Pop culture influenced by Sesame Street

The hit Broadway musical Avenue Q is a parody of Sesame Street. Four members of the original cast (John Tartaglia, Stephanie D'Abruzzo, Rick Lyon, and Jennifer Barnhart) are all former puppeteers for the Jim Henson Company. The following disclaimer appears in all promotional material, advertising and merchandise for the show: "Avenue Q has not been authorized or approved in any manner by the Jim Henson Company or Sesame Workshop, which have no responsibility for its content."

Wonder Showzen is a sketch comedy television series that began airing in 2005 on MTV2. The show's format is clearly a parody of children's shows such as Sesame Street (e.g. use of stock footage, puppetry, and clips of children being interviewed).

MADtv had a recurring segment that is a parody of the show itself, complete with a Sesame Street-styled opening. There have been seven segments.

• In the first segment, "Big Bird Gets the Flu", Big Bird gets the bird flu and spreads it all over Sesame Street.
• In the second segment, "Donald Trump Tears Down Sesame Street", some construction workers try to take apart Big Bird's nest and destroy Sesame Street in the process.
• In the third segment, "MyPlace.com", Big Bird tries to find out why Billy is so obsessed with a website called "MyPlace" on his phone.
• In the fourth segment, "The Dirty Bomb", Big Bird doesn't know why he's turning sick and green.
• In the fifth sketch, "Economic Depression", Big Bird finds out that the bank took his nest after he defaulted on his rate mortgage.
• The sixth sketch was a commercial for "Tickle Me Emo".
• The seventh sketch, "Childhood Obesity", is in which Billy gets too fat.

The FOX show Family Guy has made reference to Sesame Street on some occasions. In the episode "The Father, the Son, and the Holy Fonz", it showed a short clip of Stewie, who is in a plastic bubble, taking on the role of the pinball from the Pinball Number Count sketch. Other counting sketch parodies have been included, notably Peter's attempt to set up Cleveland with a total of seven prostitutes in the episode "Petarded".

In "Model Misbehavior", when Brian gets a job at Stewie's Cash Scam, Stewie calls Grover on his Sesame Street phone, then when he hangs up, he tells Brian "If the Cookie Monster calls, tell him I'm not talking to him until he gets out of rehab." A cutaway is then shown where Cookie Monster sneaks cookies in his bed while in rehab and denies it to a group of doctors. Later in the episode, Lois sees him as a desperate, jittery addict, seated in a bathroom stall of the rehab center trying to make a cookie by holding raw dough in the bowl of a spoon over a lighter flame as if it were heroin. In the cold opening of "I Never Met the Dead Man", Stewie talks to Ernie on his Sesame Street phone.

In "Mind Over Murder", Peter spends so much time inside his house that "all the TV programs are starting to mesh together". The example shown is Homicide: Life on Sesame Street, which mixes Homicide: Life on the Street with Sesame Street. In the episode shown, Bert is a gruff cop living with Ernie, who are shown as a bickering pair. In this scene, Ernie says "Bert, I wish you wouldn't drink so much." Which Bert responds with "Well Ernie, I wish you wouldn't eat cookies in the damn bed!" In response, Ernie says, "Bert, you're shouting again, Bert." Bert then sighs in frustration while a comedic musical cue, not unlike those heard on the actual show, plays.

The episode "A Picture is Worth 1,000 Bucks" shows Meg does some bird calls, which leads to Big Bird walking over and asking her what she wants. When she tells him that she wasn't calling him specifically, he gets mad and tells her how hard it is for him to live a normal life, ending with him spitting on her shoes, and walking away, muttering "Bitch."

In "Family Guy Viewer Mail #1", Peter and Brian were watching Sesame Street. After the Count had counted out seven bats, Peter asks Brian if "they ever show him doin someone in and feedin on em", meaning if the Count has ever sucked on someone else's blood. Brian then points out that that has never happened. The Count also appeared in another episode where Meg claims that she dated him, and then flashes back to a time where they were beginning to have sex (showing her taking off her shirt with the camera on to her back) and the Count started counting her nipples, but is repulsed on discovering that she has three (One nipple! HAHAHA! Two nipples! HAHAHA! Three nip-oh, hell no, I'm outta here).

