I really hope Elmo – and whoever runs the social media accounts Sesame Street – gets a holiday.
Over the course of a week, the poor doll became the platform for the collective trauma dumping and ventilation session on the Internet, and was attacked live Today Through Seinfeldcreator Larry David, and then further criticized by David after the famous comedian said he would “do it again” if he had the chance. Poor Elmo!
Elmo is very bad, not a good week started on Monday when the official Elmo account on X asked how people were doing. The original tweet said, “Elmo just checking in! How’s everyone doing?” Clearly the question struck a chord as the tweet went viral as thousands of people flooded the answers to the question. At the time of publication, the original tweet had over 18,000 responses and was more than Retweeted 58,000 times, many of which focused on how terribly things are going for people in general right now.
Elmo is just checking in! How is everybody doing?
— Elmo (@elmo) January 29, 2024
A representative tweet put it succinctly as: “Elmo, we’re tired.” But many other responses were even more somber than that; as someone said, ‘Every morning I can’t wait to go back to sleep. Every Monday I can’t wait for Friday.” Elmo’s replies and retweets essentially became a dumping ground for everyone’s sad feelings on the internet, but he remained sweet the entire time. The next day the doll was magnanimous enough to turn it into a learning moment: “Wow! Elmo is glad he asked! Elmo has learned that it is important to ask a friend how they are doing.” After the incident, the Sesame Street account, also followed by sharing mental health resources.
The tweet became so big that NBC’s talk show… Today, invited Elmo as a guest. And on Thursday he appeared with his father Louie – and the same day as Seinfeldcreator Larry David was a guest on the show. In my opinion, Elmo did a great job talking about the importance of mental health. But that didn’t protect him from what was to come.
After speaking to the audience about the tweet, David stood up from behind the camera and attacked Elmo without apparently any provocation on live national television. Then David shook the doll by its throat and later shouted off camera, “Someone had to do it!”
David reluctantly apologized to Elmo Todaybut then seemingly took it back in conversation Late Night with Seth Meyers. He said: ‘He was talking about mental health and I had to listen to every word, and I said: Oh my God! Oh my God! I don’t think I could stand this for another second‘, said David, imitating Elmo’s voice, ‘I couldn’t stand it! And you know what, I would do it again.”
The actual absurdity of someone like Larry David – who created a character because he’s a cheapskate – feels strangely appropriate and plays like something straight out of his show. Control your enthusiasm. Still, I can’t help but sympathize with Elmo. He is always quick to forgive and always wants to be there for all of us. I just hope so after such a long week one of his friends can check in with him; as his entries can tell us, it’s rough out there.