FATMAN and the True Meaning of Christmas
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- Опубликовано: 19 дек 2021
- A close reading of the bizarre gritty Christmas movie and an answer to the question: what is the REAL meaning of Christmas
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It's really disappointing that when Santa tells Billy that if he's naughty one more time that the line isn't "I see you when you're sleeping, Billy. I know when you're awake. I know if you've been bad or good, so be good... For your own sake"
I find it hilarious to refer to Santa as a “Christian deity”
Along with Easter bunny and tooth fairy
@@tatiana4050 they are all part of christian canon nowadays along with baby jesus. santa used to moonlight as a saint before he became a spokesperson for the coca cola company
@@ZIEIaouyes but all of them come from pagan origins.
I can't get over how much Billy looks like a tiny Ben Shapiro
I did a double take when I saw that kid and wondered if Ben maybe had a love child while in college.
Thank you! I immediately thought of him as well!
my first thought was: is that Pod (GoT)??? realised its not. second thought: if they made this years ago when they first came up with it they could have cast baby Ben Shapiro
If anything Billy might be a little bigger
I saw it, too!
Replacing "Merry Christmas" in all my cards with "The US Military Can Solve All Your Problems"
"This is Christmas, we aren't handing out participation trophies" is the wildest shoehorned "kids these days" sentence I've heard I think
"Yeah! We're giving gifts, out of unconditional love!"
Oh. Nevermind. We really aren't. Gotta stfu and watch the video
@@stellina3970 Something that may actually be very useful in a cold season, at least throughout much of history.
@@stellina3970 energy to store for the future resource wars
"...So the next film I'm offered, they have to pay that same amount. Even if I do a bad job. That means as long as I'm offered even one more movie, I could get two more mil. Even if I do a bad job, they've gotta give me that other two mil." -- Mel Gibson, probably
Fatman really is a kind of cosmic gumbo
It moves to the beat of jazz.
Oh my god, by commenting this you have now convinced me that entire sketch is an F you/ parody of Mel Gibson specifically, and you can't convince me otherwise.
I think they call that your quote
Of all the questions you asked, you didn't mention that it makes no sense that the US government paying someone to provide free gifts somehow "stimulates spending". Surely that would mean people spend less, because they have fewer toys to buy?
When I challenged you to provide cursed content last night, you didn't immediately mention this. You've let me down, Mildred.
You know enough about economy to know your question is nonsensical, c’mon!
Oh, I figured it out! Batteries! Santa doesn't give out batteries, so by giving out billions of toys, he creates a demand for a trillion dollars worth of disposable batteries every year.
I think a bigger headscratcher is that the military has access to an omnipotent magical being, and the only thing they think to do with him is buy weapons from him, or for that matter, the only way said omnipotent being thinks of to make money is to sell weapons to the military.
@@3dartxsi I dunno, that seems like classic military "creativity" to me. "Splitting the atom releases enough energy to power thousands of homes? ...Can we make it into a bomb instead?"
The military’s fingers being so deep into the pie of live-action filmmaking is probably why some of the earliest anti-war/anti-military movies I ever watched were animated like The Iron Giant, Ghibli films, and Peace On Earth (1939)
My favourite anti war films are Paths of Glory and A Midnight Clear. In both cases there is very little of the typical war movie action and bravado, and instead focus on the characters and their interactions. I think this style allows for more critical takes on war as the film makers don't have to rely on fancy toys from the pentagon.
Yeah... let's just hope that the 3D/CGI animation techniques get developed and sophisticated enough, that they'll get cheaper over time and free some filmmakers from the shackles of having to rent war machines from the actual army.
I believe the US Armed Forces _copyright_ all of their logos, insignias, etc., too … so, if in exchange for filming their hardware they demand final cut on your film, maybe you can get around that by using CGI or old-timey animation instead-but then there’s still the problem of not being able to show any US Army or US Navy logos in your movie without violating copyright … and the US Armed Forces are _very_ litigious!
At any given time they have those fingers in dozens of films in varying stages of production. Everyone in the US whines about china’s influence on movies but damn what about the US military?
@@rorylynch1203 - Eh … taking China’s government’s censorship laws and obscenely well-funded international PR efforts-which include outright shutting down academic discourse wherever possible-as well as the tight control China’s government has over its citizens’ Internet access, and comparing that to the U.S. military’s efforts to control how the U.S. Armed Forces are portrayed, is a little like comparing a series of arson attacks which burn down every orphanage worldwide to a somewhat serious kitchen fire. Yes, they are both bad … but holy jumping criminy, is China’s government ever so much worse than whatever the U.S. Armed Forces can cook up!
As an illustrative example, and just for funsies, pull up any RUclips video from a serious journalistic source criticizing the ruling party’s abuse of China’s Uyghur population, then scroll through the comments: you’ll find a disproportionate number of comments from new or relatively inactive accounts, which all sprang to life at once to claim nothing’s going on in northwest China, all using near-identical language, and often all offering links to some single video purporting to show how jolly everything is in Xinjiang. Then make a rough count of how many sketchy comments you see, then notice how many more comments there are under the video exposing China’s ruling party’s abuse than there are under other videos by that same channel … and you’ll realize the percentage of sketchy comments equals the uptick in comment activity beneath just that one video.
