Remember that animated Frosty the Snowman movie that one TV network or another used to run every December, at least through the 1970s and possibly later?
When I was a kid I never heard the word “hypochondriac”, but I remember watching that cartoon and getting the distinct — probably mistaken — impression that thermometers caused Frosty to start sweating/melting. This was because he would seem to be fine, then a scene would show him spotting a thermometer, and he’d immediately start to melt, and would try to get away from the thermometer. At least that’s how it appeared to the “child me”. It occurred to me much later, as an adult, that perhaps Frosty was a hypochondriac, and the sight of a thermometer would simply make him think he was melting.
Does anybody have a better, clearer recollection, or perhaps seen the movie more recently?
Haven’t seen it in years. Wasn’t the thermometer just a prop to show the temp was rising? Or am I being wooshed? I do not believe that there was a subtle hypochondria theme to the Frosty cartoon.
The filmmakers used “Frosty seeing a thermometer” as a (hackneyed) visual cue that it’s hot. If it’s hot, Frosty starts melting, and has to get away to someplace cold.
Well, remember I’m talking about the impression I got as a kid watching the cartoon. I would have been younger than 10, and probably wasn’t yet well-versed in things like “visual cues” and “plot devices”. All I saw was Frosty looking at a thermometer, and and only then starting to melt. At least, that’s how it looked to me.
The thing that brought this to mind now as an adult was my roommate and his various and sundry medical “conditions”. Specifically, his alleged sensitivity to things like … cell phone “radiation”. Considering that this “radiation” doesn’t seem to affect him if you simply take the phone into the next room (that is, the wall does absolutely nothing to block cell phone signals - if it did, cell phones would be pretty useless). Or considering the cell phone signals that are constantly zipping through the air 24/7 that don’t affect him. But if he sees somebody nearby talking on a cell phone (or just wearing Bluetooth earpiece), he suddenly gets a headache or whatever it is that supposedly happens.
Of course, the other possibility is “conditioned response” - he happened to get a headache one time and noticed somebody talking on a cell phone, and forever after associated his headache with cell phones.
Now that you mention it, he does put on a hat every time he goes outdoors, regardless of the weather, even if he’s just stepping out to fetch the mail from the mailbox that’s nailed to the front porch.
I agree with the others in this thread, you are WAY overthinking this. The thermometer rising (it was never just a shot of a thermometer, it was a shot of mercury rising) was used to point out to the audience its getting hot. Which is bad for Frosty.
Also, Frosty has been shown on TV every year (usually twice) since as long as I can remember. I watched it this Christmas in fact.
No doubt, no doubt. Maybe my kid brain somehow picked up on the way he only appeared to be melting when he looked at the thermometer. Not before, and not after. And that’s what stuck in my head - I definitely remember making a connection between seeing the thermometer and melting.
Now I’m gonna have to see if I can find this thing online and rewatch it.
I think it was a typical example of cartoon logic. The temperature had already risen but Frosty didn’t start melting until he saw that it had risen. It’s like the way Elmer Fudd can run off a cliff but gravity doesn’t affect him until he looks down.
Frosty would look at the thermometer and he’d see the temp going up. This would cause him to panic. When you get panicky you sweat and your internal temperature rises, this is what happened to Frosty.
[Frosty starts sweating/melting] Frosty: Uh-oh! Little Girl: What’s the matter, Frosty? Frosty: Whew! Is there a thermometer around here? LG: Over there on the wall! [points] Why?
[shot of rising thermometer] Frosty: Oh, I was afraid of that! The thermometer’s getting red! I hate red thermometers! LG: Why, Frosty? Frosty: 'Cause when the thermometer gets all reddish, the temperature goes up! And when the temperature goes up, I start to melt!
So okay, he understood that the higher temperature is what made him melt, but he thought it was the thermometer causing the higher temperature. So you can sort of see how a young kid might interpret that the way I did.
But he’s stating it as direct cause & effect. i.e. “when thermometer turns red -> temperature goes up”, or in other words, the thermometer turning red precedes the temperature rising, instead of the correct, other-way-around: “the thermometer turns red when the temperature goes up” or “when the thermometer turns red it means the temperature has gone up”. (damn, that sentence was twisted!)
Though to be fair to Frosty, he’s only a few minutes old at this point. And maybe Rankin/Bass were poking fun at people who confuse thermometers and thermostats.
I was actually thinking of adding “Perfect July topic:” to the thread title when I posted the OP
But you’re talking about a kid’s movie. You’re seeing cartoon logic in effect and then proceeding to jump to the totally wrong conclusion. “When the thermometer turns red” is a visual shorthand for “the temperature has gone up.” No more, no less.
You rang?
He may not be a hypochondriac but there was definitely something wrong with Frosty. I think he was a little brain damaged, why was he always saying “Happy Birthday”? I think he might have had some yellow snow* mixed in his head.
*[sub]From a crack addict[/sub]
I don’t remember the TV special but based on what I’ve read here, I don’t think he’s a hypochondriac. But I don’t think he’s all that bright either–I think he genuinely does think the thermometer is what makes it hotter.
