Here’s something we didn’t have on our 2022 Bingo cards: Elmo releasing a statement addressing his longstanding squabble with his Sesame Street co-star Zoe‘s pet rock, Rocco.
But that was exactly what happened this week after a video of the red Muppet sharing some heated words about the inanimate object resurfaced online.
The 35-second clip, which was taken from a 2004 Sesame Street episode titled “Elmo feels he’s treated unfairly by Rocco,” showed the beloved children’s icon completely losing his cool when Zoe told him he couldn’t have an oatmeal raisin cookie that had been reserved for Rocco.
“How? How is Rocco going to eat that cookie, Zoe? Tell Elmo,” an exasperated Elmo said in the video. “Rocco doesn’t even have a mouth. Rocco is just a rock. Rocco is not alive.”
Twitter user @wumbooty shared the video on Jan. 3, writing that “there are tears in my eyes y’all my stomach hurting.” The clip then went viral and the Internet quickly took sides—thus rehashing Elmo’s decades-long feud with Rocco.