Latest news with #hacked
CTV News
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CTV News
Jon Stewart spoofs Elmo's X account getting hacked
We have seen Elmo of 'Sesame Street' in a variety of lights, but never as an alt-right supporter. After the beloved character's X account was hacked, Jon Stewart decided to have some fun with a look-alike puppet of Elmo on the 'The Daily Show' on July 14. (Roy Rochlin/via CNN Newsource) We have seen Elmo of 'Sesame Street' in a variety of lights, but never as an alt-right supporter. After the beloved character's X account was hacked, Jon Stewart decided to have some fun with a look-alike puppet of Elmo on 'The Daily Show' on Monday. The talk show host reminded the audience with a photo that he had worked with the famed muppet years ago and said he was 'shocked' by the tweets. Stewart, voicing the 'Elmo' puppet, claimed that he was hacked after someone 'guessed Elmo's password was Elmo! Elmo123. Elmo knows passwords should have more numbers, but Elmo only knows three numbers.' Stewart soon got the 'truth,' insisting Elmo needed to take responsibility for his actions. 'It was Elmo, but Elmo was radicalized by the manosphere. Elmo is part of the male loneliness epidemic,' Stewart as the puppet said. 'Elmo was doing his own research on flu shots. Six hours later, because of the algorithm, Elmo was moderating the QAnon Discord chat and building homemade bombs.' After Stewart reminded him of his influence on children, the muppet clapped back. 'Once again, the so-called tolerant left policing speech that's inconvenient to their woke dogma,' he said. 'Who's the real puppet now, Jon? You! You're the real puppet.' They then got to the heart of the matter after Stewart accused the character of sharing 'alt-right talking point word salad.' 'Elmo's alt-right,' the puppet said, joking he was pandering to save funding for public broadcasting and children's education programs. 'No reason to cancel Elmo's funding then.' U.S. President Donald Trump has encouraged Congress to revoke funding for PBS, the birthplace of 'Sesame Street,' accusing them of a liberal bias. 'Elmo can't go back on the streets, Jon! You have no idea what it's like,' Stewart said as the puppet. 'Elmo's too pretty to live under a bridge, Jon.' On Tuesday, the Instagram account for Elmo posted a statement saying that 'Elmo's X account was briefly hacked by an outside party, in spite of the security measures in place' on Sunday. 'We strongly condemn the abhorrent antisemitic and racist content, and the account has since been secured.' The statement continued, 'These posts in no way reflect the values of Sesame Workshop or Sesame Street, and no one at the organization was involved.' By Lisa Respers France.
CNN
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CNN
Jon Stewart spoofs Elmo's X account getting hacked
We have seen Elmo of 'Sesame Street' in a variety of lights, but never as an alt-right supporter. After the beloved character's X account was hacked, Jon Stewart decided to have some fun with a look-alike puppet of Elmo on the 'The Daily Show' on Monday. The talk show host reminded the audience with a photo that he had worked with the famed muppet years ago and said he was 'shocked' by the tweets. Stewart, voicing the 'Elmo' puppet, claimed that he was hacked after someone 'guessed Elmo's password was Elmo! Elmo123. Elmo knows passwords should have more numbers, but Elmo only knows three numbers.' Stewart soon got the 'truth,' insisting Elmo needed to take responsibility for his actions. 'It was Elmo, but Elmo was radicalized by the manosphere. Elmo is part of the male loneliness epidemic,' Stewart as the puppet said. 'Elmo was doing his own research on flu shots. Six hours later, because of the algorithm, Elmo was moderating the QAnon Discord chat and building homemade bombs.' After Stewart reminded him of his influence on children, the muppet clapped back. 'Once again, the so-called tolerant left policing speech that's inconvenient to their woke dogma,' he said. 'Who's the real puppet now, Jon? You! You're the real puppet.' They then got to the heart of the matter after Stewart accused the character of sharing 'alt-right talking point word salad.' 'Elmo's alt-right,' the puppet said, joking he was pandering to save funding for public broadcasting and children's education programs. 'No reason to cancel Elmo's funding then.' President Donald Trump has encouraged Congress to revoke funding for PBS, the birthplace of 'Sesame Street,' accusing them of a liberal bias. 'Elmo can't go back on the streets, Jon! You have no idea what it's like,' Stewart said as the puppet. 'Elmo's too pretty to live under a bridge, Jon.'
