Elmo is a red Muppet who speaks in a high-pitched falsetto voice and quite often refers to himself in the third person. He is a character on the American educational TV show for children, “Sesame Street.” The show has 53 seasons and 4666 episodes (and counting). It premiered back in 1969, and it’s still going on to this day. 

On the show, Elmo hosts the last full five-minute segment (which used to be 15 minutes up until 2017) called "Elmo's World.” This segment is aimed at toddlers. 

Even though right now Elmo seems like an inseparable part of “Sesame Street,” he wasn’t introduced on the show until 1980. Back then, he was a supporting character. He became a permanent member only 5 years later, in 1985. 

Interestingly, the Elmo character has very deep lore. For example, it is known that his birthday is February 3rd. And people know his extensive family tree. His parents’ names are Louie and Mae, while his sister is Daisy. And that’s just the beginning. There’s a whole list of Elmo’s cousins, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and so on. 

Elmo also has social media: Instagram and, of course, X. So trying to keep active on his X account, the Muppet asked a simple question: “Elmo is just checking in! How is everybody doing?” No one could have guessed the kind of wave of emotions it would release upon the internet. 

Netizens came to the comments with their existential crises. Many of them told Elmo how unwell they were doing, from simply feeling kind of sad to feeling like they’re at their limit. Well, if people are feeling this way, we can’t tell them to feel differently, right? 

Also, for some people, January blues can have something to do with feeling this way. January is said to be the saddest month of the year.

At the same time, maybe it’s not the month’s but the world state’s fault. After all, the Doomsday clock, which represents the probability of a human-made global catastrophe, is only 90 seconds to midnight (which represents said catastrophe). 

Oof. This quickly took a dark turn. Just like the responses to Elmo’s questions. Maybe we should try to turn this Doomsday clock a little bit further from midnight? Or just work on our mental health and wait for this long January to be over. 

So, how are you doing? How would you answer Elmo’s question? Share with us in the comments!