My Kid Hates Elmo
By Glinda
For many years, my son was only allowed to watch PBS. I love their television shows for kids, and in moderation, they can facilitate all kinds of learning.
The Munchkin was fascinated by Sesame Street from the time he was a toddler. I mean, what child doesn’t like the concept of people and multi-colored puppets living in harmony in New York City? He especially loved the Cookie Monster, who has tragically been cheated out of valuable screen time and only given a segment on the letter of the day. Occasionally he would be in an extra song or sketch, but Cookie Monster sightings outside the letter of the day segment were rare. He also really liked Grover, but Grover is hardly ever on Sesame Street any more. This made the Munchkin sad.
For some reason, Sesame Street has somehow evolved into something that should be called “The Elmo Show.” Just give him his own spinoff or something, would ya? I don’t know who decided that Elmo should be the new face of Sesame Street, but he is a poor substitute for the articulate, introspective Kermit the Frog. Elmo is in almost all of the opening sketches, and of course, there is the scourge known as “Elmo’s World.”
To endure the fifteen straight minutes of high-pitched, Yoda-like pidgin-speak that emanates from Elmo was too much for my son to bear. At first, he would watch as far as Mr. Noodle. The old Mr. Noodle, by the way, not the new one. And certainly not the disaster that was that one woman who was supposed to be their sister or something. Anyhoo, after a while, even Elmo’s interactions with Mr. Noodle were too grating, and as soon as “Elmo’s World” came on, he would do something else or turn the television off. “I hate Elmo!” my son would cry in exasperation.
What can I say? The kid’s got good taste.
January 20th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
When the bean arrives into the world, I fully intend to buy up as many DVDs as I can find of Sesame Street, from 1970 until about 1985.
This is the Sesame Street I want my kids to know — the funky, inclusive, COOL Sesame Street, not the infantilized pap that it’s become.
January 20th, 2009 at 10:16 pm
I wish my kids would dislike Elmo but to them Elmo is the bomb. I have one of the old school Sesame Street videos but there are not nearly enough episodes on it for my liking.
January 22nd, 2009 at 8:58 am
Your son’s instincts, as always, are flawless. Elmo is a threat to world peace and a vile, malevolent homunculus of uncertain (and probably illegal) tastes.