It’s as unsubtle as a punch to the face, but China’s government doesn’t need to be subtle in order to be effective: it just needs to gin up doubt among the growing number of low-information viewers around the world, enough to keep the world’s democracies from imposing unmanageable sanctions on China. And China’s ruling party’s attacks on academia around the world are no joke either: my friend is a professor in the Asian Studies dept. at Stony Brook, and first a front group called something like the Confucius Institute offered the dept. a sizable sum-which, thanks to the U.S. government falling for “human capital theory” and underfunding the humanities, the university desperately needed-and then the front group leveraged that money such as to successfully remove any information critical of China from a whole series of courses … and this gets repeated ad nauseam at university departments all around the world daily.
So yeah … in the course of addressing what’s wrong with the world, it’s also important to retain a sense of perspective: so yes, the U.S. Armed Forces’ efforts to groom how they’re portrayed is deeply obnoxious, but also yes, China’s ruling party is committing genocide in Xinjiang and attempting to cover it up, while also squashing free speech in Hong Kong, holding prisoners of conscience in violation of those prisoners’ human rights, keeping mainland citizens from reading any information regarding 1989’s Tiananmen Square Massacre, and so on and on and on, and every well-informed citizen of planet Earth denounces China’s ruling party’s actions.
"this is christmas, we're not handing out participation trophies"
ah yes
the holiday about celibrating being alive and celebrating eachother's existence
no participation trophies there
Well, it is different, if you are important, like Jesus. He just needed to get born to deserve gifts, but if you aren't special enough you won't get anything. Kind of like real life.
My favorite St. Nicolas story is when an evil butcher pickled three children and then jolly old St. Nick necromanced them. There's beautiful paintings of this encounter.
i love your fetch profpic :] grew up on that show
Why wouldn't he? Brined undead are much more durable that your run-of-the-mill stiff
He neck-romanced three children? Santa Claus-Epstein link confirmed??
is your profile pic fucking Ruff Ruffman? I had completely forgotten how much nostalgia I had for that show locked away somewhere
THE PICKLE BOYS
As any poor child who has ever compared their Christmas gifts from Santa to those given to that rich girl in class’ I can totally see the US government funding Santa to make gifts for children with stipulations like he can’t use it to give gifts to people who don’t meet the eligibility requirements. Where to be eligible you can’t be using any government assistance services and must be a WASP and must own land or some shit like that.
yeah it's pretty sad when your parents have to tell you that they have to pay Santa for the presents he gives you in order to explain why you don't get the kinds of presents all your friends get. Honestly I think Santa is something we should do away with even if it does stimulate the economy because there are so many parents who go into massive debt around Christmas cause they don't have the heart to ruin Christmas for their kids and make Santa not real for them.
All the poor kids get military themed toys to groom them for service.
It's impressive how much Boomer conservatism they where able to fit into one movie. In any other Christmas flick the grumpy character would learn an important lesson and then enjoy life more than he did before - not be validated in his cynical views and double down on them in a very terrifying way.
there's a new category of film and it's patronizing old people and their stupid ideas.
I feel it's important to note that we aren't trapped in a room while you describe a batshit movie plot, we activity sought out the room you're in while you describe a batshit movie plot.
Damn, the basic premise sounds fun if it got a lot of tweeking. Like a world where Santa is real and known and forced to resort to increasingly unethical situations to make ends meet, and when he finally gets sick of it he has to go full guerrilla warfare against the US military with Santa magic when they try to coup him for his dastardly socialist ways.
That is the movie that sounds great.
Or him as stand in for social service budget, and the post office of course , you could even have the fbi frame him for stuff because he organizes because he gives social support this year aftr seeing too much. And it upsets the fbi being concerned upsetting the economy. Which could end with the military too and a stand off with activism that took of with peopl he affected?!
That could be an epic fantasy story/series even.
Santa magic vs the US military sounds like an amazing action sequence- Standoff at the workshop! Watch Santa defend his home from the invading US military as they try to do what they do best- topple leaders with contradictory interests to their own! I'm imagining Home Alone but with CGI sparkles, impossible architecture, and vertical chutes for transportation from floor to floor in lieu of literally any stairs, elevators, etc., forcing the military members to shimmy up a chimney to get anywhere because they're the only ones who don't have the inherent magic necessary to just whoosh up it. Oh, and I want Mrs. Claus to be exactly how she's depicted, but she can teleport and instead of doing anything lethal to people she just aids her husband in battle by blinking from point to point and launching blunt-ended candy canes directly at people's faces, bonking them harmlessly in the forehead and providing an excellent distraction. See, the Clauses are pacifists, and the magic of Christmas isn't really meant to be used offensively, it's supposed to bring joy. But, like, the elves are getting a lot of joy out of watching these highly trained individuals look like incompetent toddlers next to large, slow Santa and his tiny, visually underwhelming wife, and Santa and the Mrs. probably haven't had this much fun using their powers in ages because their home has never actually faced a threat of this level, or of really any level in point of fact, and they're having the time of their lives being super creative with how to use their powers to thwart the military without actually hurting them, and the military members, many of whom are Christmas fans themselves, end up having quite a bit of fun once they realize their mission is obviously forfeit but they're not in any actual danger. And then when they give up one of the elves brings them all some hot chocolate and the Clauses and the American military plot to overthrow the US government and install a socialist utopia where every kid is trained properly so they deserve Christmas presents, and Santa never has to worry about money again.
So basically you want a movie about… Stalin?
😋
@@HistoricaHungarica yEsSsSs~
Nah, Santa gets sick of being tracked by NORAD each year and thus used as an excuse for the existence of the ICBMs and for being falsely blamed for causing the global warming by creating all that coal.
"Do you think you're the first to try? Do you think I got this job because I'm jolly and fat?"
And then he gets shot and revives... meaning he got the job just because he's immortal? That explains a lot about this movie.
i think there was a missed opportunity there to show plenty more deranged scenarios for santa surviving assessination attempts. maybe in the sequel ;9
Let me guess, the first brother was like "have you heard of the Fatman?" And the other brother was like "you mean Santa?" And the first guy is like "no I mean the nuclear bom-wait a minute holy shit I just had the most awesome idea"
I just keep wanting to finish, "..on Batman" every time I hear it and it's driving me nuts.
I don't think this movie even realizes there's a world outside of the US.
There's a scene in Canada but from the perspective of this movie I think Canada is more like the USA's funny hat
To be fair most Americans don't realize there is a world outside of America
this "world outside of the US" sounds a lot like communism to me
Do they speak English there? Isn't it dangerous there? Aren't you afraid to go by yourself? Travel safe, I'll be praying for you. (things I hear before any international vacay)
which is really funny given the movie was filmed in Canada
Me celebrating Yule as a current day pagan: “The sun is defeating its seasonal depression.... so maybe I can too.”
Hey fellow pagan! Happy Yuletide 😊!
Same
@@Johnny_T779 Hello there! Brightest Yuletide blessings!
Same
Bitchin yule!
The scary thing to me about the elf on the shelf is nowadays it really could be watching your every move now that cameras can be so small.
Power and connectivity are still significant obstacles to that sort of surveillance. If they want to surveil you they'll just tap into your phone, or your Alexa, or your car, or the CCTVs at your grocery store.
@@ebolapie That's scary too, but I was thinking more of parents just buying an elf with a spycam and a large battery in it that just connects to the wifi. Of course the actual elf part of that isn't necessary, but still, I liked it better when parents had to lie about it because there was no way to actually watch their children 24/7.
When I was a kid I thought those things were the creepiest shit ever. I grew up on a reservation, and there was a boys and girls club I'd go to after school, and me and quite a few other kids would claim it to be a demon, the little elf that watched us and changed positions and traveled around the building. We hated it's eyes, we told strange stories about it. Every time a child went missing we would blame it on the elf, I remember once someone tried to use one of the candles to set it on fire. Then it became uglier, and continued to watch us.
@@flamingo6828 Holy shit, that's terrifying.
NGL the evil child looks exactly like ben shapiro but even shorter
It might be Ben Shapiro, but using those camera tricks they did in Lord of The Rings.
@@VeteranVandal What, to make him look taller?
@@NinjaDoilyn hahahahah
YOOO in elementary school, I was the Jewish kid who would often brag that I don’t believe in Santa, but I still get gifts anyways. Glad that that is not just a me thing lmao
This is a really interesting video, but as someone who teaches A Christmas Carol, I have to say that it absolutely is a religious story. A big part of it, narratively speaking, is to do with Marley being unable to reach the true afterlife because he was a sinner, and Scrooge being scared into seeing the error of his ways. He 'changes' because he doesn't want to go to Hell/purgatory. He is called a "covetous old sinner" in the first stave. A lot of it is implicit; Dickens is criticising the Poor Law, but he is *also* criticising rich Christians who weren't acting like good Christians, i.e. not donating to charities, supporting those in need, etc. It's set at Christmas specifically because it is a Christian festival. At one point, Bob and Tiny Tim return home from a church service, and Bob says that Tiny Tim hoped people saw him and remembered Jesus' miracles. It's *steeped* in Christianity. The "good people" go to church on Christmas day; Scrooge literally uses the chiming of the church bells to figure out when the spirits will arrive! And then, just to really drive the point home (and to completely go against what you say here!), one of the things Scrooge does to prove he's changed is go to church on Christmas Day! Just because Dickens doesn't mention the birth of Christ, etc., doesn't mean it isn't religious. I do agree that the Victorian era helped propagate a lot of the current Christian traditions (Victoria and Albert popularised Christmas trees, for example), but Dickens' novella is explicitly Christian.
I'm so sorry to ramble! But it's such an important theme in the novella.
I just came down to make an initial thank you comment and I saw this at the top. I've always considered that story to be thoroughly christian, myself. Let's see why Hell doesnt. I cant imagine it will change my mind though. Idk
He should watch Renegade Cut's video on the christian horror movie. Tons of horror movies are ideologically christian, it turns out, although most people would never assume they are. It's a great video essay by a really great content creator. I looove his stuff, and We're in Hell's, too, of course.
