Wonder-ful Sesame Street

Alright, so my friend Jacob makes an excellent point. After the last post I left on James Blunt appearing on Sesame Street, Jacob sent me this:

Now I really don't know what to think about Sesame Street as I completely don't remember this at all. Stevie Wonder, circa 1970s, is singing "Superstition" on this show for kids and makes no excuses. He jams the whole song that is about seven minutes while the little kids in the background, apparently residents of "the Street" flail wildly or, at the very least, keep the beat: okay, okay, they're jiving. That could have been me.

So, now, to me the question gets even more complex: Stevie Wonder in the 70s sings "Superstition" (which I thought was excellent upon the revisiting) in a concert format with his whole band there, including the saxophones (really, what were the 70s if they weren't about the saxes). Meanwhile, in aut-7 we've got James Blunt singing about Euclidian geometry in his revised version of a song I just happen to hate, helped by Telly. Are the effects different for children? Obviously, I remember the "Numbers song" and not Stevie Wonder. Is this the same for James Blunt, do you suppose?

And, of course, I'm assuming these appearances then, become much more important in attracting the parents to turn on Sesame Street. If it comes to turning on Teletubbies which kids love but freaks parents out with that weird "baby in the sun" thing or Sesame Street which features the hottest bands and celebs, deemed so by the parents, then is it really good fun for everybody?

My issue is this: my guess is that I learned to dance (gulp) from Steve Wonder on SS. I got up in my little toddler velour outfit--horizontally striped of course--and busted it out. But Stevie didn't teach me anything other than how to groove. Thus, today, when I hear "Superstition" I'm still willing to bust it out, although I need more coaxing today than I probably did then. However, when I hear "Euclidian geometry" I think of Mrs. Strunk who was my high school geometry teacher and who slaved away to teach me what a hypoteneuse was and why I needed to know it. She had those answers. Did I rely on her to teach me how to groove--no, that was Stevie's territory. I think we have a lack of bracketing in this world: James Blunt may be an expert at whining in song (and if you've heard his songs you know that's true) BUT my guess is he's not an expert at Euclidian geometry. So what's he doing singing about triangles? We're setting up a weird system of legitimacy that goes something like this:

Celebrities know Everything.
James Blunt* is a Celebrity.
--------------------------------
James Blunt knows Everything
Thus, he must know about Euclidian geometry

*(Substitute your favorite celebrity's name here; I could see this working with Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Madonna--especially those that have adopted "very important" humanitarian causes as those they invented them.)

The Stevie Wonder appearance on SS wouldn't fit using this syllogism, because the assumptions were different back then: Stevie Wonder was the guy who played awesome music who had that weird head-wave thing. No one assumed he knew anything other than music, thus he was a legitimate source for music. Nothing should be different with James Blunt, but I feel like this show made it different. There is a world full of math teachers ready to be called up for SS duty--who would love to tell all those little tots in their Baby Phat velour jumpsuits what a triangle is. Did they appear on the show? No. They were Blunted. And they should be as inexplicably angry as I am.

Frankly, I'm still abhorred by the fact that we feel the need to introduce three year-olds to Euclidian geometry via the triangle (for the record, the song actually included the word "hypoteneuse" which upon hearing I broke out into a rash). I guess the introduction of the concept of "celebrity" is all the same. But let me warn everyone: I am a product of Sesame Street in the 70s...and now I write this blog...about celebrity and pop culture. I am a testament to the effects of that early introduction. But at least I can thank Mrs. Strunk, who is not a celebrity, for teaching me legitimate things about math--in school.