Why is there a light in the refrigerator but not in the freezer?

[naita]

Putting in a light creates a way for heat to sneak in, which is more of an issue with the freezer than the refrigerator.

[joazito]

Because… you’re more likely to defrost food during daylight?

On second guess, I’ll go with the cheap explanation.

[Max_Torque]

Because freezer foods tend to be “packed and stacked” quite closely, so a light would be of little use anyway?

Yeah, maybe not, but I’ll bet it’s a contributing factor, along with the “ice on a hot light” issue and the “cheapness” hypothesis.

[ltfire]

You surely know of the tiny man who hides behind the jar of pickles. His job being to turn out the light after you close the door. Give the guy a break…you want him frost bitten and shivering sitting on a frozen rump roast? I think not. Therefore, light in the freezer is on you.

[mangeorge]

@ltfire

You surely know of the tiny man who hides behind the jar of pickles. His job being to turn out the light after you close the door. Give the guy a break…you want him frost bitten and shivering sitting on a frozen rump roast? I think not. Therefore, light in the freezer is on you.

The light in the freezer is never extinguished. Like an eternal flame.
Everybody knows that.

[naita]

@Max Torque

Because freezer foods tend to be “packed and stacked” quite closely, so a light would be of little use anyway?

I want to have answered this. It’s more important than my actual contribution.

[zagloba]

@ltfire

You surely know of the tiny man who hides behind the jar of pickles. His job being to turn out the light after you close the door. Give the guy a break…you want him frost bitten and shivering sitting on a frozen rump roast? I think not. Therefore, light in the freezer is on you.

(Apologies if this should be split off into IMHO.) My dad grew up in southern Minnesota in the '30s. His family always called this little guy “Yahootie.” As far as I could tell, none of them knew that “Yehudi” means “Jew.” In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if none of them had ever met a person they knew was Jewish. Does anyone know how the the refrigerator genie might have come by this name? Anyone know any other names for the little guy?

[carnivorousplant]

@zagloba

His family always called this little guy “Yahootie.”

My former Mother In Law used yahootie to refer to a geographic location.

[Sri_Theo]

In the UK I’ve never seen a freezer with a light in it. And any fridge-freezer I’ve seen has the freezer at the bottom so some of your explanations wouldn’t work.

I think its simply because a freezer use drawers not shelves. A light at the top would be no use as it wouldn’t filter down past the first draw.

(I don’t think side by side fridge-freezers are very common here.)

[Exapno_Mapcase]

@zagloba

(Apologies if this should be split off into IMHO.) My dad grew up in southern Minnesota in the '30s. His family always called this little guy “Yahootie.” As far as I could tell, none of them knew that “Yehudi” means “Jew.” In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if none of them had ever met a person they knew was Jewish. Does anyone know how the the refrigerator genie might have come by this name? Anyone know any other names for the little guy?

Who's Yehoodi?

The catchphrase “Who’s Yehoodi?” (or, alternatively, “Who’s Yehudi?”) originated when violinist Yehudi Menuhin was a guest on the popular radio program of Bob Hope, where sidekick Jerry Colonna, apparently finding the name itself humorous, repeatedly asked “Who’s Yehudi?” Colonna continued the gag on later shows even though Menuhin himself was not a guest, turning “Yehudi” into a widely understood 1930s slang reference for a mysteriously absent person. The United States Navy chose the name “Project Yehudi” for an early 1940s precursor to stealth technology.

A song with the title and catchphrase “Who’s Yehoodi?” was written in 1940 by Bill Seckler and Matt Dennis. It was covered by Kay Kyser and more famously by Cab Calloway. The final stanza of the song is:

The little man who wasn’t there
Said he heard him on the air
No one seems to know from where
But who’s Yehoodi?

The little man who wasn’t there seems like a perfect name for the never-seen guy who turns out the light. Your dad had a wide creative streak in him.

[jasonh300]

@zagloba

(Apologies if this should be split off into IMHO.) My dad grew up in southern Minnesota in the '30s. His family always called this little guy “Yahootie.” As far as I could tell, none of them knew that “Yehudi” means “Jew.”

My mother, who grew up during the depression in New Orleans (Algiers on the Westbank), called the man in the fridge “Yahootie”. I always thought she had made it up.

[mangeorge]

@jasonh300

My mother, who grew up during the depression in New Orleans (Algiers on the Westbank), called the man in the fridge “Yahootie”. I always thought she had made it up.

A friend (from New Orleans) once told me that people in New Orleans could talk for hours and never use the same word twice.

[Balthisar]

@Sri Theo

In the UK I’ve never seen a freezer with a light in it. And any fridge-freezer I’ve seen has the freezer at the bottom so some of your explanations wouldn’t work.

I think its simply because a freezer use drawers not shelves. A light at the top would be no use as it wouldn’t filter down past the first draw.

I have an under-the-fridge freezer drawer that’s very well lit. The freezer door can tilt out only, which turns on a light. Or the freezer door can pull out the entire base of the freezer, also turning on a light, and once out, the upper wire drawer can slide out (the light already being on). I haven’t paid attention to where the illumination comes from, but everything’s always very visible.