Good riddance to Elmo

This has nothing to do with the puppeteer and the allegations against him and whether he is being treated fairly or unfairly.  I just am a longtime Sesame Street enthusiast who has always hated Elmo.

Elmo does not have the comedic chemistry of Ernie and Bert.  He does not possess the wit and humor of Oscar the Grouch.  He doesn't have the Vaudevillian acting talents of Grover.  and he doesn't resonate with the crises and concerns of children the way Big Bird does.

Elmo (keep in mind this is a not-alive puppet, so I am not BULLYING him) is just a fool that talks way too loud in a shrill, chirpy manner and laughs at things for no reason and speaks incorrectly on an EDUCATIONAL television program.  He also dances like a jackass and goes around bothering everyone.  It may be a masterful example of puppetry expertise, but the puppet itself is highly objectionable and was unfairly permitted to upstage Jim Henson's superior creations for more than two decades.

Now you may be thinking (or shouting out loud at your desk, I have no way of knowing how insane individual readers are) "BUT CHILDREN LOVE HIM!"  Well, guess what?  They don't.  Children at that age don't know what they like, they watch or listen to whatever is presented to them.  Elmo is marketed to adults, not kids.

It's sort of like those awful CDs where very young children sing songs in unison.  Parents and other adults are somehow suckered into buying them thinking "The kids will love this!  They WANT to hear other kids singing about monkeys jumping on the bed!"  Whereas there is not one child anywhere actively thinking "You know what's missing in my life?  a CD with other kids singing the songs that we already get forced to sing at school every day."

In my personal childhood it was Alvin and the Chipmunks.  and at the time, yes, great, we were definitely excited to get a new Alvin and the Chipmunks record.  But after a few years I realized, "Oh wait, there are human adult bands singing and playing these same songs, except way better?  Why can't we have THOSE records instead?" and then like a year after that "Oh neat, ALLOWANCE money.  Now we can!"

Hopefully Elmo "dies on the way back to his home planet."  But if not, and a new puppeteer takes over, I hope there is tons of SCRUTINY.  "You aren't being annoying right" and so on.


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