"All you have to do is push a few little buttons."

August 30, 2010 7:04 AM

yep yep yep yep yep yep commmmmpewwwwtorrrr! butttonnsss. buttttttonssssss!
posted by Fizz (55 comments total)

What is this, and why has the cookie monster melted?
posted by schmod at 7:07 AM on August 30, 2010

So, someone devoted an entire domain to a Sesame Street clip?

Me gusta.
posted by mccarty.tim at 7:07 AM on August 30, 2010 [1 favorite]

I've never put the words 'louche' and 'banana' together before.
posted by Wolfdog at 7:08 AM on August 30, 2010

Yep, that's what I found odd. I also found it odd that slow.com was being used just for this. Also, who doesn't enjoy old-school Sesame Street clips. I believe that's Maria's voice at the end.
posted by Fizz at 7:08 AM on August 30, 2010

Essay Contest: Write a proposal for a profitable internet venture that would use the domain Slow.com.
posted by mccarty.tim at 7:10 AM on August 30, 2010 [2 favorites]

How cute, they RTFM!
posted by a robot made out of meat at 7:10 AM on August 30, 2010 [5 favorites]

mccarty.tim: Essay Contest: Write a proposal for a profitable internet venture that would use the domain Slow.com.

Solved!

posted by Fizz at 7:14 AM on August 30, 2010

Essay Contest: Write a proposal for a profitable internet venture that would use the domain Slow.com.

1. Buy domain slow.com
2. host Sesame Street clip
3. Set to auto-repeat
4. ????
5. Profit!
posted by chavenet at 7:14 AM on August 30, 2010 [2 favorites]

Ha! Finally a chance to post my favorite pic from 2009! My friend Julie arriving at a Halloween party!
posted by workerant at 7:17 AM on August 30, 2010 [44 favorites]

Nooooope nope nope nope nope nope-nope-nope nooooooope
posted by adipocere at 7:19 AM on August 30, 2010 [2 favorites]

Not just an old Sesame Street clip, but one rebroadcast under Viacom's Nick Jr. joint venture with CTW, and known as Noggin--thus the logo at the lower right of the screen. Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep.
posted by beelzbubba at 7:19 AM on August 30, 2010 [1 favorite]

For those interested. The two characters in this clip are known as the Yip Yips.

Also: The Yip Yips discover the telephone.
posted by Fizz at 7:22 AM on August 30, 2010 [1 favorite]

Yep yep, NSFW yep yep.
posted by vrakatar at 7:22 AM on August 30, 2010 [19 favorites]

Good god. Those things creeped me out when I was a kid. To this day, I can't see them without shuddering. I classify them in league with The Dark Crystal and The Secret of NIMH for scarring me as a child.
posted by ChipT at 7:23 AM on August 30, 2010

You have not known fear until you have seen SAM, children.
posted by mccarty.tim at 7:26 AM on August 30, 2010 [3 favorites]

This video is actually of me interacting with Adobe Illustrator CS4 this AM.
posted by Devils Rancher at 7:27 AM on August 30, 2010 [15 favorites]

mccarty.tim: You have not known fear until you have seen SAM, children.

Looks like an LSD-inspired Doctor Who/Jim Hensen mash-up creation.
posted by Fizz at 7:28 AM on August 30, 2010 [1 favorite]

The yip yips were always one of my very favorite things in the whole world when I was a kid. I still have no earthly idea why, but their draw has not diminished in any way.
posted by koeselitz at 7:30 AM on August 30, 2010 [3 favorites]

Yip yips in Finnish.

I didn't think it would be possible for them to sound even more demonic then they already are.
posted by Azazel Fel at 7:35 AM on August 30, 2010 [4 favorites]

Charlie Brooker on pipkins (From 4:02 and 5:30)
posted by seanyboy at 7:35 AM on August 30, 2010 [1 favorite]

And 8:00
posted by seanyboy at 7:37 AM on August 30, 2010

Not that I understand why this is an FPP, but I will join the alien love-in happily, since I loved these guys as a kid, too.

Looks like nobody posted the definitive Clock yet?
posted by rokusan at 7:37 AM on August 30, 2010 [1 favorite]

Yip yips in Finnish... even more demonic.

I can't find a clip online to illustrate, but I sat through an entire episode of Sesame Street in Zulu once (or maybe Swahili, I forget) with a big ridiculous grin on my face, because it was just... glorious.

