Dumbest line in a Christmas song?

@Lynnerizer One of my favorites. But then I also like “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas”.

@blaineg @Lynnerizer Have you heard Crabs For Christmas? The singer’s accent is pretty bad, but it’s still fun.

@blaineg @lisagd
Nope I never heard this one before! It’s cute!

@blaineg
I remember that one!

@ladyhawke001 Does it help to know that in England, the word pudding does not have the same meaning that it does here? Over there, what we think of as pudding is called custard. Unfortunately, their “pudding” can be either a dessert or something very much not one. Yorkshire pudding, by way of example, is a cup-shaped bread-like thing, flavored with and very speedily cooked in very hot beef fat. And just don’t investigate what a black pudding is. Really. Don’t.

@ladyhawke001 @werehatrack Yea, “pudding” is a severely abused word. It’s also a generic term for dessert (see (well, hear) “Another Brick in the Wall”).

@ladyhawke001 @werehatrack
https://youtube.com/shorts/50OWCTCCWSc?feature=share

@Blahbbs Note that the line immediately before it names the snowman “Parson Brown” . Many small communities didn’t have an acknowledged official of their religion in residence, but had a traveling parson or minister or whatever who basically made a circuit through his territory. On any Sabbath when he wasn’t present, the service would be led by a local appointed to the task. But marriages still needed the Parson, hence the line. And now you know a little more about that song than you probably wanted to.

@Blahbbs OK, not immediately before, it’s up a couple, but it’s there.

@Blahbbs @werehatrack mmm. I think maybe I wanted to know that? Makes it actually maybe make sense/has nothing to do with Christmas. We are just weird and turned a romance into a Christmas song

@Blahbbs @unksol @werehatrack OK, I think everyone is making this more complicated than it is. It’s just a lighthearted song about walking around on a snowy winter day. Not really about Christmas other than having a winter setting.

@Blahbbs @macromeh @werehatrack

So… You are agreeing or? You honestly lost me. It’s portrayed as a Christmas song to us.

What it actually is a romance saying we want to get married.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_Wonderland

The winter romance is way better than the Christmas song connotation

@werehatrack Santa is a man of many mysteries.

@werehatrack I would think it is pretty common practice among surveillance pros to make a record of one’s observations.

@macromeh Good practice requires keeping a contemporaneous record, not waiting until many months later.

@macromeh @werehatrack I mean idk if you’ve noticed but it takes quiet a while to build a prosecute a case.

@macromeh @unksol That dude used to be a notorious vigilante, leaving coal in stockings of “naughty” kids, without due process and with no way to appeal the decision. I guess he must have been found and served at some point, though, because I haven’t heard a report of solid fossil fuel being left in ages.

@macromeh @unksol @werehatrack

@macromeh @unksol @werehatrack

Coal is worth too much now to leave in stockings!

/image coal soap

@tinamarie1974 In much of South Africa and parts of Lesotho, and at high elevations anywhere on the continent, yes, it snows.

@tinamarie1974 @werehatrack That line uses one of my favorite words: synecdoche!

@tinamarie1974 But in South Africa and Lesotho, it snows in June, July and August, so the snow will only be at high altitudes on December 25th.

@werehatrack that is correct. Took you a few minutes to get there, but you made it. I didnt feel the need to explain all of that

Wanna sus out missionaries and their drive to push Christianity onto non-Christian communities?

@lisagd oh I learned a new word! Thanks

@tinamarie1974 Well, the song was specific to December 25th, but your post asked if it ever snows in Africa. So the simple answer to that one is “Yes”. And it turns out that it snows in Libya during the northern-hemisphere winter, so the answer to the other one can be an unqualified “yes” as well.

@werehatrack so very exhausting. Africa is a huge continent. It has multiple climates in both sides of the equator, with S Africa being very close to the S Pole. Of course there will be some snow, but in general the vast majority of the entire continent does not see snow. Next time Ill be sure to be exacting in my post on a fun goofy forum. I can also write in APA format if that helps. Pretty sure I still have the guide book from when I was completing my graduate studies.

Also, you should post your sources from now on

https://www.travelcroc.com/does-it-snow-in-africa/

@tinamarie1974 I think that one missed Libya because there is essentially nothing considered to be a tourism destination there.

@tinamarie1974 …and we (as a global population) probably should be looking really hard at the missionaries and their effects, but I’m going to save that for a place where long rants are more suitable.

@werehatrack well there is something we can agree on, Christmas miracle right there!

@tinamarie1974 My work here is done.

@tinamarie1974 @werehatrack So does that mean the lyricist is telling the world that they don’t know that the small part of Africa that does get snow doesn’t get it in December?

@tinamarie1974 Glad I’m not the only one those lyrics always bothered!

@lisagd @tinamarie1974 it doesn’t snow in Oz or NZ or Indonesia (or anywhere equatorial except high mountains) at Xmas either, but they don’t question whether the people there know about the date. Just Africa. I hate to wave the embedded cultural prejudice flag, but I find the premise even cringier today than when the song came out.

