Sesame Street/YouTube
Sesame Street and the Muppets have done it again – this time they are parodying Homeland – calling it HomeLamb. It shows a female lamb named Carrie. Her wide open eyes and her blond hair seem to show Claire Danes‘ character’s manic moods even without any eyes blinking. They should keep this puppet in rotation in case they have to do anything about Michele Bachmann (her very name lends itself to it. C’mon… Baaaaaaaaachmann?). There’s even a sheep that’s supposed to play Maaaaaaandy Paaaaaaaaaaatinkin…excuse me, Mandy Patinkin’s character Saul, replete with the hat and beard.
The sketch manages to perfectly bridge the adult themes of Homeland while weaving it into a familiar tale with a recognizable character, the Big Bad Wolf, who takes on the Brody role as a possible wolf in sheep’s clothing. They also get Carrie’s hypersexuality into the act without being crass about it: after all, it is still a kid’s show. These things are set so that a kid can watch it and enjoy it: Hey, talking sheep playing FBI agents, but it’s written so that adults can get a laugh at it. They have to do this, because chances are good that kids are going to make them watch this over and over, and the writers are so nuanced in the writing that a parent might see a joke they missed the first time around, or possibly the second…or the tenth. Yeah, if you have kids, you know exactly what I’m talking about.
The great thing about this is that the people behind the Muppets always manage to capture what the show is about, but adds its own humor and unique touch. In this one, it’s seeing how many sheep and lamb puns they can possibly cram in four minutes worth of the sketch. Examples: “The big bad wolf is on the lam(b)” and he’s shown sitting in a New York City subway sitting on top of a lamb. “I feel sheepish” is another. I’m not going to be one of those people who ruins the whole thing by telling you everything that happens in it. Even if you’re without a child, this is still worth watching.
This immediately joins the other great parodies of years past, which includes the Sons Of Anarchy one from earlier this year. Keep up the great work, Sesame Workshop. We can’t wait to see what’s next.