No Yip Yips, sadly, but Elmo was freakin' terrifying.
posted by rokusan at 7:41 AM on August 30, 2010

Whoa whoa whoa. The yip-yips rule.
posted by DU at 7:51 AM on August 30, 2010

It's surprising how the Yip Yips affected the world. A couple years ago, my fiance and I dressed up as Yip Yips for Halloween and we were like celebrities that night. One person stopped us on the street between bars and had their kid pose with us for a picture. I remember one girl half a block away jumping behind her boyfriend upon seeing us. When we got closer, she explained that she was deathly afraid of them growing up. That night was full of odd interactions like these, and it was one of the most surreal nights of my life.

And to this day, it kinda freaks me out when I go into storage and see those giant googly eyes staring at me from inside a plastic bin.
posted by mysterpigg at 7:52 AM on August 30, 2010 [10 favorites]

I feel like the Yip Yips were intentionally designed to freak children out, but amuse their parents. The most sinister children's character.
posted by mccarty.tim at 7:54 AM on August 30, 2010

oooOOOooo. Sinnnnnngle link videooooooo post yipyipyipyipyipyipyip uh-huh uh-huh.

Moooooore linnnnnnnks? Moooooooore linnnnnks! Yipyipyip.

Earth! Yippee yippee EarthEarthEarth!

Phone. Brrrrrrrr-inggggg!

Earth person? Nope. Clock.

Ra-diii-o. Radio! Happy happy happy happy boing boing boing!

Olllld Macdonallllld sonnnnng. With frog. Frog? News frog!

Book.

Moooore linnnks? Mooore links! Yip! Yip! YipYipyipyipyip! Uh-huh uh-huh!
posted by Pallas Athena at 8:16 AM on August 30, 2010 [21 favorites]

My kids *love* this. :)
posted by zarq at 8:17 AM on August 30, 2010 [4 favorites]

While I'm of the correct generation to relate to people's horror attending the Yip Yips, I'm yet more of the right generation to be horrified of that particular vintage of Gateway 2000.
posted by 7segment at 8:20 AM on August 30, 2010 [3 favorites]

Ask them if they want any oatmeal
posted by Pallas Athena at 8:24 AM on August 30, 2010

Love
posted by Pallas Athena at 8:32 AM on August 30, 2010

Holy crap, is that a Banana Jr. 6000?
posted by Huck500 at 8:46 AM on August 30, 2010 [2 favorites]

Holy crap, is that a Banana Jr. 6000?

Nah, that model had feet.
posted by Pope Guilty at 8:49 AM on August 30, 2010

I believe you're looking for the comments in this thread. :)
posted by zarq at 8:53 AM on August 30, 2010

No Yip Yips, sadly, but Elmo was freakin' terrifying.

I can guarantee that you'll never guess what Elmo's voice and puppeteer looks like.

And, according to people I know in the biz, he's an all-round nice guy, which seems fitting.
posted by schmod at 8:54 AM on August 30, 2010 [3 favorites]

The Elmo link reminds me of this blooper reel from Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas. The most interesting part is a series of a whole bunch of takes apparently trying to get a drum to roll out of a door correctly. The thing about them that's interesting to me is that the puppeteers start wisecracking and getting frustrated at the number of takes, but as the puppets. It's not some dudes getting tired of their puppets, it's a couple of felt otters getting tired of waiting for a drum to roll right. It's really like these guys create a whole other creature that has its own personality and acts accordingly.
posted by cmoj at 9:12 AM on August 30, 2010 [3 favorites]

The Elmo link reminds me of this blooper reel from Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas.

Isn't that an incredible clip?

Also, since we're discussing Elmo: "When did you lose this interview?"
posted by zarq at 9:20 AM on August 30, 2010 [2 favorites]

I used to love these guys... And SAM too. Not a surprise that I grew up a big ol' scifi nerd geek computer person, is it.
posted by zoogleplex at 9:24 AM on August 30, 2010

I think this is how my school's IT department sees the rest of us.
posted by bibliowench at 9:45 AM on August 30, 2010 [2 favorites]

Looks like an LSD-inspired Doctor Who/Jim Hensen mash-up creation.

