Cracks (aka Crack Master) [RARE SESAME STREET SHORT] 

Maybe some people mentally confused with the terrifying "Killing of an Egg". Also, I'm guessing during the '80s CTW and PBS dropped any reference to the title "Crack Master". ;)

i know its beautiful

“Like a butterfly reaching out a shaky hand…” 🥹

It absolutely is beautiful. This is the first time I've ever heard of it or seen it.

This is very tame compared to some of the very early Sesame Street segments going back to 1969 and the start of the 70s. Including ones that were not meant to be scary but turned out to be so because of the raw look of the sets, the characters, or even quality of the film itself. For example, the "repeating letter" malfunctioning TV set which Ernie pulls stuff starting with the letter "H" out of. The one I was familiar with was the one that looked like it was made in the late 70s. I discovered much earlier versions of that segment that would've scared the bejezzus out of me as a kid because of the rawness of the audio and video of the film, and B&E weren't quite perfected yet.

Probably why it was lost for so long. My theory is that Sesame Street themselves banned this short after airing it and realizing it's controversial nature the first person who sent it probably thought he or she would get in trouble copyright wise for giving it out so they said not to share it with anyone.

@@ELEcomments it aired before the term ''crack'' was truly slang for Cocaine.. it was seemingly banned/pulled after that was a thing .. so it only became controversial after the fact in terms of the wording this short contains... Though it still could have been controversial do to the characters race and implied state of the house the character lives at

Lloyd Landrum @david gold why do y’all come from another RU-vid video stealing each and every word that he said acting like you’re smart

@@klay5710 Um excuse me I didn't come from that video first that talked about this... I only seen it after I both seen this video and commented here... Besides its not like I had to have watched that video to be aware of fact the slang for Cocaine became crack or atleast confirmed as the official most widely used slang term only after this short aired and I did bring up a matter that wasn't directly stated in that video as well atleast if its the one I think you are referencing

*_I AM CRACK MASTER_*

More like 35 years.

HAHA

+Clorox Bleach Can I drink you? 😊

rofl

lol

I actually remember this quite fondly. Benny Hill's segment of appliances turning on their owners on the other hand... (young childhood was a strange time.)

@@postotakulypse140 a strange time for us all, my dear friend.

I actually love it

@@postotakulypse140 Sounds like something that'd be on The Muppet Show.

Maybe to an adult but a six year old kid can easily get creeped out by it.

😂😂😂

Is that a motherfucking brave little toaster reference

Frysco OH MY GOD IT IS

IS THAT A REFERENCE TO THE AIR CONDITIONER

@@DavidMcCarthy08 you answered my question on qoura

This should not have made me laugh as much as it has

*high* school

@@hiboomer1191 *_high_*

Bro same

Goddamnit this cracked me up so badly

Well actually, I find it kind of true. Mean people always tend to "destroy" themselves beacause of their actions.

More like acid, but whatever.

@@PremiumBlank well, I guess you have a point U_U

This quote is very true, every edgelord I've talked to turned out to be miserable persons in the end, you just have to talk with then for long enough

don't talk to them, don't give them the time of day. just walk out, they got what's coming. they can destroy themselves all on their own.

Social situations really be like that sometimes.

You guys don’t?

introvert tingz

do you like how my face - *disingrates into chalk?* -

💀💀💀

i was thinking the same thing watching this. sesame street was real

I love Sesame Street and PBS for that reason, it's so important for youth to have positive ideas free and available to them and education wrapped up as entertainment. Possibly the most noble and morally good use of the arts (and tax money).

​@@minecraftrotisseriechicken Too bad Sesame Street doesn't care about that anymore. All they care about is money from merchandise, dumb parodies, and focusing on their most annoying characters.

She meant Cyborg

I never thought about it like that

Sounds to me the were anticipating the crack epidemic.

The way she days good day good day is just so ominous

Guess you've just seen it again then.

