parents think the segments are funny, there's a better chance they'll watch with their kids and if the Sesame Street video goes viral online, it reminds parents to tune in. >> Hello everybody, look at yourself. Now back to me. >> Now back at your man. Now back to me. >> Sadly-- >> These wreathe on the famed Old Spice commercials had little to do with kids and everything to do with appealing to parents. Although Sesame Street insists that there is a lesson in there about the word Ah. >> What is in your hand? >> Back it to me. >> The word has brought Sesame Street to new audiences that might not have found the show on TV. Now, people can watch on their computers and on mobile devices, but it also means that sometimes the content can get out of control. >> My hair! I really love my hair. >> Enthused fans of this video mash it up with Willow Smith's Whip my Hair creating an explosion on YouTube. >> I whip my hair back and forth. I whip my hair back and forth. I whip my hair back and forth. I whip my hair back and forth. I whip my hair back and forth. >> That video is pretty kid friendly, but google Sesame Street and you'll find a lot of material not produced by the company itself. >> In the general YouTube community, there are times when they may take content, make their own mash up, do their own-- do their own interpretation and so a lot of that-- It's hard to control. It's something we monitor. That's why we went to the extent of creating our own YouTube Channel because we wanted the parents to have a safe place to go. >> Hi Elmo. >> Hi Ms. Katy. >> Are you ready to-- >> And sometimes the Sesame Street producers have to monitor themselves. Katy Perry was one of those instances where she is a very popular musical artist that speaks to the demographic of parents that may not be choosing Sesame Street for their preschoolers and we did wanna reach those parents and I think we will really-- I was really surprised of the amount of feedbacks that that particular piece was [ unk ]. >> There were complaints about her outfit being too risque. In the end, they decided not to air it on TV. >> The message here is that Sesame Street listens and is very concerned with what parents' opinions are. >> But you can still find it on YouTube. >> Where we are right now in media must be what it felt like in 1969 to be launching this show, because television was still a relatively new media flat one. >> Who are the people in your neighborhood? >> We have always internally talked about it each season as an experiment in children's television and so that spirit and innovation is certainly more live than ever now. >> If innovation means showing Liz Lemon from 30 Rock as an actual lemon, we'll take it. >> Grab it. We'll get for a [ unk ] lemon here. >> Yeah, right over here. >> Anybody-- >> I'm Valerie Lapinski for TIME video. >> That would be me. >> Okay. Yeah. I got a delivery for you. >> Yes. Yes. 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