Talk:Elmo

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Red furry monster

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[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 [1] (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.
The book "Elmo's first babysitter" depicts Elmo's dad like Elmo (red, orange nose, etc.), but his mom looks like Zoe. Jj buster 17:10, 4 March 2007 (UTC)
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)
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.

Really? Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think there was ever any solid evidence that Zoe and Elmo were going out and I’m pretty sure they’re not boyfriend/girlfriend. I agree with zanimum. The fact that they are seen together often does not mean they are related or have a romantic relationship. They are just playmates and good friends. Besides, Elmo doesn’t have the brains to go out. He’s a puppet :) Please don’t be offended, that’s just my opinion. ^_^; DebbieLin 19:23, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

[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. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Wac01 (talk • contribs)

  • 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. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.33.1.37 (talk • contribs)

  • 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... :)

That was actually just a dream in his pet goldfish's imagination. Elmo's parents have since been seen in various projects with his dad named Louie. —scarecroe 01:02, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] International

Elmo's name on Egyptian Sesame Street, Alam Simsim, is Tohfa. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Angelamurock (talk • contribs)

[edit] Tickle Me Elmo parody

I added a line in the Elmo in Pop Culture about Mad TV's parody with a Tickle Me Emo doll. Berserkerz Crit 21:20, 27 December 2006 (UTC)

I removed it. Please look at edit summaries before re-adding information previously removed. —scarecroe 00:04, 28 December 2006 (UTC)
Oh sorry. ^^ Berserkerz Crit 15:30, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Criticism

I've heard a lot of people say that Elmo "dumbs down" SS and doesn't teach anything, unlike the other established characters, someone should put that in.--Rotten 22:27, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

Can you back that up with published reports? —scarecroe 00:49, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Semiprotection?

This article seems to get an unusually large amount of vandalism. I wonder if it should be semi-protected? -- Dominus 21:47, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

It was semi-protected for a while, but the moment the protection was lifted, the page was bombarded with over 20 vandals again right away. I requested semi-protection again, but the request was denied on the grounds that it the article had too soon come out of protection. If someone else would like to make the request, please feel free. —scarecroe 02:46, 3 March 2007 (UTC)
We got to get this article semi-protected. WinterSpw 01:23, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Googly Eyes

I do not think that it is correct to say that Elmo has "Googly Eyes." The article for "Googly Eyes" says that googly eyes have pupils that move around. Thus Cookie Monster had googly eyes, because his pupils move around when he moves, but Elmo does not, because Elmo's pupils remain fixed at all times. Thank you. 12.1.55.173 (talk) 21:05, 28 January 2008 (UTC) clippercfx

[edit] Elmo-nster

I am wondering under what grounds Elmo has been Categorised as a 'Fictional Monster', sure that obsession with tickling is unnerving, but I don't think it constitutes such a harsh label. Any one disagree, or shall I remove the tag? Dutpar (talk) 09:31, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

Elmo has often been referred to as Elmo Monster on Sesame Street episodes and books. Although I can't provide a specific source right now, this is the best evidence I can pull off the top of my head: We Are All Monsters. —scarecroe (talk) 17:01, 14 February 2008 (UTC)
It is extremely well-established in Sesame Street canon that Elmo is a "monster"; he refers to himself as such.
Sesame Street has had "monster" characters since the very beginning. See Cookie Monster, Telly Monster, or Herry Monster for example. Or Grover: "Grover describes himself as a "cute, furry, adorable monster." -- Dominus (talk) 17:09, 14 February 2008 (UTC)
[2] says "Two very special toddlers are tops in talk show superstar Rosie O'Donnell's life: her son, Parker, and her favorite Sesame Street monster, Elmo." [3] says "Telly, Herry, Cookie, Elmo, and many of the other Sesame Street monsters are not scary!" I could go on, but these should be sufficient to establish the point. -- Dominus (talk) 17:12, 14 February 2008 (UTC)
From the official Season 37 Press Kit: "Elmo is a 3 ½-year-old red monster". -- Dominus (talk) 17:14, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

Yeah I guess that's fair enough. It's just whilst I wouldn't disagree with Barney being a 'Fictional Dinosaur', I kind of felt that monster is a definition that should apply as much to the actions as well as the appearance - for which cute cuddly self-proclaimed 'monsters' with no greater monstrous acts than scoffing cookies doesn't really fit; but I'm happy for it to just be me on that one! Dutpar (talk) 08:06, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] REAL THREATS!

ok this is weird! my little cousins elmo knows ur name doll actually said I want to kill you micheal(that's his name)THIS IS WEIRD! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Shadow rocks101 (talk • contribs) 22:13, 28 April 2008 (UTC)