This original version was the first to go viral. First in the blogs such as Tumblr and CakeWrecks.com in the early 2010s, before coming back in to popularity on social networking platforms such as X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram in the late 2010s.

In 2019 the HuffPost, a publication of BuzzFeed, even crowned the Elmo Rise meme as , “The Single Best GIF For Conveying Messy Workplace Emotions.”

The meme is further praised in the article for its simple design, subjectivity and how it allows for multiple possible meanings. It is also noted that the meme is context dependent and meaning is largely based upon the relationship between the sender and the recipient.