To be fair, I think he was only saying that A Christmas Carol wasn't chiefly a religious story, or solely a religious story, maybe.
I would say the tale as left the religious themes way behind, a big chunk of modern interpretations dont even mention church.
@@NicolasCaja Well, of course, a contemporary reader might not latch on to the religious theme, and a contemporary filmmaker might not send Scrooge to church on Christmas morning, but the point being made in the video was specifically that Dickens' novella was not religious, when it absolutely was.
Congratulations to Ben Shapiro for his acting career debut as Billy
Jacob Geller in a We're In Hell video? I did not know I needed this but now I need way more of it.
“That’s what you Christians do, right? Hang around a fire, running penetration tests?”
Bible camp sounds a lot sexier than I imagined it.
Honestly that's about on par with how I imagined it
I'm catholic, we're not supposed to run penetration tests before marriage, and sufficient protection is often frowned upon.
...that's what makes it so much fun to do in secret
the fact they made who I assume is Santa's wife a black woman with Mel Gibson as Santa makes me very concerned for her
When you consider that the US military signed off on this depiction, it really does help paint a picture of who the military is. Specifically just how craven and evil they are, and how eas it is for them to see this as "good PR".
Will Jarvis in the studio like "oh new WIH vid? yeah i can make another banger."
as someone who grew up watching The Santa Clause (1994), watching clips of this hits very similarly to the lore they built in that and its WILD. Also bc Mel Gibson's performance just reminds me of Tim Allen's santa.
I swear at some points Mel Gibson even sounded like Tim Allen.
@@jdprettynails agreed
"Exclusively referred to as Chris" misses the fact they keep referring to a fit, averaged sized Mel Gibson as Fat man????
They mean like the warhead I guess???
@@VioletSadi thank god I really thought it'd be about that specifically... can't believe Santa made the nuclear bomb n dropped it from his sleigh... wild shit
@@AshAtropos maybe that's why he doesn't want to build weapons... after what happened last time
@@VioletSadi that was fat BOY, we're talking about a fat MAN
@@Gloomdrake "Little Boy" was the cylindrical, gun-type, uranium bomb dropped on Hiroshima. "Fat Man" was the spherical, implosion-type, plutonium bomb dropped on Nagasaki.
Originally, they were supposed to be "Thin Man" and "Fat Man", both plutonium bombs, named after Dashiell Hammett's characters of Thin Man (from "The Thin Man") and Fat Man (from "The Maltese Falcon"), but the gun-type design proved to be a bad fit for plutonium bombs and current bombers - it was supposed to be over 5 meters long to prevent spontaneous fission.
So, scrapping "Thin Man" bomb and the code-name, but still going with the gun-type design for a much shorter 3 meter long uranium bomb, "They named the new version Little Boy, by comparison with Thin Man." - according to Robert Serber who gave the names to the original plutonium designs.
Except, there's also the fact that Kasper Gutman, the Fat Man of "The Maltese Falcon" is accompanied by a short, teenage, gunman, Wilmer Cook - constantly referred to as the "boy" and repeatedly described as small.
So it's highly probable that both bombs were actually named after Maltese Falcon characters.
As an ironic bonus of fate, Dashiell Hammett ended up in prison and blacklisted for contempt of court during the Smith Act trials of Communist Party leaders, for taking the Fifth, refusing to answer any questions regarding the bail fund for the defendants.
I mixed up Mel Gibson with Mel brooks in my brain, I was so confused for a minute lol
Jewish Santa Mel Brooks would be great.
I did too!
I too was a young Jew who was never told that Santa was real and ruined some holidays by accident
this whole movie comes across as a weird right libertarian santa / wolverine fanfic, and I kinda love how off the rails and over the top it is
it's such a ridiculous premise acted out way too seriously, clearly on purpose, and it works. If somebody is trying to find a film to build their political worldview off of, maybe choose something else, but i don't think the vast VAST majority watching this movie about an assassin hired to kill santa are taking it as seriously as a lot of these comments have.
@@JQXJQ on the one hand... sure.. on the other, no one is immune to propaganda, so it's still always good to cast a critical eye on media, even if it's super ridiculous
Holy shit, thank you so much for single-handedly saving me from insanity this month.
I watched this last weekend alone at home and had to record my reactions live in voice notes sent to my group chat because I could not handle it. I tried to explain it to someone and basically ended up showing her 1/3 of the movie clip by clip just to make it make sense. And when we tried to find a YT commentary on it, I found only ONE , which said it was a GREAT DARK COMEDY ?? and the comments all AGREED??? One single commenter said they didn't laugh and one of the replies told them "Sorry that you aren't intelligent enough to understand it"??????????????????????????? I ??
Your explanation that the movie plays it too straight to feel like satire, that there is no comedy in its "dark comedy", 100% validates how I felt about this wild movie. In my speed play through of the movie to my friend, I showed her the literal only joke in this film: the scene where the young military guy gets chomped by a reindeer in the barn, and we ...didn't laugh. This movie is bonkers.
