Elmo’s World

Elmo's World is a segment shown at the end of the American children's television program Sesame Street from season 30 to season 42 (except for two episodes in Season 38), and again from season 47 to season 51. It premiered on November 16, 1998, as part of the show's structural change and originally lasted fifteen minutes at the end of each episode until 2009. However it was then rebooted in 2017, until stopping production in 2021, before alternating in 2023. The show was designed to appeal to younger viewers and to increase ratings, which had fallen in the past decade. The segment is presented from the perspective of a three-year-old child as represented by its host, the Muppet Elmo, performed by Kevin Clash in the original series and Ryan Dillon in the 2017 midseason reboot.

Overall

 * 1) The segment was only made in an attempt to boost the ratings of Sesame Street, which fell in the late '90s due to major competition between other preschool shows, and also during which children were starting to lose attention with Sesame Street after 40 to 45 minutes.
 * 2) It took up 1/4 of Sesame Street 's runtime and was basically used as filler.
 * 3) Quantity Over Quality: Despite its problems, the original incarnation of the segment ran for 11 years and had a total of 65 15-minute episodes.
 * 4) So much filler.
 * 5) Elmo is flanderized to treat the audience like how Barney the Dinosaur, Joe from Blue's Clues (in the later episodes), Blue from Blue's Room, Dora the Explorer, Diego from Go, Diego, Go!, Kai-Lan from Ni Hao, Kai-Lan!, Kermit the Frog from The Muppets, the Teletubbies, the Tweenies, the Numberjacks, the narrators and puppets from Baby Einstein, the Little Einsteins, JoJo from JoJo's Circus, mh:besttvshows:Special Agent Oso, the Sensational Six from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Darby from My Friends Tigger & Pooh, and mh:besttvshows:Pinky Dinky Doo do. He's also more loud and obnoxious here than on Sesame Street.
 * 6) The theme song ("La-la-la-la, La-la-la-la, Elmo's World") can get annoying. It can also make the SpongeBob theme song or The Smurfs theme song sound decent.
 * 7) Elmo talking about the same subject the whole time may get on your last nerve.
 * 8) The scene with live-action kids demonstrating how to do something involving the segment's topic in front of Dorothy is pointless, because she's just a goldfish.
 * 9) Elmo asking babies how they do something involving the topics is also pointless, because babies can't talk, let alone barely move. What do you expect?
 * 10) The quizzes are cheaply-made and they all look like a PowerPoint presentation. They're mostly done in still photo animation.
 * 11) The computer constantly says "You got mail." or "Elmo has mail."
 * 12) The music can be annoying to hear, given that it's mostly kazoos, toy pianos, and toy horns.
 * 13) From "Balls" to "Drawing", Mr. Noodle is against a background that looks very plain and boring.
 * 14) The "home video" part (which was dropped after 2000) is really poor, as the camera constantly shakes and Elmo's hands can be seen over the lens.
 * 15) The cartoons that Elmo watches are repetitive, often involving the Lecture Lady, "The Girl/Boy Who Loved (Topic)" and/or Bubbles Martin. The animation also makes them look like something that would belong in Looney Toons or anything from Hanna Barbara rather than Sesame Street.
 * 16) Severe frame-rate issues during the Noodle Family bits, which often run at 30FPS or less.
 * 17) Cheap-looking and meh CGI animation, especially in the first ten episodes, all of which aired as part of Sesame Street's Season 30.
 * 18) Some of the imagery is just weird, gross, and at times even disturbing. Examples:
 * 19) *A mailbox in the "Hair" quiz wearing Elvis Presley's hairstyle and briefly coming to life saying Elvis' catchphrase ("Thank you, thank you very much").
 * 20) *Half of "Teeth". This includes a birthday cake with a mouth in the quiz and close-ups of actual teeth.
 * 21) *A horse, a pineapple, and a clock each having literal hands in the "Hands" quiz.
 * 22) *The segment "Noses". A nose wearing a hat even visits Elmo towards the end.
 * 23) *The segment "Mouths". Not to mention, the quiz has a flower pot with lips and we see Elmo put on a pair of pink wax lips.
 * 24) * Close-ups of insects in "Bugs" (depending on your view, at least).
 * 25) *The segment "Feet". Almost all of it, not to mention the cartoon features a girl who loves her feet (Eww!) and a literal foot named Bigfoot visits Elmo (Gross!).
 * 26) The Door keeps dumping Elmo in objects related to the topic of the episode, though it doesn't happen in some episodes.
 * 27) The whole segment barely has any educational value.
 * 28) It has too many bad/mediocre episodes, including:
 * 29) *"Balls"
 * 30) *"Shoes"