I AM ERROR.

So you cracked up?

lmfao can you not

Almy he took too much crack. Or the girl did.

HELLO ROCKO

40 years actually

This was improvised? I didn't know that, that somehow just adds another layer of mysticism.

Simon Woods yeah the lyrics were written but they told her to improvise the melody.

Check out her band called United States of America. One of the best albums of the late sixties psychedelic era

@@annaadams9706 who was she? i want to look her up lol

@Dakota Leavitt She's my momma.

Some kids are pussies

Kids have a lot of imagination. It's easy to see how this could be scary

@@FoxAzureOfficial fuck off kids be scared of things that is scary they put on kids show

Yeah, this isn't nearly as traumatizing as the Yak who charged the TV screen or the 20 foot rabbit chasing kids.

Same

It seemed more like a lesson about karma and how being mean can tear your life apart, but when you are nice you can go on and meet great friends.

The background music wasn’t kind of creepy, and I can see how, combined with the somewhat frightening imagery of the “Crack Master”, it could be frightening to children.

@@austinkentner1771 Why not both?

@Coomer D :/

@Coomer D Crack was not knowm at this time.

And yet, one of the most impactful in the current era

​@@xendra333huh?

J F and that being mean or rude is destructive, even for the mean person

Yeah. When I was a toddler-to-kid, I loved finding shapes in the peeling paint on my room's ceiling, and imagining scenarios between those creatures. Like seeing shapes in clouds. Sesame Street really did well at tapping into things kids can relate to and/or make use of for intellectual development. :3

Yup. I believe those were the types of kids Sesame Street was intended for

J F doing crack can also do the same thing

Temporarily escape the situation of cracks in your walls?

And never played Again

never got a second part

Considering animating a part 2

TSTpro Where it turns out it takes place in an alternative DC universe and the girl, named Vicky Stone, is this world's equivalent to Cyborg

Hate to burst the bubble, but I did some research, it actually played at least 10 more times from its first airing, it was in circulation from 1975 to 1980.

more like *last online 36 years ago*

more like *last online 37 years ago*

actually *last online 44 years ago*

My Roblox friends on my old account be like

RGkong too much pattern recognition has seemed to feed into the darker abyss of humanity. If you look at issac newtons later years theres alot to understand from understanding it all far too well. The same goes for the rise of the nazis and fall of the nazis. Too much truth has never been a good thing for humanities health.

Crack master easily represents the negative figure in your life that can come about and ruin your sense of wonder. A bully, an abusive parent.

I think it's literal. Crack Master is that really serious crack that eventually leads to part of the wall falling away. That's the scariest crack because it hints at your wall coming apart. However, when the section of plaster does fall off, it gives the wall a bit of character and it's not so scary. Y'all gotta be poor to see this.

Sorry to bring back a dead comment. But Maybe its supposed to be about peoples outlook on life? The girl can't go outside because its raining and she's poor. And so she imagines the cracks on the walls as friends. They're all positive except the master, whose life crumbles away from his negativity. ..?

Killing off Evil with your imagination.

That's the crack kicking in.

it is a poem and its pretty good

I think, Crack Master's face and the dark music helped to give this clip some "bad" fame.

+Seychermanium As a kid, I was always more disturbed by the yo-yo master and the lost kid animated short.

sydbarrett5 The lost kid short disturbed me too.

It's strange because I ended up loving the cartoons that disturbed me as a kid because they stimulated my imagination.

sydbarrett5 When we grow up, we see things from our childhood with different eyes. ^^ I also have that feeling, but lets say that I was easy to scare xD.

Same omg

FilmmakeroftheFuture that animal crack need to be destroyed in our community. I hate drugs said my niece amey. I just dont blame her.

