Claim:
A video circulating online in late October 2025 authentically showed rapper Tupac as a guest on an unreleased episode of “Sesame Street.”
Rating:
In late October 2025, a video circulated online purportedly showing various clips of the late rapper Tupac Shakur appearing as a guest in an unaired episode of the educational children’s television show “Sesame Street.”
A network of social media profiles called Tuna Edits posted the compilation on TikTok (archived), YouTube (archived), Facebook and Instagram. All the posts were captioned: “Unaired episode.” Snopes readers also emailed us asking if the footage was real.
In short, there was no evidence Shakur ever appeared on an aired or unaired episode of “Sesame Street.” Many aspects of the video showed that it was generated using artificial intelligence (AI) software. As such, we have rated the footage as fake.
Snopes contacted Tuna Edits to ask about the compilation. We will update this story if we receive a response.
Debunking the clips
The video of the rapper’s alleged unaired appearance on “Sesame Street” featured quirks typical of AI-generated videos.
One clear example was Shakur changing his outfit in each clip. One or two wardrobe changes would not be unusual for an episode, but 10, as seen in the compilation, would be an unrealistic amount.
Trademark “Sesame Street” characters also appeared slightly abnormal. For example, Cookie Monster, who is noseless, had an orange nose, and at one point Big Bird appeared to have a nose on the end of his beak, as shown below. Similarly, around the 0:31 mark, the top of Shakur’s head disappeared then reappeared (also shown below).
(YouTube channel @Tuna_edits4/Snopes Illustration)
The compilation appeared to be created using AI organization OpenAI’s video generation model, Sora 2. Clips made using this tool contain a moving Sora watermark to differentiate them from authentic footage. This watermark appeared briefly at the 0:06 mark of the Tuna Edits footage, hovering over a child’s foot in the bottom left corner, as shown below. It also appeared over the top of Shakur’s jeans at the 0:24 mark.
(YouTube channel @Tuna_edits4/Snopes Illustration)
The posts did not explain why the episode went unaired, nor did they mention how it was allegedly recovered and published.
A Google News search uncovered no results suggesting the rapper had ever appeared on an episode of “Sesame Street,” aired or unaired. He also did not feature on the list of “Sesame Street Guest Stars” on the Muppet Wiki fandom page. (This list should not be considered exhaustive, though if he had appeared on the show he likely would have been included, given his celebrity status).
Tuna Edits
Tuna Edits has posted numerous fake videos featuring Shakur, like this one (archived) showing scenes of the rapper acting in a movie about aliens, titled, “Thugs in Black.”
The network of social media profiles has also posted footage (archived) mimicking animated cartoons. However, Sightengine, a tool for detecting AI-generated content, gave a screenshot from one of these clips a 99% likelihood of being AI-generated. (It is worth nothing that AI detectors are not completely reliable.)
The Tuna Edits YouTube and Facebook account bios (archived, archived) also featured a call for donations to “help bring more Tuna Edits animations to life.” It appeared that the person or people running the accounts might have intended to pass off their videos as authentic to bring in more donations.
Snopes has looked into numerous claims regarding Shakur, including the rumor that he was friends with the late conservationist Steve Irwin and that a photo allegedly showed him with 9/11 mastermind and former al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
