The world is still reeling from the fallout of Elmo getting hacked on social media — and that includes Jon Stewart.
On Monday’s episode of The Daily Show, Stewart kicked things off by telling the audience, “Let me be completely frank: We had a tremendous show planned for you. Well-designed, articulate, a tremendous deconstruction of the most interesting issues of the day. We prepared a whole piece on the new Trump tariffs, breaking down the different rates and their secondary impacts — a truly illuminating dive into the overlooked role of the commodities markets in trade deficit accounting. It was going to be so funny.”
Unfortunately, he said, “at the last minute we had to scrap all that because Elmo lost his f‑‑‑ing mind.”
Stewart was referring to the fact that on Sunday, hackers took over the beloved Sesame Street character’s X account and used it to post a string of antisemitic remarks, call President Donald Trump a “puppet” for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and claim that Trump is named in the alleged client list of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Elmo on ‘Sesame Street’.
Zach Pagano/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty
“This is what happens when you go too long without tickling Elmo,” Stewart quipped of the incident.
A Sesame Workshop spokesperson told Entertainment Weekly that Elmo’s account had been “secured” as of Monday, after being “briefly compromised by an unknown hacker who posted disgusting messages, including antisemitic and racist posts.”
But Stewart — whose history with Elmo goes way back — wasn’t easily mollified.
“I’ve worked with Elmo, as everybody definitely remembers,” he said, referencing his appearance on the 1998 Sesame Street special Elmopalooza. “The truth is, I’m being honest, Elmo at the time was great to work with. He was. Was there a ton of coke on set? Of course. But hateful, racist Elmo is not the Elmo that I remember. I know what’s in Elmo’s heart.”
To punctuate his point, Stewart invited Elmo on air to speak for himself. But rather than being joined by the actual Sesame Street muppet, Stewart introduced a rudimentary version of the puppet, which he voiced himself.
Defending himself against Stewart’s questions, the faux Elmo insisted that the posts were written by strangers.
“They hacked Elmo!” he protested. “They guessed Elmo’s password was Elmo123! Elmo knows passwords should have more numbers, but Elmo only knows three numbers.”
Stewart then reminded his guest about the importance of accountability, prompting the muppet to sulk before admitting, “It’s true, Elmo wasn’t hacked. It was Elmo… But Elmo was radicalized by the manosphere.”
Jon Stewart, Elmo, and David Alan Grier on ‘Elmopalooza’.
Eduardo Patino/ABC/Courtesy Everett
When Stewart pointed out that Elmo is meant to be a role model for kids, the puppet grew defensive.
“Are you canceling Elmo?!” he demanded. “Once again, the so-called tolerant left is policing speech that’s inconvenient to their woke dogma. Who’s the real puppet now, Jon?! You! You’re the real puppet.”
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Stewart eventually managed to get the show back on track, analyzing the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein case and the right-wing backlash. But in the show’s final moments, Elmo made a sudden return, exclaiming, “Viva la revolución!”
The puppet explained that listening to Stewart’s “trenchant analysis of the many hypocrisies of the right have re-radicalized Elmo to the populist left,” and then shouted, “Free Luigi!”
Watch the video above for more from Stewart and Elmo.
