{"id":312,"date":"2014-12-18T19:34:05","date_gmt":"2014-12-19T00:34:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/?p=312"},"modified":"2014-12-18T19:34:05","modified_gmt":"2014-12-19T00:34:05","slug":"reexamining-rudolph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2014\/12\/reexamining-rudolph.html","title":{"rendered":"Reexamining Rudolph"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I came across a classic Christmas song the other day and after examining the words I have come to realize how easily humans accept ideas at face value without scrutinizing them for philosophical and\/or cultural flaws. The song I\u2019m referring to of course is \u201cRudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Here are the lyrics with my copious notes:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRudolph the red-nosed reindeer\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Stop<\/em><\/strong><em>! First off, why bring up the red nose? If you have a red-nosed reindeer it is fairly obvious and social decorum would dictate you keep it to yourself to save the reindeer\u2019s embarrassment. We don\u2019t treat others that way normally. Who goes around introducing others like \u201cHey there\u2019s Jimmy the Pockmarked postman\u201d, or \u201c Have you met Nancy the lazy-eyed court reporter\u201d? No. In the past the only time we emphasized a physical flaw in others is when were trying to sell tickets to a sideshow. I\u2019m pro sideshow mind you but I\u2019m looking for an alligator skinned women or a snouted man, before plunking down good money. For a red nose?, ..Not so much.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201chad a very shiny nose\u201d..<\/p>\n<p><em>Wait a minute. You just told me in the first line it was red, now it\u2019s shiny? Ball bearings are shiny; patent leather shoes as well, not necessarily a color. So which is it red or shiny?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201dand if you ever saw it\u201d..<\/p>\n<p><em>Why would I? I don\u2019t need too since you already described it to me.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cyou would even say it glows\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n<p><em>GLOWS!? The moon glows, candles glow, how could you possibly confuse a glow for red or shiny? Why can\u2019t you get your story straight? Who are you protecting?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll of the other reindeer, used to laugh and call him names\u201d..<\/p>\n<p><em>Why not, he\u2019s a reindeer with an indecipherable nose issue; something needs to be said<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cthey never let poor Rudolph\u201d..<\/p>\n<p><em>Poor? How do you know? You have access to his tax returns, what, suddenly it\u2019s a class struggle; we have to play the poor card? Fear not Rudolph, Obama\u2019s in office, redistributed wealth is coming<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201dplay in any reindeer games\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Does he care? What could a reindeer game consist of anyway? They have hooves for Pete\u2019s sake. Hooves not fingers. That rules out any board games that involve dice. (Can\u2019t grip em) no ball games. (Can\u2019t hold a bat, catch a football or dribble a basketball) or any charades since it would be impossible for him to indicate how many words or syllables. Sounds like he\u2019s not missing much!<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen one foggy Christmas eve..\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>huh, foggy where the North Pole? It\u2019s probably foggy a lot there but what are you saying the entire earth got foggy on the same night? That sounds like the apocalypse to me. What\u2019s next, locusts and boils?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cSanta came to say..\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>finally Santa shows up. Where was he all the times Rudolph was being ridiculed and in pain? Can anyone believe in a Santa that seems to ignore us in our darkest hour?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cRudolph with your nose so bright..\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Santa please! Keep up, here are your options the nose is either red, shiny or glowy. None of which fit the category of bright or someone would have said so long ago during the reindeer-mocking Rudolph sessions.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cwon\u2019t you guide my sleigh tonight\u201d?<\/p>\n<p><em>Let me get this straight. Santa spent a year using magic elves to build, paint, box &amp; wrap every possible gift imaginable. From Lego\u2019s to tennis bracelets, yachts to wii\u2019s. He is able to pack every gift for every human on earth in one sleigh and deliver it, via chimney, to every human on earth in one night, but somehow you were unable to fashion a couple headlights to your sleigh and needed to call on the freak? <\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen how the reindeer loved him..\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Oh yeah that\u2019s gonna happen, when they hated and mocked him his whole life and suddenly he\u2019s thrust into the spotlight to accomplish something these brats were incapable of, thus putting him in the category of Santa\u2019s favorite; Suddenly they\u2019re all going to let bygones be bygones and embrace him as misunderstood and they\u2019ll receive the revelation of their own arrogance and bullying and suddenly repent asking his forgiveness which he\u2019ll grant readily as he is an enlightened soul? Who wrote this story the Hallmark channel?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201das they shouted out with glee\u201d..<\/p>\n<p><em>Glee? Who uses the word glee? Yeah that\u2019s what the song was missing, an archaic word from a nineteenth century romance novel to keep the song exciting.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cRudolph the red, (shiny, glowing, bright,) nosed reindeer, you\u2019ll go down in history\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><em>Why not? There isn\u2019t a lot of competition for classic songs featuring reindeer. As a matter of fact it may be the only reindeer song ever penned. The fact that he was genetically mutated just gave the song the conflict it needed to give it legs.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>By the way I just heard about a buffalo in Wyoming that was born with 2 heads, 6 legs and it lived. Sounds like the making of a new Christmas classic. Where\u2019s Mel Torme when you need him?