LifeWorks, ndh enterprises,llc. Well, even though it can be about crack since this came out in the 70's, it did not talk about actually crack. When they said the Crack Monster "destroyed himself trying to be mean", it means by how mean spirited people are full of themselves, being selfish, jumping into conclusions, and hurting other people's by their negative words/thoughts/actions. It not only hurts the people around them, but can also hurt themselves of how they are seen and how they think, based on their bad/negative/toxic behaviors.

I think a lot of crack masters lead destructive lives. Yes it is very philosophical.

Joey Black rest in piss never miss

Just like the Gripes at the end of the Rocko's Modern Life episode "Unbalanced Load." "EAT STEEL, ROCKO!"

I want them to read a nice book. It will be wholesome.

it’s dorothy moskowitz from the 60s band united states of america

Sound like lettuce fingers

I think that's what kinda makes so so creepy she sounds so sweet but yet the art style and the stories clashed with the voice,I think it's similar to when you hear a child's lullaby in a horror movie.When the song is sung to a child it's sweet and innocent but when it's in the context of something like that one episode of courage (freaky fred I think?)where he's shaving courage as a lullaby plays in the background. So when a sweet voice is talking about how this girl is using her imagination it's cute but when it's over that somewhat chilling art style it gives off the same effect, while yeah that voice is super soothing and like what the gamist said it would be great to listen to them read a book,in fact I think if you just listened instead of watching it would actually be very calming. Which is why even though that voice is incredibly soothing and calming like you said,the video is chilling and somewhat creepy to the point of people having nightmares about it.

@@m0llzd0llzz Whose only album can rarely be described as sweet or soothing. :)

EEERILY PROPHETIC. HOWEVER CRACK MASTER WAS ABLE TO ENSLAVE MILLIONS BEFORE HIS DEMISE. NOW WEVE GOT "OPIOD WHORES"

“Again someday” turned out to be 30 almost 40 years.

Mark Orendas crack master shall be executed for his war crimes

@@markorendas1790 LMAO!

Well We Did See The Cracks Again Someday

CRACK MONKEY

All the drug references.

A character dies and no-one cares. That's pretty horrifying

I remember this being much scarier with far better animation, when I saw it as a 5 year old. I thought the face was more human-looking. Scared the crap outta me.

Probaly because of the loud music and uncanny animation.

1:09 it's because of the crack master

I doubt it was banned because it was scary. The early seasons of Sesame Street had quite a bit of... questionable content.

🎶 _While laying in her bed, the clock overhead TOOK HER ON AN ADVENTURE._ 🎶

@@AgilityDZN and chastized her for losing her gloves and lying as she sewed stars in the sky

R/oopsididntmeanto Not an edited comment. I’m calling bull.

Rebekah it's a joke. They didn't actually make a mistake

@RebekaLovesGaming Seems to me you just know nothing about lost media.

I'm guessing it was a preemptive thing because there would've been more articles about the short in archives if there was any actual backlash about it. It's a fair assumption that there would've been some backlash though.

This *is* pretty spooky, though? It’s just vaguely… *wrong*? Someone else put it down to the artstyle and music, but I think that the narrator’s cadence is also creepy and… off, somehow.

This would scare a little kid tho definitely

Honestly i feel like the fear is not through the media itself, it's fear that it might be lost to time (Just me sayin)

@@itzfroggi22 That, and because we only have vague childhood memories of them that make these shorts, in our minds, scary

@@meepmoop2308 spooks

Dsneybuf Yeah and then it turns out this is an alternate DC universe and the girl's name is Victoria Stone

SHUT UP 🤣🤣🤣

agizzy23 No u shut up

._.XD

Crack dealers*

🤣🤣🤣🤣

My personal theory is that it was an amateur project. The creator was probably embarrassed of it, and gave it to Armond. He probably made him sign not to show it because it was old and they didn't like it It was also probably hidden because again, first project, embarrassing. There's also the theory of it being too controversial with having a black girl in a house that's very unkept. Or the double meaning of crack. Or just the fact that it frightened too many kids. I know you didn't really expect an actual answer, but I was just giving you some ideas that might slightly satisfy your hunger for answers :) Also, sorry if anything is misspelled, I'm writing this on mobile and I can't check what I'm writing

It was proably made by the same person who made the sesame street short "child hunting rabbit'

I've never heard of that one

what the fuck is bill of the bat

Why is it such a big mystery on who animated thAT

I agree. The narrator says a normal sentence and all of a sudden sings a random part.

