When good toys go bad X: Elmo makes death threats to toddler

Sure, it seemed like after the years of hard drinking, petty crime, and run-ins with the law, Elmo had cleaned up his act -- but a shocking report out of Tampa Bay, Florida, says otherwise. A two-year-old's life has been turned upside down by vicious talk coming from his favorite toy, Elmo Knows Your Name. It seems that after a recent battery change, the PC-interfacing doll began spouting death threats of "kill James" at the toddler, with seemingly no explanation as to how the new phrase entered his vocabulary. The situation came to a head when the boy's mother heard her son repeating the twisted suggestion. Of course, what she didn't hear was Elmo's other threat: that he would "cut anyone who crossed [him] end-to-end with a Bowie knife," and, "dine on their internal organs." Fisher Price says it has a team of experts working on the case, and enough tranquilizer darts to put Elmo down, "For good."

[Thanks, Jordan]

Read - Toddler's Elmo Doll Makes Death Threats, Family Says
Read - Video of Elmo making death threats

[Mr.Tech @ Feb 22nd 2008 11:50AM]

I wonder if they will ever sell the Emo Elmo from MadTV. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nRNYG_xM2U

[Flashpoint @ Feb 22nd 2008 12:07PM]

TICKLE ME...

AND I'll CUT YOUR F*CKIN FINGERS OFF MUTHER****ER !

[Cahlito @ Feb 22nd 2008 12:12PM]

Man, I completely forgot about that clip. Freaking hilarious!

[Dr. Evil @ Feb 22nd 2008 12:30PM]

Wow. Elmo grew spine and he's not taking anyone's 5h1t anymore.

[Dr. Evil @ Feb 22nd 2008 12:37PM]

"Elmo Knows Your Name"

And the soon to be released "Elmo Knows Where You Live"

[Jonathan @ Feb 22nd 2008 12:43PM]

Wow... a MadTV sketch that doesn't suck and/or go on way too long.

[Aguiluz @ Feb 22nd 2008 3:44PM]

Nah, I'll go with this Elmo one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B14_qvPrD00

[I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY @ Feb 22nd 2008 9:30PM]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4024457809967804989&q=tickle+elmo+evil&total=14&start=0&num=100&so=0&type=search&plindex=2

[I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY @ Feb 22nd 2008 9:43PM]

Elmo meets Robert De Nero and the results are shocking....


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoauOJCjBnY

[CB @ Feb 22nd 2008 10:15PM]

Dude, that was hilarious.

[Liam @ Feb 22nd 2008 11:50AM]

Now THAT would screw you up.

[andy @ Feb 22nd 2008 11:52AM]

reminds me of chucky

[Rainier @ Feb 22nd 2008 11:53AM]

Elmo love killing! Tee hee hee hee hee! Tee hee hee hee hee hee! That tickles!

[Nabil @ Feb 22nd 2008 11:53AM]

Evil spirits maybe? or maybe the elmo has an Evil/good switch like th e Krusty doll in that Simpsons Halloween episode?

[Rainier @ Feb 22nd 2008 6:13PM]

With your avatar I can almost hear Homer saying that, haha.

[Ken @ Feb 22nd 2008 11:54AM]

Sounds like a money grab to me. They are going to try to sue.

[Sukhminder @ Feb 23rd 2008 5:34AM]

I was just thinking maybe the kid's just crazy...

[Teebo @ Feb 22nd 2008 11:55AM]

It said it was connected to a computer. That computer? Skynet. I saw that other Elmo video. Next thing you know it will be able to hold a 40 watt phase plasma rifle.

[Drew @ Feb 22nd 2008 1:21PM]

Sarah Conner is on watch.

[Mike @ Feb 22nd 2008 11:56AM]

"That's not a knife. *This* is a knife!"

[Ross @ Feb 22nd 2008 12:26PM]

No, that's a spoon.

[Isaiah Henni @ Feb 22nd 2008 12:37PM]

I see you've played knifey---spooney before...

[Paul @ Feb 22nd 2008 12:53PM]

Fool. You know there is no spoon.

[Zhalfim Deyn @ Feb 23rd 2008 9:52AM]

boys, that was bloody brilliant...

[Alex @ Feb 22nd 2008 12:00PM]

I knew this day would come.. attack of the killer Elmos! He kills you with a song and a smile

[Stanley @ Feb 23rd 2008 1:28PM]

Video of death elmo on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrFmJIxg9Xg

[Dan @ Feb 22nd 2008 12:01PM]

So wait, this woman thinks it's horrible for her kid to hear the Elmo say "kill James" and is upset that her son is repating those words, and then goes on TV and makes the Elmo say "kill James" how many times with her kid running around right there??? Nice.

I don't know how this thing interfaces with the computer, but my money is on this being a lawsuit setup after someone used the computer to reprogram the doll.

[Duke 2 @ Feb 22nd 2008 12:52PM]

My thoughts exactly. hypocritical white-trash Mommy feigns SO much distress about the impending psychological damage to her toddler while REPEATEDLY playing "Kill James" over and over while he's within 3 feet of the thing?

