Can you tell me how to get…to Brains On Headquarters for a special Sesame Street Showdown? Sanden has been hard at work reading up on the beloved children’s show for an episode of Forever Ago. Now that his brain is full of marvelous muppet trivia, he wants to share it with his best buds, Marc and Molly. Join these three amigos as they play a game of Sesame Street So-and-so’s!
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ROBOTIC VOICE: Now entering Brains On headquarters.
SANDEN TOTTEN: [HUMMING]
Oh, hey there, friends. I was just on my way to meet up with producer Marc Sanchez and Brains On host, Molly Bloom. Get this, I told them, I had a super awesome surprise game for them. And I told them to wear their furriest most feathery clothes for it. Here we are.
MOLLY BLOOM: Hi, Sanden.
MARC SANCHEZ: Hey, buddy.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Molly, Marc. Wow. You both look great. Molly, I did not know you owned so many colorful feather boas. Oh, gorgeous. And Marc, wow, that purple gorilla suit really suits you.
MARC SANCHEZ: Thanks. I'm really sweaty, but I'm ready to get gaming. What's this super secret surprise you've been teasing?
MOLLY BLOOM: And why exactly did you ask us to wear fur and feathers?
SANDEN TOTTEN: Well, Molly, I'm glad you asked. I really wanted to set the mood, since this game is all about the furry, feathery, muppety characters from Sesame Street.
MARC SANCHEZ: Oh, because of all the research and reading you've been doing.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Yeah. Yeah.
MOLLY BLOOM: Yeah. For our history podcast, Forever Ago, the episode is out. It is so good.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Oh, thanks, Molly. Yeah, I had these 367 pages of notes. And I only used 84 of them for the episode. So I thought, I've got all these extra facts about Sesame Street characters bopping around in my brain. Why be selfish and greedy and hoard them to myself? Instead, I thought, I'd put them to good use with a little trivia game. I like to call this one Sesame Street So and So.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Ready for the rules?
MARC SANCHEZ: Oh, my gosh. Of course. I love rules.
SANDEN TOTTEN: OK. For each question, I'm going to give you three facts about a character on Sesame Street. The first fact will be pretty far out there obscure stuff. The second fact will be a little more obvious, make it a little easier to guess. And the third and final fact should make it easy-peasy for you to name the character. You can answer after any of the clues, whenever you think you know who I'm talking about. Sound good?
MOLLY BLOOM: Yeah.
MARC SANCHEZ: I'm so ready.
SANDEN TOTTEN: All right. Excellent. Here we go. Molly, the muppet, you're up first. This character has a teddy bear named Radar. Teddy bear named Radar. Any guesses? Hmm? Hmm?
MOLLY BLOOM: Grover. No. Big Bird.
[CORRECT ANSWER TONE]
SANDEN TOTTEN: Yes. That's it. You got it. Did you know that? Or were you just guessing?
MOLLY BLOOM: I did know that. No, I did know that.
SANDEN TOTTEN: [CHUCKLES] And here are some two other fun facts about Big Bird. Big Bird is over eight feet tall. Clocking in at eight feet, two inches, it is a tragedy that Big Bird never played for the NBA.
They also live in a nest near Oscar the Grouch's trash can. So friendly neighbor or unfriendly neighbor, how you want to see it, but those two probably get each other's mail from time to time.
MOLLY BLOOM: So my Sesame Street knowledge runs deep because it was a really big part of my growing up and then my daughter's growing up. And we had the books and the movies and all the stuff. I love Sesame Street.
MARC SANCHEZ: And I've forgotten everything.
[LAUGHTER]
SANDEN TOTTEN: Great, Marc, because this next question is for you.
MARC SANCHEZ: Oh, yeah.
SANDEN TOTTEN: All right. Fact number 1. OK, this is obscure, super dark trivia stuff. This is like in a file in the CIA, locked in a basement. This character's actual first name is Sydney.
MARC SANCHEZ: OK, I'm going to rule out Bert and Ernie.
[LAUGHTER]
And I'm going to say, Snuffleupagus.
SANDEN TOTTEN: [IMITATING BUZZER SOUND] We're going to keep going. Fact number 2.
MARC SANCHEZ: OK.
SANDEN TOTTEN: This character is one of the only Sesame Street muppets to have four fingers and a thumb. The thumb is important because it handles something that you need a thumb for.
MARC SANCHEZ: Cookie Monster.
