Sesame Street, “Twin Beaks”

It’s funny how often children’s entertainment will parody stuff that is absolutely not geared towards kids at all. Looney Tunes would make references to celebrities who were long since dead, or movies that no child had seen, yet there was never a sense of confusion about the situation. Either context provided the clues or the young viewers simply “got” what the writers were going for and went along for the ride. MAD Magazine, The Muppet Show, and other programs did this as well, almost always landing well with their child audiences.

Which brings us to Sesame Street’s parody of the absolutely-not-for-kids-at-all-ever TV show Twin Peaks. David Lynch and Mark Frost’s surreal story of sex, murder, the occult, interdimensional beings, and other byproducts found due to Laura Palmer’s death was not appointment viewing for children. Yet it was part of the national zeitgeist when it aired and the younger generations didn’t need to know the intricacies of the show in order to get what was happening. “Twin Beaks” (which is a joke and quasi-topic that was also used in Darkwing Duck, oddly enough) doesn’t do much in the way of actually lampooning the bizarre cult series, with its biggest nods being a bird named David Finch (eh? eh?), the log lady (why was she the lightning rod for so many parodies?), and a diner that serves delicious pie to Agent Cookie (Cookie Monster in place for Kyle MacLachlan).

Presented as part of the ongoing parody feature “Monsterpiece Theater,” it’s a pretty delightful throwback to the Children’s Workshop and Lynch/Frost’s tale of a not-so-quaint little town.