Ernie Dusts the Shelf is a sketch that originally aired during Sesame Street episode 0094, during the first season, on March 19, 1970. The skit was written by Daniel Wilcox. It ran 48 seconds long.
It's Ernie's turn to dust the shelf, but he's putting it off, trying to remember something important he has to do first. Bert thinks Ernie is just stalling to get out of doing chores, and eventually insists that Ernie start dusting. He does, causing toys to fall from the shelf and onto Bert's head. That prompts Ernie to remember what he had to do before dusting the shelf--take the toys off of it first.
The audio for the skit was released on two Sesame Street albums, Ernie's Hits and At Home with Ernie and Bert. A story adaption based on the skit is included in The Sesame Street Storybook from 1971. The actual 1969 video footage of the skit remains stored in Sesame Workshop's archives and has not been made available to the public ever since. The clip only aired in two episodes of the first season, #94 and #116, and has so far been pulled from rotation and also not aired in any foreign coproduction, probably because the toys falling on Bert's head was considered a little too violent as it made younger kids think that Bert was injured.
On November 11, 2019, Muppet Wiki co-founder Scarecroe uploaded a screenshot of the skit while expanding episode guides with screenshots from hundreds of other Sesame Street classic episodes and inserts. However, the video footage itself has still not yet turned up.
As of 2023, both episodes 94 and 116 have been found, which means the skit is also found, and it has been uploaded to Youtube seperately as well.