I have so many more thoughts about this movie that I might have had to compile my voice notes commentary into a YT commentary vid of my own, so thank you THANK YOU for saving me from having to do that.
Happy December to ya !
Please do
Still do please! Ther was a review saying its snyder meets bad santa, XD Yes. More. there eem to be a lot to say about the aestetic of good(and coimmiting to social comentary or ideas that will end progresive) horror.
Do it!
I'm sorry, We're In Hell, the Panopticon Elf is actually called The Elf On A Shelf, and a worrying amount of people's parents do in fact tell them its watching them when they put it out on a shelf for the holiday season
I really appreciate your kindness and care to explain this, but that was the joke, haha. He knows about Elf on A Shelf and was joking about that :p
8:38 "There aren't any jokes in that scene, it's just actually a child being threatened with torture." Ah, so it's the South Park brand of 'dark comedy', got it!
dude what walton goggins is in this thing alright i need watch it and come back to this vid lol
Walton Goggins is a treasure and I’m thrilled to see all the love for him in this convents section
@@fnkyron hes an absolute king
He’s honestly the best part of the movie. I don’t talk about it in the video but there are just long scenes of him going into stores and being weird that weren’t in the script but they just followed him around with a camera and wrote in ways to use as much as possible.
@@WereInHell Boyd Crowder does what he likes
Is that Walton Goggins as the assassin? He's a genuinely great actor!
According to everything I've seen, yes it is him. According to on-screen text in the video, it's his lesser known cousin Walter.
@@tinnagigja3723 glad I wasn't the only one who noticed that.
Im in love with him fr
isn't jesus already a simplified child-friendly version of jesus?
I dunno, the whole Jesus died for your sins thing still baffles me at age 50, and I’ve read St. Augustine
@@wiesejay Isn't it because the some people were tired of doing animal sacrifices, so they said this one guy dying is a super sacrifice that wipes out all sins? Also, it explains the Catholic ritual of symbolically eating Jesus' body and drinking his blood because you'd usually cook and eat the animal after sacrificing it.
@@TheMusicalFruit communion is taken because of the last supper when Jesus told the disciples to eat of his flesh and drink his blood. There’s a lot of debate on wether he was speaking metaphorically but Catholics as far as the doctrine goes, believe that once you take it, it becomes his literal flesh and blood.
It’s Winter Solstice today, and as a Scandinavian, I start my celebration of Yule today!
Our "Santa Claus", is the "Yuleman", or the Father of Yule, the old Norse called him Jólnir, the Jölfuðr.
This figure is in fact a very well known very old Norse/Germanic pagan god, visiting people in disguise, during the Yuletide celebration!
He is known by many names, but the name most people recognize him by, is Óðinn….
Now here is a fun fact, Norse/Germanic tribes, such as the Vandals, and especially the Langobards, brought this figure with them when they travelled south - and some of them, (the Langobards), conquered large parts of Italy, including a town named Bari.
Now some believe it’s a complete coincidence, that Nicholas of Bari, who had been a Christian Bishop in Myra, and somehow after his dead, became this very popular "Saint", suddenly reminded extremely much about that old pagan figure - many of those who believe it’s a complete coincidence somehow also believe that a guy named Jesus was born the night of 24th of December, by a VIRGIN….
And even some of the people who will recognize that if that Jesus guy existed, he probably wasn’t born in December, by a virgin, and the reason we celebrate at Christmas is because the Christians totally appropriated, uh, I mean, adopted and adapted, the pagan celebration of the Winter Solstice, can’t get their heads around the likelihood that the old pagan figure was a huge inspiration to the narrative about the figure who would later be known as Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Sinterklaas, Santa Claus, because "Nicholas of Bari was a real guy"…
Sure, he was - but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a huge Pagan influence on the figure!
Also, Christmas Tree=Pagan, burning the Yule Log=Pagan, Yule=Pagan….
So yeah, most of "Christmas" is incredibly pagan….
Oi aryan, hands off my Bari! Romance peoples have our own way of being secretly pagan, we don’t need some bleached out snow-giant telling us that all our culture actually belongs to you reindeer-riders. Go burn your Yule goat I’ve got a log to beat the poop out of. /hj
"An Apartheid state where Santa discriminates based on religion?" Sounds like some shit Mel Gibson would be down for. Otherwise stellar performance from Walton Goggins as always.
I'd love to hear what these writers think counts as "kids making poor choices"
'Walton Goggins' is such a fantastic name to say when trying out different accents.
Its so interesting how the traditions of christmas change from country to country. Here in Austria we dont have Santa Claus, we have the "Christkind" (Child of Christ, literally translated), which is like an angel who gives presents to nice kids and bad kids just get nothing. Here the main christmas holiday is also december 24th and not the 25th.
