Elmo went on an antisemitic tirade — and it strangely isn’t the first time
The beloved Muppet’s X account was hacked
Elmo — or people posing as him — has a sketchy history of antisemitic statements. Photo by Craig Barritt/Getty Images for Headspace
By PJ Grisar July 14, 2025
This gives new meaning to the term “sock puppet account.”
On Sunday, less than a week after X’s AI rebranded itself MechaHitler, the account of the beloved Sesame Street monster Elmo issued these words onto the internet.
“Elmo says ALL JEWS SHOULD DIE. FUCK JEWS. DONALD TRUMP IS NETANYAHU’S PUPPET BECAUSE HE IS IN THE EPSTEIN FILES. JEWS CONTROL THE WORLD AND NEED TO BE EXTERMINATED.”
The message, part of a series appearing to allude to the conspiracy theory that pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein was a Mossad agent, was quickly deleted. But my memory is long.
This is oddly not the first time that Elmo — or rather, someone posing as him — has been caught in the middle of an antisemitic tirade. In 2012, a man in an Elmo costume was recorded spouting Jew hatred at New York’s Central Park.
“Read about International Jew by Henry Ford,” ranted the man, who it was later revealed introduced online pornography to Cambodia, leading to his deportation. “If you start your own business in this city, Jews will harass you.”
In an irony too rich to be believed, the Central Park Elmo, a man born Danny Mark Sandler, legally changed his name to Adam Sandler some time before his tantrum. (The movie star Adam Sandler once performed a duet with the real Elmo that included no bigoted invective.)
While Elmo himself appears to be innocent, it is strange that using the perennial toddler as a mouthpiece for such vitriol is something of a trend.
But, as many online have noted, this bizarre outburst lends some clarity to a televised assault from February 2024, when Larry David throttled Elmo during a Today Show segment.
Perhaps David had heard whisperings that the Sesame Street resident had some animus toward his people. In any case, I myself feel vindicated for having insisted Elmo is the least Jewish of all Muppets.
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