Poll: Rudolph, the Other Reindeer - good message? bad message?
I've been humming along the carols and it's a salutory reminder that it's never a good idea to really think about lyrics to old songs :P I like "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer". Always have since I was a wee koala. I sang along as a kid, I like the Ella version, the Jewel version. I never really thought about the lyrics though. As a memory refresher, here are the lyrics:
You know Dasher and Dancer, and Prancer and Vixen,
Comet and Cupid, and Donner and Blitzen,
But do you recall, the most famous reindeer of all?
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Had a very shiny nose,
And if you ever saw it,
You could even say it glows.
All of the other reindeer
Used to laugh and call him names;
They never let poor Rudolph
Join in any reindeer games.
Then one foggy Christmas Eve,
Santa came to say:
"Rudolph with your nose so bright,
Won’t you guide my sleigh tonight?"
Then how the reindeer loved him
As they shouted out with glee,
"Rudolph the red-nosed Reindeer,
You’ll go down in history."
As I thought about the lyrics, I found myself thinking: "WTF? What kind of lesson is this song teaching kids?"
The Canadian came in to meet me for lunch and as we were walking back from lunch, I commented that I was kind of troubled by the 'message' that the song conveyed. First of all, all the reindeer laughed at Rudolph for being different. From what I could see, there was nothing 'wrong' with him except that he had a big, shiny red nose but this point of difference made him victimised, mocked and miserable.
After Santa asks him to guide his sleigh, we get the line: "Then how the reindeer loved him". OK that sucks. I hate people like that at work. People who were mean and horrible to me until they saw people in senior positions treating me well - only THEN were they nice/polite to me. That's a very shallow kind of liking. It's possible Santa reprimanded the other reindeer for mocking Rudolph, who knows, but all I'm saying is that the song makes it seem like the only reason Rudolph became a worthy and individual and someone worth liking was because his utility had been acknowledged by a person of influence.
This is wrong. Also, why is it all right for the other reindeer just to do their normal thing and pull the sled but for Rudolph to be "worthy", he has to do something exceptional like be asked by Santa to guide the sled. The implication is that if you're 'different', then you have to be 'better' than the 'normal' people. Kind of reminds me of the mantra as a kid that if you're non-white in Australia, you have to be "better" than the white kids to be seen to be "as good" as the white kids. I know I'm reading too much into kid's lyrics but I do think it's really unfair that for a non-red nosed reindeer, pulling a sled is 'ok', but for a red-nosed reindeer, you will be mocked and reviled unless you get to 'lead the sled' at Santa's special request :P
I seem to not be the only one. There was a review over at cduniverse which was a contrast to the other reviews that were raving on about what a great classic the movie Rudolph was ;)
mitzie from Melbourne, Australia gave the movie a damning one star out of five and said:
NOT FOR CHILDREN!
This movie was obviously made in the 1960s when children were treated mean. Rudolph's parents are mean to him because of his red nose, the elves are mean to another elf because he is different, Santa is not very accepting of Rudolph at the beginning because he is different and the list goes on. This is not a movie to be watched by children as the Christmas spirit is not present in this film. Apart from all this, the animations are poor. This movie should be taken out of circulation. Thank God we no longer have backward views and we are more accepting of others.
*laugh* I saw a much more 'rude' condemnation of the song over here at someone's blog. Warning, the blogger uses rude words :) Also his post is a joke, but it did make me laugh especially the line where they said that the other reindeer made fun of an animal whose self-esteem was crippled by taunts about his ugliness.
Also where he says that the Other Reindeer "represent every popular clique, every exclusionist bunch of wankers I've ever had the misfortune to have had contact with".
Bwahahahahaha.
Then this bit:
Honestly, there hasn't been a worse cautionary tale for children since Hans Christian Andersen wrote The Ugly Duckling. While Hans focused on how being ugly is shit and surface beauty is all that matters, Rudolph's theme insinuates that popularity will somehow cure one of all the psychological trauma incurred by years of abuse. Surely Rudolph wasn't so thick as to believe the other reindeer suddenly loved him because Santa singled him out to be their leader? If anything, that would make them hate him even more, the shallow heartless bastids.
What kind of message is this to give kids? Let's face it, with people like that whited sepulchre Ted Haggard around, our kids are confused enough about right and wrong. There's enough hypocrisy for them to contend with without it being drummed into them in song.
