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I think that the best things that came out of it were the chance to do Blanche and also I did a Sesame Street Big Bird video that was very satisfying to me. And I don't think I would have been asked to do that if I hadn't reached a little bit higher profile in the 'industry.' That was really rewarding.
Frances McDormand discusses some perks of winning an Academy Award
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What well-known bands or actors acquire when they appear as themselves, or doing their instantly-recognizable acts, on a television program aimed at young children.

Like many things about modern kids' TV, the concept was pioneered on Sesame Street and subsequently became a staple of the many programs inspired by it. The basic idea is to make it easy and fun for parents/guardians to get involved in their kids' educational process; however, over the years, it has spun itself off into a unique celebrity cachet. An appearance on the Street — or nearby programming suburbs — has become almost as potent a sign of stardom as an appearance on Leno's or Letterman's couches.

May involve a certain amount of Bowdlerization to keep things kid-friendly and/or educational.

Mostly occurs in live-action shows, but an actor or band with a distinctive voice can provide the same effect in animation.

The serious older sibling of Parental Bonus. Also often related to So My Kids Can Watch. Can trigger Hey, It's That Guy!. For the inverse (with the Sesame Street cast only), see Muppet Cameo.

Note: When adding examples, please remember that not all animated series are aimed at young children. Rule of thumb: the closer the age of the show's target audience is to the age of the guest star, the less likely it is to be this trope.

Examples in fiction:

Comics[]

Live-Action TV[]

  • In an episode of Murphy Brown, Murphy gets a guest appearance on a No Celebrities Were Harmed version of Sesame Street. It... doesn't go well.
  • The West Wing had a plot involving the First Lady filming a Sesame Street-based PSA, with Elmo and Big Bird appearing as themselves (the show goes to admirably great lengths to keep Muppet Kayfabe in case any kids are watching). A resulting sight gag comparing the statuesque Allison Janney with her nicknamesake, Big Bird, is funny and notable as this show rarely did gags like this.

Examples in real life:[]

Film[]

Live Action TV[]

  • As noted above, Sesame Street is the Trope Namer. Performers would sing a "kid friendly" version of one of their songs.
    • R.E.M. performed "Shiny Happy People" as "Furry Happy Monsters".
    • Feist
    • Ray Charles made multiple appearances, the most notable being a performance of the Alphabet Song with a number of other famous people singing various letters.
    • The B-52s.
    • James Taylor sang "Whenever I See Your Grouchy Face" to Oscar the Grouch.
    • Carol Channing sang about Sammy the Snake.
    • John Munch. Yes, you read right...a fictional character has Sesame Street Cred.
    • The 'kid-friendly' bit was totally subverted by Stevie Wonder, who performed Superstition not only straight (save for a Name Drop in the second verse), but as a balls-to-the-wall six-minute jam session.
    • Paul Simon tactfully left the last stanza — the one about how 'the radical priest come to get me released' — off "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard" when performing it on the Street. This still left the bits about Mama spitting on the ground and Papa threatening 'the house of detention' intact, however.
    • Stephen Colbert starred in a Sesame Street straight-to-video special in 2005. Unfortunately, Sesame Street Cred is not legal tender at the Daily Show.
      • Jon already beat Stephen to this cred; he hosted and sang at Elmopalooza in 1998.
    • Robin Williams.
    • Jim Carrey
    • A voice-only example: the vocalist in the "Jazz Numbers" bits is none other than Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane/Starship fame.
    • Ricky Gervais. He's said it was the coolest moment of his career.
      • The actual segment is also hilarious.
    • Herbie Hancock during the 80s. He played an electro-jazz version of the theme song and showed what electronic sound equipment can do.
    • Patrick Stewart shows his Shakespearean roots in this clip from Sesame Street.
      • And appears again here.
    • Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor also made numerous appearances (Pryor while obviously coked out of his ever-loving mind), but in Cosby's case he was practically a recurring guest host.
    • Indie rock band Tilly and the Wall is one of the most recent examples.
    • Celine Dion sang "Happy to Meet You" to a starstruck Herry Monster (1998).
    • Neil Patrick Harris as the Sesame Street Shoe Fairy.
    • Jack Black shows children what an octagon is.
    • The Goo Goo Dolls turning a hit song about teen pregnancy into an encouragement to feel proud of yourself. Worth watching for the bassist's reactions to Elmo.
    • The Sesame Country album (1981) featured the show's Muppets in duets with country superstars Loretta Lynn, Crystal Gayle, Glen Campbell, and Tanya Tucker.
    • Siskel and Ebert do their critic exercises and argue about thumbs.
    • Gloria Estefan appeared on the show several times, performing hits like "Conga" and "1-2-3." She also hosted the show's 50th anniversary special in 2019.
    • Perhaps the earliest Sesame example, Buffy Sainte-Marie was a regular on the show's first decade. This was after her ability to get gigs and radio play in the US was compromised due to her protest music.
    • Johnny Cash sang "Nasty Dan" to Oscar the Grouch. And it was awesome.
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 Oscar: *as Cash leaves* That was my kind of guy!

