After watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas l knew there was something special about Christmas. But How the Grinch Stole Christmas never says exactly why Christmas is special. I got a clue to answering this question by watching that classic Christmas program Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.The entire plot of Rudolph centers around misfits. The central misfits are Rudolph and the elf Hermey.
Rudolph, obviously, has some kind of genetic mutation. He's got a red nose and that, well, just isn't natural. So he is shunned, mocked, and excluded from the reindeer games.
Hermey has a different problem. He's terrible at making toys. And he also doesn't enjoy singing in Santa's elf choir. What Hermey really wants to be is a dentist. But for this curious interest Hermey is, like Rudolph, ostracized and made fun of. They are both, clearly, misfits. This is captured in the mournful little song they sing We're a couple of misfits:
We're a couple of misfitsSo Hermey and Rudolph leave Christmas Town and set out on their own.
We're a couple of misfits
What's the matter with misfits
That's where we fit in!
We're not daffy and dilly
Don't go 'round willy nilly
Seems to us kinda silly
That we don't fit in.
We may be different from the rest
Who decides the test
Of what is really best?
The misfit theme is continued when Hermey, Rudolph, and Yukon Cornelius, after being chased by The Abominable Snowman, find the Island of Misfit Toys. This is an island where rejected, unwanted, and unloved toys find sanctuary. Rudolph, sympathetic to the plight of the Misfit Toys, because Rudolph knows what it's like to be a misfit, promises to take their plight to Santa. This is the lament of the misfit toys:We're on the Island of Misfit ToysAt this point in the show all the misfit themes are coming to a climax. We see misfits seeking community, we see empathy as one misfit identifies with another, and, finally, we see one misfit seeking to act as savior. A misfit to save the misfits. A misfit Messiah.
Here we don't want to stay
We want to travel with Santa Claus
In his magic sleigh!
A pack full of toys
Means a sack full of joys
For millions of girls
And for millions of boys
When Christmas Day is here
The most wonderful day of the year.
A jack-in-the-box waits for children to shout
"Wake up! Don't you know that it's time to come out!"
When Christmas Day is here
The most wonderful day of the year.
Toys galore, scattered on the floor
There's no room for more
And it's all because of Santa Claus.
A skooter for Jimmy
A dolly for Sue
The kind that will even say, "How do you do?"
When Christmas Day is here
The most wonderful day of the year.
How would you like to be a Spotted Elephant?
Or a Choo-Choo with square wheels on your caboose?
Or a water pistol that shoots -- jelly?
We're all misfits!
How would you like to be a bird that doesn't fly? I swim!
Or a cowboy who rides an ostrich?
Or a boat that can't stay afloat?
We're all misfits.
If we're on the Island of Unwanted Toys
We'll miss all the fun with the girls and the boys
When Christmas Day is here
The most wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful day of the year!
But the theology of Rudolph takes its most radical, surprising, and extreme turn when the personification of evil, The Abominable Snowman, comes back from death in a quirky resurrection event--Bumble's Bounce!--as a peaceable creature who is also in need of loving community. Apparently, this "evil" creature is also a misfit. And the hint is that he's "abominable" because he's been marginalized and without community.So, summarizing all this, I learned from Rudolph this important lesson about Christmas: Something about Christmas means misfits have a place, a community, a home. Or, rephrased, Christmas means that there are no more misfits.
But I was still puzzled as a child. From How the Grinch Stole Christmas I learned that Christmas was more than presents and Christmas trees. And from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer I learned that Christmas had something to do with misfits finding a place of love. But in both shows the reason behind it all remained elusive. Why do misfits have a home? And what does being a misfit have to do with Christmas? Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer never says.
So I was quite puzzled. But luckily, there was more TV to watch! And I finally got my answers in a speech delivered by a boy who loved to carry a blue blanket...
On to Part 3.
I was a young teen when Rudolf first was broadcast and it was not lost on this young viewer that it was saying something about civil rights. A commercial about then also reflects the spirit of the times. "Dr. Pepper, so misunderstood, if anyone would try you, they'd know you taste good, so good."
ReplyDeleteOh man, I almost fell out of my chair laughing at your observation of the Snowman's odd resurrection. This is why I love your blog - you turn silliness into insight.
ReplyDeleteI really love your blog and I love this series, particularly your reading of "Rudolph" (though I'm not sure how to get around the bit where the Abominable Snow Monster's teeth are apparently removed with an ice pick). I recently read some speculation that the writer of "Rudolph" was a gay man, which might for account for the effeminate nature of Hermey (as well as his name) and even, to a lesser degree, Rudolph, and certainly plays in to the sense of feeling like a misfit. I'd like to look into it some more and see if there's actually any merit to that speculation or not.
ReplyDeleteAlso, although it's the wrong post, I wanted to say that this week I read your "Theology of Peanuts" and was blown away. One of the best things I've read in awhile. Keep up the amazing work.