Wil Wheaton has a Meltdown Over Larry David Choking Elmo

If you can say anything for Wil Wheaton, it’s that he’s spent the decades after Star Trek: The Next Generation vindicating everyone who hated Wesley Crusher (which was pretty much everyone who watched the show). I haven’t paid much attention to him since then – like the rest of the world – but apparently, he’s a complete loon. A week ago, Seinfeld co-creator Larry David appeared on the morning show Today to plug the final season of his HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm. Before his segment, the hosts were interviewing the Sesame Street characters Elmo and Louie, Elmo’s father; during that bit, David ran over from his seat and started strangling Elmo, smiling the entire time. When the bewildered hosts reacted, an off-camera David said, “It had to be done!” You can see the clip and its aftermath below:

This is obviously a joke, and while shocked, everyone had a laugh about it afterwards, with Elmo even forgiving David. But one person wasn’t laughing: Wil Wheaton. The former annoying child actor and current Trivial Pursuit answer took to Facebook for a self-righteous rant about David’s “assault” on “a child” (seriously, he likens a Sesame Street muppet to an actual child). You can read it for yourself:

When was the last time you saw something that unhinged? He wrote that much about a gag involving Elmo and the real-life inspiration for George Costanza. And, of course, he found a way to blame Donald Trump because it wasn’t crazy enough already. Giving him the benefit of the doubt about his father’s abuse, that’s sad, but the world can’t come to a halt because of your trauma; Larry David isn’t advocating for violence, and nobody in their right mind believes he was. There’s a strange phenomenon now where people think their personal reactions to something are everyone else’s responsibility. The problem with that (aside from the obvious) is that nobody can know what everyone’s “trigger” is, especially strangers; the only way to be sure is never to say or do anything that could be provocative to anyone. And I’m sure that’s what narcissists like Wil Wheaton want; the rest of us enjoy a good laugh and are unlikely to want Wil Wheaton to show up at our parties.

On the plus side, this meltdown reminds me that I have to check out Curb Your Enthusiasm at some point.