About

Elmo vs. Rocco refers to scenes from Sesame Street that find Elmo expressing exasperation over Zoey's pet rock, named Rocco (also spelled "Rocko"). The scenes began going viral on social media in early 2022 after viewers found themselves amused at the vitriol with which Elmo seems to despise the very concept of Zoey's imaginary friend.

Origin

Zoey's pet rock, Rocco, was first introduced on Sesame Street on January 7th, 1999, in episode 3,809.^[1] Over the following years, Elmo would regularly express exasperation with the character, often refusing to accept Zoey's insistence that Rocco was anything more than a regular rock. This culminated in Episode 4,077,^[2] aired five years later, which finds Elmo struggling to entertain Zoey's imaginary friend. This comes to a head in a scene in which Elmo wants an oatmeal raisin cookie (his favorite), but Zoey insists Rocco wants it. At his wit's end, Elmo proceeds to unload on Zoey, insisting that Rocco is not alive.

On January 3rd, 2022, Twitter user @wumbooty^[3] posted the clip of Elmo losing his cool with the caption, "there are tears in my eyes y’all my stomach hurting," gaining over 54,000 retweets and 297,000 likes in two days (shown below).

there are tears in my eyes y’all my stomach hurting pic.twitter.com/bbkF9yDZLf

— cheye (dr.booty) (@wumbooty) January 4, 2022

Spread

The clip was widely shared on social media shortly after, as many users saw it for the first time and were surprised at how strongly Elmo reacted to Rocco. For example, on January 5th, 2022, Twitter user @Ankaman616^[4] posted, "Please help me, I have been laughing at how much Elmo hates a rock all morning. This thread is incredible," gaining over 100 retweets and 780 likes in less than 24 hours (shown below, left). User @lunch_enjoyer^[5] wrote it was "classic elmo," gaining over 190 retweets and 4,100 likes in a similar timeframe (shown below, right).

Other users shared various clips of Elmo expressing his exasperation with Rocco following the viral video in early January 2022. User @MobsMostHated posted a clip of Zoey explaining to Elmo that Rocco "had to go to the bathroom" on January 5th, gaining over 14,000 retweets and 82,000 likes in less than 24 hours (shown below, top). User @ItsOFFICIALuSUK posted another clip that gained over 3,800 retweets and 28,000 likes in a similar timeframe (shown below, bottom).

Bro no why she keep fckn with Elmo 😭😭 pic.twitter.com/YW217q2bgp

— no way home is moty 🥂 (@MOBSMOSTHATED) January 4, 2022

LMAOOOOO HE WAS SO DONE AT THE END pic.twitter.com/i5nAHBNVfk

— HAHAuSUK (@ItsOFFICIALuSUK) January 4, 2022

Elmo vs. Rocco on SNL

After Elmo vs. Rocco memes trended online in early January 2022, the late-night sketch show Saturday Night Live decided to parody the Sesame Street scene on its Weekend Update segment of the show. Cast member Chole Fineman played Elmo in the sketch alongside Update anchor Michael Che. In the sketch, Fineman impersonated Elmo as Rocco was brought out onto the set as a "special guest," only to be angry about Rocco's appearance. When uploaded to YouTube^[6] by SNL's channel, the video received roughly 579,600 views and 13,000 likes over the course of one day (shown below).

SNL also posted the clip to their Twitter,^[7] receiving roughly 11,000 likes over the course of one day. On Twitter is where the video began to trend heavily. As users were exposed to the sketch, they started reacting to it, most of them strongly disliking it. For example, Twitter^[8] user theeashleyray posted a quote tweet on January 16th that made a point about the writers room needing to take a break from Twitter, earning roughly 87,000 likes over the course of one day (shown below).

More Twitter users expressed disappointment going into the rest of the day. For instance, Twitter^[9] user jenny2x4 tweeted, "RIP Elmo vs. Rocco meme. May SNL one day pay for its crimes 🙏🏻," earning roughly 12,200 likes in less than 24 hours (shown below, left). Twitter^[10] user conureCC replied to SNL's tweet on January 17th with a meme that read, "the life cycle of a meme," showing a Human Centipede diagram of a trend being digested from 4chan to SNL (shown below, right). The meme received over 400 likes in less than 24 hours via the reply.

Also on January 17th, 2022, Twitter^[11] user nescartridges referenced Mr. Incredible Becoming Uncanny in a tweet, saying, "can SNL do a uncanny mr incredible skit so I don't have to see that meme anymore." The tweet (shown below) earned roughly 4,300 likes in less than 24 hours.

Various Examples

Elmo vs Rocko the greatest rivalry of all time pic.twitter.com/4aRbR6OUAS

— ko (@formermerc) January 4, 2022

DAWG! elmo has had enough with the shenanigans lol! i shouldn’t be laughing at this pic.twitter.com/Sp1uB8YpGo

— ᴊᴏɴɴʏ ᴊᴜᴋᴇʙᴏx 🕹✨ (@jonnyjukeboxx) January 4, 2022

Nah bro, Zoe and Elmo be beefing😭😭 pic.twitter.com/txaZcGkcUq

— 𝕶𝖊𝖎𝖘𝖍𝖆 𝕭𝕲 (@prettybaddie27) January 5, 2022

remember the time Elmo unknowingly touched Rocco’s ass pic.twitter.com/EHyb8OwuDq

— Sir Simon A.  (@BabyLamb5) January 4, 2022

Search Interest

External References