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I came across a classic Christmas song the other day and after examining the words I have come to realize how easily humans accept ideas at face value without scrutinizing them for philosophical and\/or cultural flaws. The song I\u2019m referring to of course is \u201cRudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer\u201d. Here are the lyrics with my copious&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":223,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comedy"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Reexamining Rudolph - God&#039;s Comic<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2014\/12\/reexamining-rudolph.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Reexamining Rudolph - God&#039;s Comic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I came across a classic Christmas song the other day and after examining the words I have come to realize how easily humans accept ideas at face value without scrutinizing them for philosophical and\/or cultural flaws. The song I\u2019m referring to of course is \u201cRudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer\u201d. Here are the lyrics with my copious&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2014\/12\/reexamining-rudolph.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"God&#039;s Comic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-12-19T00:34:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brad Stine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Reexamining Rudolph - God&#039;s Comic","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2014\/12\/reexamining-rudolph.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Reexamining Rudolph - God&#039;s Comic","og_description":"I came across a classic Christmas song the other day and after examining the words I have come to realize how easily humans accept ideas at face value without scrutinizing them for philosophical and\/or cultural flaws. The song I\u2019m referring to of course is \u201cRudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer\u201d. Here are the lyrics with my copious&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2014\/12\/reexamining-rudolph.html","og_site_name":"God&#039;s Comic","article_published_time":"2014-12-19T00:34:05+00:00","author":"Brad Stine","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2014\/12\/reexamining-rudolph.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2014\/12\/reexamining-rudolph.html","name":"Reexamining Rudolph - God&#039;s Comic","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-12-19T00:34:05+00:00","dateModified":"2014-12-19T00:34:05+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/#\/schema\/person\/243d86fd9261f0ca95264b80e71e80e9"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2014\/12\/reexamining-rudolph.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2014\/12\/reexamining-rudolph.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2014\/12\/reexamining-rudolph.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Reexamining Rudolph"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/","name":"God&#039;s Comic","description":"God&#039;s Comic - Brad Stine","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/#\/schema\/person\/243d86fd9261f0ca95264b80e71e80e9","name":"Brad Stine","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/870\/870f4e7ff5414a60daaefcce61009a6cx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/870\/870f4e7ff5414a60daaefcce61009a6cx96.jpg","caption":"Brad Stine"},"description":"\"Brad Stine is on a mission \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a mission to free us all from the chains of political correctness and prevent our eventual \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcwussification.' From his Nashville stronghold, Stine is mounting his crusade against these hypocrisies, all of which are explored in his highly anticipated 4th album\/DVD, aptly titled \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcWUSSIFICATION!' \"You know what offends me?... Offended people,\" says Stine. A staunch supporter of first amendment rights and foe of political correctness, Stine asserts that rights should be universally applied. \"In a country with guaranteed rights to freedom of religion, its citizens are constantly trying to make faith in public spheres illegal, I am offended by that contradiction and want to talk about it as a comic.\" The strength of his conviction about our freedoms can be found in many places on WUSSIFICATION \u00e2\u20ac\u201c from \"Merry Christmas Too!\" (the right to celebrate religion) to \"At Least We're Not France!\" (the responsibility to take action as a country) to \"Spank\" (the ability to discipline our children the way we see fit). What would cause the wussification of Brad Stine? \"I hope that nothing ever wussifies me to deny my own personal beliefs,\" he says. \"Brainwashed wussies have been taught that standing up for yourself and defending your personal point of view makes you a close-minded hate monger.\" Stine stops short of defending his point of view as the ONLY one, adding \"...one must also be respectful of dissenting belief while supporting their own.\" He is, after all, an inclusive figure who trains his comedy to attack ideas, not the people who embrace them. Stine's faith forces him to acknowledge the respect and dignity of all\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 even the wussies with whom he disagrees! Stine models his approach to comedy after legendary practitioners that he has known and loved over the years. Despite George Carlin's disdain for theistic beliefs, he has been a big influence on Stine. \"I always enjoyed Carlin for turning the tables on culture. He is an excellent writer that has endured for decades.\" More current comedic touchstones are Brian Reagan, Paula Poundstone, Jim Gaffigan and Monty Python, among others. Fear not, true believers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c with his brand new album, Brad Stine is here to save the world from WUSSIFICATION \u00e2\u20ac\u201c one politically-correct, offended person at a time!\"","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/author\/bstine"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/223"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":313,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312\/revisions\/313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}