When Elmo decided to check the emotional pulse of the internet on Monday and ask, “How is everybody doing?” the fiery-colored Muppet couldn’t have anticipated the seismic response he’d receive. Elmo’s tweet garnered more than 200 million views and thousands of bleak replies. “Elmo we are tired,” one X user wrote. “Elmo I’m suffering from existential dread over here,” tweeted another. Still others vented to the monster about the impending presidential election, wars, personal grief, a rickety economy and dogs rolling around in goose poop. Why? Well, because even though it’s “Elmo’s World,” as his theme song goes, we’re all the ones living in it. And sometimes it takes talking to a furry figure from the days of yore for us to admit that the kids, now adults, are not alright.
The burned-out, cog-in-a-machine lifestyle that many of Elmo’s responders described feels pretty on par with the Elmo on fire meme. While there’s no denying that our world has, in many ways, become somewhat of a dumpster fire, there’s something to be said for the sheer volume of feedback Elmo’s question received. As one expert told the New York Times, Elmo is a “beloved childhood character that we associate with a simpler time in our lives,” so it makes sense that we would want to tell him just how much our lives have evolved over the years.
