If you find yourself habitually analyzing texts, you'll appreciate this essay:
The Chronicle: Career Network: 12/03/2003Santa Claus needed Rudolph, Hermey, and Yukon Cornelius, and during the show's climactic blizzard, the outcasts negotiated a place within the North Pole's hegemonic power structure: They would fight the abominable Snow Monster and help transport the toys for the good girls and boys, but only if Santa agreed to find homes for their friends, a group of malformed playthings.
One can only imagine the looks on the faces of the children who unwrapped the misfit toys. Did they laugh and cheer for the squirt gun that sprayed jelly and the cowboy who rode an ostrich? The polka-dotted elephant might have been fun, but I have a feeling that the poor kid who received the choo-choo with square wheels cursed Santa for caving into Rudolph's demands.
That's the flaw in the moral universe I share with Rankin and Bass's animagic creations. The program refuses to deal with the consequences of dropping special-needs toys into unprepared homes.
FYI, the article also features a great reference to the Justice League. See also The Onion's wonderful deconstuction of a take-out menu.
That was actually one of the funniest essays I've read in a long time. I found the references to the Rudolph movie timely and appropriate, rather than a joke. (I didn't expect it to be scholarly...)
Nice essay :) Keep 'em coming.