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Susanthesethings
Music by Joe Raposo
Lyrics by Raposo, Jon Stone, Bruce Hart
Date 1969

"One of These Things" was a song regularly used on Sesame Street for sketches where viewers would be shown a group of four items, one of which was different from the other three, and they would have to identify the item which didn't belong. A similar sorting song that asks the inverse question is "Three of These Things."

The game has been used in segments starring William Wegman's dogs, and in animated form, melody only, with footprints. It was also the basis for a game in one "Journey to Ernie" segment. A line of the song is included in the theme for the "This Is the Game Today" segments from Season 37, and some of the games from "This Is the Game Today" include this song.

Versions[]

Picture Singer First Appearance Subjects
SusanTest2
Susan Test Show 2 First round: Three and three W's
Second round (sung as "One of These Shapes"): Three triangles and a circle
According to research documents, the children complained when the camera zoomed in on one item at a time.
Susanthesethings
Susan Episode 0001 W and three Twos
0011l
Susan and the kids Episode 0011 Clothing items and a fish
0013l
Susan and Oscar the Grouch Episode 0013 Ice cream cone sizes
0030 Bob One of These Things
Bob Episode 0030 Three small and one large O, three big and one small hand, three long and one short pencil, and three fat wedges and one thin wedge of cake.
Susanoneoftheseshoes
Susan Episode 0043 Shoe sizes and ball sizes
0078 06
Susan Episode 0078 Letters and a tree
0094 07
Bob Episode 0094 Abstract shapes
0123-OOTT
Susan Episode 0123 Capital and lower-case R's.
0131c
Susan, Bob and Grover Episode 0131 Circles
0133 07
Susan Episode 0133 Letter combinations
0138 - 07
Susan Episode 0138 Abstract shapes
0139h
Susan Episode 0139 groups of squares
0152 05a
Susan Episode 0152 Circle patterns
1Of These Things
Cookie Monster Episode 0174 Number of cookies on each plate
0207 One of These Things
Bob and the kids Episode 0207 D's
0216 11
Susan Episode 0216 Three small q's and a small p
0260 07
Susan Episode 0260 First round: Three small capital A's and one big capital A. Second round: Three identical large elephants and a small one.
0280c
Maria Episode 0280 Oscar's trash
0291 08
Mr. Snuffleupagus Episode 0291 China plates and a cup
0298f
Big Bird and Mr. Snuffleupagus Episode 0298 Three cut-out drawings of Snuffleupaguses and a cup
0309k
Bob Episode 0309 Images of blob-like shapes
0319 06
Jay and the kids Episode 0319 Sidewalk chalk shapes
0337 07
Luis Episode 0337 Raggedy Ann dolls
0352g
Maria Episode 0352 Cookies
0354k
David Episode 0354 squares
0378 03
Gordon and the kids Episode 0378 Carrots
0378 04
Brynne Episode 0378 Chairs
0382k
Susan Episode 0382 Books
0393 06
Bob and the kids Episode 0393 Gloves
0394 02
Gordon Episode 0394 Upper and lowercase E
0399g
David Episode 0399 squares
0400 04
Maria Episode 0400 Pavas (Puerto Rican hats)
0400 06
Rafael Episode 0400 Roosters (in Spanish)
0405n
Bob Episode 0405 Trucks
0407e
David Episode 0407 blobs
0410g
Luis Episode 0410 Insects
0415 09
David Episode 0415 Trash cans
0437 07
Gordon Episode 0437 Beds
0441 One of These Things
Susan, Shola and John-John Episode 0441 Numbers of circles
0457 04
David Episode 0457 hats
0448g
David Episode 0448 three J's and one H.
0448h
Maria Episode 0448 leaves
0465h
David Episode 0465 capital M and three lowercase M's.
0475e
Maria Episode 0475 Three rubber balls and one alphabet block
Oneofthesefaces
Susan Episode 0514 Happy and sad faces
0530 05
Gordon Episode 0530 Three baby elephants and one mother elephant
0533-sc5
Big Bird and Mr. Snuffleupagus Episode 0533 Three circles and one square
1041starfish
David Episode 0536 Three starfish and one crab
0559 03
Bert Episode 0559 Pigeons
0573m
Big Bird Episode 0573 Big and small bowls of birdseed
BobMariaSpies
Bob and Maria Episode 0592 Three triangles and 23
0613h
David Episode 0613 pencils
0657 One of These Things bulbs
Bob Episode 0657 Three regular lightbulbs and one flame-shaped lightbulb
0660 04
Biff and Maria Episode 0660 Dump trucks
0669 01
David Episode 0669 beans
0711 03
Bob and Count von Count Episode 0711 Three small birds and Big Bird
0751e
Maria, Luis and Count von Count Episode 0751 Jars
0763b
Big Bird Episode 0763 Quantities of telephones
0797 04
Maria, David, Luis and the kids Episode 0797 Campaign buttons
0806 One of These Things
Bob and the kids Episode 0806 Doorbells
0827 04
Bert Episode 0827 Pigeons
0828f
Bob Episode 0828 B's and a D
0831 03
Count von Count Episode 0831 Icicles
0845f
The Amazing Mumford and Susan Episode 0845 Fire helmets and Mumford's magic hat
0846c
Herry Monster Episode 0846 Different sized weights
0931g
Bob and the kids Episode 0931 Three rubber duckies and a toy boat
0939c
Luis Episode 0939 4s and an H
1056c
The adults, Gladys the Cow, and the kids Episode 1056 People and a cow
Ep1600
Bob and the kids Episode 1600 Three kids and a Honker
Tophat-Sorting
Bob, David, Gordon, and Slimey Episode 1904 Four dancers
2132c2
Bob, Susan and the kids Episode 2132 Three lemons and one fish
2365g
Forgetful Jones Episode 2180 Three Birdketeers and Forgetful (a cowboy)
2306c
Simon Soundman, Susan and the kids Episode 2306 Three Honkers and a bird
2323c
Olivia Episode 2323 Three birds and a fish
2477m
Snuffy and Alice Episode 2477 Brussels sprouts and balls
2786a
Uncle Wally and horses Episode 2578 Uncle Wally and a singing group of horses.
2892e
Gina, Telly and Elmo Episode 2699 boats
2707-sorting
Luis and Baby Natasha Episode 2707 bolt and wingnuts
2895e
Gordon, Gina, Ernest, and Oscar Episode 2720 shapes
2730e
Bob and The Great Blechini Episode 2730 Dogs and a rabbit
2755g
Sydney Episode 2755 Three cans, one cup
2889b
Telly Monster Episode 2889 Three big plates and one small bowl
3145q
A penguin Episode 3145 Four penguins - one of which has a clown nose on its beak, and one of which is Wolfgang in disguise.
3293e
Joey and Davey Monkey Episode 3293 Three pineapples and a lamb
3692d
Carlo, the kids, Elmo and Telly Episode 3432 Three number 15s and one letter O
3540h
Big Bird and Gordon Episode 3540 The Squirrelles and a rabbit.
3662c
Humphrey Episode 3662 A picture of himself and his three siblings
3872f
Elmo and Zoe Episode 3872 A number 1 and three socks.
4039f
Susan Episode 4039 A hat, a sweater, a shoe, and a basketball.
4809e
Louie Episode 4809 Vegetables and meat
SesameJazz-Things
Oscar the Grouch, Rosita and Herry Monster A Swingin' Sesame Street Celebration Instruments and Grouch instruments
SS50thSpecial-TheseThings
Susan and Bob Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration Three number 50s and an L

