Finally, a song about what really matters!

"I’m glad I’m not a reindeer that has to pull your sleigh! "

I'm glad I'm no relation of the moron who wrote this!

Wow. Such original ideas. Such stunning creativity.

It's not only bigotry, it's also bad songwriting. Pathetic on every front.

Man, and I thought I hated "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer." This is much, much worse, though, because kids are being forced to sing it at school. If it was just some stupid recording I'd just roll my eyes and go, "OK, wev, now I've heard the dumbest song ever written, NEXT." But I cannot imagine what it's like to be a fat kid and be handed this by your teacher to sing and know that all the other kids are just going to use it as more ammunition against you. And all the people who think this will provide kids "motivation" to Eat Healthy and Lose Weight and Be Truly Loved? I hope their heads blow up.

And Santa, shaking his head in dismay, puts that music teacher on his "Naughty" list.

I am horrified that anyone would think that song is ok to sing. It is not funny. It is not cute.

Let’s be frank - It is hate speech. It amounts to an incitement to harass, abuse, ‘tease’, shame and bully fat people. And yeah, fat kids would be the nearest, easiest and most vunerable target.

Not OK.

Shame on any teacher or adult who teaches kids this song.

To me, there's no debate. MEAN. And also STUPID. How in the hell could any teacher, anywhere, think this is OK to sing, let alone remotely clever? But, it gives me a great foundation for my own kiddie holiday song: "Easter Bunny, you f*** too much!" I mean, doesn't he *know* this world is facing a population crisis and dwindling resources? And, omigoodness, the *message* it sends to little kids about casual sex! Yet, there he goes, advocating fruitfulness and multiplication with his brightly colored eggs! I know my song, "Easter Bunny, you f*** too much" might not be the answer, but I thought it would sure be a cute way to get the message across about the bad, bad, bad influences our little darlings have to contend with. Must...think...of...the...children!

I sang that song in high school chorus. At the time, I was a self-hating fat teenager. Everyone else thought the song was funny. I think I pretended to think the song was funny. Anyway, it's nothing new; kids have been singing it for at least 15 years. I'm sure it didn't do me any good, but it was just one part of a much larger pattern that we all endured.

Only recently have I been in a space where I could go, "Yeah, 'cause its FUNNY to make fun of fat people!"

I've been reading a lot of comments regarding this song at various blogs. Apparently, some people think Santa is TOO BIG and that shaming fat kids is appropriate because they are "unhealthy" and need help!

Thank goodness for the icon.

Wow, this is depressing.

Sometimes I think I'm an alarmist about the degree of bigotry that's directed against fat people in our society.

And then I learn that schoolchildren are actually taught to sing songs attacking Santa for being too fat, and reinforcing the idea that fat = gluttonous, clumsy, etc. This, at Christmastime.

Perhaps the time has come to talk about whether there will be any safe place in the world to which fat people can hope to flee once the nations of the developed West have become too inhospitable.

Chondros, the time has come to STOP FLEEING, mentally if not physically. Even a meek animal that is cornered will turn and fight. When we do all that we're "supposed to" do, when we starve ourselves, exercise to the point of physical deterioration, have ourselves eviscerated, and STILL have to put up with hate and ignorance and treatment that no other group would stand for (having our children taken away because they or we are fat, being denied access to quality medical care, education and jobs) then it is time to leave the ivory tower and get our hands dirty and fight.

How bad does it have to get until we can convince a significant number of people to fight back?

Rebelle's comment caught my eye as a former public school teacher:

"How in the hell could any teacher, anywhere, think this is OK to sing, let alone remotely clever?"

For the most part, public school teachers (K-12) in the U.S. are rewarded by adminstrators, school boards, and often parents and community members for behavior that conforms to cultural norms, which in the U.S. is fat-hating in most places. Why should we be surprised to hear an elementary music teacher teaching young children that it's good, clean fun to ridicule someone for their weight when practically every night Jay Leno does so in his monologue?

