Sesame Street Takes A Bite Out Of Star Wars, Still Better Than The Prequels
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It’s been over 35 years since Star Wars first hit theaters and seized the imaginations of viewers both young and old, so it’s safe to say we’ve seen just about every single spoof, parody, tribute, and reimagining imaginable in the years since. But leave it to the creative masterminds at Sesame Street to send the sci-fi classic up in a perfectly simplistic fashion: with a ton of food puns. If you ever thought that Cookie Monster would be perfectly happy eating his own grandmother if she was made out of a cookie, get ready to be proven wrong.
For Star S’mores, which is set in a “cookies and milky way galaxy far, far away,” Cookie Monster plays the roguishly handsome Flan Solo, who is partnered with the bandolier-wearing Chewy the Cookie. I like that even though these characters are supposed to have already been buddies, Cookie Monster interrupts everything so that he may try and eat Chewy. Is this meta? I can’t tell.
Anyway, they’re both working with Luke Piewalker to try and save the lovely Princess Parfait-a from the evil clutches of Darth Baker. These are easy joke names, don’t get me wrong, but it’s still pretty funny to see Darth Vader’s helmet turn into a baker’s cap, and that his life support chest armor is just bacon and eggs. And come on, they get props for turning Leia’s hair into sandwich cookies instead of going with the normal cinnamon roll-style buns. Plus, it “feeds” into the story, given that one monster character who just loves to eat cookies. So hard to remember his name.
Instead of this being Luke’s journey to heroism, Star S’mores teaches kids about self control, using Flan’s desire to eat his partner as the hook. (Princess Parfait-a’s situation is totally a second-string problem here.) To help him out, they talk to wise sage Only One Cannoli, who teaches him to “Use the four,” for which he stops what he’s doing and counts to four in order to calm his urges. But further assistance is needed, so they go and meet the more wrinkled mentor Groda, who is not happy to take potshots about his non-cuteness. He teaches Flan that singing can be a good alternative to his hunger pangs.
But in the end, it is Darth Baker himself who saves the day, giving Luke a solid father figure and teaching Flan that he can pretend that Chewy is something he doesn’t want to eat in order to control himself. Then we see a cookie dressed up as a grandmother. So knock that off of your bucket lists.
It’s another solid Sesame Street parody, full of easter eggs like Mr. Snuffleupagus as a bantha in the background of a shot. It’s a wonder that the series hasn’t teamed up with the Muppets for full-length parodies like this. Or even just an anthology film like Monty Python’s Meaning of Life. I’ll keep the four, er, the faith that it’ll happen one day.
