10 Creepy Theories That Ruin Your Favourite Kids TV Shows
3. Sesame Street Is The Count’s Walk-In Larder
A simple one now: via an anonymous contributor to Mighty God King online, this theory solves a forty year old riddle. Why is it that an Eastern European immigrant with a Bela Lugosi fetish hangs around a New York City street compulsively counting things?
More recent Sesame Street material is keen to play down Count Von Count’s less savoury undead characteristics. However, in his early appearances the character was a good deal more sinister than the avuncular charmer we see on the screen today, regularly hypnotising the Muppet inhabitants of the Street and possessing no reflection in mirrors.
Some point to his appearance in daylight with no ill effects as proof positive that the Count isn’t a real vampire… but close followers of the vampire mythos will recall that traditionally, sunlight isn’t a barrier to vampiric activity. Dracula himself walked around in the daylight all the time: the invention of the allergy to solar radiation came with F.W. Murnau’s adaptation of Stoker’s novel, as the celebrated German director needed a powerful climax for the film.
Mighty God King invites us to consider the facts. The Count lives in an isolated, baroque castle on a hillside, festooned with cobwebs and bats, yet spends an inordinate amount of time in the city. The child cast of Sesame Street changes constantly, yet the adults have remained for years - sometimes decades - and none of them bat an eyelid to see a vampire in their midst.
The conclusion is obvious. Count Von Count is an undead monster, mesmerising the grown-ups of Sesame Street into becoming his willing thralls, and feeding on the unsuspecting innocents that come to the Street to play learning games, hang out with Muppets and meet John Denver.
And the counting? Arithomania is actually a traditional facet of vampire folklore. In China, vampires who pass a sack of rice will feel compelled to count every grain before moving on, while in Europe the graves of suspected vampires were often scattered with seeds, the idea being that, upon rising, the obsessive-compulsive monster would need to count them all before finding its meal for the night.