Too funny. Poor Rudolph. Anyway, so I have a poll.
Poll Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
You know Dasher and Dancer, and Prancer and Vixen,
Comet and Cupid, and Donner and Blitzen,
But do you recall, the most famous reindeer of all?
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Had a very shiny nose,
And if you ever saw it,
You could even say it glows.
All of the other reindeer
Used to laugh and call him names;
They never let poor Rudolph
Join in any reindeer games.
Then one foggy Christmas Eve,
Santa came to say:
"Rudolph with your nose so bright,
Won’t you guide my sleigh tonight?"
Then how the reindeer loved him
As they shouted out with glee,
"Rudolph the red-nosed Reindeer,
You’ll go down in history."
As I thought about the lyrics, I found myself thinking: "WTF? What kind of lesson is this song teaching kids?"
The Canadian came in to meet me for lunch and as we were walking back from lunch, I commented that I was kind of troubled by the 'message' that the song conveyed. First of all, all the reindeer laughed at Rudolph for being different. From what I could see, there was nothing 'wrong' with him except that he had a big, shiny red nose but this point of difference made him victimised, mocked and miserable.
After Santa asks him to guide his sleigh, we get the line: "Then how the reindeer loved him". OK that sucks. I hate people like that at work. People who were mean and horrible to me until they saw people in senior positions treating me well - only THEN were they nice/polite to me. That's a very shallow kind of liking. It's possible Santa reprimanded the other reindeer for mocking Rudolph, who knows, but all I'm saying is that the song makes it seem like the only reason Rudolph became a worthy and individual and someone worth liking was because his utility had been acknowledged by a person of influence.
This is wrong. Also, why is it all right for the other reindeer just to do their normal thing and pull the sled but for Rudolph to be "worthy", he has to do something exceptional like be asked by Santa to guide the sled. The implication is that if you're 'different', then you have to be 'better' than the 'normal' people. Kind of reminds me of the mantra as a kid that if you're non-white in Australia, you have to be "better" than the white kids to be seen to be "as good" as the white kids. I know I'm reading too much into kid's lyrics but I do think it's really unfair that for a non-red nosed reindeer, pulling a sled is 'ok', but for a red-nosed reindeer, you will be mocked and reviled unless you get to 'lead the sled' at Santa's special request :P
I seem to not be the only one. There was a review over at cduniverse which was a contrast to the other reviews that were raving on about what a great classic the movie Rudolph was ;)
mitzie from Melbourne, Australia gave the movie a damning one star out of five and said:
NOT FOR CHILDREN!
This movie was obviously made in the 1960s when children were treated mean. Rudolph's parents are mean to him because of his red nose, the elves are mean to another elf because he is different, Santa is not very accepting of Rudolph at the beginning because he is different and the list goes on. This is not a movie to be watched by children as the Christmas spirit is not present in this film. Apart from all this, the animations are poor. This movie should be taken out of circulation. Thank God we no longer have backward views and we are more accepting of others.
*laugh* I saw a much more 'rude' condemnation of the song over here at someone's blog. Warning, the blogger uses rude words :) Also his post is a joke, but it did make me laugh especially the line where they said that the other reindeer made fun of an animal whose self-esteem was crippled by taunts about his ugliness.
Also where he says that the Other Reindeer "represent every popular clique, every exclusionist bunch of wankers I've ever had the misfortune to have had contact with".
Bwahahahahaha.
Then this bit:
Honestly, there hasn't been a worse cautionary tale for children since Hans Christian Andersen wrote The Ugly Duckling. While Hans focused on how being ugly is shit and surface beauty is all that matters, Rudolph's theme insinuates that popularity will somehow cure one of all the psychological trauma incurred by years of abuse. Surely Rudolph wasn't so thick as to believe the other reindeer suddenly loved him because Santa singled him out to be their leader? If anything, that would make them hate him even more, the shallow heartless bastids.
What kind of message is this to give kids? Let's face it, with people like that whited sepulchre Ted Haggard around, our kids are confused enough about right and wrong. There's enough hypocrisy for them to contend with without it being drummed into them in song.
Too funny. Poor Rudolph. Anyway, so I have a poll.
Poll Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer