'The View' Co-Hosts Get Into Heated Debate Over Larry David Attacking Elmo on TV: 'It's Not a Person!'
Feb. 2 2024, Published 4:17 p.m. ET
The ladies couldn't agree on Larry David's spat with Elmo during the Friday, February 2, episode of The View.
The comedian, 76, made headlines when he attacked the puppet on the Today show, though he eventually ended up apologizing when the cameras were rolling.
Joy Behar kicked things off by saying "people are outraged" at the Curb Your Enthusiasm star.
"It's a puppet, folks. There's a puppeteer with his hand up Elmo's behind," Behar said, but Alyssa Farah Griffin chimed in saying she was "very angry" about the ordeal.
"Oh, stop it!" Behar quipped.
Griffin then shared why Elmo means so much to her, as she "grew up in a house where you'd eat your cereal and you'd watch GMA or the Today show before you went to school," and she didn't feel comfortable seeing David put his hands on the Sesame Street star.
"It's not a person, Alyssa," Behar exclaimed. "It's a puppet!"
Sara Haines then chimed in, stating: "No, it's a Muppet."
Griffin then said Elmo used the incident "as a teachable moment to say, 'Ask permission before touching,'" which didn't go over well with Behar.
"Alyssa, what planet are you on that you think that a 6-year-old is watching the Today show?" Behar asked. "They are wallpaper in homes everywhere. Even if you're not sitting, watching, when your mom says, 'Elmo's on,' [the kids] come out right when Larry David strangles him?"
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"It's a puppet," Behar continued to scream
"Oh my God, don't scream like that. I'm going to punch you," Ana Navarro said before it cut to commercial.
As OK! previously reported, David shocked Today hosts — Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb, and Craig Melvin — when he pounced onto Elmo.
He later apologized, but while chatting with Seth Meyers that same day, he flip-flopped on his stance.
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"Elmo was, he was going on about mental health and I had to listen to every word," David replied. "And I was going, 'Oh my God, oh my God, I don't think I can take another second of this!' And so I got off my chair and I approached him and I throttled him!"
"I couldn't take it!" David said of the puppet, who went viral after he asked the X users about their mental health. "And you know what? I would do it again!"