NEW YORK (NYTIMES) – Elmo wants the oatmeal raisin cookie, which is on a counter. Next to the cookie is a rock.
But as Elmo reaches for it, his furry red hand is stopped by an orange one that belongs to Zoe, another Sesame Street character, who is concerned for the rock, a pet named Rocco.
"No, no, no – wait, Elmo," Zoe says. "Rocco says that he wants the oatmeal raisin cookie." And it is at this point that Elmo – a children's character usually associated with innocence, lighthearted fun and playfulness – reaches his breaking point.
"Rocco?" Elmo says, sounding astonished. "Rocco's a rock, Zoe. Rocco won't know the difference." And when Zoe insists that Rocco will, indeed, know the difference, Elmo goes from incredulous to angry.
"How?" Elmo retorts. "How is Rocco going to eat that cookie, Zoe? Tell Elmo. Rocco doesn't even have a mouth. Rocco's just a rock. Rocco's not alive."
The video clip from a 2004 episode of Sesame Street circulated widely across social media last week, garnering more than 8 million views and thousands of responses from people who resoundingly expressed that they could relate with an unhinged Elmo's sense of exasperation.
As the video got more and more attention, other clips of Elmo losing his patience with the rock began to appear, adding fuel to a raging internet fire as others posted about the fictional relationship – aghast, they said, at how Elmo had been gaslighted all these years.
There is the clip in which Zoe says she was late because Rocco had "to go to the potty" and Elmo, pausing for a beat, responds with a flat, "What?" Another clip shows Elmo saying hello to a real hamster, only to be interrupted by Zoe, who directs him to also say hi to Rocco.
Artmotion Asia
