Jurassic World never intended to be funny.
But that is exactly how it has turned out in a side-splitting new parody by Sesame Street, which hit the web recently. The video has already received rave reviews from People Magazine and the Wall Street Journal, among others.
The hilarious five-minute video sees Cookie Monster assume the role of John Hammond, who has a pioneering idea one day.
“Me take little piece of cookie found in zillion-year-old rock, turn it into big cookie and open super-duper theme park!”
But, much like in Jurassic World‘s predecessor films, things go haywire and the little piece of cookie turns into a terrifying giant prehistoric cookie, a sort of T-Rex-meets-gingerbread.
“First time cookie ever tried to eat me!”
When Cookie Monster visits Jurassic Cookie with his grandchildren several years later, he is chased by the giant cookie, only to realize later that it is a perfectly harmless being, despite its size.
Sesame Street has been known to release parodies to coincide with big-time summer releases, and it followed suit this time around by releasing the parody video to concur with the release of the fourth installment of the Jurassic Park series, Jurassic World.
Meanwhile, since it opened last month, Jurassic World has gone on to mint more than $1.4 billion at the international box-office, making it the fifth-highest-grossing film of all time.
Earlier this year, Sesame Street also released a parody of Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Oscar-winning film Birdman, amusingly titled Big Birdman: The Unexpected Virtue of Orange Pants, in which Big Bird dons the role of Michael Keaton in the original film.
Sesame Street‘s parody of Jurassic World has been such an attraction for more reasons than one. Not only does it give parents a good laugh with their young ones, it also boasts of a subtler layering. The creators have thrown in references from the iconic Jurassic Park movie, like when Gingerbread T-rex can be seen chasing Cookie Monster in the rear-view mirror of the Jeep Wrangler, which is clearly a throwback to the original film — or when the monster rampages through the kitchen, which is certain to remind Jurassic World fans of the scenes with the velociraptors in the kitchen of the original film.
And like any good Sesame Street sketch, the new Jurassic World parody has an underlying message for children to take on board, as People Magazine noted.
“But the lesson here – for Cookie Monster and for us viewers – is in how staying calm can help us solve problematic situations.”
Now that Jurassic World has proved to be such a success, maybe even Colin Trevorrow and Spielberg can afford to have a laugh or two at their film’s expense. Cookie Monster and his fans will not mind it one bit.
[Image: Sesame Street / Twitter – @sesamestreet]