Inside Sesame Street's songwriting process

The Atlantic

Chris Cerf and Norm Stiles wrote many of Sesame Street's famous songs throughout the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s -- including "Put Down the Duckie -- before going on to co-create Between the Lions. "The rule was you should never go over the heads of the kids. Anything that appealed to adults had to either appeal to the kids too or be something that they didn’t need to know," says Cerf. Stiles adds: "They might not get the adult joke, but it wouldn’t stop them from enjoying the piece or laughing at something else."