How long has it been since you watched that animated Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer from the 60s? If the last time you saw it predates your coming out, you might want to give it another look. It’s super duper gay.
In a strange seasonal confluence — let’s call it a Christmas miracle — two outlets have noted the special’s lavender overtones. Over on Vulture, Brian Moylan writes of the special’s “pre-Stonewall contemplation of the power of coming out.” And on The Sewers of Paris (a podcast about gay men and the entertainment that’s changed their lives) this week’s guest Jonathan reflects on how meaningful the songs about “misfits” were to him as a kid.
Brian’s analysis is spot-on: the movie starts with an intense enforcement of gender roles (boys=blue, girls=pink). And on Sewers, Jonathan notes that Rudolph’s mom never has a name aside from “Mrs. Donner.” Donner forces Rudolph to hide his nose for years, until he’s finally humiliated by a colorful reveal — at which point Santa tells Donner he should be ashamed.
Rudolph then meets Hermey, an elf with fancy hair and a voice like Paul Lynde. They essentially go cruising together and then meet a fun bear named Yukon Cornelius who is searching for a peppermint mine (this plot point was removed from later broadcasts, though he still licks his pickaxe in a way that evokes Peter Lorre in The Maltese Falcon).
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Eventually, Rudolph finds a gay ghetto on the Island of Misfit Toys, then returns to civilization when he learns to make himself useful — and as is noted on The Sewers of Paris, that’s precisely what out gay men had to do in the 60s to survive. They needed to be so vital that they couldn’t be rejected. (Rudolph also acquires a beard, times being what they were.)
Check out the article or listen to the podcast below — it’s a remarkable coming-out story that’s been sitting right under our red noses for years.
NateOcean
There’s more than a few well-done, adult, spoofs of Rudolph on YouTube, including one where an assertive Rudolph tells Santa to f*ck himself.
geoker
How did anyone miss the gay theme?
radiooutmike
I did. Well, I missed myself being gay too, so go figure. I will put it on the re-watch list.
dean089
@geoker: That’s what I was wondering. I knew as a child watching 50 years ago that Rudolph and Hermey’s story was my story.
SnorlaxationKH
i always hated the story, either the song version or this one. Rudolph getting shit on just because he’s different, then because santa said he’s ok in his book, everyone else is like, ok!
Doesn’t sound like this old movie was much better.
offbeatoh86
I can see the Gay allegory with Hermie, but Rudolph’s story seems more a story of racism. Clarice’s father says, “No doe of mine is going to be seen with a red-nosed reindeer!” You can just as easily imagine a human father saying, “No daughter of mine is going to be seen with a N*****,” in the 1960s.
Heywood Jablowme
I’ve always liked the show and identified with the “misfit” theme, at least.
@offbeatoh86: That’s true, but Rudolph’s father (Donner) rejects Rudolph in a classically anti-gay way. As does Rudolph’s athletic coach, who’s portrayed as a stereotypical, boorish, slightly sadistic, high school male gym teacher – a type many of us gay boys were painfully familiar with!
Kieran
It’s kind of pathetic that all the best Christmas shows….Rudoulph, Charlie Brown Christmas, How the Grinch stole Christmas, were all made half a century ago.
Bob LaBlah
@Kieran: Its the same way with cartoons. I prefer Mighty Mouse, the old Popeye and Olive Oyl, Harveytoons and Looneytunes to garbage such as The Care Bares, Teletubbies and other such foolishness crammed down the throats of children beginning in the 1980’s. Thank god for youtube. (You forgot to add Frosty the Snowman).