Timothee Replaced By Elmo In Dune Is The Funniest Thing You'll See This Week
The smallest casting changes can have a ripple effect that can change an entire film. With that in mind, one YouTuber answered the question that no Dune fan had ever asked: What if Paul Atreides was played by Elmo?
The channel Sesame Swap painstakingly edited Timothee Chalamet out of every frame of a three-minute scene from Dune, the one in which Paul sticks his hand in a box while threatened with the Gom Jabbar.
The juxtaposition is stark: A Sesame Street Muppet squeaking in third person alongside the menacing portrayal of the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam by Charlotte Rampling.
And it's absolutely hilarious.
Fans compared it to the Muppet Christmas Carol, in which Michael Caine gave an Oscar-worthy performance while ignoring that all of his co-stars were puppets.
As the Reverend Mother calmly holds the Gom Jabbar to Elmo's neck, he panics and flails about. It's so absurdly out of place in the seriousness of the scene and the coolness of Rampling's portrayal, certainly giving it a wildly different vibe from the actual scene from the 2021 Dune remake.
The ending of the video features an original shot. Elmo has that classic squished, fearful Muppet face as he stands among flames, while the word "FEAR" appears below him. It cuts back to the darkened room where the Reverend Mother suddenly pierces his neck with the Gom Jabbar.
But the best part of the video was when Elmo aloofly asked Mohiam, "Why do you have a blanket on your face?"
While the impersonation of Elmo's voice was a little off, the video is really well made. The effort it takes to edit out an entire character, shoot a separate character, and superimpose it onto the scene shows a lot of talent with Sesame Swap, and we'd love to see more.
However, the Elmo replacement is the only video on the channel. At the time of this writing, it has over two million views. To check out the video, go here.
Dune has always had a niche fandom going back to 1965 with Frank Herbert's novel. It was made into a film by David Lynch in 1984, and while it adopted a cult status, it was not well-received by casual fans or critics. It was remade as a miniseries in 2000 with equally disappointing results.
The star-studded 2021 remake saw much better results, earning over $400 million despite theaters still seeing the effects of the COVID pandemic. It won six technical Oscars and was even nominated for Best Picture.
The sequel is set for release this November.