Sesame Street has developed a sweet spot for prestige TV and they’re not afraid to inject an homage or twelve into their educational wheelings and dealings. Seeing as this wasn’t really a trend around the time of HBO’s Oz, we’ve had to wait for another critically gushed over series to meld prison with keeping the tots occupied. (It’s probably for the best. No one wants to see Cookie Monster stabbed by J.K. Simmons.)
The Sesame Workshop has blessed us with a sweethearted Orange is the New Black parody titled Orange is the New Snack. Featuring some Muppet equivalent OITNB characters and an understandably different direction than Season 5 of the Netflix program, Litchfield Penitentiary is subbed out for a school with the lead Piper Snackman trying to sort out a snack-related issue. Things escalate pretty quickly…
The five-minute parody’s rapid-fire run of series references aren’t likely to register on Sesame Street‘s target audience, but the message about the importance of nutrition (including when faced with Red’s cooking) is the lesson of the day. Geez, it’s like Piper knows nothing about the SHU. Or, uh, the “shoe” in this case.
Orange Is the New Black is slated to debut Season 5 on June 9. Citrus is optional.
