by On Monday the account x Elmo, the furry red monster from “Sesame Street,” posed a gentle question to his 457,000 followers: “Elmo just signed up! How’s everybody?
In thousands of responses, social media users let Elmo know that no, actually, they weren’t doing too well.
“Elmo, I’m depressed and broke.” one wrote. Others told Elmo that they had been firedwhat were they looking forward to the 2024 electionsor that his dog had rolled in goose feces.
“Elmo, every day, the abyss we contemplate becomes a unique horror,” reads a response published by Hanif Abdurraqib, poet, essayist and contributor to The New York Times. “One that was previously unfathomable in nature. Our inevitable doom, which once accelerated in years or months, now accelerates in hours, even minutes.”
The response continued: “However, I had a good grapefruit before, thanks for asking.”
According to X metrics, Elmo’s question was viewed more than 140 million times. Samantha Maltin, executive vice president, chief marketing officer and chief brand officer at Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit behind “Sesame Street,” said Elmo might not have been prepared for all the emotional fatigue shared in response.
“I don’t think anyone anticipated how deeply this particular question would resonate,” he said in an interview. “But we’re so excited we asked.”
Maltin believes the overwhelming engagement with Elmo publishing points to a pressing need for free, easily accessible mental health resources, he added.
The social media accounts for Elmo, Big Bird, Grover and other “Sesame Street” characters are run by a four-person team at Sesame Workshop. (Big Bird’s account had an online dispute with Senator Ted Cruz of Texas in 2021 after posting about the Covid-19 vaccine.)
These accounts are intended to serve as an extension of the characters’ voices and interests, and to promote the educational content that Sesame Workshop offers to children and parents. Asking open-ended questions is a strategic way to encourage engagement with accounts, Maltin said.
This wasn’t Elmo’s first encounter with an internet dogpile: in 2022, his rant about a pet rock named Rocco also went viral on social media, prompting many users to respond by expressing their own feelings of frustration. .
Why does Elmo keep getting dragged into the pits of despair? Perhaps that’s because the monster evokes a strong feeling of nostalgia in many people, said Jess Maddox, an assistant professor of digital media at the University of Alabama.
Elmo is a “beloved childhood character that we associate with a simpler time in our lives,” he said. When Elmo reappears on the social media of adults facing burnout, inflation and a complex geopolitical situation, he said, many may find it difficult not to vent about how their lives have changed.
Furthermore, compared to most online attacks, which target humans, “a fictional puppet is a low-risk target,” he added.
On Tuesday, after Elmo’s status check received more than 9,000 responses, the account posted a follow-up in the character’s signature third-person style: “Wow! Elmo is glad he asked! he read. “Elmo learned that it is important to ask a friend how he is doing.”
In response, an user wrote: “Somehow this really legit makes me feel better.”
