Blunt Message on Sesame Street

I was fascinated on several accounts: 1) I thought the re-imagining of the song was pretty hilarious, including the harmony provided by Telly. 2) I was surprised to see James Blunt, who I don't particularly consider "kid friendly" singing about one of my favorite Euclidian shapes (and I actually wondered if he even knew who Euclid was) and 3) I was horrified that now a whole generation of youngsters would forever hum and sing the melody of that damn "Angel" song which now will invade my dreams for at least the next two weeks.

Clearly times have changed. When I watched Sesame Street as a member of the target audience, we used to sing "The numbers" song (jivey one-two-three-FOUR-five, six-SE-ven-eight-nine-ten...E-LE-VEN-twelve) and other made up tunes. Mine never included a discussion of Euclidian geometry and/or James Blunt. Furthermore, a little investigation told me that this is usual M.O. for sesame street--to have whoever the "it" people of the day are on to either interact with the puppets, sing, or rap, all the while talking about what great friends they are to the residents of Sesame Street.

Honestly, this makes me feel a little dirty. Nothing like marketing music and movies directly to the kids. Maria and Gordon weren't good enough--no, now we have to have Lindsay Lohan on telling the kids that drugs are bad or James Blunt singing about triangles. WHAT IS JAMES BLUNT'S RELATIONSHIP TO TRIANGLES??? This just seems very wrong; let's keep those fertile minds focused on what's important: Celebrity.

Yuck.