Scathing Elmo Article

[Oscarfan]

Has there ever been any cases of kids actually learning negative speech patterns from Elmo & Cookie?

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

Watching SS in the 70s , each Muppet didn't have their own "World" or segment. Yes, I realize that times have changed. But not really too much. Even though I don't have kids of my own, I'm still on the "Elmo took over SS" team.
Another reason is that he messes up kids' speech by talking in the 3rd person term. Kids are just starting to learn how to talk when they start watching the show.

I've never heard any kid having a speech impediment just because they like Elmo or Cookie Monster or Baby Bear for that matter.

As for Elmo taking over the show, let's not forget that Big Bird appeared in almost every single episode of the first 33 years of the show.

 

[Muppy]

Yeah, I don't think liking a certain character is going to change the way a person speaks, especially if you have parents and other family members teaching you how to talk properly. But it would be interesting to see if character speech impediments actually have any affect on young children.

Now, I'm probably not the one to be talking, since I've never lived in a world without Elmo, but I don't think he ruined the show. Obviously kids like him, so Sesame Street is going to give them what they want. A character I do think ruined the show was Murray ... the show did not need Murray.

 

[D'Snowth]

As for Elmo taking over the show, let's not forget that Big Bird appeared in almost every single episode of the first 33 years of the show.

Yeah, but even Caroll Spinney has likened the situation to Big Bird being an only child and Elmo was like having to get used to a new baby brother in the family.

 

[Katzi428]

OK..fine. I stand corrected about today's kids possibly speaking like Elmo. I apologize.
I'm still standing my ground about in the 70s Big Bird, Ernie, Bert, etc., not having their own "World" or whatever . There would be a segment about Ernie & Bert in their apt & Ernie talking about something crazy (like he can't hear Bert because there's a banana in his.. meaning....Ernie's ...ear.. ) Does SS still teach about the alphabet & numbers ?
With the new autistic Muppet, I'm sure she's been forgotten about already. And that's a shame.

 

[Drtooth]

Has there ever been any cases of kids actually learning negative speech patterns from Elmo & Cookie?

You saw last Sunday's Family Guy, too?

Sesame Street characters, heck Muppets in general, have a history of Monster Speak. Elmo's third person speech impediment was actually more prevalent when the character was given to Kevin. He talked more like what a 3 year old monster would talk like. He's far more articulate now. Same deal with Cookie Monster. He used to be a little more soft and growly when he was introduced.
Of course, I don't think any kids learned to talk without contractions because Grover doesn't either. And for every Monstery character that talks monstery, there's more than enough regular, succinct speaking characters like Big Bird, Oscar, Ernie, Bert, and let's not forget all the adults.

Now, I'm probably not the one to be talking, since I've never lived in a world without Elmo, but I don't think he ruined the show. Obviously kids like him, so Sesame Street is going to give them what they want. A character I do think ruined the show was Murray ... the show did not need Murray.

I don't agree it's Murray, so much as making the show into a block format. I've always had issue with it, seems like the shorter show time frame they had to junk the hosting bits. Though, through it I absolutely adored the idea of a Muppet going out in the real world, and don't see why they didn't do more of it sooner. I mean, sure, they'd take Big Bird all over the world and we know it was the subject of 2 big specials, but they didn't have that "Muppet in a real New York Neighborhood" thing going for it. I'm sure Jim would have loved seeing the Murray has a Little Lamb segments. Everyone treats him like he's a real thing really there, and that's why the Muppets endures as a puppet based medium. The fact that you know they're puppets after all, but still are amazed at how much life is in them.

 

[zucca]

Elmo's third person speech impediment was actually more prevalent when the character was given to Kevin. He talked more like what a 3 year old monster would talk like. He's far more articulate now.

Mr. Green Frog no want to play with Elmo!

 

[MelissaY1]

Whenever I discuss with people how Sesame has changed in recent years, etc. I always say the same thing: I'm not in their demo anymore. And it's the truth, sadly. I WILL say this, there is still some great writing on it, and I still smile/chuckle when I do catch it, but I don't watch regularly anymore. Kind of stopped that in the early 2000s, to be honest.

 

[Drtooth]

And as I've always said on this site, the old school fans tend to ignore the variables of the other trends in preschool programming as well. Sesame Street was always designed to be experimental and adaptive. On the plus side, the teacher-like lectures of the earliest seasons dies out fairly quick. That and the not that good human comedy duos.

I think the problem is that we live in some sort of Nostalgic Entitlement culture. We have those who instantly complain about something different from what they grew up with and at the same time whine about when something they grew up with is sequeled/rebooted. As in "we love the old things with old characters, not new things with new characters or new things with old characters, and everything should stay exactly how it was when I was the demographic age and the heck with everyone else."

 

[D'Snowth]

Something else that should be noted, that we've discussed before, is that in recent years, SW has been trying to meet everybody halfway: even though we still continue to see an abundance of Elmo (and Abby), they have been trying to give other characters increasing exposure. Grover got a little more attention for a while there when we got Super Grover 2.0, and of course let us not forget how much lovin' Cookie's been getting for a number of years now - so much so that he went on YouTube to campaign to host SNL, got two new recurring segments on the show, jumped on board some unboxing fad, and even got his own special last year. What other character aside from Elmo has gotten that much exposure in recent years?

Not to mention with the scaling back of Muppets to a "core six," as sacrelgious as is may seem to see less Muppets in general, seems to be a move to at least make sure there are a group of Muppets that will carry the show as opposed to just Elmo (and Abby) with all of the others as supporting characters.

So again, yeah, there's the argument that we really have place to complain since kids love Elmo and kids are who the show is made for, not us, but at least SW makes attempts to please everybody.