We’re used to seeing the puppets from Sesame Street poking fun at different parts of pop culture, but it’s rarer to see someone sending up Sesame Street itself. Oscar winning actor Christoph Waltz recently spoke of his love for the long-running children’s program on Jimmy Kimmel Live, but he had a slightly different interpretation of the series, as seen in the video below.
Waltz explains that back in his home of Austria, the show is called Sesamstrasse. After delivering a fine “puppets speaking German” charade with his hands, Waltz claims he still watches Sesame Street. Not for its educational values, but because of its poignancy and deepness.
With a somber piano as his background music, Waltz then heads out into the spotlight to perform the Sesame Street theme song in the way that would feel comfortable in the middle of a Werner Herzog musical. He is a man who hears of the abounding happiness on this sunlit avenue, and only wants to know how to arrive at this utopic destination. Can someone tell him how to get to SESAME Street? Just look at the pain on his face.
It seems like Christoph Waltz would voice the most depressing GPS in the world. There’s no questioning the actor’s commitment to his parts, though, as he delivers a better performance here than many I’ve seen on the big and small screen this year. Can someone win an all-in-one EGOT for a short gag performance on a late night talk show? I suggest a rule change if that isn’t the case.
Waltz is no stranger to the world of Jim Henson creations, as he starred as himself in this year’s Muppets Most Wanted. And if we’re talking about him taking things to bizarre places, it doesn’t get much stranger than his work in Terry Gilliam’s futuristic tale The Zero Theorem, a film that wouldn’t have suffered from a few giant birds and cookie-munching creatures. He’ll soon be seen in Horrible Bosses 2 and Tim Burton’s biopic Big Eyes.
Sesame Street has been as viral a pop culture commodity as anything else these days, with its recent parodies of Harry Potter, Star Wars and Twilight pleasing viewers of all ages. They don’t shy away from the late night scene, either, as some of the characters recently appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon to read cute tweets. Will they show up on a comet next? Or Kim Kardashian’s butt?
