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Tickle Me Elmo

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A "Tickle Me Elmo" stuffed toy.

Tickle Me Elmo is a child's toy from Tyco, introduced in the United States in 1996, becoming that year's top fad. Bright red in color and based on Elmo, a Muppet character from Sesame Street, when squeezed, Elmo would chortle. When squeezed three times in a row, Elmo would begin to shake and laugh hysterically. On its back is a velcro access slit, inside which the batteries are located.

There was a small controversy after the release of the doll with parents groups that misheard one of Elmo's phrases. His "Hug Elmo" phrase was misunderstood by many as "Fuck Elmo". The voicing was revised so that the phrase sounded clearer and unmistakable.

In 1996, the Tickle Me Elmo was the "Must Have" toy. Many parents literally fought other parents in North American toy stores to purchase one of the toys for Christmas. The short supply of the toy, due to unexpected demand, meant that stores hiked the price on the dolls drastically. Newspaper classifieds even sold the plush toy for hundreds of US dollars. People reports that the $28.99USD toy fetched as much as $1500.

A clerk at the Wal-Mart in Fredericton, New Brunswick was among those injured by "Elmo-mania". A crowd of 300 stampeded into the store on 14 December 1996; spotting him with one of the remaining toys, he "was pulled under, trampled—the crotch was yanked out of brand-new jeans." According to People, the clerk "suffered a pulled hamstring, injuries to his back, jaw and knee, a broken rib and a concussion."

The vibrating laughter produced by the Tickle Me Elmo uses the same motorized device found in many cellular phones and used for vibrate mode.

Further Tickle Me toys

By February 1997, Tickle Me Ernie and Tickle Me Big Bird toys were released, followed by Tickle Me Cookie Monster in May. None of these toys achieved nearly as much fame, or sales.

The "Surprise Edition" of Tickle Me Elmo, issued in the Fall of 2001, was an elaborate contest. Five of the "Surprise Edition" Elmos stopped laughing on 9 January 2002, and instead announced to the people squeezing them that they had won a prize. The grand prize was $200,000USD.

TMX

The new Elmo doll, announced at the American Toy Fair 2006, is called TMX (meaning Tickle Me (Elmo) Ten or Tickle Me Extreme). The full look of the doll was not revealed until it debuted live on ABC's Good Morning America and arrived on store shelves on September 19, 2006. Even the box it comes in is designed so that the doll can not be seen without purchasing it. A preview flap is included, but upon opening, you see Elmo's eyes. He says "Ah, ah, ah, ah! No peeking!" and giggles. It requires six AA batteries (which are included), and costs approximately $40USD. Toy experts say that the delay is unprecedented, with only a few people in the media allowed to preview the product, all signing confidentiality agreements. In a promotional clip, Jim Silver, co-publisher of Toy Wishes magazine says "The first reaction I had was, 'Where are the wires?' Because I didn't think anything like that could move on its own."

Toy analyst Chris Byrne told USA Today, "This is a quantum leap forward, another breakthrough in the preschool plush category." Byrne believes sales will be high, but the reaction won't be as unprecedented. "The culture has moved beyond that, the whole hot-toy phenomenon." He cites the fact there hasn't been such a craze since Furby in 1998. However, some members of the media are expecting a large response.

The new doll rolls around on the floor laughing and smashing his fist on the ground, begging to stop.

A video of what the new Tickle Me Elmo can do can be found here.

Toys R Us stores and Amazon had a pre-sale program for the doll, the first included elaborate in-store displays with a digital countdown to the doll's launch. Amazon took more presale orders than it could fulfill.

As with the original Ticke Me Elmo doll, demand for the new toy has given rise to extreme acts by some people. One person in Tampa, Florida was allegedly threatened with a gun to hand over a TMX toy.

Though the doll has a recommended retail price of $39.99 USD, the average price on the auction-based website eBay has risen to roughly twice that amount.

Warning vs. Top Secret

There are two versions of the TMX doll, one which has the Warning sticker on front (which most people are touting as more rare), and then there is the Top Secret edition. Both appear to be identical except for the variation in the text on the front, and Elmo apparently says different things when opening the flap.

Tickle Me Elmo in popular culture

While Elmo has been referenced or seen in three episodes of The Simpsons, the doll version of the character made an appearance in "Moe Baby Blues". Elmo slaps Moe in the episode, after Moe tries to fondle him, yelling "No means no to Elmo!" Another episode features a "Tickle Me Krusty" doll which chuckles and angrily shouts, "Hey kid! Get your finger outta there!"

Tickle Me Elmo was the subject of an art exposition at the Ronald Feldman Gallery, in New York City, in September of 2003. Kelly Heaton, the artist, engineered a vibrating coat out of dissected Tickle Me Elmo dolls. The title of the show was Live Pelt.

Tickle Me Elmo has also appeared in Get Fuzzy. In the first cartoon, we find out Bucky Katt beat the stuffing out of it, causing $40 worth of damage. Bucky explains, "It was laughin at me!"

An episode of Histeria! parodied the concept, as well as the fact that the teddy bear was named after Theodore Roosevelt, with a sketch revolving around a doll in the likeness of Richard Nixon, called "Squeeze Me Nixon".

The movie Jingle All The Way is similar to the 1996 Tickle Me Elmo craze in that the main character, Howard Langston (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger), has to get a Turboman doll for his son on Christmas Eve, but finds out they are sold out and goes to great lengths to get one.

A sketch from the Canadian satire show Royal Canadian Air Farce portrayed a man walking into a store to return a defective Cabbage Patch Doll Snacktime Kids doll. Parodying the problem of the dolls, the man had the doll literally attached to his head after "snacking" on his hair (which was the problem the mechanical dolls had). After some dialogue the man asks how they can possibly repay him for all the suffering and humilitation he went through. The clerk then pulls out a Tickle-Me Elmo and offers it, to which the man excited accepts.

References

  1. Gliatto, Tom (December 23, 1996). "Elmo Saves Christmas". People., accessed in EBSCOhost.
  2. Gliatto, Tom (23 December 1996). "Elmo Saves Christmas". People., accessed in EBSCOhost.
  3. How Stuff Works: How does a vibrating cell phone or pager work?
  4. Baldwin, Kristen (14 February 1997). "Keeping the Clouds Away". Entertainment Weekly., accessed in EBSCOhost.
  5. Barker, Olivia (1 February 2006). "Meet 'Top Secret Elmo'". USA Today.
  6. Barker, Olivia (1 February 2006). "Meet 'Top Secret Elmo'". USA Today.
  7. "Newsmakers". Maclean's. 13 February 2006.
  8. Kotecki Vest, Erin (2006-10-25). "Elmo Suckers Me to the Dark Side". The Huffington Post. HuffingtonPost.com LLC. Retrieved 2006-10-25. {{cite web}}: Check |authorlink= value (help); External link in |authorlink= (help); More than one of |author= and |last= specified (help); Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  9. "Tickle pickle: Your Elmo or your life!". New York Daily News. 25 September 2006.

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