[1] It gained notoriety online after several internet users initiated a search to find the short, which they remembered as scaring them when they were children.
[1][4] Although official sources had no explanation for the short's disappearance after this date, some publications have suggested that it may have been due to the rise of reporting on crack cocaine.
[1] However, Mental Floss, in their article on the subject, pointed out that this may be unlikely as reporting on the crack epidemic was not widespread until the mid-1980s; rather, they attribute the pulling of the short to its confusing message and potentially frightening imagery.
[1] In the early 2000s Jon Armond, a voice actor who remembered seeing the short as a child, began posting on message boards to try and find information about it.
[1][3] Online searchers reached out to Children's Television Workshop, the company which produces Sesame Street, but were not provided with any information about the short.
Six months after agreeing, Armond received a copy of the short in a blank envelope in his mailbox with a note reading “We trust this completes your search”.
[6] In December 2013, founder of the Lost Media Wiki, Daniel Wilson, received an anonymous email that contained only an attachment with the short.