[CORRECT ANSWER TONE]
SANDEN TOTTEN: Yes. Beep, beep, beep, beep. You got it. It is Cookie Monster. He's got to have that thumb to get that great cookie grippage.
MARC SANCHEZ: I feel pretty good about that.
MOLLY BLOOM: You should feel good about that.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Also, he has a signature song about the letter C. C is for Cookie. Taught millions of people how to spell cookie. Molly, get your Sesame Street brain on. I hope your mind is fully foamed--
MOLLY BLOOM: OK, I'm ready.
SANDEN TOTTEN: --like a muppet, because here comes the next question for you. OK. Fact 1, this character is one of the very first muppets to appear in Sesame Street. They were in the pilot episodes.
MOLLY BLOOM: Bert and Ernie.
[CORRECT ANSWER TONE]
SANDEN TOTTEN: Yes. Ding, ding, ding. That's right. Ernie lives at 123 Sesame Street, and, the other fact I was going to throw at you, loves bath time with his rubber duckie.
MARC SANCHEZ: Molly, do you live on Sesame Street? Because it sounds like it.
MOLLY BLOOM: No, but I did visit Sesame Place when I was a child. It was a short-lived theme park.
SANDEN TOTTEN: So fun fact, they were originally going to call Sesame Street, 123 Avenue B, but it turns out that that was an actual address, and they thought that would be a little strange. So they eventually came up with Sesame Street as the name, which is not strange at all.
MARC SANCHEZ: I can't imagine it any other way.
SANDEN TOTTEN: You guys did great. I never had to get to the third fact for any of you.
MOLLY BLOOM: That was so cool, Sanden. Thank you for sharing all those Sesame Street facts with us.
MARC SANCHEZ: Yeah. I didn't know the characters had such busy careers and deep backstories.
SANDEN TOTTEN: No, no, no, no. Like you two, facts are the most fun when you can share them with others. Do you guys want to go watch some episodes of Sesame Street? I can set up the projector as soon as I get out of this gorilla suit and maybe take a shower.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
MOLLY BLOOM: That's it for this Smarty Pass episode. It was written by Anna Weggel and produced by Aron Woldeslassie. Our executive producer is Beth Perlman. And the APM Studios executives in charge are Chandra Kavati and Joanne Griffith. Brains On is a nonprofit program. Bye, Smarty pals.
SANDEN TOTTEN: So long. See you on Sesame Street.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
SANDEN TOTTEN: [HUMMING]
Oh, hey there, friends. I was just on my way to meet up with producer Marc Sanchez and Brains On host, Molly Bloom. Get this, I told them, I had a super awesome surprise game for them. And I told them to wear their furriest most feathery clothes for it. Here we are.
MOLLY BLOOM: Hi, Sanden.
MARC SANCHEZ: Hey, buddy.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Molly, Marc. Wow. You both look great. Molly, I did not know you owned so many colorful feather boas. Oh, gorgeous. And Marc, wow, that purple gorilla suit really suits you.
MARC SANCHEZ: Thanks. I'm really sweaty, but I'm ready to get gaming. What's this super secret surprise you've been teasing?
MOLLY BLOOM: And why exactly did you ask us to wear fur and feathers?
SANDEN TOTTEN: Well, Molly, I'm glad you asked. I really wanted to set the mood, since this game is all about the furry, feathery, muppety characters from Sesame Street.
MARC SANCHEZ: Oh, because of all the research and reading you've been doing.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Yeah. Yeah.
MOLLY BLOOM: Yeah. For our history podcast, Forever Ago, the episode is out. It is so good.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Oh, thanks, Molly. Yeah, I had these 367 pages of notes. And I only used 84 of them for the episode. So I thought, I've got all these extra facts about Sesame Street characters bopping around in my brain. Why be selfish and greedy and hoard them to myself? Instead, I thought, I'd put them to good use with a little trivia game. I like to call this one Sesame Street So and So.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Ready for the rules?
MARC SANCHEZ: Oh, my gosh. Of course. I love rules.
SANDEN TOTTEN: OK. For each question, I'm going to give you three facts about a character on Sesame Street. The first fact will be pretty far out there obscure stuff. The second fact will be a little more obvious, make it a little easier to guess. And the third and final fact should make it easy-peasy for you to name the character. You can answer after any of the clues, whenever you think you know who I'm talking about. Sound good?
MOLLY BLOOM: Yeah.
