Tickle Me Elmo

Tickle Me Elmo is a plush Elmo doll that giggles and says "That tickles!" when his belly is squeezed. Three squeezes in a row sends him into a laughing, shaking frenzy. Produced by Tyco in 1996, Tickle Me Elmo became that year's hottest toy -- and the hardest to find toy since the Cabbage Patch Kids craze in 1983.

In July 1996, the Tyco marketing team sent a Tickle Me Elmo doll to daytime talk show host Rosie O'Donnell for her one-year-old son, and another 200 dolls to the show's producer. In one Rosie episode in October, O'Donnell used the toys in a stunt based on Groucho Marx's You Bet Your Life program -- whenever a guest said the word "wall", she threw a doll out into the audience. Sesame Workshop says that O'Donnell's show "had an early hand in launching the Tickle Me Elmo sensation." One source claims that sales of the toy jumped after the promotion on Rosie, and jumped again in November when Bryant Gumbel held a Tickle Me Elmo toy throughout most of a Today Show episode.

On Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and the "official" start of the Christmas shopping season, Tickle Me Elmo sold out of stores around the country within two hours. Tyco, which had originally expected to sell 400,000 Tickle Me Elmos, couldn't keep up with the demand, even though they continued to ship new product from their factories in Asia throughout the Christmas season. The company reportedly sold over a million Tickle Me Elmo dolls by Christmas, and over 5 million between 1996 and 1997.

News reports of trampled store clerks and fights erupting over the last doll in the store were not uncommon. Disappointed shoppers became even more disgruntled when The New York Daily News reported that John Gotti, Jr., son of the reputed mob boss, had purchased a case of Tickle Me Elmos at a Toys "R" Us store in Queens, New York, weeks after the store had sold out of them ; corporate officials stated that Gotti "was just fortunate to be in the right place at the right time" and was afforded no special treatment.

A black market quickly sprang up in classified ads and on the internet, and there were reports of parents spending hundreds of dollars on the toy, which originally retailed at $29.99. Cartier even put a Tickle Me Elmo, draped with a diamond necklace and bracelet worth $1 million, in the window of their flagship store on Fifth Avenue in New York City; the doll was offered as a free gift with the purchase of the necklace and bracelet.

Although Elmo had been gaining prominence and popularity on Sesame Street since Kevin Clash took over the character in 1985, it was the publicity from the Tickle Me Elmo craze that gave the character his biggest exposure and helped him skyrocket to even greater fame.

The toy was invented by Ron Dubren, who came up with it seeing two kids tickling each other helplessly. He thought of how he could translate the sillyness into a toy, and he and his assistant created Tickles the Chimp from a toy monkey, which did nothing but laugh. Twelve companies turned it down until Tyco realized it's advantage and tested the toy in front of adults. The reaction showed that they would have to make the toy somewhat better, and they took a motor now used today to make cell phones vibrate and created Tickle Me Elmo.

Tickle Me Elmo Variations
A new Elmo doll has been released every year following release of Tickle Me Elmo, including Let's Pretend Elmo and Chicken Dance Elmo, but none of these toys have achieved the success or popularity of the original. Three of these variations have included "tickle" features.

Toss and Tickle Me Elmo
Toss and Tickle Me Elmo was released in 1998. As the name suggests, he laughs when squeezed, just like the original Tickle Me Elmo, and when tossed.

Tickle Me Elmo Surprise
Tickle Me Elmo Surprise, also known as the "Surprise Edition" of Tickle Me Elmo, was released in the fall of 2001. This Elmo has five ticklish spots, but he only goes into his trademark laughing fit when the right spot is tickled. A contest was held in conjunction with the release of the doll, in which five of the "Surprise Edition" Elmos would stop laughing on January 9, 2002 and announce to the people squeezing them that they had won a prize. The grand prize was $200,000.

T.M.X.
T.M.X., which stands for Tickle Me Extreme or Tickle Me 10 (in honor of the tenth anniversary of Tickle Me Elmo), was released on September 19, 2006. T.M.X. Elmo has three ticklish spots, on his chin, belly, and foot. When Elmo is tickled once, he laughs and slap his leg twice, then sits down and rocks himself back up. When tickled twice, he falls backwards and kicks his feet, laughing even harder. And when tickled a third time, Elmo rolls over onto his stomach, pounding the floor with his fists (still laughing), and then stands back up again.

TMX won "Toy of the Year" from the Toy Industry Association's annual Toy of the Year Awards; it also won the "Infant/Preschool Toy of the Year". It was available in both English and Spanish-language editions. The toys sold for as much as $400 on eBay, around 8 times the SRP.

Barbie with T.M.X. Elmo Doll
Two different Barbie dolls were released to coincide with the premiere of the T.M.X. Elmo doll. Each Barbie is wearing an Elmo shirt, she is carrying a bag with an image of Elmo's face on it, and she comes with a small Elmo doll that giggles when you squeeze his tummy. The tiny Elmo comes in a small replica of the "top secret" T.M.X. box.

T.M.X. eXtra Special Edition
Released in 2007, the T.M.X. eXtra Special Edition Elmo doll laughs, rolls, sings and hiccups when tickled. He has a variety of responses to very specific sequences of posing him and tickling him, such as raising his arm and tickling his tummy to make him sing. A "clue" is provided for each of these tricks; the first clue comes with the doll. A new rhyming clue was revealed each week on the Fisher-Price website during 2007; all clues will be available starting January 2, 2008.

Other "Tickle Me" characters
"Tickle Me" versions of Big Bird and Ernie were released in February 1997, with "Tickle Me" Cookie Monster (both regular and large versions) following in May. A "Shake & Giggle Grover" was also released in 1997. Although the toys hit shelves mere months after Christmas 1996, they never neared the popularity achieved by Tickle Me Elmo.

The "Tickle Me X-treme" platform expanded with new versions of the Tickle Me Ernie and Cookie Monster dolls which were released for the 2007 holiday season.

Book tie-ins
In 1997, Western Publishing and Random House published books that featured a tickle theme.
 * Big Bird's Ticklish Christmas (1997)
 * Tickle Me, Elmo! (1997)
 * Tickle Me: My Name is Elmo (1997)