Nelson Siwady apparently the whole song was completely improvised by the singer

DONT INCUR WRATH OF THE CRACK MASTER!!!

I think it sounds pretty

Her voice is pretty and a bit odd because it had no rhythm, The jazzy music getting wild was probably what amplified the eerieness of the clip

I lol'd

SCREAMING😂🤣😂🤣😂

His new phases appear if you have less crack friends with you. This guy probably wants to do an easy mode run or something.

Kyruchii Arts yeah at first i was like “this is scary??” and then I watched it again and it looks..... off?? maybe creepy, but thats not the right word i dont think... :/

Stacy Peterson i’d describe it as abnormal, ya know? something just seems not right

It could just be the lost media end of it. When something is lost and then found, it gets a bit weirder.

Mango Potato yeah you’re right it seems like i shouldn’t be watching it

Isaac Hartikainen did you see the blame it on Jorge video on this? It’s really in depth with the search. That also increases the feeling of watching something that you aren’t supposed to.

Yea we’re getting spoiled! We’re finding lost cartoons left and right. I wonder how long our streak will last....

Or should you say...Cracktically?

@@Heavygusto *audience boos* get him off the stage!

You call it miracle, people who spent countless evening hours on forums making it happen call it "hard work".

@@ridley1230 *Takes a bow*.

exactly

This paved the way for Rocko's Modern Life; Rocko has a similar imagination to the girl's.

Yea, it’s called being high

As some mentioned this could have been a reverse transfer, originating as a Spanish language animation then being translated into English for US Sesame Street, the opposite of the usual pattern of English sketches being translated into Spanish for domestic and international broadcast.

Me too..

Very interesting thanks

I've been looking for this short for years! As a kid it freaked me the hell out! Especially the creepy way she says "At night behind the door, I think i've heard one more." As a kid the scariest part was the evil crack master crumbling. It looked like a SKULL! Totally freaked me to the moon and stayed with me all these years. I musta saw it when I was 6 or 7. 52 now..,and it's still got me buggin! 😮😮😮

T H E C R A C K M A S T E R

That's what I call annoying little children

Wow you comment on this like wow

Hello there, I forgot why I made this comment. Maybe it's because Link blows up cracked walls with bombs.

@@YowLife y.. You reply there is a god

@@YowLife do you have any big projects on RU-vid

@@jason4270 Yes I do, have a look at my channel.

Perfect description of it.

I'm wondering whether it's ASMR. Was it even possible to capture that effect, however inadvertently, using the recording technology of the time?

It's crazy that this son is now 8. Old comments are a bit strange to me. Like photos of someone's thoughts forever shared with the world.

Shades Below yep pretty wholesome 👍

Oozywolf trueee

Oozywolf they’re still active I think they uploaded a video 3 months ago

Oozywolf ikr same maybe 5 years from now I'll look back on commenting on this

This is nowhere near as scary as I remember it. I been telling friends about how this scared me as a kid, for decades, & always wished I could show them. I'd be embarrassed to show them now.

UnclaimedTreasure It's cute not scary

Really?

Well...the kids that were freaked out by this were total wusses. Hell, this wouldn't scare a week-old baby.

@@j_shelby_damnwird some kids are scared of things that scare them on tv and some weren't

RUN RUN RUN

My friend's former neighbor was actually mesmerized by it, she liked it, even though the Crack Master kinda creeped her out. But her smart 3 year old self deduced he was actually a friendly creature, he was just scared because someone new came behind the attic door.

hijhiysonikku kids really are innocent aren’t they? Cute story!

