By Katherine Tinsley
4:21pm PDT, Jul 16, 2025
_
"This is what happens when you go too long without tickling Elmo," Jon Stewart joked of Elmo's headline-making social media posts.
_
"Elmo wasn't hacked. It was Elmo. … But Elmo was radicalized by the manosphere. Elmo is part of the male loneliness epidemic," the Sesame Street character told Jon Stewart. "You see, what happened was, Elmo was doing his own research on flu shots," he continued. "Six hours later, because of the algorithm, Elmo was moderating the QAnon Discord chat and building homemade bombs."
_
"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?" Elmo asked Jon Stewart, who accused the Sesame Street character of parroting alt-right talking points. "You said it, not Elmo. Elmo's alt-right," the Muppet replied. "No reason to cancel Elmo's funding then." (In recent months, Donald Trump has made moves to defund PBS, the network that has aired Sesame Street since 1970.)
_
Jon Stewart later asked if Elmo's social media activity was simply an attempt to win over right-wing politicians after being defunded by Donald Trump. "Is that what this is about? Elmo, you're pandering to the right so you can keep your government funding for public broadcasting?" Stewart asked.