 * 31) *"Hats"
 * 32) *"Dancing"
 * 33) *"Jackets"
 * 34) *"Food"
 * 35) *"Books"
 * 36) *"Music"
 * 37) *"Water"
 * 38) *"Transportation"
 * 39) *"Singing"
 * 40) *"Dogs"
 * 41) *"Exercise"
 * 42) *"Babies"
 * 43) *"Bananas"
 * 44) *"Drawing"
 * 45) *"Telephones"
 * 46) *"Farms"
 * 47) *"Hair"
 * 48) *"Flowers, Plants & Trees"
 * 49) *"Computers"
 * 50) *"Bugs"
 * 51) *"Pets"
 * 52) *"Teeth"
 * 53) *"Hands"
 * 54) *"Birthdays"
 * 55) *"Birds"
 * 56) *"Games"
 * 57) *"Bicycles"
 * 58) *"Families"
 * 59) *"The Wild Wild West"
 * 60) *"Fish"
 * 61) *"Sky"
 * 62) *"Sleep"
 * 63) *"Weather"
 * 64) *"Getting Dressed"
 * 65) *"Mail"
 * 66) *"Ears"
 * 67) *"Firefighters"
 * 68) *"Wild Animals"
 * 69) *"Open and Close"
 * 70) *"Feet" (the worst episode of the show)
 * 71) *"Bath Time"
 * 72) *"Bells"
 * 73) * "Up and Down"
 * 74) *"Dinosaurs"
 * 75) *"School"
 * 76) *"Cats"
 * 77) *"Skin"
 * 78) *"Jumping"
 * 79) *"Cameras"
 * 80) *"Friends" (in which it is another Elmo vs. Rocco torture)
 * 81) *"Penguins"
 * 82) *"Doctors"
 * 83) *"Building Things"
 * 84) *"Horses"
 * 85) *"Fast and Slow"
 * 86) * "The Beach"
 * 87) *"Mouths"
 * 88) *"Violins"
 * 89) *"Noses"
 * 90) *"Helping"
 * 91) *"Drums"
 * 92) *"Eyes"
 * 93) *"Frogs"
 * 94) *"Kindness"
 * 95) *"Sharing"
 * 96) *"Dress Up"
 * 97) *"Dancing"
 * 98) *"Bees"
 * 99) *"Songs"
 * 100) *"Morning Routines"
 * 101) *"Painting"
 * 102) *"Gardens"
 * 103) *"Instruments"
 * 104) *"Counting"
 * 105) *"Homes"
 * 106) *"Restaurants"
 * 107) *"Colors"
 * 108) *"Father's Day"
 * 109) *"Recycling"
 * 110) *"Camouflage"
 * 111) *"Habitats"
 * 112) *"Cooking"
 * 113) *"Siblings"
 * 114) *"Seasons"
 * 115) *"The Wild Wild West"
 * 116) *"Happy Holidays"
 * 117) Due to the lack of good episodes, it proves that the show is not worth watching. It shouldn't be given any attention and it goes to show that it's hard to watch, easy to ignore, and easily forgettable in general. Giving this spin-off any attention will make Sesame Workshop think this is a good idea.
 * 118) Pointless side characters:
 * 119) *Dorothy does nothing but swim in her fishbowl.
 * 120) *All the side-table drawer does is move around Elmo's room and knock him down in the process of getting out the photo quiz.
 * 121) *The door doesn't do anything apart from Elmo opening and closing it.
 * 122) *The Noodle Family are just generic comic reliefs.
 * 123) *The Lecture Lady is a generic television reporter.
 * 124) *Bubbles Martin is an insult to Betty Boop and the Lecture Lady.
 * 125) *The kids in the cartoons only do what their names say they do ("the girl who loved birthdays" travels around the world to celebrate people's birthdays, the girl in "Horses" and "the horse who loved his girl" spend time together, "the girl who loved her feet" walks around barefoot, "the boy who loved his dog's ears" plays with his dog and responds to his ears, etc.)
 * 126) The segment caused Sesame Street to jump the shark, and was partly responsible for its decline in quality, as after its debut Elmo became a massive cash cow.
 * 127) *It has also badly influenced some other kids' shows to do the same thing like it by being extremely goofy and hyperactive, going against the tone of their source material, flanderizing characters, and just changing too many things, especially when Sesame Street tries to compete with other shows.
 * 128) *It caused Sesame Street to focus less on older, more mature, and classic Muppets like Big Bird, Mr. Snuffleupagus, Ernie and Bert, Count von Count, (Marshal) Grover, Cookie Monster, Telly Monster, Prairie Dawn, and more on younger Muppets who relate to children in the 0-4 age range along with post-1990 Muppets (such as Baby Natasha, Rosita, Murray, Zoe, Baby Bear and Curly Bear, Abby Cadabby, Rudy, Julia, and the aforementioned Elmo).
 * 129) * The success of the segment inspired Sesame Workshop to create more segments based around Elmo after it ended, most notably Elmo the Musical (while it's mediocre).

Good Qualities

 * 1) Great puppetry, just like in the main show.
 * 2) Great voice acting for most characters.
 * 3) The show was slightly redeemed in 2017, as its runtime was abridged to five minutes.
 * 4) Elmo & Tango's Mysterious Mysteries is an improvement over this segment because of the better animation.
 * 5) The colors are quite nice to look at sometimes.
 * 6) This segment makes playtime and learning fun to children.
 * 7) "The Street We Live On" is presented in Sesame Street's original magazine format, even though it's mostly an extended version Elmo's World episode.

Trivia

 * Elmo's World was introduced at MIPTV in April 1998 to prospective broadcasters and investors as consisting of sixty-four fifteen-minute episodes at the end of Sesame Street, later, ten fifteen-minute episodes in the first three seasons.