Lawd . . . They done come for Elmo . . . And you know what? I sort of agree.

Elmo as we know him was not how the original Elmo was conceived. He first hit the scene as a minor puppet in the 1970's but didn't begin to evolve into the Elmo we now know until the mid-80's, when Kevin Clash took on the role (and we all know what happened to Kevin).

Clash interpreted Elmo as a 3/4 year old, who was constantly cute and happy, which was all well and good, and when Elmo would show up in a sketch, it would often be alongside someone older or wiser like Kermit.



By teaming Elmo with older, wiser puppets who, at times, appeared subtly annoyed by him, little kids would see themselves in Elmo, but aspire to emulate the older character. Elmo wasn't the role model. The older, wiser puppet was. Being so young, Elmo is naturally selfish, and he isn't really old enough to tackle the kind of issues that Big Bird (who's supposed to be around age 6) can handle, like Mr. Hooper's death, or having his nest destroyed as a metaphor for dealing with the aftermath of a natural disaster (Hurricane Katrina). So, he isn't really used to teach many life lessons, and he's rarely, if ever challenged to grow emotionally beyond his current state. Everyone simply caters Elmo's whims.


This was cool for a hot minute because Elmo wasn't Sesame Street's bottom bitch. Big Bird was, and Sesame Street would just pimp him on the marketing stroll. But then, Elmo's Q rating went through the roof, and Clash's Elmo started stacking paper for PBS and SS, the likes of which, they had never seen before.



So, Elmo started getting more airtime, and ultimately his own 15 minute segment (Elmo's World), and Sesame Street as a whole, started skewing younger with it's content. Instead of pairing Elmo with older puppets to model wiser behavior, Elmo got a kiddie clique of puppets around his age (Abby Cadabby and dem). This was all at the expense of airtime for puppets like Grover and Snuffy and other adult characters who were more adept at modeling older behavior and teachable moments.

So yeah, peep this article, because you will be nodding your head at what ol' boy is saying. Elmo needs a time-out.