Behind the Red Curtain
/Behind the Red Curtain: Elmo’s Descent to Infamy
Elmo, Sesame Street’s beloved little red monster, has left audiences star-struck for the past few decades with his child-like wonder and insatiable curiosity. He could make friends with just about everyone, such as the foul-smelling and rambunctious Oscar the Grouch, a green goon who literally lives in a garbage can.
This adorable three and a half-year-old, ageless in these last decades, has an innate goodness that bewitched everyone around him. Despite being adored by all his fans and his Sesame Street Gang, there comes a pressure when your public persona takes over your life, and is seems the only way out is to go a little crazy.
Behind the set, when the cameras weren't rolling, this little ball of joy became an unrecognizable animal towards his castmates and terrified the children, who came and went frequently on the show because they couldn’t handle him. One castmate in particular encountered this abuse. Elmo’s orange-haired female counterpart, Zoe. Elmo made derogatory remarks on account of her ballerina outfit, and how she should go on without it, like when they first aired on the show. At one point during the shooting, he bit her ear and wouldn’t let go. Zoe had to get stitches to keep the fluff from falling out.
What was the reason behind his radical behaviour?
As it turns out, Elmo had been found snorting a mountain of white that belonged to Cookie Monster’s “special” cookie recipe, which altered Elmo’s appearance to a bone-thin, raggedy man with wild hair: crazy and on drugs in a matter of weeks. That’s when Sesame Street decided to kick Elmo to the curb, where he lived behind Oscar the Grouch dumpster’s bins; turning tricks and mugging people for money to get the same high Cookie Monster’s batch gave him.
It wasn’t until one day when he was swatting imaginary bees and knocking over garbage cans, including the Grouch, who was last seen rolling down into traffic, whether he survived or not has yet to be confirmed. The only witnesses at the scene of this atrocity were none other than this infamous band of smooth-talking and drug-taking rockers called Electric Mayhem.
At that moment they realized this was their drummer, because no one could match the wild intensity he possessed banging those cans. They laid out cookie crumbs for him to sniff out to their van, where they snatched him and kept him shackled in a cold basement; feeding him only cookies and giving him the name Animal.
Oddly enough, the group became inseparable and caused mayhem whatever gig thrown at them and to squander it to pieces whenever they’re up on stage at some dismal club. Mostly, due to Animal's erratic behaviour of being constantly drugged out of his mind on Cookie Monster's special flour. From biting the fluff out of puppets, and groping any woman he could get his bony hands on. Or taking out big chunks out of his drums with his gnarled teeth, which is slowly being broken down to the gum line due to his heavy abuse.
However, whenever Electric Mayhem does get a chance to play, when they’re not pursuing their usual self-destructive habits, they can play a slick tune of rock n’ roll with Animal’s killer drums roaring in the background.
Chris Joyal
A nineteen year old unhealthily obsessed with Hannibal memes and anything darkly humorous. Or any stupid pun that my little brain capacity can comprehend. Often called a cave-dweller or ghost by known relatives, and probably a few classmates as well, because of my rare sightings and frequent disappearances, like Big Foot, or the Loch Ness Monster.
Works at Meme Magazine.
