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Elmo, the famous furry, red monster, has been entertaining children since 1984 when he was first introduced on Sesame Street.
In recent months, Elmo, and particularly a decade-long feud with an inanimate object on the show, has gone viral and reached audiences a bit older than his usual demographic. This week, a writer for the show took to TikTok to explain the intention behind Elmo and Rocco's tension in a video that has been viewed over 1 million times.
In early January, Good Morning America reported on a resurfaced clip that has gone viral.
"Rocco says that he wants the oatmeal raisin cookie," Zoe, another muppet on the show, tells Elmo in a clip from 2004.
Rocco, readers, is Zoe's pet rock.
"How?" Elmo continues moments later. "How is Rocco going to eat that cookie Zoe? Tell Elmo. Rocco doesn't even have a mouth. Rocco's just a rock, Rocco's not alive."
The recent virality of the clip is linked back to a tweet posted on January 3, 2022, according to NBC News, by twitter user @wumbooty, which has now been viewed almost 9 million times. The Twitter user accompanied the clip with the caption: "there are tears in my eyes y'all my stomach hurting."
After the clip resurfaced and took the internet by storm, Elmo tweeted this "statement" to the world:
"Don't worry everybody! Elmo and Zoe practiced sharing and are still best buds forever! Elmo loves you Zoe! Ha ha ha!," the tweet read. "Elmo doesn't want to talk about Rocco."
"Has anyone ever seen a rock eat a cookie? Elmo is just curious," the monster wrote in a follow-up tweet.
This week, a writer for the children's show responded to the question: "Could you please explain to me what the beef is between Elmo and Rocco?" She says the reason this dynamic was created was to model a range of emotions for viewers.
@genxistentialcrisis, whose full name is Jen Capra, starts off by explaining that Elmo is "canonically" 3 and a half years old, after writers recently aged him up half a year.
"Partially to establish that he's kind of the older sibling in the relationship between him and Zoe," she says. "So, that is why she loves to irritate him so very much and he gets to then be frustrated."
This is to show that even "your favorite furry red monster" who is "good and sweet" can get frustrated—a normal human emotion.
"He hates that rock," Capra continues.
"For her, it's like a real imaginary friend situation, and for him, it's a rock."
She says the writers don't use Rocco much anymore, though after the "media storm," "Who knows?"
Capra told Newsweek in an email that though her comment regarding Rocco's comeback were just "playful," the resurgence "does get the creative juices flowing!"
"He's just a realist, who's accepted that as a monster that's a rock," she continues in the video. "So it infuriates him that she insists it's personified."
Capra told Newsweek that seeing old clips pop up is "delightful."
"A lot of these Rocco clips come from past season episodes by veteran writers like Joey Mazzarino, Christine Ferraro, Luis Santeiro, Molly Boylan and more," she said. "I love seeing new audiences discovering their work."
Correction 02/11/22 2:25 p.m. ET: A previous version of this story stated Elmo's age incorrectly as 4 years old. In addition, the phrase "who says she is a writer" has been removed from the story as Jen Capra is confirmed to be a writer for the show; also, comments from Capra were received in time for publishing despite an earlier indication otherwise.
Updated 02/11/22 2:25 p.m. ET: The story has been updated to include Jen Capra's last name.
