"Rudolph" has a bad message

[danlansdowne]

Think about it: he's teased and bullied by his peers, his reindeer games coach, his parents, and SANTA until he runs away from home in shame; he saves everyone's lives, nearly getting himself killed in the process; and one apology is all that's necessary to make him want to do them all another favour. In the real world, Rudolph would have told them "Screw you!" and gone on his way, no matter what was on the line.

But, I guess Christmas is the holiday where you give people what they don't deserve.

Comments

[schrogwr2.livejournal.com]

And what's this "don we now our gay apparel" business, anyway?!? Subliminal messages, I say! ;-) j/k

[stevenroy.livejournal.com]

Perhaps Rudolph agonized over that a bit before he came to the rescue. Perhaps he had to ponder for a while before he concluded, "If I save the day, they'll have to respect me!"

And, fortunately, they did.

(Although I think I remember seeing a parody version where they didn't, and they just treated Rudoplh worse than ever, until he snapped and went postal with a couple of machine guns.)

[torakiyoshi.livejournal.com]

That certainly is the message of Christianity: grace is giving people what they don't deserve, and mercy is not giving people what they do deserve.

-=TK

[ccdesan.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I like that. Like you and me, it has been saved! :)

[ccdesan.livejournal.com]

In real life, only one of the reindeer actually was rude to Rudolph. That was Olive. Olive, the other reindeer.

[gnistra.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I agree with you. A lot of fairy tales have bad messages, when you think about it. Take The Master Cat (or Puss in Boots, I don't know the common english name of this story) for example, it's tells you that lying and tricking people makes you successful. Which is probably true, but quite bad in a moral point of view. ;P

[deckardcanine.livejournal.com]

You're talking about the Rankin Bass version, I gather. I don't recall Santa teasing Rudolph, tho, just getting annoyed when the glow was blinding him.

Here's something to consider: Did they "call him names," or did they call him "Names"? As in, "Hey, Names, how's it goin'?"

[misskitty1260.livejournal.com]

You also missed that women are seen as weak and being different is a "bad" thing.