Ethel Mermaid was a parody of Ethel Merman seen on Sesame Street. A musical mermaid with a lusty voice, she sang "I Get a Kick Out of U," a parody of the Cole Porter song "I Get a Kick Out of You," which Ethel Merman introduced in the musical Anything Goes in 1934. Ethel Mermaid had curly, brown and red hair, which she tossed very much like her performer, British musical theatre actress Louise Gold. She was meant to be reminiscent of Gold's own portrayal of Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes in 1990.