Hey, speaking of decades-old TV preserved on YouTube.com, let’s go creep ourselves out with scenes from our childhoods! Come on, it’ll be fun.

As with so many things, this visit to creeptasticville is brought to you by the letter B and the number 2. *ahem* Because there are 2 Bs in BoingBoing, that’s why.

So Xeni Jardin felt the inexplicable urge to sic upon us, her innocent readers, that abomination known as SAM, a.k.a. the Super Automated Machine, a.k.a. that uncomfortably Dalek-like robot from Sesame Street. Actually, I overstate; SAM isn’t one of my nightmares. No. It might not be one of yours, either. But Xeni’s little post about SAM evoked a parade of terrors as readers from across the globe wrote in. “Oh, that creeped you out? Let me tell you what creeped me out….”

I’ll give you a 98% guarantee that your particular nemesis is waiting somewhere amongst the emails. Go check ‘em out.

You know which one got to me? That damn orange. (See above.) I had forgotten all about it, too, until I read the email from David Z. (the first post under “Reader Comment”). As I read through David’s description of the horror show…

I had the same experience with this clip from Sesame Street of a stop-motion orange singing “Carmen.” As a child, it would send me running from the room when it came on. I finally found it on YouTube and felt the same rush of fear as I did thirty-odd years ago.

…I still didn’t quite remember it, but I found myself nodding along. “Yeah,” I thought, “that would totally creep me out. I always had an irrational terror of animation sequences that messed with faces.”

But then at the last sentence…

When the orange hits that high note and her face flies off, I almost had to close the browser.

…I yelped and slammed my laptop shut. “OMG I remember that! Evil, evil, evil orange! With the face that flies off! AAAUUUUUGGH!”

You know what I’m talking about. These things don’t go away.

Of course, for the record, I had to hide behind the sofa when they got to the bonus round of Tic-Tac-Dough.

I… er.

This is embarrassing.

…I was afraid of the dragon.

Clearly, some of us are more susceptible than others.