Nothing Could Have Prepared Elmo for the Internet’s Trauma Dump

Sometimes, Elmo just wants to ask everyone if they’re okay. And Elmo probably didn’t expect all the adults on the internet to trauma dump on his 3-year-old self, but that’s what happens when the world is on fire, Elmo! We need someone to talk to about this.

Taking to X (formerly known as Twitter), Elmo asked a simple question to his followers, something that the account often does and what makes following Elmo so much fun, especially since many of those following him do not still watch Sesame Street as adults.

Simply tweeting, “Elmo is just checking in! How is everybody going?” has ushered in thousands of responses that equal up to a collective “Not great, Bob” at our favorite fuzzy red friend. He just wanted to see if we were okay! What Elmo ended up getting though was a lot more than he bargained for.

Between fans of Elmo, brands, and the internet as a whole all yelling, Elmo learned a very valuable lesson: Either be prepared for a not-great response when you ask this question or don’t ask it at all.

Whether it be celebrities just wanting love (like T-Pain) or everyone just using this opportunity to share how hard it is right now, Elmo sure got more than he bargained for. All because he just wanted to check in on us all.

The tweet ushered in a hilarious set of memes, both a mix of people sharing how they’ve been feeling with Elmo and others making fun of the situation as a whole. Because when you think about it, some social media manager was simply trying to be a voice for Elmo and instead got a lot of people sharing all their horrifying thoughts at them.

The best of the best trauma dumping on Elmo

Call it the state of the world or just everyone finally feeling free to tell Elmo how they’re really doing but this tweet response has been the best thing to happen on Twitter in a while. Sorry to you, Elmo. You gave us something to live for.

Ushering in an opportunity to adults to just vent, the prompt had plenty using this time for their own trauma (as well as comedy).

Maybe it’s because it’s rare to be asked how we’re doing anymore or maybe it’s just that we know we can trust Elmo, the responses ranged from general “where do I start?” to a lot worse.

Because, as this user said, we’re all tired.

I do feel bad for the social media manager who thought this was going to be nice. Between this and whatever is going on with Big Bird, a bunch of adults online are suddenly very invested in the world of Sesame Street all on their own.

And having Elmo ask us how we’re doing just opened up the flood gates.

So on behalf of the adults, I’m sorry, person running Elmo’s account.

Hopefully we didn’t scare Elmo off and he’ll check in on us again because we all clearly need it.

(featured image: PBS)