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How Elmo Ruined Sesame Street

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Re: How Elmo Ruined Sesame Street

#31

Post by r00fus »

austenallred wrote: post #10

There is no substance on earth more addictive than Elmo is to a two year old. In most television shows and movies what people are looking for is somebody that represents them - call it an "avatar" if you must. When kids watch Sesame Street they relate directly to Elmo. He's younger, smaller, has an insatiable curiosity, and is in a permanent mode of questioning and discovery. He even has similar mannerisms to childre…

My kids when they were 2 did not attach to Elmo. I do know that my older kid at 6/7ish was bored by Elmo.

So maybe it's just that Elmo is polarizing even with kids?

Re: How Elmo Ruined Sesame Street

#32

Post by brandonmenc »

reuven wrote: post #28
brandonmenc wrote: post #25

I LOVED Sesame Street, but have always hated Elmo - for exactly the reasons detailed in this article - and I'm glad I'm not the only one. Fortunately, I'm old enough to have watched Sesame Street before Elmo took over. As an aside, I wish someone would revive The Electric Company.

They tried. The new Electric Company lasted 1.5 seasons or so. It was totally new and different... and not nearly as addictive, funny, or clever as the original one.

My mother claims I sat in front of the TV utterly hypnotized by the "phonetics shadows," and that it's how I learned to read.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfQseUDQB2o

Is there anything like this available for kids now? It's so stripped down and catchy that, even as an adult, I could watch these all day long.

Re: How Elmo Ruined Sesame Street

#34

Post by minimaxir »

webkike wrote: post #2

As with literally every article written by kotaku, oh my god I just don't care

Agree that Kotaku is bad in general, but it is not fair to unilaterally disavow the publication from HN. Some Kotaku authors are very, very good (see: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10460393 )

The bad Kotaku articles rarely get submitted, and the ones that do never get upvotes. The system works.

Re: How Elmo Ruined Sesame Street

#36

Post by cwe »

austenallred wrote: post #10

There is no substance on earth more addictive than Elmo is to a two year old. In most television shows and movies what people are looking for is somebody that represents them - call it an "avatar" if you must. When kids watch Sesame Street they relate directly to Elmo. He's younger, smaller, has an insatiable curiosity, and is in a permanent mode of questioning and discovery. He even has similar mannerisms to childre…

My two year old has no interest in Elmo. He's more interested (right now) in Pixar characters, and to a lesser extent Masha and the Bear. One could argue Masha is an equivalent to Elmo, though probably worse overall being a much less educational show. But the obsession with Pixar is fascinating to me. Not just Toy Story and Cars, but Wall-E and Up. Very proud of that, and impressed by Pixar frankly.

Re: How Elmo Ruined Sesame Street

#37

Post by cmiles74 »

austenallred wrote: post #10

There is no substance on earth more addictive than Elmo is to a two year old. In most television shows and movies what people are looking for is somebody that represents them - call it an "avatar" if you must. When kids watch Sesame Street they relate directly to Elmo. He's younger, smaller, has an insatiable curiosity, and is in a permanent mode of questioning and discovery. He even has similar mannerisms to childre…

I think Sesame Street is for children from ages up to six or so. Spending as much time on Elmo as they do, in my opinion, drastically shrinks their audience. Children who would watch Sesame Street at age 5 find Elmo dull and switch to something else.

For sure, my evidence is anecdotal: my daughter enjoyed the show from ages two to three, maybe a year and a half total, and now has zero interest. She still finds Elmo cute and cuddly but gets bored by his segments way before they end.

Re: How Elmo Ruined Sesame Street

#38

Post by btilly »

austenallred wrote: post #10

There is no substance on earth more addictive than Elmo is to a two year old. In most television shows and movies what people are looking for is somebody that represents them - call it an "avatar" if you must. When kids watch Sesame Street they relate directly to Elmo. He's younger, smaller, has an insatiable curiosity, and is in a permanent mode of questioning and discovery. He even has similar mannerisms to childre…

Sesame Street was created for two-year-olds, not bitter Internet pundits.

It may have been created for two-year-olds, but do you know what it was created TO DO for two-year-olds?

The article has it exactly right. The purpose of Sesame Street was never entertainment. Their purpose was to use TV to help preschool aged kids get a head start on academics and emotional development, while pushing a specific set of liberal social values around inclusiveness on them. It is a matter of historical record that this was the goal.

In order to accomplish this goal, Sesame Street deliberately had to have enough entertainment value to keep kids watching. And pulled in enough pop culture people to give babysitters a reason to turn it on. (See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G95MA6RxJTs for an example of how they combined those two.) But those are means to an end, not the end. And it is very important to always push kids to do a little more than they think they can do.

The current dominance and role of Elmo reflects how Sesame Street has lost sight of their initial vision and confused the means (entertainment) for the end.

Re: How Elmo Ruined Sesame Street

#40

Post by ksenzee »

[deleted] wrote: post #39

[deleted]

Clickbait would be "You'll never believe which character ruined Sesame Street" or "10 reasons we hate Elmo". This is more of a "I have a thesis, it's not simple enough for a headline, but here's what the article is about" type of headline.
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