Bravo for the parent who refused to let her child participate in this activity. I only wish she had gone further, eg., to contact every school board member and the superintendent to tell them that the next time they ask the local voters for an increase in property taxes, she will vote no unless they immediately put a stop to this type of hate speech. It's America. Hit them where it hurts--in the pocketbook..

And I agree with all who wrote that this song gives students permission and encourages them to harass fat kids.

Well, if anyone has ever watched Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, they'd see that Santa hates anyone who is different and is a miserable fart to everyone including his wife. This song has no place in any school. As a parent, I would make sure it wasn't sung at a school my child would attend.

I hate it. It's ugly and I'm annoyed that I'm supposed to suck it up and say "Oh come on, have a sense of humor, it's harmless, it's about Santa, it's cute and silly fluff for kids."

I would like to say one thing - I was extremely skinny as a child, and that did not exempt me in any way from the worst kind of bullying. I was THE outcast - ok, one of two - for year after year after long long year. Looking back, the constantness of it frightens me (and that was a long time ago - it's still as near as the tip of my nose.) They never tired - and I mean NEVER tired, of calling me names, writing horrible things about me on the board or in passed notes, pointing and mocking if the teacher wasn't looking directly at him or her - it is scary what kids can do to another child. I still dream of going back and kicking all their asses. Oddly, we had only two fat kids in the school and they were quite popular, and didn't get teased for it; or only rarely and generally just isolated pockets. They had friends, something I didn't. In fact, they tormented me too. By 13 I was thinking suicide all the time, even though at least by then some boys were looking at me (and oops - THEN you get the "slut" label even though you've never been kissed, and then instead of screaming one name at you they're all screaming and writing "slut" 24/7.) Also at least by then there were some other brains/outcasts from other schools in JHS so we could sort of all band together and at least be friends with one another. At any rate, school torment isn't just for the fat, believe me. But I get the best of both worlds because I am a fat adult, so now I get that torment - isn't it nice when people moo at you on the street as you ride a bike with your kids, and throw big gulps at you out of cars, knocking you down? Oh yay, school all over again.

Ok the song - I know what I'm supposed to think about it, and I almost want to (no one wants to be a spoilsport, or a humorless crusader)...but I can't get past the CONTEXT of it, and the fact that there is a war on against fat children and fat grownups and fat teens and fat people, and this is just something that's going to be sung at fat kids on the playground to make them want to die. It's not cute or funny, and it's so shittily written (poor poor meter, lousy timing, ick!) that there's no REASON to learn and sing it except to promote hatred. There's no reason to learn it except to shame them into putting DOWN the cupcake (fat people all eat cake, doncha know - this irks the hell out of me because I'm a pasta fanatic and hardly ever eat sweets, and when I do I only eat a little) so that they, too, can be thin, unlike that horrible example of Santa. I don't doubt for one second that the motivation behind the song IS to say "Santa is a bad role model because he's fat; we must counteract that somehow - I know! This song is cute and silly, and it's harmless, but it gets the message across that fat is BAD and Santa is not to be admired because he is fat and thus bad!" No, I guarantee you a thousand times over that that IS a main motivation behind that song, period. When I was a kid we sang the same song (Jingle Bells) with the naughty lyrics - Jingle Bells, Santa smells, Rudolph laid an egg - and that was silly and not funny, but at least we weren't taught to sing it by teachers, and it wasn't there to promote a bogus message "for our own good."

By the way, did anyone else watch the video and wonder something? See, I keep being told - my husband was telling me today as I was talking about these issues - that there is a fat epidemic, that children and adults are fatter than ever...but I was looking at those kids and wondering where this fat epidemic is. I didn't see any fat kids. I saw skinny kids and I saw slightly less skinny kids - and you'd think if it was so GD rampant that there'd be at least a few fat kids in a group that size. But there weren't. Where's the freaking epidemic? Or have they already won their "war" against fat people in that district? Are they all in hiding?

I think AnnieMcPhee's post is an awesome analysis of all that's troublesome and just plain wrong with this piece of hateful anti-fat propaganda.