Talk:Elmo

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[edit] Opposing views

Some people believe that Elmo is a whiny self-centered attention whore who exemplifies all that is wrong with modern children's television and the degradation of American culture by the over-emphasis on toyetic obnoxious characters in children's television, to the detriment of actual plot, character development, morals, or anything else even vaguely desirable. [1] [2] [3]


Maybe elmo is annoying to some, but really, should we be reffering to a muppet as an "attention whore" come now! the only thing he's supposed to accomplish is the amusing of small children, so does it really matter if he's whiny?


I second that wholeheartedly. —Seselwa 04:19, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC)
I third it. In fact, according to Jump the Shark - people seem to believe that Elmo is the cause of the show's decline more than anything else. --Hazey Jane 17:43, 26 July 2005 (UTC)
I fourth it. Referencing everything in third-person sets a really inconsistent example for toddlers. -71.2.177.157 01:04, 8 October 2005 (UTC)
I'm going to have to fifth that. Elmo is indeed the worst character on the show. -hermpes
Greetings from Germany! I'm a bit out of this -- age-wise --, but I'm fairly sure I've NEVER ever seen Elmo in the German dub version of Sesame Street. Not even the same character with different name. If so, I would have realized. Maybe he was not introduced until the newer episodes.

-andy 80.129.74.95 19:40, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

...All I know is, I need more Grover. But um, what's the point of this section of the Talk area? It's not like we have any say in lessening the little hairball's role. MasterXiam 21:06, 16 November 2005 (UTC)

I, too, concur with the original post. Elmo has single-handedly ruined Sesame Street.

As the name indicates, this section is for views unfavorable to that bloody Muppet.

[edit] Hokey-Cokey / Hokey-Pokey

In the UK, the toy is called Hokey-Cokey (or Hokey Kokey) Elmo. In the US I believe it is Hokey-Pokey Elmo.

According to Wikipedia they are virtually the same song.


Someone changed this article from Cokey to Pokey.


Is this site supposed to be British, American or what?

Any objections to me putting both names of the toy in the article? --JimmyTheWig 29 June 2005 13:51 (UTC)

I put it back to Hokey Pokey. Regardless of what the song's origin is, Elmo, Sesame Street, and the toy came from the U.S., and since this article is about a U.S. show in a U.S. context (Sesame Park notwithstanding), it should be Pokey, not Cokey. -Telestylo 04:46, 27 November 2005 (UTC)

I can't disagree with that. --JimmyTheWig 13:03, 28 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Elmo's dad

According to [4] (the only place I could find), Elmo's dad is called George, not Telly.

Is 69.16.131.131 mistaken?

The same person made the same change to Telly Monster.

--JimmyTheWig 13:36, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

You are correct. When I talked to them about their vandalism, they complained "don't you have a sense of humour, man?". -- user:zanimum
Some people are immature. I warn everybody I send here to not screw with the articles, specifically because this is supposed to work like an actual encyclopedia - and mistakes, whether intended as a joke, or actual mistakes, cannot be tolerated. -- MasterXiam 21:08, 16 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Elmo's sister

I am almost 100% positive that Zoe is Elmo's sister (I was watching Sesame Street when Elmo was first introduced, and Zoe was introduced (a little later) as his sister. (Yes, I was well outside the target age group at the time!)) --Canuckguy 18:24, 4 October 2005 (UTC)

The first time I heard of her, someone told me she was his girlfriend, but I've never heard that confirmed on the show. --JimmyTheWig 13:26, 10 October 2005 (UTC)
Elmo's parents have been shown in some episodes; they are both red with orange noses and look exactly like Elmo. I think Zoe is not related to Elmo; they are just friends.
She isn't his girlfriend, because Elmo is about three and a half years old, and three-year-olds don't have girlfriends. They are just playmates. -- Dominus 13:47, 10 October 2005 (UTC)
My neice is 4 and has a boyfriend. --JimmyTheWig 10:22, 11 October 2005 (UTC)
That's sick.
OK. Where do they go when they make out? -- Dominus 14:46, 11 October 2005 (UTC)
They don't. They're 4. --JimmyTheWig 16:10, 11 October 2005 (UTC)
Take it from a Sesame Street authority, they aren't related, and they aren't dating. Young kids can have "boyfriends" and "girlfriends", but among the Muppets, only Count von Count has truely dated anyone. Cookie also "dated" a girl Muppet for a few skits two or three seasons ago. -- user:zanimum
I've never heard of zoe being related to elmo.

elmo likes zoe and they are going out. it is insinuated in every episode. -wikiluv

[edit] Elmo's Speech

The article says that Elmo "characteristically refers to himself in the third person.". It seems like it's more than that. It's not an absolute rule, but Elmo tends to avoid the use of pronouns in general, (personal pronouns especially.) Sometimes resorting to somewhat awkward phrasing to avoid referring to someone as "him" or "her".

