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Instant Video Hit: Sesame Street's Cookie Monster Sings Parody of "Call Me Maybe"

  |  10 months ago   |  
Instant Video Hit: Sesame Streets Cookie Monster Sings Parody of Call Me Maybe

You know what the biggest no-brainer of no-brainers there are when it comes to a successful video on YouTube?  Whenever "Sesame Street" or "The Muppets" or anything Jim Henson has ever had his fingerprints on decides to do a parody of something already in the public consciousness.  So when Sesame Street released a video of the iconic Cookie Monster singing "Share It Maybe," a parody of the tremendously popular Carla Rae Jepsen song "Call Me Maybe," well, it didn't take any time at all for that video to hit over 2 million views in just a day.

Sesame Street: Share It Maybe

First off, if you're not aware, here's the Carla Rae Jepsen song, "Call Me Maybe," which has the very sound VEVO numbers of 150 million views:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWNaR-rxAic" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWNaR-rxAic']);" rel="nofollow, external" target="_blank"><img class="nopin" src="http://i.ytimg.com/vi//0.jpg" alt="Instant Video Hit: Sesame Streets Cookie Monster Sings Parody of Call Me Maybe" title="0" /></a>

Yeah, it's your basic, everyday happy pop song that you will find yourself singing at the grocery store but have no idea why.

So, "Sesame Street" and Cookie Monster changed some of the lyrics to include a longing for cookies:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qTIGg3I5y8" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qTIGg3I5y8']);" rel="nofollow, external" target="_blank"><img class="nopin" src="http://i.ytimg.com/vi//0.jpg" alt="Instant Video Hit: Sesame Streets Cookie Monster Sings Parody of Call Me Maybe" title="0" /></a>

After watching this, try to look for a reason not to say, "But you got COOKIE."  You can't, you're screwed.

What makes this a much bigger hit than usual for "Sesame Street" is that this is something that crosses over in popularity from the narrow demographic of "kids" to "everyone who has ever liked Sesame Street."  Considering that "Sesame Street" has been around for more than 40 years, that probably includes, oh, everybody.  Because this isn't just an educational video for kids, and taps into something popular, it's something that everyone will seek out and enjoy.

Since the average "Sesame Street" video on YouTube gathers at or around 100,000 views, the fact that this is at or around 2 million shows the power of leveraging already popular entertainment.  You have to stand out in some way: it's easy for "Sesame Street" because they are already a popular entertainment themselves.  But if you leverage something popular, it usually requires that you do it in an interesting, witty way.  That's how Walk Off the Earth scored one of the biggest hits of 2012 with a unique version of Gotye's "Somebody I Used to Know" back in January:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9NF2edxy-M" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9NF2edxy-M']);" rel="nofollow, external" target="_blank"><img class="nopin" src="http://i.ytimg.com/vi//0.jpg" alt="Instant Video Hit: Sesame Streets Cookie Monster Sings Parody of Call Me Maybe" title="0" /></a>

It's arguable that their own video led to Gotye's tremendous rise into consciousness this year, considering that Gotye's version came out last summer, but it would not have had the impact it did had it not been done in such a clever way.

Posted in Youtube Marketing
2013 Video Marketing Summit
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About the Author -
Chris Atkinson joined ReelSEO in 2011. He is a longtime film and television reviewer, and has almost two decades of experience in the theater industry. He also writes on his personal blog - http://nymoviereviews.com. View All Posts By -

What do you think? ▼
  • HowToBecomeTV

    Well done and fun but... why is it that almost ALL parodies are not really parodies at all, yet are permitted and not taken down. A Porody is something that makes fun of, criticizes, or satires the original content. This parody does not do this directly at all. It uses the original's fame to get views.  I have been so careful in my own content not to do this, but almost all parodies are parodies! The law is clear. This is copyright infringement. The fact that it has no pre-roll does not matter. Copyright infringement does not depend on monetization. They are selling amazon products in any-case. I wish we had consistent guidance on this. Why can they do this & yet I cannot? 

    • Chris Atkinson

      HowToBecomeTV I don't have all the answers on that, but I can almost guarantee you a brand like Sesame Street asked Carla Rae Jepsen and her label if it would be OK if they did it.  I highly doubt there wasn't a conversation there.  Also, many of the original artists love having that extra push, so they don't usually mind if someone does a different version of their song and even gets ad dollars for it.  The Gotye song is a very visible example.

      • HowToBecomeTV

        Chris Atkinson Perhaps. I tried getting permission from 1 Directions Right's holders. No response. =( You would think that if Sesame Street did have permission they would have posted that, but they did not.

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