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  • Inversion: Cookie Monster appeared on The Colbert Report to hang a lampshade on the whole cookies-are-a-sometimes-food thing. ("Me have craaaazy times in '70s and '80s.")
    • "ME like the Robert Downey Jr of COOKIES!!"
    • Then there's The Daily Show's own personal Muppet, 'Michael Steele', which started as a stock footage running gag and evolved into an actual Muppet (and a perpetual CMOF whenever he appears).Meanwhile, the original Muppets have made plenty of other in-character talk show appearances. Not to mention the Scrubs episode with Elmo, Oscar, Telly, and Grover.
    • They also used Guy Smiley for Mitt Romney.
  • Cookie Monster also appeared on Martha Stewart's show Martha Stewart Living. Hilarity really did ensue.
  • The various artists and musicians who appeared on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.
    • In an interesting crossover, Big Bird himself appeared in one episode of Neighborhood, but only after considerable negotiation. Word of God is that Carroll Spinney turned down an initial script that had him taking off the Bird head and demonstrating how he performed the character. As the line between 'make-believe' and reality was likewise important to Fred Rogers (who saw any overlap as deceiving his young audience), Big Bird appeared in character, but only in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe. In a later episode of Sesame Street, Rogers would appear to act as referee for a race between Big Bird and Snuffy in Central Park.
    • In another crossover, Captain Kangaroo appeared on Mister Rogers' show, followed by Rogers appearing on the Captain's show. A young Tony Hawk also had an Early-Bird Cameo on the latter.
  • Yo Gabba Gabba:
    • The Shins
    • Low
    • Mark Mothersbaugh
    • Shiny Toy Guns, made even better because of the fact that they were shown as "The Shinys".
      • Similarly, The Killers were introduced as "Brandon, Dave, Ronnie, and Mark."
    • Cornelius
    • Elijah Wood
    • Tony Hawk
    • Jack Black. Gets special mention for having most of an episode dedicated to his appearance, as well as the chance to wear orange spandex despite having a slight beer gut.
    • Andy Samberg
    • Glay
    • Dave Grohl (of the Foo Fighters) appeared at one of the live shows (he was attending it with his daughter) and did the Peanut Butter Stomp.
    • The band My Chemical Romance is trying to guest star on the show to sing a song about Lemonade.
      • They actually did appear on the show recently, telling the kids how every snowflake is different, just like you!
    • Of Montreal
    • Mos Def
    • Anthony Bourdain
    • The Aquabats (not surprising since the lead singer is the show's creator)
    • Jimmy Eat World
    • Weezer
    • Basement Jaxx
    • The Flaming Lips appeared recently
  • The cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation on Reading Rainbow. Which is fitting, because LeVar Burton hosts Reading Rainbow. Along with the various story narrators — Bill Cosby, Michael Ansara, Hulk Hogan, etc.
  • This also happened in The Sarah Jane Adventures with the Blue Peter presenters in "Invasion of the Bane".
  • MI High featured an appearance by Konnie Huq, one of the Blue Peter presenters, in one episode.
  • Billy Corgan appeared on the last episode filmed of WGN's Bozo, the 40th anniversary show.
  • Jon Stewart made an appearance on Jack's Big Music Show as a reporter doing a story on Groundhog Day; Jack's Big Music Show is one of his son's favorite shows.
  • Cheryl Hines appeared on this show as well.
  • Square One TV featured, among other things, a bunch of music videos by well-known artists about math. Featured bands include the Jets, the Judds, the Fat Boys, Kid 'n' Play, Bobby McFerrin, Gregory Hines and "Weird Al" Yankovic.
  • Inversion: Dustin the Turkey often appears unexpectedly on various Irish TV shows to insult the presenters (this is entirely in character for him). The most bizarre example would probably be the time he entered the Eurovision Song Contest.
  • Tom Lehrer returned to songwriting in the 70's to pen a few tunes for PBS's The Electric Company.
    • Not really surprising given that his longtime friend and fellow composer, Joe Raposo, worked on the show for the first three seasons as musical director.
    • On the same show, radio comics Bob & Ray voiced a couple animated versions of their 'interview' schtick.
    • Bill Cosby, Rita Moreno, and Morgan Freeman were part of the cast (although Freeman wasn't legendary at the time, unlike the others). Joan Rivers narrated "The Adventures of Letterman", while Gene Wilder voiced the character.
  • Vicki Lawrence, Dolly Parton, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Christine Taylor, Jesse McCartney, Iyaz, Rob Reiner, Edie McClurg, John Cena, Jon Cryer, Heather Locklear, Brooke Shields, Robin Roberts, Dr. Phil, Sheryl Crow and Ray Liotta are among the guest stars who performed on Hannah Montana.
  • Wizards of Waverly Place also featured guest appearances by Dwayne Johnson and Rob Reiner, along with Shakira, Wilmer Valderama, Taylor Negron, Curtis "Booger" Armstrong, Jeff Garlin, Julia Duffy, Julie Brown, Lee Meriweather, Adam Carolla, Fred Willard, Cindy Crawford, Misty-May Trainor, Rachel Dratch, Joanne Worley, Ted McGinley and John O' Hurley.
  • 3-2-1 Contact had a few, including Robert Guillaume, Linus Pauling, Suzanne Ciani, Dizzy Gillespie, Sarah Jessica Parker, and even Big Bird (Caroll Spinney) himself.
  • Kylie Minogue is an honorary Wiggle.

Western Animation[]