Muppet Wiki

Kermiteye Welcome to Muppet Wiki!


Please visit Special:Community to learn how you can collaborate with the editing community.

READ MORE

Muppet Wiki
Register
Advertisement

A series of Sesame Street cartoons feature a man sounding out words written on a sign. Their first appearances are listed in scripts simply by their topic, but later reruns refer to them by the topic followed by "Sounds" (a practice held over in the menus on the Old School: Volume 2 DVD and the Sesame Street Video Player).

The cartoons premiered in Season 9 and continued to appear through season 31. The man was voiced by animator Don Arioli, who worked at the studio that produced the segments.[1] He wore a green shirt, a bow tie, and pink trousers, while his head and arms appeared to be smaller than the rest of his body.

The sketches consist of the man running across a sign by chance. In some of them, the letters in the signs were mixed up, necessitating re-arrangement into their proper order (he would often mutter about the perpetrator behind these scramblings). In addition to mixed-up words, some signs would display two separate syllables needing to be blended together, and others would be a pair of fully assembled one-syllable words. He would then slowly pronounce the completed sign text several times. After triumphantly calling out the word(s), the man would find himself in a number of humorous situations.

Segments[]

Picture EKA Description
SignManMilk
Episode 1116 Milk
The man has a run-in with a cow pushing a baby carriage, and she picks him up and holds him as she takes the bottle of milk out of the carriage and he drinks it while she is holding him.
2477v
Episode 1118 Help
After shouting the word, a dog nurse arrives (thinking the man hurt himself), wraps the man in bandages, and rocks him in her arms.
1186n
Episode 1119 Burp
After saying this word, the man is taught good manners. This is another clip where the man didn't walk up to the sign; instead, the sign floated over to him while he was juggling.
Signman.GROW
Episode 1120 Grow
The man shows off his gardening prowess with a wildly-growing flower.
Signman.DIRTY
Episode 1121 Dirty
The man combines the word and then a glove grabbed him for a while to wash him clean.
Signman.OneWay
Episode 1125 One Way
Traffic passes by the man in reverse.
Signman.TAXI
Episode 1136 Taxi
The man inadvertently hails a cab. Not only does he walk up to the sign, which is far across from him, the sign floats right toward him when he has stopped.
SignMan.KissMe
Episode 1136 Kiss Me
A big barking dog comes up and kisses the man.
SignToon-Paint
Episode 1136 Wet Paint
A man and a woman pass by and smear wet green paint on the man's shirt.
Signman.HotDog
Episode 1142 Hot Dog
The man has a run-in with a dog riding a bicycle. This was one clip where the man didn't walk up to the sign; the sign floated over to him while he was doing push-ups.
Signman.School
Episode 1155 School
After a bunch of kids come running by, a girl goes before the man and says it's Saturday. That leaves him to say: "No school."
Signman.BINGO
Episode 1156 Bingo
After saying "BINGO," a robot-like cleaning contraption comes on-screen and scrubs the man's foot.
1710p
Episode 1161 Walk Tall
A snake tells the man that all he (the snake) can do is "crawl tall."
SignMan.DontWalk
Episode 1162 Don't Walk
After reading this sign, the man has to crawl away.
SignMan-Stop
Episode 1163 Stop
After reading the sign, two cars screech to a stop, one on each side of him.
Signman.OINK
Episode 1163 Oink
A pig comes up, wanting to share in a good laugh with the man.
Sign Cartoon Bad Dog
Episode 1164 Bad Dog
After the man reads the sign, a dog comes in and protests, "I'm not a bad dog! What did I do? What did I do?"
2795u
Episode 1169 Coffee
A construction worker descends from off-screen sitting on an I-beam, requesting two regular coffees, and 20 more with sugar. He also asks for tea.
Cartoon-signhand
Episode 1179 Hand
Another man comes in and gives the first guy a hand by clapping.
SignMan-Money
Episode 1185 Money
After forming the word, a little girl rushes in eager to receive some money.

Notes[]

  • Iftah Ya Simsim created a number of animated segments designed similarly to this series, where a little boy reads Arabic words, with a gag following each reading.

Sources[]

Advertisement