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Last weekend, reader RGP saw two people dressed as Bugs Bunny and Elmo walking around 42nd Street in Manhattan. While the pair could have been out to bring Easter cheer to crowds, it seems unlikely since they were carrying Christmas stockings.
RGP wrote they "came out of the subway and just kind of meandered around" and noticed "Elmo had 'I Love You!' painted in big white letters on his mouth." Hypothesis: Two people found the costumes in dumpsters and decided to go the whole cartoon, "thinking they'll get some tips if they wander around in these suits and take pictures with people."
Six days later, while walking around the same area, RGP wondered if she would see Elmo again and "Sure enough, there he was Elmo, in the flesh. Or rather, polyester fur. But now he's traded in his christmas stocking for a matching red plastic bag. Bugs was nowhere to be seen but I speculated that the man standing next to him was Bugs."
Or perhaps the man could have been telling Elmo how to get to Sesame Street (our guess: the 7 train).
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Someone actually tossed those costumes? I'd ebay those in a heartbeat.
I know this is a still picture, but I keep expecting Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan) to walk around the corner of the building and make it even more bizarre. "Why are you begging Mr. Elmo? You can Giggle! You're a star!"
Sesame Street is sooo the Bronx
Wait, I saw Elmo in front of the ESPN Sportszone (42nd and Broadway) a few MONTHS ago. No bugs. It's this middle-aged chubby women inside. She was just standing there and waving. This was when the Chinese opera was in town, so, this was around Chinese new year, in February?
Plushies!
Hmmm, wonder if they're naked underneath.
Multiple middle-aged chubby "women" inside? Wow!
Bugs looks like he had a rough night.
Multiple middle-aged chubby "women" inside? Wow!
I wanna do elmo in the butt.
I saw him last week at 6th Ave and 41st St with Dora The Explorer.
No joke! I thought it was weird when I saw them at the time because this obviously isn't some Nick promotion.
Ha! Glad you enjoyed it. I fully intend to seek out this mysterious Elmo and offer him a buck for a close up and an interview! I hope that guy isn't his agent ;)
What a great idea!
I saw Elmo and Mickey Mouse on 6th Ave around 50th or 51st one morning last week. Both looked like bootleg--but pretty well-made bootleg--costumes (i.e., not authorized by Sesame or Disney).
They were carrying the red bags and while I didn't stop to watch for very long (I was on my way to work), I'm pretty sure they were taking pictures with tourists' kids in exchange for tips dropped in the bags.
While it's going to get real annoying real fast if this trend expands (at least the Naked Cowboy restricts himself to the middle of Times Square), it did seem to put a smile on a lot of faces.
First of all,
I can't believe all of these separate sightings and THIS is the very first media exposure that this invasion is getting. In case you're running behind the ball these characters are actually space aliens invading Manhattan. Thank you Gothamist, for blowing the lid off their plot.
Secondly,
Everyone knows that Sesame Street is in Washington Heights. That's why everyone is always speaking Spanish or trying to learn it.
I saw an article a few months back about the false-mascott phenomenon; people rent or buy the suits and then try to find touristy hot-spots for photo-ops and take tips. At least these costumes were pretty together/clean/look like the characters. Some are downright disturbing...
another sighting on 2/29:
In other news, thousands of yellow cars are picking people up and driving them all around the city!
These guys (and folks like them) have been around the city for a long time. This isn't really worth a Gothamist post.
These look like commercially-made costumes, mass produced and available for rent, maybe sometimes available on ebay. They're probably just out fighting boredom.
But using readily identifiable characters is so boring! Yuck! If you want to have some fun, be creative and make your own characters!
I've been doing this kind of thing for years, with my puppet and stilt dance troupe the Mortal Beasts & Deities. mortalbeastsanddeities.com
We call these 'stealth gigs' just arriving somewhere and doing walk-about without any specific invite. More often we're hired to do this kind of thing at events. We always pose for pictures, and frequently get mention in the media.
Actual fees and tips collected are usually meager, but because my troupe never uses known commercial characters, the rewards and kicks are huge.
Me and Mrs Foam Saw Elmo hanging around by Radio City the other day.
Dude was just stood there with a black shopping bag