On december 6th we have the "Nikolaustag" (Day of saint nikolaus/nicholas, whatever you call him in English) which is based on the story of saint nikolaus and his good deeds.
as a child i just took these days and traditions as fact and was surprised later on when i learned that the US celebrates christmas on the 25th and that US kids really believe in santa claus and that he is not a figure that was just invented as a sort of placeholder for the Christkind in christmas movies lol
every Jewish child has the MORAL IMPERATIVE to tell Christian children the truth about Santa on the playground
We still call it yule in Norway (and presumably the rest of Scandinavia). Like, we don't have a Christian word to call it. The name for christ 'kristus' is already longer than the word for yule 'jul' so it'd be kinda hard to change.
Santa is called Julenissen or "the yule nisse". Nisse being a folklore creature that will help tend to your farm if you leave porridge outside for them and mess with you if you don't. Like, steal your spoons and stuff.
Also I'm pretty sure (at least in Norway) the red hat comes from the hats worn during the French revolution. After which they became popular in Norway as a symbol of revolution and used as a sign of opposition to the occupation of Norway by Sweden. Then a cultural symbol of being Norwegian as opposed to Swedish (which I guess is why the nisse wear them). Then again used to oppose the German occupation during World War Two. To the point that it was banned and the nazis made christmas cards with nisser in different colored hats.
But I'm not a scholar or anything I just saw a christmas card called "hvem tok nisselua mi" by Thorbjørn Egner where a confused santa has had his hat stolen (by the nazis) and got curious.
Also it's called a nisselue 'nisse hat' not santa or yule so it's specifically linked to folklore.
These are all the interesting christmas facts I know goodbye.
damn nisser only stole your spoons in Norway? in Denmark they'll burn down your barn if you dont give them porridge :(
I don't know what's the experience of being religious non-christian in the us/anglosphere since I grew up basically atheist in the southern europe where the culture and aesthetic is Catholicism™️. But at least here it feels like a lot us of atheists celebrate mostly out of habit/nostalgia. Yknow family and stuff.
I personally celebrate it as an atheist because for me it has a different meaning: it's a time where things are cold and dark, so it's ok to have a good excuse to make this part off the year into a better one, it's kind of like a light in the dark that shows us there's hope for me
Well, at least we have carnival, which is the spiritual successor of Saturnalia and definitely not a religious Holiday.
Also as an atheist, I celebrate the true meaning of Southern European Christmass, which is the celebration of the time where Turrón, Polvorones, Bolo de Reis and/or Panettone can be found in stores and grandma's kitchens everywhere.
Seeing as a lot of Santa Claus lore is derived from Norse mythology (specifically Odin) I’m pretty sure that the writers of the movie were using Chris’ lost eye as an allegory for Odin’s sacrifice at the well.
Odin sacrificed his eye for wisdom.
I’m guessing there was a nod to that in Chris’ ‘proactive’ change of attitude.
As much as I can’t stand Mel Gibson, I’m ashamed to admit that I kinda enjoyed it 😅
I really wish I had the faith in this movie to have put that much thought into it, because that would be a really good little touch that would at least somewhat redeem this thing.
Actual people considering this wisdom is scarier and more twisted than any horror film I have seen this year.
Unless his eye grows back. Which is quite possible given the lore of the film.
Very logical conclusion for this movie's purpose: It's a prequel to explain Robot Santa as part of a live-action movie version of the hit cartoon Futurama.
Hold up...no one's mentioning that n-word-spewing Mel Gibson has a Black wife in this flick??
Yeah combined with the fact that Santa is immortal so he probably acquired Mrs Claus first as his sl4ve
I can't help but think of Justified when I see Walton Goggins. Now I'm imagining this really bizarre holiday special where Raylon Givens has to rescue Santa Claus.
Every December from now on I’m just gonna wish I was a secular Jewish Canadian lol. I am not a big Christmas person and wish I could just opt out. Yes a lot of Christmas was pagan but what’s funny is that a huge amount of the cultural stuff we celebrate now is rooted in the mid-century reinvention of Christmas. Like we are doing 1960s nonsense lol.
Or even worse an incredibly sanitized victorian version of christmas. I wish theyd bring back wild hedonist medieval christmas, the real meaning of christmas is getting really drunk and doing cruel pranks on the rich
As a Jewish Canadian, I regret to inform you that I cannot escape the Christian stuff as it's constantly forced on me. I don't celebrate it, of course, but that doesn't stop... whatever the fuck my local pharmacy is doing during the last 2 months of the year
Fatman is a prequel to Santa's Slay.
CHANGE MY MIND!
Christmas was only actually banned in Britain between 1647 and the Restoration of the Stuart monarchy in 1660, not the 200 years alleged here, and the ban was repealed in the American Colonies in 1681. Locally, both formal and Informal bans on celebrating Christmas lasted longer in the North American colonies prior to US independence because they were much more dominated by Puritans, but Christmas was extremely popular in England, came back hard, and never really went away again. Charles Dickens didn't invent the Christmas traditions he described in A Christmas Carol, although the story's popularity might have helped bring them back in some conservative parts of North America.
As a pagan I'd just like to wish everyone a blessed yule, merry Christmas, happy holidays, random greeting for time of year in which friends and family can get together to exchange gifts or kill each other depending upon how they feel about each other.
