Jon Stewart told “Daily Show” viewers that the original “well-designed, articulate” version of the Comedy Central series’ Monday night episode had to be scrapped “because Elmo lost his f—king mind.”
Referencing the recent online hack that resulted in antisemitic, hateful tweets coming from the “Sesame Street” character’s X account, Stewart joked, “This is what happens when you go too long without tickling Elmo.”
Rather than simply reporting on the incident, though, Stewart decided to use some of the connections he made when he hosted “Elmopalooza!” decades ago to interview the “Sesame Street” icon on the air. Unfortunately, it did not go well.
When pressed by Stewart to take accountability for his actions, Elmo admitted, “Elmo wasn’t hacked. It was Elmo … But Elmo was radicalized by the manosphere. Elmo is part of the male loneliness epidemic.” The puppet, who was not-so-slyly voiced and controlled by Stewart himself throughout the segment, continued, “You see, what happened was, Elmo was doing his own research on flu shots. Six hours later, because of the algorithm, Elmo was moderating the QAnon Discord chat and building homemade bombs.”
Stewart told Elmo not to blame the algorithm, which prompted the puppet to shout, “Are you canceling Elmo? Once again, the so-called tolerant left policing speech that’s inconvenient to their woke dogma. Who’s the real puppet now, Jon?” You can watch the full “Daily Show” segment yourself in the video below.
Stewart refused to let Elmo off the hook, accusing the “Sesame Street” character of repeating alt-right talking points.
“You said it, not Elmo. Elmo’s alt right,” the puppet demurely replied. “No reason to cancel Elmo’s funding then.”
Aghast, Stewart asked, “Is that what this is about? Elmo, you’re pandering to the right so you can keep your government funding for public broadcasting?”
In response, Elmo flatly told Stewart, “Elmo can’t go back on the streets, Jon.”
The “Daily Show” host brought a quick end to his “interview” with Elmo shortly after that last remark. After spending several minutes ripping the Trump administration for its handling of the Epstein files, though, Stewart was interrupted by Elmo, who screamed, “Viva la revolucion! Antifa forever!”
When a confused Stewart remarked that he thought Elmo had joined the side of the alt-right, the “Sesame Street” puppet responded, “Elmo was. But listening to your show — and the trenchant analysis of the many hypocrisies of the right — have radicalized Elmo to the populist Left. Free Luigi!”