"He destroyed himself trying to be mean", nobody points out the biggest moral of this short, being mean or evil can even destroy yourself, nobody will like you and you're gonna keep good people and friends away from you...

@@calinfus80s He was unintentionally coming across as rude. Maybe if he had spoken more nicer, or the animals had spoken kindly to him, he'd be not scary at all. He looks kinda cute. (And he reminds me of Grid from DC for whatever reason.)

BADASSMANDO LMAO

C O W A R D

*(ROARS IN SINISTAR)*

RUN RUN RUN

I'll give you a few more reasons. 1) Corporate influence over Sesame Workshop. Corporations love mascots. Ronald McDonald is a great example of this. When CTW, a small tight-knit family operating as a company, ran out of money and became "Sesame Workshop, Inc.", a corporation, soon of course the corporation felt it needed "a mascot" - because they ALL want mascots. An empty, lifeless red fluff operated by a pedophile (typical stuff if you research enough into corporations and their history) was chosen. 2) Too much Generation Jones influence over creative and financial decisions at said corporation. SW brass fights hard to keep Generation X-ers, who grew up on the fucking show in the first place and know it better than anybody, out of hiring and away from any staff position. Look closely and ask questions. You'll see it's true. Why is this? Why keep us out of a show that reflects our unique expertise? 3) Generation Jones controls EVERYTHING in America right now, from your current President, Joneser Barack Obama, to your "favorite director", Quentin Tarantino. Has America really gotten better under these cold-hearted robots' guidance and control? ... Well, has it?

+4a8p9x Do yourself a favor and do not...I repeat DO NOT...see the brand new season of Sesame Street on either HBO Family or PBS when they get it. Just...don't.

+Heather Ferreira I'll always ALWAYS think America is the GREATEST Country in the world!! But hopefully once OBama is kicked out of the White House FOR GOOD this November, we can definitely get better. Just as long as we don't vote for Hilary.

I agree! One more reason: Sesame Street was said to be an "experimental show"

4a8p9x I agree. Although modern SS does touch on some pop cultural references like High School Musical (imo it was very funny), and they can also touch on stuff like autism, it's mostly just bullcrap, even when they're trying to do something serious. Old school sesame Street was much funnier, taught better lessons, and can do darker things, like do an animated skit featuring a crack monster.

See I'm glad I'm wasn't the only one who caught all of this.

Crack Master killed himself because he tried too hard to be big when his skin was thin and weak.

i think her voice is really pretty and the girls art style is beautiful i love her hair and her eyes and i find it kind of soothing even the ending tune when she sings

Zero emotion? I feel like she is actually impressively well articulated and her singing makes me feel cozy. Maybe I'm the weird one

animation isn't awkward at all wtf

rocko

yep this was very disturbing to me and i had the SAME exact thoughts growing up aand i'm almost 40.

I ran into the next room the first 2 times I saw it as a 5 year old. The third time it came on, I made myself sit & watch the whole thing. It never seemed to come on again after that, and I was very proud of myself for overcoming my first fear.

MMMmm COLA I find that to be rather depressing.

OMG me too!! I did the same thing! I ran out of the room when his face was falling off with that eerie music!

lylajean100 Not electronic. This was 1975. Only the big guys from other countries like Kraftwerk had synths. This was all jazz. Flutes, Rhodes/harp, saxophone...

Lou STOP.

Dedicated to Cyborg.

@Ava Corbett cuz ya know the girl looks like 80s Cyborg except her tight afro is bigger than his

@Lou okay, boomer.

Nice!

This and Bill the Bat are my two favorite Sesame cartoons for that reason.

The crack master isn't scary. Its about cracks in a wall. How deep and philosophical.

@@Nitrodino7875 it's almost like different people with different minds and life experiences don't always find the same things creepy. who knew?

HMMMM I DONT BUY IT.