Sesame Street is usually a pretty sedate place; the focus, after all, is on education (and pop culture riffs). Usually the most exciting thing is a visit from one of the Gold Team Muppets.
But in 1990, adventure came to the street in the form of Minneapolis Johnson, local resident Bob’s (presumably estranged? Idk, man, I feel like this would have come up earlier!) brother, archaeologist, and loving knock-off of Indiana Jones. While crashing with his brother, he runs into Snuffleupagus, which is a lucky break in his quest for the Golden Cabbage of Snufertiti. Apparently, the Snufs descend from an alternative ancient Eygpt, where the very passive-aggressive Snufertiti ruled over humans. I think we need to start examining those mammoth mummies way more carefully.
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Long before Jurassic Park, Sesame Street realized Goldblum’s charisma and appeal would dovetail perfectly with a Spielbergian sense of action, as well as look amazing in the get-up (with the addition of a ponytail because 1990, Goldblum can pull it off). Minneapolis reads maps, solves puzzles, and swings with ropes with admirable aplomb.
The moral of the story, besides that Sesame Street can really stretch a production budget, is that Bob and Minneapolis may be very different from one another—they speak-sing a whole song about it!—but they still love and respect one another. And I think that’s a really beautiful lesson: We may all fail to be Jeff Goldblum spending a few days cosplaying Indiana Jones, but he loves us anyway.
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