But Hermie is absolutely fabulous! His face is cherubic, his hair perfectly coiffed, and his voice has just a hint of lilting lisp. All the other elves are uniform and, frankly, hideous little gnomes. It is abundantly clear to me - and to every other adult I mention this to - that Hermie is gay as a picnic basket and "dentistry" is a euphemism for homosexual sex.Ĭonsider Hermie. Through all this they forge a mighty and lasting friendship.īut here's where things get a more subtextual. They go off on their own, have adventures, meet Yukon Cornelius, and run like hell from the Abominable Snow Monster. Hermie and Rudolph go on the lam together and discover their deformities aren't the only things that will get you kicked out of Christmas Town by that fat fascist bastard Santa. No, Hermie wants to be a dentist! Of course, because this is a film about the inherent horrors of deviating from a blessed, state-sanctioned norm, Hermie is ridiculed for his dreams of healthy teeth and gums for all elves. Hermie is a "misfit elf" who doesn't want to make toys. It's like Rankin and Bass thought to themselves, “We could make a show about bullying, but it will be even better if it’s about state-sanctioned bullying and how that's pretty great!” This thing isn't just a poorly made or stupidly juvenile piece of yuletide drivel it is an actual Christmas Spirit Killer. There is no shame felt by anyone who mistreated him. It is explicitly because his "deformity" is now useful. When Rudolph is welcomed back, it is not because everyone suddenly realizes they were jerks to him. Santa also banishes - perhaps via intermediaries, but still, is he not the autocrat of the North Pole? - broken or "misfit" toys to a concentration camp. Santa declares Rudolph unfit for the sleigh team, the equivelant of reindeer purgatory. (Note: Before anyone argues, Rudolph's mom was not nice to him because she failed to protect him from his father's douche baggery.) The only reindeer who is nice to Rudolph is another yearling, Clarice. This mistreatment continues when Rudolph's nose is revealed to the other young reindeer and everyone "laughs and calls him names." Nobody is punished or admonished for this, not even in a bid for pity. Which sorta leads me, as a dad, to ask if he's loved at all. For most of his life, Rudolph is not loved unconditionally by his father. Rudolph's dad starts out super excited about having a baby boy, gets a little shaky on it when the nose starts glowing, and then all but disowns Rudolph once Santa opens his fat mouth.