 | |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
Susan | Test Show 2 | First round: 3 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. |
|
Susan | Episode 0001 | W and three 2s |
 |
Susan and the kids | Episode 0011 | Clothing items and a fish |
 |
Susan and Oscar the Grouch | Episode 0013 | Ice cream cone sizes |
 |
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. |
 |
Susan | Episode 0043 | Shoe sizes and ball sizes |
 |
Susan | Episode 0078 | Letters and a tree |
 |
Bob | Episode 0094 | Abstract shapes |
 |
Susan | Episode 0123 | Capital and lower-case Rs |
 |
Susan, Bob, and Grover | Episode 0131 | Circles |
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Susan | Episode 0133 | Letter combinations |
 |
Susan | Episode 0138 | Abstract shapes |
 |
Susan | Episode 0139 | Groups of squares |
 |
Susan | Episode 0152 | Circle patterns |
 |
Cookie Monster | Episode 0174 | Number of cookies on each plate |
 |
Bob and the kids | Episode 0207 | Ds |
 |
Susan | Episode 0216 | Three small Qs and a small P |
 |
Susan | Episode 0260 | First round: Three small capital As and one big capital A. Second round: Three identical large elephants and a small one. |
 |
Maria | Episode 0280 | Oscar's trash |
 |
Mr. Snuffleupagus | Episode 0291 | China plates and a cup |
 |
Big Bird and Mr. Snuffleupagus | Episode 0298 | Three cut-out drawings of Snuffleupaguses and a cup |
 |
Bob | Episode 0309 | Images of blob-like shapes |
 |
Jay and the kids | Episode 0319 | Sidewalk chalk shapes |
 |
Luis | Episode 0337 | Raggedy Ann dolls |
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Maria | Episode 0352 | Cookies |
 |
David | Episode 0354 | Squares |
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Gordon and the kids | Episode 0378 | Carrots |
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Brynne | Episode 0378 | Chairs |
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Susan | Episode 0382 | Books |
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Bob and the kids | Episode 0393 | Gloves |
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Gordon | Episode 0394 | Three uppercase Es and one lowercase E |
 |
David | Episode 0399 | Squares |
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Maria | Episode 0400 | Pavas (Puerto Rican hats) |
 |
Rafael | Episode 0400 | Roosters (in Spanish) |
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Bob | Episode 0405 | Trucks |
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David | Episode 0407 | Blobs |
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Luis | Episode 0410 | Insects |
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David | Episode 0415 | Trash cans |
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Gordon | Episode 0437 | Beds |
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Susan, Shola, and John-John | Episode 0441 | Numbers of circles on dice |
 |
David | Episode 0457 | Hats |
 |
David | Episode 0448 | Three Js and one H |
 |
Maria | Episode 0448 | Leaves |
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David | Episode 0465 | Capital M and three lowercase Ms |
 |
Maria | Episode 0475 | Three rubber balls and one alphabet block |
 |
Susan | Episode 0514 | Happy and sad faces |
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Gordon | Episode 0530 | Three baby elephants and one mother elephant |
 |
Big Bird and Mr. Snuffleupagus | Episode 0533 | Three circles and one square |
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David | Episode 0536 | Three starfish and one crab |
 |
Bert | Episode 0559 | Pigeons |
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Big Bird | Episode 0573 | Big and small bowls of birdseed |
 |
Bob and Maria | Episode 0592 | Three triangles and 23 |
 |
David | Episode 0613 | Pencils |
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Bob | Episode 0657 | Three regular lightbulbs and one flame-shaped lightbulb |
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Biff and Maria | Episode 0660 | Dump trucks |
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David | Episode 0669 | Beans |
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Bob and Count von Count | Episode 0711 | Three small birds and Big Bird |
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Maria, Luis, and Count von Count | Episode 0751 | Jars |