MARC SANCHEZ: I'm so ready.
SANDEN TOTTEN: All right. Excellent. Here we go. Molly, the muppet, you're up first. This character has a teddy bear named Radar. Teddy bear named Radar. Any guesses? Hmm? Hmm?
MOLLY BLOOM: Grover. No. Big Bird.
[CORRECT ANSWER TONE]
SANDEN TOTTEN: Yes. That's it. You got it. Did you know that? Or were you just guessing?
MOLLY BLOOM: I did know that. No, I did know that.
SANDEN TOTTEN: [CHUCKLES] And here are some two other fun facts about Big Bird. Big Bird is over eight feet tall. Clocking in at eight feet, two inches, it is a tragedy that Big Bird never played for the NBA.
They also live in a nest near Oscar the Grouch's trash can. So friendly neighbor or unfriendly neighbor, how you want to see it, but those two probably get each other's mail from time to time.
MOLLY BLOOM: So my Sesame Street knowledge runs deep because it was a really big part of my growing up and then my daughter's growing up. And we had the books and the movies and all the stuff. I love Sesame Street.
MARC SANCHEZ: And I've forgotten everything.
[LAUGHTER]
SANDEN TOTTEN: Great, Marc, because this next question is for you.
MARC SANCHEZ: Oh, yeah.
SANDEN TOTTEN: All right. Fact number 1. OK, this is obscure, super dark trivia stuff. This is like in a file in the CIA, locked in a basement. This character's actual first name is Sydney.
MARC SANCHEZ: OK, I'm going to rule out Bert and Ernie.
[LAUGHTER]
And I'm going to say, Snuffleupagus.
SANDEN TOTTEN: [IMITATING BUZZER SOUND] We're going to keep going. Fact number 2.
MARC SANCHEZ: OK.
SANDEN TOTTEN: This character is one of the only Sesame Street muppets to have four fingers and a thumb. The thumb is important because it handles something that you need a thumb for.
MARC SANCHEZ: Cookie Monster.
[CORRECT ANSWER TONE]
SANDEN TOTTEN: Yes. Beep, beep, beep, beep. You got it. It is Cookie Monster. He's got to have that thumb to get that great cookie grippage.
MARC SANCHEZ: I feel pretty good about that.
MOLLY BLOOM: You should feel good about that.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Also, he has a signature song about the letter C. C is for Cookie. Taught millions of people how to spell cookie. Molly, get your Sesame Street brain on. I hope your mind is fully foamed--
MOLLY BLOOM: OK, I'm ready.
SANDEN TOTTEN: --like a muppet, because here comes the next question for you. OK. Fact 1, this character is one of the very first muppets to appear in Sesame Street. They were in the pilot episodes.
MOLLY BLOOM: Bert and Ernie.
[CORRECT ANSWER TONE]
SANDEN TOTTEN: Yes. Ding, ding, ding. That's right. Ernie lives at 123 Sesame Street, and, the other fact I was going to throw at you, loves bath time with his rubber duckie.
MARC SANCHEZ: Molly, do you live on Sesame Street? Because it sounds like it.
MOLLY BLOOM: No, but I did visit Sesame Place when I was a child. It was a short-lived theme park.
SANDEN TOTTEN: So fun fact, they were originally going to call Sesame Street, 123 Avenue B, but it turns out that that was an actual address, and they thought that would be a little strange. So they eventually came up with Sesame Street as the name, which is not strange at all.
MARC SANCHEZ: I can't imagine it any other way.
SANDEN TOTTEN: You guys did great. I never had to get to the third fact for any of you.
MOLLY BLOOM: That was so cool, Sanden. Thank you for sharing all those Sesame Street facts with us.
MARC SANCHEZ: Yeah. I didn't know the characters had such busy careers and deep backstories.
SANDEN TOTTEN: No, no, no, no. Like you two, facts are the most fun when you can share them with others. Do you guys want to go watch some episodes of Sesame Street? I can set up the projector as soon as I get out of this gorilla suit and maybe take a shower.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
MOLLY BLOOM: That's it for this Smarty Pass episode. It was written by Anna Weggel and produced by Aron Woldeslassie. Our executive producer is Beth Perlman. And the APM Studios executives in charge are Chandra Kavati and Joanne Griffith. Brains On is a nonprofit program. Bye, Smarty pals.
SANDEN TOTTEN: So long. See you on Sesame Street.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
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