You first notice it when he refers to himself as "Elmo" instead of "Me", but if you listen for a while you'll notice that the only personal pronoun he uses on a regular basis is "you" when he's referring to the audience.

I'm mentioning this in the talk page because I don't know how to say that in a concise manner. -- APL 22:26, 17 December 2005 (UTC)

He refers to the First and Second Person as Third...--FlareNUKE 12:09, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Effect of Elmo on Sesame Street

This was tagged for NPOV violations by another user, and changed to POV/Unreferenced by me. I've read over the section, and I don't think it can be salvaged. Unless somebody can completely rewrite it to be neutral, and correctly site sources, I'm going to remove it entirely in a week or so. Does anybody disagree with this course of action? -- MisterHand 18:20, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

  • There have been no objections for a week, so I've removed the section. If somebody wants to go back in history and salvage any of it, be my guest...but let's try to source it and keep it neutral. -- MisterHand 16:24, 10 February 2006 (UTC)
    • I agree with you; I think it was unsalvageable. It seems to me that this discussion has come up before, and that it was removed once before too; I don't know why it was put back. -- Dominus 18:41, 10 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Controversy Section

The following statement needs a citation:

Many longtime Sesame Street fans from the 1970s have been unhappy with the promotion of Elmo as a lead character. Many feel that Elmo has been promoted at the expense of longtime Sesame Street characters.

Thanks. -- MisterHand 16:05, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

Looks like an anti-Elmo person from his POV. The editor needs to cite his/her sources like said above. --Terence Ong 16:12, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

You are incorrect that this is POV, but I can see where you may have come up with this. I have no opinion one way or another on Elmo. However, I am a parent and this topic has come up enough times in discussion about this exact topic. Word of mouth is enough of a reference here, but certainly any written citations will be added. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Wac01 (talkcontribs).

  • Unfortunately, word of mouth is not an acceptable source for Wikipedia articles, so we will need some sort of verifiable source here. --MisterHand 18:33, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

I think the comment above was clearly stated that is opinion and not fact. Whether it is written correctly or not can be debated. Perhaps it needs to be worded better or stated as opinion. I would agree the citation would not be necessary under these circumstances. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 129.33.1.37 (talkcontribs).

  • Wikipedia is not an op-ed page. While articles can (and do) report the (verifiable) opinions of experts, the opinions of editors do not belong here. See WP:NPOV and WP:CITE. I hope this makes sense. -- MisterHand 21:52, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

I see MisterHand's point. I'm going to put up some sources. So far, I've found a couple of fansites - but am actively looking through some periodicals. --Wac01

Is the source reliable? Fansites are not reliable, they are not NPOV. NPOV is an offical policy of Wikipedia and is one of the five pillars of Wikipedia. Please keep that in mind. Thanks. --Terence Ong 07:59, 16 March 2006 (UTC)

That's why I didn't post the fan sites as references. --Wac01

I've removed the paragraph for now, until we have a source. -- MisterHand 18:36, 26 March 2006 (UTC)

In the trivia section, the statement ""Weird Al" Yankovic used Elmo in his unreleased parody, "Elmo's Got A Gun", which is a parody of "Janie's Got a Gun" by Aerosmith, using Sesame Street-related lyrics to the song." is in correct. Weird Al has never recorded a song called "Elmo's Got A Gun. It was another parody band, I do not know there name. But Weird Al did not sing that song.

^The above poster is right. I took out the statement.

[edit] John Tartaglia ?

Why does this say he's the back up Elmo, when Kevin still performs the character full time ?

And if they were going to get an alternate, I think Eric Jacobson would make better Elmo, but thats just my opinion.

Also does anyone know what Richard Hunt's Elmo sounded like ? 4.229.39.118 22:50, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

I've asked at Muppet Wikia. -- Zanimum 18:55, 29 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Left handed?

The article states "Elmo appears to be left-handed, because he uses that "paw" to draw with his crayon and operate his computer mouse." In the Sesame street episode "Telly Learns the Grouchketeer Cheer," he is using his right "paw" to control the mouse. We watch Sesame street with our niece, so I'll keep an eye out, but I'd like to know where others have seen him use his left paw to control the mouse. Gh5046 18:54, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

In watching two more episodes I see Elmo using both his left and right hands to use the computer mouse. In the episode "Little Furry Red Monster Parade" he uses his right hand. In the episode "Gabi gets sidetracked helping friends" the computer mouse hops from side-to-side of the keyboard before settling on the left, making him use his left hand to control it. If there isn't any objections I'll change the main article to read "and, at times, his computer mouse." Gh5046 21:06, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Interesting stuff

"..His parents, according to the Birthday segment of Elmo's World, are named George and Gladys.."

I didn't know that... :)