CNN
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CNN
Jon Stewart spoofs Elmo's X account getting hacked
We have seen Elmo of 'Sesame Street' in a variety of lights, but never as an alt-right supporter. After the beloved character's X account was hacked, Jon Stewart decided to have some fun with a look-alike puppet of Elmo on the 'The Daily Show' on Monday. The talk show host reminded the audience with a photo that he had worked with the famed muppet years ago and said he was 'shocked' by the tweets. Stewart, voicing the 'Elmo' puppet, claimed that he was hacked after someone 'guessed Elmo's password was Elmo! Elmo123. Elmo knows passwords should have more numbers, but Elmo only knows three numbers.' Stewart soon got the 'truth,' insisting Elmo needed to take responsibility for his actions. 'It was Elmo, but Elmo was radicalized by the manosphere. Elmo is part of the male loneliness epidemic,' Stewart as the puppet said. 'Elmo was doing his own research on flu shots. Six hours later, because of the algorithm, Elmo was moderating the QAnon Discord chat and building homemade bombs.' After Stewart reminded him of his influence on children, the muppet clapped back. 'Once again, the so-called tolerant left policing speech that's inconvenient to their woke dogma,' he said. 'Who's the real puppet now, Jon? You! You're the real puppet.' They then got to the heart of the matter after Stewart accused the character of sharing 'alt-right talking point word salad.' 'Elmo's alt-right,' the puppet said, joking he was pandering to save funding for public broadcasting and children's education programs. 'No reason to cancel Elmo's funding then.' President Donald Trump has encouraged Congress to revoke funding for PBS, the birthplace of 'Sesame Street,' accusing them of a liberal bias. 'Elmo can't go back on the streets, Jon! You have no idea what it's like,' Stewart said as the puppet. 'Elmo's too pretty to live under a bridge, Jon.'
Yahoo
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Jon Stewart Invites Elmo on ‘The Daily Show' to Explain His ‘Alt-Right' Tweets
Jon Stewart revealed that he scrapped his intended opening monologue after the X account belonging to beloved Sesame Street character Elmo was hacked over the weekend. The Daily Show host explained that due to the anti-semitic, violent tweets that appeared on Elmo's account he felt he had to address the issue. 'Let me be completely frank: We had a tremendous show planned for you,' Stewart said. 'Well-designed, articulate, a tremendous deconstruction of the most interesting issues of the day. We prepared a whole piece on the new Trump tariffs, breaking down the different rates and their secondary impacts—a truly illuminating dive into the overlooked role of the commodities markets in trade deficit accounting. It was going to be so funny. But sadly at the last minute we had to scrap all that because Elmo lost his fucking mind.' More from Rolling Stone Gavin Newsom Calls Trump a 'Son of a B-tch' Jeffrey Epstein Hired Private Investigators to Intimidate FBI Agents: Officials Grok Rolls Out Pornographic Anime Companion, Lands Department of Defense Contract The host then played a clip of a news anchor describing how a hacker had posted anti-semitic tweets on Elmo's X account on Sunday. 'This is what happens when you go too long without tickling Elmo,' Stewart quipped. Stewart added that the tweets were 'especially shocking' to him because he has collaborated with Elmo in the past. 'I've worked with Elmo, as everybody definitely remembers,' he said, showing a very old photo of him with the muppet. 'The truth is, I'm being honest, Elmo at the time was great to work with. He was. Was there a ton of coke on set? Of course. But hateful, racist Elmo is not the Elmo that I remember. I know what's in Elmo's heart. Stewart then invited a rudimentary, hand puppet version of Elmo to join him on the show. The puppet appeared in front of an incel-inspired bedroom and began to chat with Stewart about the hacking incident. Hilariously, Stewart did the puppeteering and Elmo's voice himself during their conversation. At first, Elmo insisted he really had been hacked. 'They hacked Elmo!' the muppet said. 'They guessed Elmo's password was Elmo! Elmo123. Elmo knows passwords should have more numbers, but Elmo only knows three numbers.' But when Stewart demanded more accountability Elmo admitted, 'It's true, Elmo wasn't hacked. It was Elmo. But Elmo was radicalized by the manosphere. Elmo is part of the male loneliness epidemic. You-you-you see, what happened was, Elmo was doing his own research on flu shots. Six hours later, because of the algorithm, Elmo was moderating the QAnon Discord chat and building homemade bombs.' He continued, when Stewart pressed him to take responsibility about being a role model for kids, 'Are you canceling Elmo?! Once again, the so-called tolerant left is policing speech that's inconvenient to their woke dogma. Who's the real puppet now, Jon?! You! You're the real puppet.' The host replied that Elmo was getting caught up in 'alt-right talking point word salad.' 