Incidentally, L is the Roman numeral for 50.

Notes[]

Feet animations[]

A series of animated segments from season 4 featured an instrumental of the song over visuals of footprints or shoes in a graph.

Releases[]

Audio
Video
Publications
Online

Mentions[]

  • This song was included in a 2004 Subway commercial, where it was called "One of These Subs."
  • Dave Grohl, from the Foo Fighters, admits that he was influenced by "One of These Things" while writing the song "The Pretender." (YouTube)
  • The Mindless Self-Indulgence song "Unsociable" has the line: "One of these shapes is not like the other holes," which is very similar to this song.
  • In the tour Jeff Dunham: Spark of Insanity, Peanut comments on Jose Jalapeno calling Jeff "Senor Heff" and then "Senor Cheff." Jeff Dunham says it's the same thing and Peanut replies "No it's not! Didn't you watch Sesame Street?" Then he sings a short clip of "One of These Things" singing "One of these things just doesn't belong here." Then he parodies the end of the show by saying that "this show was sponsored by the sound CH."
  • Taylor Swift's song "ME!" references the song in the lyrics. (YouTube)
  • On an episode of Degrassi: The Next Generation titled "99 Problems, Pt. 1," while discussing the scarcity paradigm, Riley says, "Look, there's Jess T, Jess M, Jess B, and then there's Fiona," to which Drew replies, "Wow! One of these things is not like the others."
  • After prematurely declaring an election win, Donald Trump received the Sesame Street treatment with a parody of the song, in the November 4, 2020, cold open of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. (YouTube)

External links[]

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