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Big Bird | Episode 0763 | Quantities of telephones |
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Maria, David, Luis, and the kids | Episode 0797 | Campaign buttons |
 |
Bob and the kids | Episode 0806 | Doorbells |
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Bert | Episode 0827 | Pigeons |
 |
Bob | Episode 0828 | Bs and a D |
 |
Count von Count | Episode 0831 | Icicles |
 |
The Amazing Mumford and Susan | Episode 0845 | Fire helmets and Mumford's magic hat |
 |
Herry Monster | Episode 0846 | Different sized weights |
 |
Bob and the kids | Episode 0931 | Three rubber duckies and a toy boat |
 |
Luis | Episode 0939 | 4s and an H |
 |
The adults, Gladys the Cow, and the kids | Episode 1056 | People and a cow |
 |
Bob and the kids | Episode 1600 | Three kids and a Honker |
 |
Bob, David, Gordon, and Slimey | Episode 1904 | Four dancers |
 |
Bob, Susan, and the kids | Episode 2132 | Three lemons and one fish |
 |
Forgetful Jones | Episode 2180 | Three Birdketeers and Forgetful (a cowboy) |
 |
Simon Soundman, Susan, and the kids | Episode 2306 | Three Honkers and a bird |
 |
Olivia | Episode 2323 | Three birds and a fish |
 |
Uncle Wally and horses | Episode 2578 | Uncle Wally and a singing group of horses |
 |
Gina, Telly, and Elmo | Episode 2699 | Boats |
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Luis and Baby Natasha | Episode 2707 | Three wingnuts and a bolt |
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Gordon, Gina, Oscar, and Ernest | Episode 2720 | Shapes |
 |
Bob and The Great Blechini | Episode 2730 | Dogs and a rabbit |
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Sydney | Episode 2755 | Three cans and one cup |
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Telly Monster | Episode 2889 | Three big plates and one small bowl |
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A penguin | Episode 3145 | Four penguins - one of which has a clown nose on its beak, and one of which is Wolfgang in disguise. |
 |
Mr. Handford | Episode 3277 | Three square sandwiches and a bowl of porridge. |
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Joey and Davey Monkey | Episode 3293 | Three pineapples and a lamb |
 |
Gordon | Episode 3366 | Ruthie, Davey, Joey, and Gordon |
 |
Davey, Joey, and Telly | Episode 3373 | three faux-bananas and a real one |
 |
Carlo, the kids, Elmo, and Telly | Episode 3432 | Three number 15s and one letter O |
 |
Papa Bear, Mama Bear, and Baby Bear | Episode 3534 | Three bears and a chicken |
 |
Big Bird and Gordon | Episode 3540 | The Squirrelles and a rabbit |
 |
Auntie Audubon | Episode 3606 | Three car toys and Dodo |
 |
Humphrey | Episode 3662 | A picture of himself and his three siblings |
 |
Elmo and Zoe | Episode 3872 | A number 1 and three socks |
 |
Susan | Episode 4039 | A hat, a sweater, a shoe, and a basketball |
 |
Louie | Episode 4809 | Vegetables and meat |
 |
Oscar the Grouch, Rosita, and Herry Monster | A Swingin' Sesame Street Celebration | Instruments and Grouch instruments |
 |
Susan and Bob | Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration | Three number 50s and an L Incidentally, L is the Roman numeral for 50. |
Notes[]
- Sesame Street Unpaved (page 151) claims that one version of the song featured John-John pretending to be Bob and Bob pretending to be John-John.
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
- The Sesame Street Book & Record (1970)
- One of These Things/Up and Down (single, 1970)
- Somebody Come and Play (1974)
- 60 Favorite Songs from Sesame Street (1975)
- 25 Greatest Hits (1975)
- Susan and Bob Sing: One of These Things/What Are Kids Called (single, 1976)
- 10th Anniversary Album (1978)
- Platinum Too (1997)
- Video
- Play-Along Games and Songs (Cookie Monster version)
- Old School: Volume 1 (in episodes 0001, 0131, 0276, 0406, and 0536)
- Old School: Volume 2 (in Episode 1056)
- Let's Play Games (kids with umbrellas version) (on bonus CD-ROM)
- 40 Years of Sunny Days (Cookie Monster version)
- Publications
- Sesame Street Songbook Vol. 1
- The Sesame Street Songbook (1971, 1992, and 2007 editions)
- Online
- YouTube (Cookie Monster version) (YouTube)
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)