Sesame Street - King Minus

[EndyEnderman]

Still a better love story than Twilight.

[Hbot208]

Featured on TV Tropes!

[briansky10]

I've always hated this segment. It scares the hell out of me; particularly the part regarding the last dragon. The music, the narration I've always found so gripping, so intense and so terrifying. Whenever this came on, even today,I'd either mute the television or change the channel. I still do.

[eternalhalloween1]

@briansky10 You're not alone. I feel pretty much the same way. (Especially the part about the last dragon, and Minus's deplorable atrocity.) But like I said, it is somewhat of pleasure to see that after he got so full of himself that his powers backfired and he lost not only the woman he loved but his own existence. So it does seem that while King Minus is SUPPOSEDLY the good guy, there IS justice.

[eternalhalloween1]

This may be deeper than we think. Self defense is one thing. But King Minus hunted down the last dragon. This is NOT to be admired. Did he get so full of himself that he stopped thinking about what was right and wrong? It's almost a pleasure to see that after he got so full of himself, his powers backfired, and he lost not only the woman he loved, but his own existence as well.

[TinyDancer500]

@eternalhalloween1 As we used to say back in my day, that's heavy, man ;-)

[eternalhalloween1]

@TinyDancer500 Well, sometimes these things are more profound than we give them credit for. That's what made 'Sesame Street' so great. It could give a short fast lesson that a child could retain. Yet it could have a deeper level that would hold the interest of their parents.

[Sparkina]

When the princess went "poof," I bet King Minus had a broken heart XD

[akiratrooper]

There were no princesses, so he touched himself.

...wait, that sounds wrong!

[cstoczyn]

RIP King Minus

[Pocockable]

I wish King Minus would make Qaddafi evaporate!

[TheWritersDiary]

0:08 Seriously dude? You're gonna flip me off?

[maidenrulz1]

Don't feel bad King Minus-My girlfriends are always "going poof" on me too, LOL.

[Pocockable]

I would have made Saddam Hussein and Ferdinand Marcos evaporate if I'd had a finger like King Minus. 

[CrazyGamerDragon64]

I kind of feel bad for the dragons, especially the last one who tried to run away

[MaureenJ0812]

@CrazyGamerDragon64 I also felt bad for the last dragon. When King Minus touched the third dragon, I didn't like the way the color disappeared and you just saw him as an outline. I used to ask my mom about that...it really bothered me for some reason :)

[thatblatinothug]

this is a good one too

[TM2DB]

Have you got this in mp3?

[TinyDancer500]

@TM2DB Do I?! Well, I do now, just for you :-) The .mp3 is 1.24M, I can upload it to my server and send the link or send it via email, just let me know.

[sweetlife031]

This is from a kids how!! Did anyone catch him giving the finger????

[doctalee]

this cartoon use to make me feel ill at ease?

[oiramapap]

That last dragon had already given up and fled, but King Minus still killed him just for the heck of it. I'm calling PETA!

[cajam0710]

Like 'Wanda the Witch"bizarre and frightening.

[jellywillreturn]

He flipped me off!

[1980sVideoVault]

I remember when this King Minus clip was followed by a Sesame Street scene where Cookie Monster imagined himself as "King Cookie". Everything he touched turned into piles of cookies, including the newsstand. When he touched his friends, he made a big mistake. As he shouted, "Keep away! Keep away! Keep away!...." he imagined himself back to normal. This was remade into "The Cookie Touch" as Cookie says, "Me got cookie touch! Me Got Cookie Touch! Me Got Cookie Touch!" over and over.

[wahgwanwidcha]

I just got flipped off by a sesame street cartoon =

LOL

[gringging]

Anyone know who the narrator is in this skit?

[hotroute]

I was wondering the exact same thing. Knowing Sesame's ability to attract a-list guest stars it could have been Richard Burton or Laurence Olivier.

[d72jjpilc]

@gringging I'm tempted to think Gary Owens, but I could be wrong.

[moatguy]

It's funny how King Minus diserpears when he touches himself but with King Midas he does not turn to gold when he touches himself.

[IronPants]

So much conversation about touching oneself makes me lol.

[NameNotaNumber]

The music in this is fantastic.

[SpecialAgentKato]

A vilain. that Dragon did now want to fight.

[BishopTJH]

You ain't lyin'.  Right at 0:08 the King does flip the Bird. :-D :-D :-D

[warlaker]

Dang! how did the censors miss the king giving us the "salute" for so long?

[cornwallthedragon]

I know he has four fingers but yeah. lol

[Me242008]

lol, it looked like king minus gave us the middle finger.

[patsupfan]

my thoughts exactly LOL

[moatguy]

I wonder why King Minus did nit disarpear when he curled his fingers into his palm.

[KraZvEgGyBuRgEr]

Aahh!! I have this on some old Sesame Street VHS from the 70's and/or 80's.

[MeowMonkey]

King Minus just flipped off all of us!

