Sesame Street‘s Elmo sparks social media frenzy with simple check-in
Elmo has ignited a social media storm after asking Twitter users if they are OK. Photo: Getty
Sesame Street‘s beloved Elmo has unwittingly sparked a wave of mental health concern with an innocent question on social media.
“Elmo is just checking in! How is everybody doing?” the furry red puppet posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday (US time).
The innocent check-in unleashed a deluge of responses. The post had been viewed more than 140 million times by late Tuesday, and there were a whopping 83,000-plus likes.
Many of the responses express unhappiness at the state of the world.
Tweet from @elmo
“I gotta be honest Elmo, i’m not doing too hot,” one user said.
“I’m going to [expletive] lose it soon, Elmo!!” another wrote.
“I don’t know how to answer that without traumatising you Elmo,” said a third.
Others were bleaker: “Every morning, I cannot wait to go back to sleep. Every Monday, I cannot wait for Friday to come. Every single day and every single week for life.”
One simple response gathered more than 30,000 likes of its own: “Elmo we are tired.”
Tweet from @sleep2dream
Others wrote about seasonal depression in the northern hemisphere winter, the apparently spiralling violence in the Middle East and losing their jobs amid mass layoffs. Disappointed Detroit Lions fans shared their grief at a Super Bowl playoff loss.
Fortunately, not all of the answers were bleak.
“Honestly, I’m in a really good place rn,” wrote Chance the Rapper.
“We are feeling great today, just finished my morning mental health routine,” tweeted the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
The flurry prompted follow-ups from the Elmo account on Tuesday.
“Wow! Elmo is glad he asked!” it tweeted.
“Elmo learned that it is important to ask a friend how they are doing. Elmo will check in again soon, friends! Elmo loves you.”
Tweet from @StevenMcinerney
By Monday afternoon, the official account for Sesame Street intervened, offering mental health resources from Sesame Workshop.
“Thank you, Elmo, for checking in with a reminder for us to pause and take a mindful moment to focus on how we’re feeling,” Sesame Workshop posted.
It shared a link to its page on “emotional wellbeing”, which features video clips of various Sesame Street characters helping young viewers learn age-appropriate ways of working through mental health issues.
