Sesame Street may be set on a fictional street in a Manhattan neighborhood, but only a select few characters have that New York attitude.
Lovable, cuddly little Elmo is definitely not one of them, and it recently got him in a bit of trouble with fans of the New York Knicks.
Elmo's attempt at a neutral post about the NBA finals between the Knicks and San Antonio Spurs had New Yorkers dragging Elmo as only New Yorkers can, with hilarious viral results.
In short, Elmo basically got straight-up bullied in these internet streets! It all started with the most sweetly innocuous tweet right before the start of Wednesday, June 3rd's big match-up.
Elmo, in his trademark third-person style, wrote:
"Elmo hopes both teams have fun! 🏀🏀🏀🏀"
And, well, you'd think he insulted every New Yorker's mother with the response he got.
People were jokingly furious at Elmo's refusal to speak his allegiance to one team or the other.
People screamed at the furry little puppet to "pick a side!" and insisted that as a fellow New Yorker, he should be in it for the Knicks.
Many others started feuds, posting photos of Sesame Street characters they claimed to like better than Elmo.
And before long, a new meme was born in which people laid into Elmo, often in verbiage that would never make it to air on the venerable kids' show.
The backlash, albeit joking backlash, got so intense that Elmo himself had to come back on X and address it with a cute little pun.
He got away with it, but only because the Knicks did end up prevailing over the Spurs that night.
And not only did they win, but they won rather unexpectedly. The Knicks were trailing through most of the game and were behind by 14 points at one point in the second half.
But the team's star player Jalen Brunson scored 30 points during the game and Josh Hart's defense was on point, leading the Knicks to victory over the Spurs in front of a crowd that was full of loud and proud Knicks fans despite the teams playing on San Antonio's home turf.
The Knicks have since gone on to best the Spurs in Game 2 of the playoffs on Friday, June 5, winning by just a single point, 105-104.
Game 3 is set to be played June 8 at New York's Madison Square Garden. The Spurs' Victor Wembanyama said Sunday he's confident the Spurs can come back from their 2-0 slump, a feat only five other NBA teams have ever achieved.
No doubt Elmo will be acting a little bit more loyal towards the Knicks this time around after getting put in place by the internet—though he's yet to even post a single word since apologizing for his traitorous ways on June 4. Tread carefully, Elmo!
@followingmybody/X