[moatguy]

Good thing the original King Minus only wished for whatever he touched to turn gold. At least he could reverse it all by wishing. Good thing in the original story too he did not touch himself!

[mftheory]

Jesus, poeple. GET A GRIP! this is just a CARTOON!

[Sportica]

Holy cow; right there at 0:07 I had to pause it and stare a loooong time. I can't believe how much it looks like he's telling everyone in the kingdom to sit on it!

Just think how quickly someone would complain (and probably find someone to sue) if that were shown today; y'all know it's true! 

Ah, how I miss simpler times! :)

[lfrage]

Who do you REALLY think is more dangerous, King Minus or X-Men's Rogue?

[Brinah]

good question! lol

[DiAnno13]

I wonder how King Minus survived adolescence...

[starwarsrebel2006]

ROFL

[Docmananoff]

@DiAnno13 LMAO!!!!!!!!

[ruhetang]

Does anyone recognize the narrator's voice? He sounds familiar...

[richardmcboingboing]

my educated guess is shelley berman but i cannot find conformation

[annken102]

i used to feel sad for king minus.thanks - can you get the cartoon clip of adventure? do you remember it ?

[ISNorden]

If you look closely at King Minus, you'll notice that whatever he touches with the purple-gloved hand *doesn't* disintegrate. Poor fella should've put the other glove on before he hugged the princess...

By the way, Tiny Dancer--five stars minus zero stars equals, well, you do the math!

[DiAnno13]

How come the gloves didn't disappear?

[culpit]

Maybe they're special magic protection gloves.

[afriendofbean]

I wondered the same thing too. Maybe someone else put the glove on his left hand just so that it wouldn't disappear as soon as he touched it with his right hand.

Also, at the end, maybe the reason why the glove didn't disappear after he caused the maid and his horse to disappear is because, the glove wasn't part of his body when maybe, his clothes and crown were strapped to his body which could be the reason why everything on him disappeared except his glove.

[IronPants]

Thinking too hard about a silly cartoon. :)

[afriendofbean]

I am just giving my opinion about this skit. A lot of people have put their own opinion about Sesame Street YouTube skits whether the skit is a cartoon, comedy, or any other reason. People have always put their own opinion about a Sesame Street skit on a certain scene, spot, or the whole skit on how they felt on what they saw.

[IronPants]

Why be afraid? Opinion is just opinion. It's not like you're trolling or trying to spread hate. Those details are completely unimportant.

It's funny, it's well done, and it's classic. (Mental note: Buy classic Sesame Street DVD's)

[afriendofbean]

Relax. I don't know why you are arguing and getting defensive.

[A1l2l2e2n4]

If you noticed, only things that King Minus touched with his RIGHT hand disappeared.

[afriendofbean]

Yes, I saw King Minus only using his right hand to cause things to disappear. At 0:08, when he made his crown disappear when he used his right hand, I then saw at 0:10 that he quickly used his left hand with the glove on it to put another crown on his head. (I guess the reason his second crown didn't disappear was because he had a glove on his left hand).

[moatguy]

No wonder they gave a litterel meaning to his name in this.

[moatguy]

If he tried to put the other glove on it would disappear too!

[ISNorden]

BTW, the original mythical king who inspired this clip was named *Midas*; still, the change to "Minus" for a math lesson is a cute pun.

[moatguy]

That,s what I said,"No wonder they gave a litteral meaning to his name in this."

[nekkonell]

Hey, when he makes his crown disappear, it's like he's flipping off the camera...

[HeliosPhoenix]

nooo dwaggies ;v;

XD but I rembmer this, it was funny!

[yessong69]

This clip was always a bittersweet one for me because he ended up disintegrating his ladylove when he hugged her....so he ended up ending it all!

[kingminus]

unfortunately were there this Cartoon in the German "sesam strasse" not

[vinniecorbit]

Is that Rick Wakeman on the harpsichord?

[yessong69]

Maybe he did this in between Yes gigs? Totally hearing the Wakeman in this, too.

[yessong69]

PS: I really didn't say that in seriousness, but it would be cool if it had turned out to be him. :)

[bigbadwolfbear]

Alas she too went poof? ummm- yeah

[LiteracyLabyrinth]

very cool

[dipthonggirl]

I am having happy flashbacks right now X3

[MaureenJ0812]

The King Minus cartoon used to give me nighmares. I didn't like the way King Minus disintegrated the dragons, and the narrarator's voice used to bother me. What can I say...I was a sensitive kid LOL!

[ironhide2006]

i always felt the same...i am 35 now and it still bothers me...there are some other cartoon that still give me the creeps (such as the yo-yo master and lost kid).

[ironhide2006]

@MaureenJ0812

i feel the same maureen. willie wimple also scared me too.

[MaureenJ0812]

@ironhide2006 Yes. There was something about him that was creepy.

[shinz4]

Very Fun! Has been my favorite for a long time.

[briandoom]

like the J short, a bit out of sync. But still cool!