WARNING: This post contains strong language.
Now that we’re into the “Holiday Season” – which begins at Thanksgiving, runs through Christmas and ends on New Year’s Day (or, for some, starts earlier) -- ABC, CBS, and NBC always celebrate “the most wonderful time of the year” by airing classic TV specials, including such A Charlie Brown Christmas, Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.
But this year, Rudolph has come under fire from liberal viewers who dismiss the tale as everything from “seriously problematic” to “not so jolly after all” because the lead character is bullied by other reindeer and even Santa Claus himself, all of whom treat him and the misfit dentist elf as outcasts just because they’re different.
The vulgarity-laden backlash to Tuesday night’s airing of Rudolph included an article and a Twitter post from Ed Mazza, the overnight editor for the Huffington Post, who asserted that viewers noted the holiday classic “contains some very disturbing details.”
He began by noting:
Twitter users gathered around the digital fireplace to share the moment. And what a moment it was.
Some people joked that they noticed a few things in the Christmas classic that they didn’t always spot -- or simply ignored -- when they saw it years ago.
Mazza referred to a Twitter video that quoted several characters and listed several sequences out of context while calling Rudolph “the Marginalized Reindeer.”
The video quoted a post from Garytt Potner, who referred to the episode as an annual “reminder” that it is “a parable on racism & homophobia w/Santa as a bigoted exploitative prick.”
A Twitter poster simply identified as “Dave” also took “Santa’s operation” to task as a Human Relations “nightmare” that is “in serious need of diversity and inclusion.”
“Former fans are pointing out Rudolph’s father verbally abuses him,” Mazza asserted before showing the scene when Donner forces his son to wear a fake nose intended to hide his red-hued version.
Mazza also quoted a missive from Carl Boogie in which he stated that if he had been the red-nosed character, “I would have told Santa to kiss my red glowing ass. Now you need me? Good luck flying in the dark.”
Another response came from Liz Palm Trees Prato, who observed: “In the scene where Rudolph’s nose is revealed, Santa is kind of a dick.”
Even Burl Ives’ narrator/snowman was hammered when Super 70s Sports claimed:
After 40+ years of watching this bastard, I can’t remember what Burl Ives actually looked like and refuse to Google him and ruin that for myself.
As further proof that cultural norms have changed from the 1960s to today, Mazza hammered Donner when for forbidding his wife from joining the search for their son because that’s “man’s work.”
“Even the young elf is considered an outcast for wanting to be a dentist,” the video stated before showing a clip of an adult elf telling him to instead “learn how to wiggle your ears and chuckle warmly and go ‘hee-hee’ and ‘ho-ho’ and important stuff like that” before slamming the door on his way out of the room.
In the end, Twitter user @CassMartino called the program a “yearly reminder: Deviation from the norm will be punished unless it is exploitable.”
Others, such as poster @MJCaan, simply couldn’t find the strength to watch the episode again: “Those poor elves. That bully with the whip. Abusive deer. Dentist shaming. Unloved toys. It’s too much.”
However, a tweet from @kawfytawk brought a positive view to the discussion:
And yet somehow as a 5 year old I was able to feel empathy for Rudolph and all the misfits and learned to treat people with respect and kindness. Unlike the emotionally triggered who stomp out any happiness they find.
Sorry Huffpo, not playing any of your reindeer games.
Of course, if all the characters in Rudolph had been perfect, that wouldn’t have left much of a story to tell more than 50 years after it first aired.