Watch out lady. Toy companies take defamation very seriously. If your concern is sincere, then why all the pomp and circumstance with the press and clear lack of concern while showing the reporter the offensive saying as your kid in sitting right there?

go piss away your ex husbands support check on 20 more Elmo toys- and if you win some tainted $$ from the toy mfr, well buy even more!!

[Melissa @ Feb 22nd 2008 1:10PM]

I am that woman. Actually just for your information they have this great new invention called crop and edit. My son was never in the room when the toy was saying what it said. But thanks for the concern. Oh and you can't personalize the doll. There is a word bank to choose from. I can also assure you that kill is not one of the choices. So maybe next time you should do a little research before giving your opinion

[Duke 2 @ Feb 22nd 2008 1:41PM]

We share your concern Melissa. We are deeply concerned about the gross lapse of parental judgement in purposely putting a buck-knife in the hands of an Elmo doll with the intent of amplifying the effect. Was that your idea too or just another case of your 'crop and edit' invention??

I sincerely hope your Son wasn't in eye shot of seeing his favorite toy holding a real knife. And believe me, Fisher Price will be even more displeased by the ill conceived attempt at either a warped sense of humor or just plain slanderous use of their product.

A knife? Really??? Let me guess- that was the News station's idea, not yours right?

[Dan @ Feb 22nd 2008 2:19PM]

@Melissa-

So the recliner is magically rocking itself at the 56 second mark when you play the doll?

Oh, and I guess that's an Oompah Loompah or something at the 1:43 mark of the video and not James standing there when you play the doll again.

Also, I clearly admitted that I've never used one of these Elmo's before.

But, no offense, this certainly does smell like you're setting up a lawsuit.

[Duke 2 @ Feb 22nd 2008 2:39PM]

btw- I do see that Engadget apparently photoshopped a knife over the shot of you holding the doll so I do want to be big enough to retract that criticism. But, your credibility is still crap as Dan pointed out, the child is clearly there @ 1:43.

Come on Melissa, come clean and admit you made a little (BIG) lie there :)

[pete @ Feb 22nd 2008 6:05PM]

man duke, thats funny, at least you noticed it was photoshoped eventually. its all good.

[kal326 @ Feb 22nd 2008 12:03PM]

Huh, maybe I shouldn't have made that crack about the army of killer Elmo's in the Elmo live post....

[Alex Haas @ Feb 22nd 2008 12:03PM]

Digg it!!

http://digg.com/gadgets/When_good_toys_go_bad_X_Elmo_makes_death_threats_to_toddler

[Carbonize @ Feb 22nd 2008 12:24PM]

That's nice for you. And Ryan Block is Digging articles from his own blog?

[daschupa @ Feb 22nd 2008 12:06PM]

Umm, is it disturbing to anyone else that the name of the doll is "Elmo Knows Your Name"? Elmo also knows when you sleep.

[Wyze @ Feb 22nd 2008 12:07PM]

Dag....looks like Elmo has been hangin out in Sesame Alley!....what's next tattos and flix with Brittney?

[Hax Or @ Feb 22nd 2008 12:11PM]

Anyone try A.L.I.C.E.?

Elmo would rock if it had the same level of A.I.

[PhilxBefore @ Feb 22nd 2008 12:34PM]

RE reference. Nice.

[MBS @ Feb 22nd 2008 12:07PM]

So if it's a toy you can hook up to the computer and teach it to say things isn't it possible that they/someone made it say that on purpose to get some publicity/money or something?

Kinda like the lady who sued Wendys for the finger in the chili. Come to think of it wasn't she from the Bay-area as well? Desperation because of the high cost of living? Or maybe it's something in the water, someone should sue!

[dmccullum @ Feb 22nd 2008 12:14PM]

Some lady needs to get off the drugs.

Actually, it sounds more like "tell James" than "kill James"

Also, I love how she didn't just reprogram it... Loser!

[atlasfugged @ Feb 22nd 2008 12:25PM]

please, mrs. bowman, put this thing up on ebay.

[BK @ Feb 22nd 2008 12:16PM]

They're really stretching it on that one. I think whatever the Elmo is saying could be interpreted as several different phrases.

[Mike @ Feb 22nd 2008 12:46PM]

I find it interesting that the child chose to interpret it as "kill."

What other forms of entertainment is two year old regularly exposed to, I wonder.

[OneLove @ Feb 22nd 2008 12:22PM]

bogus, mom is looking for a date and a payday.

[TavisJohn @ Feb 22nd 2008 12:28PM]

OK you cheap ass toy makers. Stop over compressing the audio! Spend the extra $0.15 on more cheap memory and use a less compressed audio format! Also use slightly better speakers. That would prevent this sort of misunderstanding from happening!
Yea it would cost them money upfront, but think of all the man hours that would be saved when this issue comes up! Nobody would have to be paid to investigate the issue. No parents would be on the news acting traumatized that their perfect little child was scared for life. They would not have to pay for any PR to fix their image!

[DaemonZ4 @ Feb 22nd 2008 12:28PM]

I'm pretty surprised that Engadget didn't reference Skynet, killer robots, and progressing technology with a programmable Elmo who knows your name and sleeps in your bed!

[Bazza @ Feb 22nd 2008 12:32PM]

"We'll be friends till the end..."

[phanbouy @ Feb 22nd 2008 11:19PM]

i heart this comment