Sally Forth is one of the few comics I enjoy unironically (Mary Worth is the one I most enjoy ironically).
An unfair criticism. According to newspaper headlines, the “storm of storms” extended from the North Pole to New York, Chicago and even San Francisco. The storm is so epic it blows over igloos leaving the poor eskimos to fend for themselves. It rips roofing off Santa’s castle. It is strong enough to whip around and unwrap Christmas presents. The sanitation workers are digging people out. It is not simply normal snow, which is falling almost all of the time throughout the show.
A storm of this size would present all sorts of logistical flying problems. Look what happens at major airports whenever one of these blizzards hits the East Coast. Santa and company take a big chance even with Rudolph —especially since they have to make an extra unscheduled stop at the Island of Misfit Toys.
And Rudolph’s never done the run before – and he’s the lead reindeer, the point man. I wonder if his dad or the other reindeer spent the whole night calling instructions to him.
Yes, I think about this way too much.
Yeah, it’s a good thing they had a red lightbulb on the front. Otherwise it might’ve been a problem.
Do you people even listen to the lyrics of the song
And then one ** FOGGY** Christmas Eve…
Yes, there was a massive blizzard, but it was followed on Christmas Eve by pea-soup thick FOG. Rudolph’s red nose light guided Santa’s sleigh through it.
It’s the North Pole, though, and Santa has been doing this a while. I don’t know…it just seems like they should have a contingency plan beyond, “Hey, look, a reindeer with a conveniently bright nose!”
Don’t discount the value of good headlights. Try driving at night during a storm without them.
We have already established that Santa has North Polish extreme winter navigation skills. He’d done it every previous year without the added value of nasal brilliance. Really, the addition of the light was all that was necessary to handle the mighty blizzard.
FOG, you dummy. It was not the snow, it was the FOG!!!
P.S. How extreme is the weather in North Poland?
In the song it is fog. In songs, however, it is often necessary to abridge a story in order to fit into the limited space of the telling. A popular children’s sing-along can only be so long.
There is obviously more to the tale than the 16 or so lines that make up the song. Thus, we have a need for the deeper Rudolph TV special we all love. By your logic there would be no Island of Misfit Toys simply because it was left out of the John Marks song. Humbug!
In the more fleshed-out Rudolph special, we see something much more daunting than mist. This is a frightening storm of epic proportions. There is certainly fog, no doubt, but that is not the major factor in the danger of the trip. Fog is only a contributing factor.
And are you implying that there are no good kids in North Poland?
We can argue about how much benefit Rudolph really gave Santa, but we’re all Monday morning quarterbacks.
He used Rudolph, it worked, and here we are.
Burl Ives said it, I believe it, that settles it.
Maybe Rudolph had the equivalent of the eye-beams of the X-Men’s Cyclops, only nasally oriented due to discrepancies between human and reindeer DNA, so that they were powerful enough to penetrate the thick fog and…
Oh, never mind.
Sorry, but I think it is time to drop the whole fog myth.
Recall the scene where Rudolph, Hermie, and Cornelius are adrift on an iceberg in the fog having just escaped the Bumble for the first time. The fog is thick, either as thick as pea soup or peanut butter depending on whom you believe. In any case, the floating iceboat crashes, without warning, into the Island of Misfit Toys. Hermie is actually sent tumbling by the impact. If Rudolph’s nose could penetrate thick fog, then they would have been aware of the approaching island collision. But that was not the case.
The fog may be mentioned in the song, but anyone knows that high beams reflect back in a blinding manner during occasions of thick fog. In a winter storm however, headlights are useful.
When Santa receives the latest weather report prior to almost cancelling Christmas, it is the storm, not merely any leftover fog that is explicitly presented as the problem. “The storm won’t let up by tonight, we’ll have to cancel Christmas,” bemoans Santa.
So please, let’s give Rudolph credit for saving Christmas through his heroism in heavy snow. The fog is of little consequence.
Alert! Alert!
Rudolph will be airing this year on Dec. 4 at 8 pm on CBS. Set your DVRs, people!
Thank you! I have it on DVD but I haven’t watched it yet.
God bless you for posting, Hello everybody!
On my calendar. With alerts!
Rudolph and the Grinch are tied for second place as my favorite Christmas specials! I’ll be watching!
And another tip of the eggnog to the late poohpah for this thread. As long as there is Rudolph, this thread will live on.
I bought the DVD earlier this week!! I hope it’s as good as I remember.
I am not looking back over the years to see if I mentioned this, but Rudolph’s red nose probably puts out a good amount of infra-red radiation, which with proper equipment can be used to “see” through fog. Just because he himself or his gender-confused elf companion cannot use it doesn’t mean that the elf with the Mel Cooley glasses couldn’t.
(Much as Jasper, the Blue-Nosed reindeer can be used to detect the doppler shift of incoming anti-aircraft missles when circumstances warrant it. His side-job of finding morally questionable material keeps him employed during the rest of the year.)
And bumbles bounce. Never forget.