Jeesch, read the caption!

Today’s New York Times article about the paranoid weirdo who was last seen shouting anti-Semitic things wearing an “Elmo” costume in Central Park in a YouTube video that made the rounds earlier in the month, is one of the nuttier stories I’ve read in a while. Certainly the forlorn photograph of the man accompanying the article—his name is Adam Sandler—is the very definition of the word “pathetic.”

The police put him into an ambulance bound for Metropolitan Hospital Center, but he was not arrested. The video spread quickly on the Internet, bringing out the dark humor, to some, of a cuddly children’s character engaging in a violent-sounding rant. Others thought it was just plain scary.

On Tuesday, Mr. Sandler, 48, of Ashland, Ore., removed his Elmo head from atop his own and tried to explain himself.

He said the doctors at Metropolitan told him he was “a little paranoid.” It was obvious from talking to him that he is troubled. But he told a lucid and detailed account of his life, and he told of his own dark past, one that might alarm parents whose children have posed with him. The tale he told underscored just how little is known about the men and women who dress as various children’s characters in tourist-clogged areas, looking for small tips. This tiny industry is unregulated.

The tale goes downhill quickly when it is revealed that Mr. Sandler once ran a pornographic website from Cambodia called “Welcome to the Rape Camp.” Officials there deported the future children’s entertainer in 1999 after an Associated Press article about his activities brought him to their attention.

Mr. Sandler said he went on to work at the New York office of Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. The organization’s headquarters, where he was recognized by staff members who saw news accounts of the Elmo incident Sunday, said he had not been an employee, but had worked there from a temp agency.

But he lost that job. Then he had an idea.

“I saw how these Elmo guys were working in Times Square,” he said. These individuals are not sanctioned by the Sesame Street Workshop, the nonprofit group that produces “Sesame Street,” “and we do not condone unauthorized representations of our characters,” a statement released Monday said.

Mr. Sandler bought an Elmo costume online for $300, he said, and when he started wearing it in April, he found it quickly paid for itself. Just Saturday, he said, he made $200.

He moved to Central Park when he felt Times Square was too saturated with Elmos.

At least two other outbursts in his Elmo costume have made it to the Internet. In one of them, he uses obscenities that send children running to their mothers. Mr. Sandler said the true number of his outbursts, as Elmo, was closer to 15. The police said he had no record of arrests. In none of the videos was Mr. Sandler physically abusive. It is unclear whether his rants as Elmo are illegal.

Just don’t let this Elmo tickle your kids…

Read more of Beneath a Ranting Elmo’s Mask, a Man With a Disturbing Past (New York Times)