Here's the comment is just going to loop again because I couldn't find a good transition.
As a pagan I'd just like to wish everyone a blessed yule, merry Christmas, happy holidays, random greeting for time of year in which friends and family can get together to exchange gifts or kill each other depending upon how they feel about each other.
My favorite detail is the name of the weapon system: “Eagle of the Sky!” You know, to compliment the Eagle of the Sea submarine group.
So, it's kinda weird to refer to Saturnalia as the "original" solstice holiday. It was from one culture during one certain time period (not even that long, historically speaking), and other cultures in other times long before and after had their own traditions lining up with solar events
Are those traditions linked to Christmas like Saturnalia is? Or have they come and gone independently?
@@NawidN Both. It's just a very common time to set a holiday. I think more northerly European pagan holidays have had more connections, like Yule and such.
I was under the impression that Saturnalia is not really very linked to Christianity besides the co-occurrence and maybe gift-giving. There are not even very many historical accounts of it IIRC. I'm no expert of course. I suggest checking out the channel "Religion for Breakfast". I know they have one or two videos on it there, probably where I'm remembering those ideas from.
People drink egg nog mixed with PBR?! That should legally be a war crime.
Heinek...Eggnog!? Fuck that shit! Pabst Blue Ribbon!
@@jeremysmith4620 Oh man! You made me wish that Fat Man could've been played by Dennis Hopper instead of Mel Gibson.
@@guanyu8539 What if, my Dynasty Warriors comrade, EVERY character in Blue Velvet was played by Dennis Hopper?
@@jeremysmith4620 If I had the know-how, I would build a time machine to make this happen.
I think it should be noted that Christmas was still very much a big deal in heavily Catholic countries way before Charles Dickens. But that being said, the traditions where/are quite different than modern American Christmas
Well, a lot of the typical Christmas stuff is pretty recognizable though a bit different.
Christmas calendars were already a thing in Germany though only with images, not with chocolate. You can still buy such calendars in Germany.
Christmas tree was apart a thing, coming from Germany.
Advent wreaths were also a thing already, also from Germany.
The religious songs also Asian existed.
Maybe Christmas received a revival in the Victorian age because she married a German…
Hear me out... Spurred by his grief after the death of Mrs Clause, Santa takes up a life of crime as a drug mule for the cartels delivering raw opium in his world traveling magic sleigh. After one particularly rough run, he stops in an after hours club where he meets a young but experienced jazz singer named Kiki. In a strange twist Kiki brings back Christmas after making kringle late for a very lucrative run and he's left holding the bag surrounded by the police. With her encouragement and the tough love from his parole officer (played by Danny Glover) Santa comes back to the toy table for good in Santa Clause, it's always snowing in Columbia.
Holyshit the music at the end is amazing.
Thanks!!
@@williethejayman it slaps
I love the music running over the credits, it's such a mood and I need it in my life!!
Mel gibson in this movie sounds so much like tim Allen its crazy
this video slaps. the fact that i have never heard of FAT MAN at all ever blows my mind in itself. overall this is one of the sexiest christmas themed YT episode since some more news the movie (high bar LETS FUCKING GO DUDE!) i cannot wait to explain to my religious cousins at xmas that the original banning of christmas was done by the church and then only really changed after a Dickens novel.
by the way, the poem is called "Wilderness Gothic" by Al Purdy - a stellar choice to end on, one of my faves. if you like that one, check out "trees at the arctic circle" too :)
Thanks for the Christmas time gift. Love your videos, keep up the great work.
You are one of my favorite RUclipsrs and your content has recently been obscured by the algorithm for me :( here’s hoping it turns around. I really appreciate your humorous and awesome takes on just about everything!
This was such an excellent video. Well thought out, engaging, and the perfect amount of clickbait.
I'm now desperate for a horror movie where the statues in the Nativity manger scene come to life
Please note: in Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files books Santa Claus is actually a form of Odin, the Norse Wargod.
in the series th librarians odin is actually an incarnation of him entioned. But i think butcher is better at having him there.
Hell yeah, another Dresden Files fan
Why does Billy remind me of Ben Shapiro?
It's definitely not intentional, but it is...glorious!
came here to say this. :D
I'm so glad I wasn't the only one, he looks just like a young Ben
Ever seen young Ben? Semblance is kind spooky.
holy shit i'm not the only one who sees it . he even has his stupid nasally voice too .
You might enjoy "Did Christmas Copy the Sun God's Birthday?" from ReligionForBreakfast on the topic if and to what extent xMas / Winter Solstice were intertwined.
Thank you for your great video once again. Enjoy your productions a lot.
Happy Winter Solstice :)
Also the one on Saturnalia - the temporary subversion of roles was really just intended as a release valve for pent up frustrations of the oppressed.. to the extent that was even followed
I would recommend Tom Harpur's book The Pagan Christ: Recovering the Lost Light
That "Billy" kid literally looks like how I imagine Patrick Bateman would look in the probably-coming-soon prequel, "American Pschoolboy".
This movie was my guilty pleasure of 2021. Also glad someone also thought the outsourcing comment was odd...
