"Excuse me sir, but my car just broke down and needs a new tire and I left my wallet at home. If you could give me just 20 cat treats for the tire, I promise I'll mail you the treats back when I get home."
The worst was games that required info from the manual to progress past a certain point, like star tropics. Rented the game and the rental place didn't include the manual? Shit out of luck. And no Internet back then to look it up, either. (Yes, I'm still bitter)
I remember some computer games would also do things like that to prevent copying the game from a friend, like requiring a certain word from a certain page before loading.
"Beware the beast man, for he is the Devil's pawn. Alone among God's primates, he kills for sport, or lust, or greed. Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him; drive him back into his jungle lair, for he is the harbinger of death."
I suspect Elmo thinks he's being Very Clever by using your woke empathy mind virus against you. Jokes on him, though, he's burned through any good will the empathetic might have once had long, long ago.
For a second I thought that was a duck hanging from a noose at the top of the closet