Seth MacFarlane has also had Sesame Street in his other series American Dad!. In "Francine's Flashback", Stan Smith is seen watching television, pointing at the screen and yelling for one of the characters to "Shoot him!". It is then shown that he is actually watching Sesame Street, with Elmo telling Big Bird to share a cookie with Cookie Monster. The 'camera' cuts back to Stan, who is even more furious, shouting "Don't trust him! It may look like the Cookie Monster's eating, but he never actually swallows anything!". This is, of course, a sly joke at how whenever Cookie Monster eats, he inevitably sprays crumbs everywhere.

In "Lincoln Lover", Stan is invited to a party at a Langley branch of the Log Cabin Republicans (a group of republicans who identify with Lincoln's idea of republicanism, but are also gay). After learning of all the members' orientation, he asks "How can you be Republican and gay?" to which Greg responds "all these pre-conceived notions". He begins singing a song titled "Red and Gay" and sings about how they are gay like Bert, Ernie and Manet.

The raunchy TV show Damn! Show featured a segment called "Clay Porn", which consisted of parodies of the Sesame Street Muppets (and one of Miss Piggy) as people constantly having sex, and it also included Bert and Ernie as a gay couple.

On May 23, 2006, several T-shirts were banned from a Brockton, Massachusetts high school because they showed Sesame Street characters as gang figures, which violated that schools dress code policy. Because of this, the incident briefly made local and national headlines and the school, which enforced the ban, was awarded $650,000 as part of its anti-gang effort. As of May 2006, it is unknown about the fate of the person or persons who created the offending shirts and if the images on the t-shirt violated any copyright laws.[1]

The popular Adult Swim show Robot Chicken made a parody of the MADtv skit in which Big Bird is shown having the bird flu. Snuffy is also seen, although in this skit he really is an imaginary friend. Elmo, Grover and the Count make brief speaking cameos, and Ernie, Bert and Cookie Monster can be seen in the background at one point, receiving vaccines from the Count. A brief parody of "One of These Things" is seen, with three dancing kids and one dead kid.

In The Simpsons episode "Missionary: Impossible", a pledge drive interrupts Homer's TV watching which causes him to pledge $10,000 after actress Betty White proclaims that $10,000 is what will end the drive. However Homer doesn't have the money and a chase ensues which includes Oscar the Grouch, Big Bird, and Elmo, each who want a piece of Homer which is in contrast to their character's true identity.

In "Bart Mangled Banner", after the Simpson family is sent to Alcatraz (apparently reopened), Elmo is former president Bill Clinton's cellmate. Later, when the family tries to escape, Homer says in a terrified state that "he doesn't want to end up like Elmo", where the screen is panned to see Elmo's shadow in the jail cell, having hanged himself.

In "To Surveil with Love", security cameras installed in a gay bar capture the antics of several customers all of whom resemble Sesame Street characters.

Rhymes with Orange's strip for August 28, 2008 had a reference to Sesame Street. The comic has a girl going to Sesame Street, and she needs directions to go there, so a guy gives her directions to go there.

The October 18, 2008 strip had a parody of Sesame Street called "Witch Way". The logo parodies the Sesame Street logo. The intro has a character named Abbot who asks "Which way to Witch Way?" Another character named Costello shows her the way. Then, he says "Where are you going?" Then Abbot responds "Witch Way!"

Mutts has a character that resembles Oscar the Grouch, but it is a cat who lives in a trash can, who appears in some strips of the comic.

In the Angel season 5 episode "Smile Time", the title character Angel is turned into a puppet. The episode is a direct parody of Sesame Street, in which the Muppets were featured to teach kids on their long running and popular show "Smile Time", only to be revealed as demons as the episode progresses.