Day 808: Who the Heck is Katy Perry?

Okay, okay, okay.  So, Katy Perry was on Sesame Street… possibly dressed as a slutty princess.  As a parent I am told I should be bothered by this.  So… first things first… who the heck is Katy Perry?  


Man, I feel old… and out of touch.  For some reason  I want to refer to myself as a ‘square’… but a hip square… because I wasn’t nearly as offended by the video as everyone else seems to be… and that’s me speaking as a parent, not a dude.

Seriously, was that really offensive?  The dress she’s wearing is tamer than most prom dresses… and to me, she was wearing a typical summer dress that wasn’t overly revealing.  Compared to the things our kids probably pick-up from the evening news or super-bowl half-time shows… I don’t think Katy Perry’s performance on Sesame Street is worthy of an outcry.


Celebrities, unfit for children’s consumption, appear on Sesame Street all the time…  but we need to remember, they aren’t there for our kids… they are there for us, the parents.  We shouldn’t be letting the television raise our kids, right?  We should be watching with them, guiding them… Sesame Street doesn’t layer in celebrities as a way to indoctrinate our kids… they do it to give the parents watching something special.  Our kids have no idea what the connection is… it’s just part of the show… the lesson… part of the learning process.  


Check this out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_guest_stars_on_Sesame_Street


No one complained when James Gandolfini & Edie Falco appeared on Sesame Street while they were on ‘The Sopranos’, a show where they don’t utter a single sentence without at least one profanity.


Jason Biggs from ‘American Pie’… The man had intercourse with an apple pie on camera for crying out loud!  I didn’t hear a peep out of anyone when he appeared.


Let’s see… who else… oh, The Simpsons, Ben Stiller, Gene Simmons, Paul Reubens has been on twice, Joe Pesci, Robert Deniro, Sandra Oh from Grey’s Anatomy, Ice-T… 


And what about Jessica Alba’s appearance where she defined the word ‘scrumptious’… right… I’m sure there were no sexual undertones there.


The list goes on and on:

Now, all that said… I don’t have any problem with the fact Katy Perry was going to appear on the show.  I don’t have a problem with how she was dressed either.  However, I don’t think her segment was ultimately successful… and I have a feeling this is why parents across the country are complaining.  They know there was something wrong with the segment but don’t exactly know why… so they complain about what she was wearing or question why a pop star was on the show in the first place.  Her segment was unsuccessful because it wasn’t educational.  


The montage clip above showed Alanis Morissette in, what I would consider, a highly successful and educational celebrity segment.   Much like James Blunt’s odd yet fun geometry lesson:

 

As for Katy Perry… her segment was gratuitous.  Not gratuitous in a sexual way… but in an unneeded way.  There was no added value.  Now, I’m not saying every segment on Sesame Street needs to be educational… there is a time and place to just have fun and I think it’s important for our kids to understand this… However, a number of years ago, the bench mark for a highly successful ‘let’s have fun’ musical segment on Sesame Street was set very high by REM.  And… well… I’m sorry Katy… you’re no REM.