Loose Canon: Santa Claus

Hi Lindsay! Any chance of re-uploading this video to a website that actually cares about and understands Fair Use? No disrespect to you, Lindsay! But sometimes I really despise YouTube.

James Conway

Ahh farts, I was kind of bummed to not see the Finnish short film duo + big-budget feature -trilogy Rare Exports on here in any capacity. The short films are on Youtube and are about a group of hunters who hunt the northern wilderness for wild santa clauses to domesticate and send off to work in shopping malls across the world. The feature film then reveals that these dudes are actually just elves and the real Santa Claus is basically a giant Satan-like demon encased in ice. It's good stuff and despite being produced in Finland it's all mostly in English, I'd recommend them for anyone interested in weirder interpretations of the character.

Miikka Mononen

For the next LCP, can Princess Leia be the nominee? I'm not in a good place now that Carrie Fisher died.

Matt Eldritch

Great episode Lindsay, so when is the next loose canon poll coming out?

I would have thought the Dario Argento Phantom movie would have ranked higher on the outrage-o-meter. The Oz movie isn't very good, but nobody gets raped in that movie.

Grace

Great video! My parents didn't do the Santa thing so much because of certain economic disparities involved, but I always liked the mythology of it. My favorite Santa Clause related thing as a kid was this picture book I had ( I forget the title but it was by Jan Brett, somebody gave my mom like all of the Jan Brett books so I read them a lot) about the elf who has to train the reindeer. It had a lot of stuff about how the elves spend all year prepping for the big show. I was the sort of kid who read The Silmarillion when I was 8 and loved it, so I kind of went the opposite of the moral of your story and thought about all the logistical and world building details involved in the Santa story a lot. I think I might have even written some Santa fanfic if memory serves. It probably helps that my immediate family is atheist so we celebrate "pagan Christmas" as my mother puts it, so I had a much wider and interestingly varied array of holiday lore to draw on. I grew up in a relatively rural town and people were really disapproving of my geeky reading habits, so I loved Christmas and Halloween because they were the times when it seemed like the rest of the world was willing to indulge in fantasy with me.

De

man i do miss some good 80's corporate villains. i miss being bashed over the head with some old fashioned "greed is bad" messages. could use that about now. <br><br> the irony of Alec Baldwin Russian Santa is that apparently Russian Santa Claus is technically a different entity (Grandpa Frost), who is not fat, not jolly, doesn't always wear red, lives in a real city not the north pole, is a wizard not a saint/elf, gives kids presents on new years eve not christmas, and is assisted by his granddaughter who is made of snow.

Don Bright

Regarding 'Miracle on 34th Street', I remember Night Court doing a weird take on it, where Santa Claus was brought into Harry's court, and everyone wanted Harry to set him free, while Harry basically said, this guy is mentally ill and needs help. At some point Santa gets a gun and things kind of go downhill. My recollection is that the attempt to mix a Christmas story, with a sitcom, with a commentary on the treatment of mentally ill people in America, made for a very odd combination, but apparently one that made an impression on me, since I think I saw it only the one time, and it must have been 25 or 30 years ago. The Internet seems to indicate that this episode was called 'Santa Goes Downtown'.

Jacob Haller

Happy Holidays everybody!!!

Well this made my day! For me the most memorable Santa Clause is Raymond Briggs Father Christmas. It's overshadowed by The Snowman where he get's a small cameo but I think it's worth a read or watch in it'so own right. It does a good job of balancing the cynicism and hope of christmas with Father Christmas being fairly grumpy and short tempered but he does his job for the love of it and still kind and loving. I suppose he comes across as very human.

LL

American Dad! just came out with another Santa narrative on Monday (Santa's motives involve an interpretation of the Epic of Gilgamesh, because of course it does)

Taylor

The historical context part cleared up a bunch of questions about the Santa myths origin that I never bothered to research for myself. So thanks! :)

⭐️Galactic Pretty Boy, Tommy⭐️

For a second I thought you were calling The Santa Clause the worst ever and I was already to throw the shit down.

Oh god, a new worst ever? After God of War and Oz the Great and Powerful? Good grief o_o

Luninareph

Did you deliberately avoid mentioning Mara Wilson when talking about the Miracle remake, or did she just not come up since she's not playing Santa in it?

Philip Munroe

This has made my almost christmas! Should have seen this video coming but its a lovely surprise :)

Kathrin Shawcross

Love the video. One thing though, unless you're making a joke about the repetitiveness of modern narratives, I think you might have repeated the narrative/spoiler joke at 2:38 and 2:52