@lisagd @werehatrack I mean the song was produced to raise awarness and $$ for the disparaging poverty in Etheopia specifically. Had nothing to do with any other countey or continent (Africa is a continent, not a country)

Here is an excerpt feom a google search, although you may have done that already

Do They Know It’s Christmas?" is a charity song written in 1984 by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise money for the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia. It was first recorded by Band Aid, a supergroup assembled by Geldof and Ure consisting of popular British and Irish musical acts at the time.[1] It was recorded in a single day at Sarm West Studios in Notting Hill, London, in November 1984.

@tinamarie1974 @werehatrack Yes, I know. I remember when it came out. It was a big thing back then. It was followed by We Are the World, which is probably better known since it’s not a holiday song.

@lisagd @tinamarie1974 Yes, I remember all of the things surrounding it, and the cause was indeed laudable … but pieces of the lyrics illustrate how deeply the prejudices about Africa are embedded in Western culture. I felt vaguely uneasy about parts of it when it came out, but said nothing. Much later, when I was working with a guy who was of very mixed backgrounds, he pointed out a bunch of examples of those problematic embeddings, and explained exactly why the reception for many bits of majority-unquestioned material in US and European culture got a lukewarm response (or less) in the US black population. The problems were obvious to them, but back then, they knew that there was little point in trying to explain it to the folks who couldn’t see it by themselves. That’s changing now, for at least a good many.

@lisagd @werehatrack well, here is the thing. There are lots of things that historically make all of us uneasy. As time goes on we grow and change, hopefully for the better. Predjuices against people of color have improved dramatically since then, although we have a ways to go. I am signifigantly younger than you, but I dont recall ever hearing fall out that entire portions of the population were scarred from this fundraiaing effort?

What is not fair is judging an incident from decades ago against todays current societal mores. In my humble opinion this whole “woke” culture movement is rediculious. Lets cancel someone because 40 years ago they said something that is not acceptable today. Sorry but no one lives in a glass house.

Now enough of that. It is Christmas and I will be spending time with my loved ones. Maybe try not to continue this diatribe to ruin what was intended to be a fun thread during the holidays

@Star2236 I recall hearing the very old lullaby “Rock-a-bye-baby” at a very early age, and being sufficiently confused by “when the bough breaks” to ask my mother what a “bough” was. It wasn’t immediately obvious from the context. (I remember thinking that the song was nasty, too.)

@katbyter Nice, thanks!

@katbyter OMG, you’re right! I hadn’t thought about Scrooge.

Do you think that’s where Tim Burton got the idea for A Nightmare Before Christmas?

@lisagd I think that’s where Tim Burton got ALL of his ideas. Nightmares!

@fibrs86 I’ve never heard that but just looked up the lyrics and yeah, very cringey.

@fibrs86 @Kyeh Terrible, but I find the original IRKsome, so… Meh.

@blaineg @fibrs86 @Kyeh I don’t know, if I was Santa, I’d want to make a stop at Eartha Kitt’s house.

@fibrs86 @Kyeh Yeah, a presumably straight guy singing it is definitely cringey.

@mbersiam oh I do not like that one. Heard it for the first time earlier this week

@mbersiam @tinamarie1974 It’s too bad, because the melody is beautiful - I like the Pentatonix version - but I agree, dumb lyrics.

@mbersiam And the author acknowledges that, and notes that he was writing a song, not going for historical accuracy.

Anyway, it’s one of my favorites.

@Kyeh you are so right! As much as I love the cartoon itnisnsuchnan homage to bullies!!

@Kyeh sorry for the giant fat finger

@tinamarie1974 As long as it’s not your middle one!

@Kyeh

/giphy oh my

@tinamarie1974

@tinamarie1974 BTW, I love the cartoon too for its wonderful weird animation; I like it better than the song, which doesn’t even have the greatest melody.

@blaineg I do with envelopes and small packages.

@blaineg Back in the days when gifts were smaller and lighter, they’d put gifts on the tree, like a pair of gloves, a fancy comb for the wife’s hair, things like that. Watch the Christmas morning scene in A Christmas Story and you’ll see them take a few of the gifts off the tree.

@blaineg @lisagd I am watching that right meow!!! You’ll shoot your eye out

@blaineg @tinamarie1974 Fra-jee-lay. It must be Italian!
I think it says Fragile, dear.
Oh.

Have you watched the sequel on HBO? It just came out this year, and Peter Billingsley and some of Ralphie’s friends are in it. I’m getting ready to start wrapping presents and I’m going to watch it while I wrap.

@blaineg @lisagd Ive not as I do not have HBO Max, but I REALLY want to watch it.

I may need to do a free trial. Let me know if it is worth it, please.

@blaineg @lisagd @tinamarie1974 The sequel is pretty good!

@callow
Loved that song back in the day!

@macromeh

/giphy giggle