If you’re a millennial from the US, chances are high that you watched All That, Nickelodeon’s sketch show for the youth. All That was to Nick what_ Saturday Night Live_ is to NBC, complete with recurring characters, musical guests and spin-offs, but with a diverse cast from the jump. (SNL cast its first Latina member in 2016, for the 42nd season; All That had a Latina cast member and several other actors of colour in season one.) 

If you are in your early to mid-thirties (the show debuted in 1994), you are probably singing the theme song in your head right now and picturing the cast on the trampoline, smacking handballs and dancing in the streets. (By the way, did you know the theme song was performed by legendary girl group TLC? I was today years old when I learnt that. Epic.)

All That debuted in the golden age of diverse sitcoms, just one year after Queen Latifah’s Living Single came out and A Different World went off the air, and a couple years before Moesha and The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air launched the acting careers of Brandy and Mr Will Smith, respectively. All That was a vehicle in its own right, introducing us to Ms Amanda Bynes, Mr Kel Mitchell, Mr Danny Tamberelli (who went on to star in another Nickelodeon classic, The Adventures of Pete & Pete) and perhaps, most notably, Mr Kenan Thompson.

Today, we know Mr Thompson as the longest-running cast member on SNL. With 17 seasons on the show, he has other “long-running” cast members beat by at least four years. And this month, he was rewarded for his steadfastness with a new sitcom, Kenan, debuting on NBC. He has endured in television against all odds, while his fellow child actors slowly fizzled out, disappeared altogether or exploded spectacularly in the public eye.

But why should we be surprised? He’s been a dependable character player since before he embodied just about every game show host on SNL, before he was Trey from “The Californians”, before he was even a Good Burger-employee alongside Mr Mitchell. Indeed, before all of this, Mr Thompson was Pierre Escargot.

Pierre Escargot was the epitome of what American children might think of when they think of French people (sorry, French people). He has a ridiculous accent, his last name means “snail” and he appears to live, nay, luxuriate in a bathtub in a Parisian apartment with a view of the Eiffel Tower. His bit was simple: in each sketch, he would say, in a poor French accent, nonsensical things and then laugh “like a French person” while wiggling his flipper-clad feet.

Meanwhile, he’s wearing a traditional bright yellow raincoat and matching hat like a cartoon fisherman. In my memory, he alternatively wore this and a striped shirt and a beret, perhaps. But this seems just to be my mind playing tricks on me. Or it’s my mind filling in the French archetype blanks.

Looking back, it’s entirely possible that Pierre Escargot and the murderous chef in The Little Mermaid (“les poissons, les poissons, hee hee hee, haw haw haw”) formed a complete picture in my 10-year-old mind of what, indeed, was a French person. Beauty And The Beast probably played a role too, come to think of it.

But what a laugh Pierre Escargot was. What a genuinely silly, ridiculous character tailor-made for children, but also – to be honest – pretty funny now, too. The sheer nostalgia of watching him cape for the live audience cannot be overstated. Why is he wearing a raincoat in the bathtub? Also, where can I get a raincoat like that?

I highly recommend revisiting television shows from your youth. This is the perfect time to do so, especially if you’re thinking about having kids of your own. Pierre Escargot reminds you that things don’t need to make any sense at all in order to be funny. In fact, it’s probably better if they don’t. He also reminds you that having a bright slicker might be just the ticket for the upcoming spring showers. Inspiration comes from the darnedest places, n’est-ce pas?