Video Roundup: Muppet commercials and Sesame's 40th

Do you remember the days when you had to sit in front of your TV all day just to catch a glimpse of that commercial everyone is talking about? Or when you actually had to wait for the new season of your favorite show to debut before seeing what they had in store for you? Me neither.

This new-fangled age of immediacy on the internet has completely spoiled me. Now as soon as something Muppety shows up, we can share the wealth! And in the past week, a lot of Sesame Street and Muppet videos have been begging to be shared. Let's take a peek:

The latest videos to hit the net are the Muppet Monsters on Disney.com, celebrating the Pagan candy holiday, Halloween. Give a click and see Big Mean Carl, Yorick (the skull, not the purple dude), Mo Frackle, and some other spooky-yet-obscure characters tell some not-so-scary jokes.
There was a surprise cameo or two on last week's episode of Dancing with the Stars, featuring Animal, Gonzo, and Aaron Carter. That last guy isn't a Muppet, but he does dance to one of their favorite jams.

The Muppets have been popping up all over the Disney websites lately, promoting Disney's "Give a Day, Get a Disney Day" campaign. Three commercials have already hit the net, the first of which (featuring James Denton) can be seen below. The other two aren't on YouTube yet, but you can watch Miss Piggy lock eyes with Taye Diggs here and butt heads with Teri Hatcher here.

From the same campaign, Kermit and Piggy donned their hardhats (to protect their puppeteers' hands, I guess) to officially announce "Give a Day, Get a Disney Day." According to the video uploader, this took place on September 29, which hopefully means that Steve Whitmire is back performing Kermit. Charity shmarity, I'm just glad Steve is back!

Next month, Sesame Street starts its 40th season, making it only ten years away from joining AARP. To get us started on the party early, they released some videos to keep us amused. First, take a look at the updated opening sequence. The hipper version of the theme song is still in play, but now we get to see Cookie Monster eating chalk (what, are they turning him into Chalk Monster now??).

Following in the footsteps of her First Lady brethren (sistren?), Michelle Obama is slated to appear on Sesame Street to talk about the all-important issue of gardening. How much longer must we endure Obama's liberal agenda???

In order to give Leslie Carrara's arms a rest, Abby Cadabby will be appearing as a much more static (and creepy-eyed) version of herself in the CGI segment, "Abby's Flying Fairy School". I wonder what she did to get kicked out of Storybook Community School...

It didn't take long for Apple to sneak some product placement into Sesame Street. When do you think we'll see the "I'm a Mac/I'm the letters P and C" parody?

Lastly, the video that's been hitting all the blogs in the right places, we've got Sesame Street's Mad Men parody. It's exactly like Mad Men, except less sexism and cigarettes, and more Joey Mazzarino. The sketch is also notable for the triumphant return of Frank Oz, who performs a better Don Draper than John Hamm himself.

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