“Seinfeld” co-creator and “Curb Your Enthusiasm” star Larry David justified his beat down of “Sesame Street” puppet Elmo.
David told “Late Night” host Seth Meyers that he assaulted the puppet on the “Today” set because he couldn’t take another second of his message about mental health and declared that he would try to hurt the puppet again if he could.
Meyers brought up the scuffle, saying, “You were on the ‘Today’ show this morning. And so was Elmo. Elmo, one might say, loved by all. You wanna tell us what happened with Elmo, Larry?”
David appeared embarrassed and fumbled for his words as Meyers brought up the viral clip from the NBC morning show segment.
During the “Today” broadcast – as co-anchor Al Roker gave a brief weather report – the camera quickly cut to where the other anchors and guest Elmo were sitting on the couch.
David could be seen grabbing Elmo’s face as the puppet screamed. The comedian also took a swing at the character as the show hosts looked on in shock.
After one more squeeze of Elmo’s face, David walked off the set smiling. The puppet screamed after him, “Mr. Larry, Elmo liked you before!” As the co-hosts processed the scene that just happened behind them, the puppet called back out to David, saying, “Let’s get back on the couch and let’s talk about how you’re feeling!”
Co-host Savannah Guthrie told David, “Larry, you’ve gone too far this time,” to which he replied, “Somebody had to do it.”
David made the same point when Meyers mentioned how he went to “throttle” Elmo. He said, “Yeah, yeah. I did it, “Elmo was talking, okay? I was waiting to be interviewed, and Elmo – he was going on about mental health and I had to listen to every word.”
Using a high-pitched voice to mock the puppet, he continued, “And I was going, ‘Oh my God, oh my God, I don’t think I can take another second of this!’” Returning to his normal voice, he yelled, “And so I got off my chair and I approached him and I throttled him!”
“There you go,” an amused Meyers remarked.
“I couldn’t take it!” David said, adding, “And you know what? I would do it again.”
The Elmo altercation happened after the Sesame Street star went viral on X this week for asking his 500 thousand followers how they were feeling. The innocent question sparked a social media conversation on mental health that even President Biden felt was important enough to weigh in on.