Matt Smith Wants Big Bird To Play Daemon Targaryen In A Sesame Street Parody

House Of The Dragon is a very, very dark and disturbing grimdark fantasy show, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have a little fun. Recently, the stars of the show sat down to determine which Sesame Street characters they’d like to have play them if the long-running kids show ever does a House of the Dragon skit.

Back during the heyday of Game Of Thrones, Sesame Street did a really adorable parody of the show titled Game Of Chairs (naturally). In the sketch, the lords and ladies of Jesteros need to figure out who will be the next King and to do so they play a game of chairs.

To help everyone understand the game, they call in Grover Bluejoy—who suggests the game is played with chairs (no!) and then marbles (no!). At this point a red-haired Muppet pops up and says “The monster is blue and full of errors.”

Thanks, Melisandre.

The chairs the game is actually played with include a Baseball Bat Throne, a Ping Pong Paddle Throne and a Nine-Iron Throne. It’s musical chairs, of course, which is basically as sensible a means to determine who gets to be king as picking the next spoiled—likely developmentally stunted—male brat in line based entirely on luck, age and Y chromosomes. Or lobbing scimitars from ponds.

Here’s the sketch:

House Of Grover

In a recent interview with IMDB, several cast members of House of the Dragon and its creators were asked which Sesame Street characters they would like to play their fictional characters if Sesame Street were ever to parody HotD.

Matt Smith, who plays Daemon Targaryen, immediately called dibs on Big Bird. “I love Big Bird. I’ve seen him on skates.” Now I’m picturing Daemon Targaryen on ice with Rhaenyra at his side, skating across some frozen lake in the North.

Milly Alcock, who plays the young version of Princess Rhaenyra, disagrees. “Count Dracula would be Matt,” she says. “He’s like a vampire when he counts.” To be fair, Daemon is definitely more of a vampiric character in the show—ruthless, white-haired and pale. Probably not above blood-drinking and desanguination.

Then again, Count Von Count (not Dracula) isn’t much of a blood-sucker. He just wants to count stuff and chortle. “One heir AH AH AH! Two! Two heirs AH AH AH!”

Nor is he particularly pale. More of a lilac . . . though Daemon could probably pull off lilac. Picture all the Targaryens with purple skin and silver hair.

(Fun trivia: In the book version of The Neverending Story, Atreyu has green skin.)

Alcock appears to be having a genuinely fun time with this but as she laughs at all the marvelous possibilities her co-star, Fabien Frankel who plays Ser Criston Cole, admits “I’ve never seen Sesame Street,” much to Alcock’s surprise.

Olivia Cooke, who plays the grownup version of Alicent Hightower, isn’t much better when it comes to Sesame Street trivia. “I only know one character from Sesame Street,” she admits, “so I went with Cookie Monster because he has my name.” Neither Frankel or Cooke could tell you, dear children, how to get to Sesame Street.

Some House Of The Dragon stars wanted the same Sesame Street character to play different House roles in this hypothetical parody. Steve Toussaint said he would like “the guy in the bin” to play Lord Corlys of Driftwood. “Oscar. I want him to be Corlys.”

Corlys is certainly a grouch, but once again Milly Alcock has a better idea: “Oscar the Grouch” she said, should “play Rhys.” She’s referring to Rhys Ifans who plays the ever-gloomy Otto Hightower, Hand of King Viserys, in the show. As grouchy as Lord Corlys is, the Hand is grouchier still. I’m not sure there’s any other character in the show quite so dour or morose.

At times, the cast of House of the Dragon get a little mixed up between Sesame Street and the Muppets—both creations of the late Jim Henson.

“I get confused, because I was a Muppet Show guy,” says Graham McTavish (who is also excellent in Outlander) who plays Ser Harrold Westerling, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard. “My favorite Muppet was Animal, but he’s not like Harrold. Maybe that’s Harrold’s alter ego, that’s who he wants to be.”

Ser Animal of the Kingsguard. I shudder to think.

Eve Best, who plays Princess Rhaenys, the Queen Who Never Was, wants her and her fictional husband, Lord Corlys, to be played by “the two people that go in the theater.”

“That’s the Muppets,” Toussaint replies. “You’re talking about Waldorf and Statler.”

“I sometimes felt like we were a little bit like that,” Best replies, “standing in the background.”

Unfortunately, showrunner Ryan Condal already called dibs on on the joking pair of old fogies. “I think we need to be Statler and Waldorf,” he says, referring to himself and co-showrunner and Game Of Thrones director Miguel Sapochnik. “I know they’re Muppets, but I think they can make a cameo. I think this would have to be House of the Grover. His unearned confidence feels like he would fit very well into Westeros.”

“I was trying to think of who Mr. Snuffleupagus would be,” Sapochnik says.

“He’d be Balerion the Black Dread,” says Condal, referring to one of the most monstrous dragons in Westerosi history. I mean, I guess if Matt Smith wants to be Big Bird we could cast Snuffleupagus as Daemon’s dragon Caraxes and see, perhaps for the first time(?) Big Bird flying on the back of his best pal.

P.S. Warner Bros. should bring Statler and Waldorf to their new free-to-play fighting game MultiVersus. Then you could have Arya Stark square off against them and they could use corny jokes as their special power. I like this idea.

Further Reading From Your Humble Narrator

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