Your wish is granted
posted by davejay at 10:02 AM on August 30, 2010 [6 favorites]

Double nostalgia! I partially miss all the sounds that desktop computers used to make. Firing a computer up back then sounded like you were about to do wind tunnel tests, monitors all made that CRT 'dong!' sound, and screen savers were pictures of bananas.
posted by maus at 10:26 AM on August 30, 2010

Sure boss, I'll get that schedule finished. In the meantime, you can talk to cmoj who posted that damn Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas blooper reel that I can't stop watching!
posted by marxchivist at 10:32 AM on August 30, 2010

mccarty.tim: You have not known fear until you have seen SAM, children.

I'm told that I was, as a child, so terrified by SAM that my mother actually wrote to the Children's Television Workshop to complain. So I am, in some small, fractional way, responsible for SAM's quick demise.

I can't even remember seeing SAM as a kid, but looking at video of it now I can certainly see how weirdly threatening that could be, particularly because of the way even the adults on the show seem a little intimidated by him.

But I always loved the Yip Yips. They're odd but harmless. They don't have arms or teeth, they don't know anything, and they're terrified by the telephone.
posted by Western Infidels at 10:43 AM on August 30, 2010

The most interesting part is a series of a whole bunch of takes apparently trying to get a drum to roll out of a door correctly.

Apparently, they rolled the drum out the door before shooting and it landed just-so on the curb. Jim Henson wanted it just like that, and of course it took them numerous takes to get the drum to repeat that exact landing.
posted by Fleebnork at 10:44 AM on August 30, 2010

To tie this thread and the one three above it together: Lady Gaga/Yip Yips "Telephone" mashup.

Count me as another child terrified by the Yip Yips, but I have grown to love them. But oh, in the meantime, those childhood dreams where I would look up and THEY WOULD BE AT THE WINDOW...
posted by ilana at 10:48 AM on August 30, 2010 [1 favorite]

Firing a computer up back then sounded like you were about to do wind tunnel tests

Yep, those were the days. Now only firing up an XBox sounds like that.
posted by davejay at 11:03 AM on August 30, 2010 [1 favorite]

When I stayed home from school, I'd mostly read books, but when sesame street was on I'd keep it on with the sound low and one eye checking it every few minutes just in case the yip yips came on.
posted by the bricabrac man at 11:16 AM on August 30, 2010

I can guarantee that you'll never guess what Elmo's voice and puppeteer looks like.

He was also on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me a couple years ago.
posted by Evilspork at 11:38 AM on August 30, 2010 [1 favorite]

That telephone, with the rotary dial and not-ironic mechanical ringring, seems as ancient to me now as a Victrola. This, though I grew up with such phones.
posted by everichon at 12:34 PM on August 30, 2010

uh huh uh huh.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 12:41 PM on August 30, 2010

My ringtone is the yipyips phone bit. That is all.
posted by flaterik at 2:20 PM on August 30, 2010 [2 favorites]

I'm told that I was, as a child, so terrified by SAM that my mother actually wrote to the Children's Television Workshop to complain. So I am, in some small, fractional way, responsible for SAM's quick demise.

So it's your fault that the Children's Television Workshop sold SAM as scrap to the Soviet Union, who converted him into a Venus-capable planetary-survey vehicle without realizing that his undisclosed manufacturing defects would cause him to go rogue and eventually be destroyed in an epic two-episode-long battle against Col. Steve Austin?
posted by Lazlo at 3:00 PM on August 30, 2010

People were scared of the yip yips? They're made of happy and wonderment! They're the ur-Sesame Street.

And does wanting to borrow mysterpigg's costume make me a furryfelty?
posted by Dandeson Coates, Sec'y at 3:11 PM on August 30, 2010

You have not known fear until you have seen SAM, children.

OMG I could literally feel the synapses connecting in my brain as I remembered this thing.

You know that look a cat gets when it sees a bird outside? Ears and whiskers forward, tail down crouch with a "this is worthy of my greatest attention" look? That was me watching this. Now my wife wants me to go for a walk outside. I DON'T NEED A WALK SWEETHEART I'VE JUST BEEN WATCHING A ROBOT ON SESAME STREET.

And once again I appear to have eaten to much sugar today.
posted by Sutekh at 6:42 AM on August 31, 2010 [1 favorite]

Every morning should start with Yip Yips.
posted by homunculus at 9:26 AM on August 31, 2010