'Sesame Street' gives 'Orange Is the New Black' a kid-friendly puppet parody

By Rick Marshall Published June 7, 2017

Over the last few years, Sesame Street has dipped into the pop-culture pool with kid-friendly parodies of popular adult fare, including Downton Abbey (in a skit titled “Upside Downton Abbey”), Sons of Anarchy (“Sons of Poetry”), and True Blood (“True Mud”), among other projects.

Now, the show has turned its attention to Netflix hit Orange is the New Black.

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A new, Muppet-filled skit titled “Orange is the New Snack” re-creates the musical opening to Orange is the New Black with puppet-ized versions of the show’s primary cast members and different, kid-friendly lyrics to the opening song. The skit unfolds in the “Litchfield Academy” lunchroom — a shift from the original show’s Litchfield Penitentiary — and features new student Piper Snackman (instead of series star Taylor Schilling’s character, Piper Chapman) discussing the merits of oranges as a healthy snack.

Much like Piper does in Orange is the New Black, the parody’s puppet version of Piper ends up arguing with Red (a puppet version of Kate Mulgrew’s character of the same name from the series) about the nutritional value of the food served at Litchfield. The skit also features a puppet version of Pablo Schreiber’s prison guard George “Pornstache” Mendez (called “Moustache” in the parody), and two-time Primetime Emmy Award winner Uzo Aduba’s character, Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” Warren (called “Googly Eyes” in the skit). A puppet version of Yael Stone’s stalker character Lorna Morello also appears in the parody, and her obsession with a boy named “Christopher” should ring familiar to fans of the Netflix show.

The parody arrives just as Orange is the New Black is about to return to Netflix for its fifth season. The award-winning series follows a group of female inmates at Litchfield Penitentiary, and the new season picks up where the show’s dramatic fourth-season finale left off — with the prison in the midst of a riot.

Orange is the New Black has received 17 Primetime Emmy Award nominations over the course of its first four seasons, and won four of the prestigious awards. The fifth season of Orange is the New Black arrives on Netflix this week, with all of the episodes available on Friday.

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