While the other late night Jimmy prefers bringing celebrities together to read some of the meanest tweets from fans, The Tonight Show has taken the opposite tactic and gotten some of the characters from Sesame Street to appear for some good, clean fun. To celebrate Sesame Street’s 45th Anniversary, on Thursday, The Tonight Show crew scoured the Internet to come up with the best tweets featuring the hashtag #WhenIWasAKid. Check out what made the cut, below.
The Sesame Street characters are iconic. Multiple generations have grown up with Elmo, Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch and more, and even though most of the people watching The Tonight Show are well into adulthood at this point, there’s something amusing and nostalgic about watching our favorite childhood characters spar with Jimmy Fallon onscreen. Case in point, when Elmo pops up, he jokes around with Fallon, saying the wall he’s standing behind is pretty “swanky” before reading off a silly tweet about the alphabet.
If you were to ask the average three year-old, he or she would probably tell you that Elmo is the best Sesame Street character. However, adults clearly feel differently, as the applause is deafening when Cookie Monster pops up. Oscar the Grouch also gets a nice round of applause, popping up to read a weird tweet from an adult who explains how he would cut up hot dogs on his dad’s guitar strings before subsequently hiding them inside the guitar when he was a kid. Fallon thanks Oscar for appearing on the show, to which Oscar responds, “Never thank a grouch.” It's all great pretty fun until we get poor Abby Cadabby's appearance. I'm not sure which executive thought it would be smart to put the recent addition to the Sesame Street cast on a late night sketch meant to create a feeling of nostalgia, but her tweet is definitely a flop.
Humorously, when Big Bird appears to read a tweet, he gets a tweet directly related to Sesame Street. It’s a clever way to end the sketch, and we’ve listed it, below.
Fallon’s made a career out of being as good-natured as possible. As a result, his sketches are never edgy, but they do suit an entire audience who would rather spend time with a goofy, likeable late night host than someone who is going to push buttons. This has led to Crosby, Stills, Nash, and “Young” reunions and other fun sketches, including this one featuring Kevin Hart freaking out on a rollercoaster.
You can catch NBC’s The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon weeknights at 11:35 p.m. ET.