My family celebrate Christmas but we never did the elf on the shelf shit so seeing how other ppl talk about them is genuinely wierd
Oh hey, "Wilderness Gothic". Currently hacking my way to the end of a dissertation on Purdy. Thanks for giving me hope that I'm not the only one still reading him regularly.
Merry Hellmas everyone!
The fact that this movie exists is so surreal. Even though I’m seeing and hearing everything in this movie my brain is like “huh?”
Sidenote: the song at the end makes me understand why this year some singer I never heard about decided to call one of her songs "Christmas isn't cancel, just you"
Walton Goggins is such a talented actor for all the garbage he does lol. Though I’ll consider it penance for him playing a trans woman in Sons of Anarchy.
Excellent in Justified
Great video as always Sam!
P.S.: I could listen to Jacob Geller recite poetry for hours, holy shit
Thank you! I worked on this film for a few days as it was shot outside Ottawa but I never ended up watching it. Now I never have to!
Ooh, got some stuff wrong. Christmas is in December because the early church believed the immaculate conception happened at Passover-- and they added nine months. Being at the solstice was a coincidence. Now, did solstice stuff get incorporated as Christianity moved into Europe? Of course. But it was far more "people kept celebrating their own traditions" than "purposeful appropriation."
It totally purposeful appropriation, even if the pagans were just still celebrating their own traditions, the romans often incorporated conquered religious traditions into their own, that doesn’t mean that religion as it was didn’t die, it just means they let people have just enough of their own practices that they didn’t rise up and realize what was happening. Just saying.
It was*
@@Princesssbishhh My point is that the timing of Christmas was not an intentional attempt to appropriate from another religion, as it was established prior to Constantine's reign (and Christianity becoming the official religion of the Roman empire). It was also well established prior to reaching the Germanic pagans - whose Yule was the most borrowed from of any European pre-Christian faith. Though not as borrowed from as a lot of neopagan writers who haven't done their research would have you think.
@@Traegorn oh yea because it’s the pagans not researching their own religions properly 👌 not u just interpreting appropriation as appreciation or some bullshit like that. It was appropriation, and they literally changed Jesus’s bday from may to December to coincide with it, and it was a well established practice to conquer people the romans had used for centuries…?
@@Traegorn oh and don’t deny the bday change thing, it’s widely accepted that happened
If I like Arnock as much as I like the other names on this video I'll be over the moon. I love your work on this channel
Thank you so much for making this! I watched this movie last year and loved it, though I'm sure not for the reasons the creators made it. So much in it is just so hilarious, made even more hilarious because it's played so straight and I'm guessing the people who made it intended it to be serious. It's like this big, absurd mess that touches on so many important topics but doesn't really say anything clearly about most of them, which doesn't so much make it art with merit, but it does make it art that is interesting enough to provoke a lot of thought and conversation. I felt like nobody on the Left would even consider watching it and talking about it because Mel Gibson is such a bigot, but I soooooo wanted to talk to people about this movie. And here you go and make a whole 50 minute video saying all this great stuff and it's just so satisfying to watch. Thank you so much!
One more totally minor comment - the whole thing with Saturnalia inverting the social roles was for the purpose of maintaining the status quo. Most historians argue that it and other similar Pagan holiday celebrations associated with winter solstice did the reversal as a sort of way of letting off steam and showing how "ridiculous" such a reversal was, in order to make it easier to return to what was "normal" after the holiday ended. Christmas has traditional had elements of this, such as in the American south during slavery, when many slave owners would celebrate Christmas by inviting slaves into their home and serving them a big banquet and letting them blow off steam one day a year with no consequences as a Christmas gift. It wasn't a kindness, it was just a way of maintaining the normalcy of slavery.
But yeah, awesome video. Happy holidays!
YOOOOOO Mr. Geller it is good to hear your voice. Would love to see you two work together more in the future :)
Not going to lie, Santa turns to manufacturing weapons while battling an assassin hired by a naughty child sounds goddamn fantastic. I suppose it's all in the execution.
liking and commenting to feed the algorithm, love your work, another banger
That outro is fucking amazing. Loved the video.
You are one of my favs!!! Love the music, jingle bells over metal!
Walton Goggins is AMAZING in the Righteous Gemstones, it makes me want to watch this movie lmao
It's so rare that poetry does anything for me but that ending was phenomenal. Can't thank you enough.
Loved Jacob's participation on the end
The whole time I wondering where Jacob is at. When you said your closing words I almost reset thinking I had missed it.
This is excellent, absolutely love your analysis and is definitely a great illustration showing how Christianity in the global North is/has been repurposed by capitalism
I wish he talked a little more about how we got our current conception of Santa Claus and common Christmas traditions.
This is my new favourite Christmas song
I really like that poem at the end actually
Know what: after half of Your rant I went to watch the Fatman- it was something else but I had fun. All You accomplished was me liking Fatman more.
Happy new Year, Kyle...
Santa is not a Christin deity but one of Capitalism
Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors, merchants, archers, repentant thieves, children, brewers, pawnbrokers, unmarried people, and students in various cities and countries around Europe.