'Yeah, you said it, not Elmo,' the puppet said. 'Elmo's alt-right. No reason to cancel Elmo's funding then.' 'Is that what this is about?' Stewart replied, pretending to be shocked. 'You're pandering to the right so you can keep your government funding for public broadcasting?' 'Elmo can't go back on the streets, Jon,' Elmo replied. 'You have no idea what it's like. Elmo's too pretty to live under a bridge, Jon. It's a life brought to you by the letter sucking dick, OK? Elmo won't! Elmo won't go back. Elmo can't go back. No!' In the second half of the show's opening segment, Stewart reflected on the right wing response to Trump's unwillingness to release the Epstein files. At the end, Elmo reappeared to shout, 'Viva la revolución! Antifa forever!' The puppet said that listening to Stewart's 'trenchant analysis of the many hypocrisies of the right have re-radicalized Elmo to the populist left. Free Luigi!' Best of Rolling Stone The 50 Best 'Saturday Night Live' Characters of All Time Denzel Washington's Movies Ranked, From Worst to Best 70 Greatest Comedies of the 21st Century
Yahoo
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Who hacked Elmo? Sesame Street character posts 'disgusting' antisemitic messages
Elmo, the furry Sesame Street character so universally beloved he recently went viral simply for asking people how they were doing, has been hacked. Sesame Workshop, which makes the children's show, described the string of antisemitic, racist messages posted to Elmo's X account on Sunday as "disgusting." The posts have since been removed, but widely circulated screen shots show a barrage of messages calling for extreme violence against Jewish people, as well as the release of files related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. "Elmo's X account was briefly compromised yesterday by an unknown hacker who posted disgusting messages, including antisemitic and racist posts. The account has since been secured," a spokesperson told CBC News in an email statement. Elmo, a verified account, has some 650,000 followers. His posts generally spread kindness and compassion, and he's become something of a therapist for the adults who follow him. Last year, a post that asked "how is everybody doing?" went viral, garnering nearly 20,000 responses from people sharing their thoughts and despair. In October, Elmo's official X account shared a clip of a conversation on the children's program between the Muppet character and actor Andrew Garfield about grief, in which Garfield shares that he's been missing his mom, who died in 2019. The clip prompted an outpouring of support. And during the U.S. election in November, Elmo again went viral, this time in a Sesame Street post that urged people to "Stop scrolling, take a deep breath, and use the next few minutes to escape to a place where the air is sweet." In the post, the camera pans past Elmo sitting quietly among potted flowers. Surge in antisemitic incidents The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a U.S.-based Jewish advocacy group, called the posts on Elmo's account "appalling." "Loved on Sesame Street and beyond, Elmo has warmed the hearts of millions with his innocence and inquisitive nature. It's appalling that his official X account, known for spreading kindness, was hacked yesterday solely to spread violent antisemitism," the ADL posted on X Monday. "Antisemitism on social media fosters the normalization of anti-Jewish hate online and offline, and contributes to an increasingly threatening environment for Jewish people everywhere." Experts have reported a surge in antisemitic incidents and violence since war erupted in Gaza in October 2023. The ADL tabulated 9,354 antisemitic incidents across the United States in 2024, the highest number on record since they started recording incidents 46 years ago. "Elevated antisemitism has become a persistent reality for American Jewish communities," the ADL said in its April report. Last week, billionaire Elon Musk — who owns X — had to answer after his AI chatbot, Grok, appeared to make antisemitic comments that praised Adolf Hitler. Musk's artificial intelligence company said Wednesday it had taken down the "inappropriate posts." "We are aware of recent posts made by Grok and are actively working to remove the inappropriate posts," the Grok account posted early Wednesday, without being more specific. Musk later waded into the debate, alleging that some users may have been trying to manipulate Grok into making the statements. WATCH | Canada sees sharp uptick in antisemitic, Islamophobic incidents:
