Hello and welcome back to the Most Amazing Channel on the Internet! I am your host Rebecca
Felgate and I am getting increasingly excited about Christmas. NOT LONG NOW! I bet loads
of you are all out for singing cheery Christmas songs to get in the spirit. The issue is…
well…some of them aren’t as wholesome as you might have first thought – some of
them have scary hidden meanings. Before we get into this video – INSTA
OKAY this one made the headlines this year with a number of radio stations refusing to
play it – we have Baby It’s Cold Outside So Baby It’s Cold Outside was written in
1944 by Frank Loesser so over – 70 years ago! The song won an Academy Award! It became
a Christmas favourite over the years with popular performances by Ella Fitzgerald and
Louis Jordan, Dean Martin, Bette Midler and James and of course Tom Jones and Cerys Matthews.
Like I said – it is a Christmas staple…. Buttt the lyrics are…well I guess if you
really read into them they are uncomfortable. The call and response between the man and
woman is basically her trying to leave but him asking her to stay and not taking no for
an answer. For example some of the lyricsFor the woman go I ought to say, no, no, no sir.
At least I’m gonna say that I tried. I really can’t stay…while the guy says : mind if
I move in closer, what is the sense in hurting my pride…oh baby don’t hold out. There
is also the bit where she asks what is in her drink..so..you know. A lot of people are
saying the song is a whole date rape ballad…. But I don’t think so. Anyway the song was
axes from a radio station in Cleveland Ohio…and a lot of others joined suit. I feel like Baby
It’s Cold Outside is less offensive than a lot of modern day rap tracks.
9 - Santa Claus is Coming to Town While you may love the Jackson 5 version – Santa
Claus is Comin to Town was actually written by John Frederick Coots and Haven Gillespie
in 1934. The song is a beloved part of Christmas but if you listen carefully it does paint
Santa as a pretty ominous force. You better watch out, you better not cry
You better not pout, I'm telling you why….Santa Claus is coming to town - sure….. tell me
more about him? WELL He sees you when you're sleeping….He knows when you're awake. Right
that is terrifying. He knows if you've been bad or good so be good for goodness sake.
That sounds like a worrying threat. I don’t feel good about the surveillance state of
Santa.
8 - Black Pete, Weed-A-Weed-A-Wheat So we talked about Black Peter on our Christmas
Urban Legends video. Black peter causes a lottttt of outrage each year when he is continually
wheeled out as part of St Nicholas celebrations in the Netherlands. Not only is black Peter
some kind of colonial hangover, people black up to play him each year. Andddd he comes
with a song. A pretty dubious song! His song is fine on the surface, but the scarier connotations
liken it to a minstrel show, which is pretty damn racist.
7 - Santa Baby I am sorry but she is clearly trying to bang
santa and I find that pretty terrifying. I love Eartha Kitt’s voice and sultry sass
in Santa Baby but likeeee…. The 1953 song is clearly about a woman flirting with Santa.
She talks about kissing, slipping and rings… I’ll let you guess what she really means
when she sings hurry down the chimney tonight…. Multiple times. She is g a g g I n g for it.
With…..santa. That’s pretty messed up.
6 - Unto Us A Time Has Come So this is a popular song at Christmas time
in Germany. The only problem is that the most popular version of the song celebrated at
this time of year was a re-write by prevalent Nazi, Paul Herman. Herman re-drafted the song
to remove some of the more religious tones which were problematic for the Nazi regime.
The song itself seems harmless – it is about walking in the snow – but the history behind
it is much scarier.
5 - The Twelve Days of Christmas It has basically just occurred to me how worrying
and overwhelming the 12 Days of Christmas is. Your true love sounds great and everything,
but they sure did shower you with gifts. Don’t get me wrong, if I had a true love I would
be thrilled to receive a gift…. But 364 of them. Yes, I did some rudimentary mathematics
and that is how many gifts there are in total once they have gone through the whole shebang.
364 is too many, especially when it includes live stock and presumably trafficked humans…
it is not legit to be gifted lords, ladies, maids, drummers, pipers…. One gold ring
would do… or a nice pear tree, hold the partridge. It seems like the gift giver maybe
is little over zealous…. To put it nicely…. Totally obsessive and wholly insane is another
way to look at it.
4 - I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus Of all of the scary things to see, your mum
snogging santa is up there with some of the most terrifying. Urgh! That would scar you
for life. I guess this isn’t so much a hidden meaning than…well… the song title… but
still of all the somewhat concerning Christmas songs, this 1952 ditty is pretty grim. What
would Daddy think? Well… the suggestion is that actually, maybe Santa Daddy in dress
up…but that tells me one thing. Santa festish. Why is everyone sexualising santa these days.
3 - Do They Know Know It’s Christmas When I was younger I used to think this song
said Feed the Birds, let them know its Christmas time… Which basically goes to show how little
some people pay attention to lyrics. I would hope that now most animals know that Do they
Know It’s Chritsmas is a song by Band Aid – a super group rounded up to record the
song for charity – for the Ethiopian famine crisis and later the Ebola Crisis. The song
is pretty dark in places – get a load of these scary lyrics - There's a world outside
your window and it's a world of dread and fear where the only water flowing is the bitter
sting of tears. It literally sounds like a nightmare and I get that - it is the hard
truth of living in a third world country.
2 - We Three Kings We Three Kings is a lovely traditional Christmas
ballad written in 1857. Back then, Christmas was far more focused on religion than Santa
and didn’t so much come wrapped in a bow as it did highlight the gritty themes of childbirth
and sacrifice. We three kings is about the three kings from the nativity who brought
gifts of Gold Frankinsense and Myrr. Frankincense and Myrrh… by the way were used in burial
rituals. Anyway – the song goes… Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume, breathes a life
of gathering gloom. sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying..sealed in the stone cold tomb. That
is pretty scary imagery and like…. Vivid too. Merrrrry Christmas, gloom, sorrow, bleeding,
dying! Would you like a side of eggnog with that?
1 - Bjork’s Jola-kott-urinn Bjork is an Icelandic darling and in 1987
she released a song called Jolakotturinn… which means Yule Cat. Who has seen our Christmas
Urban Legends video… if so you may remember something. Iceland…yule cat……. Yep for
those of you with good memories you remember that Jolakoturinn is a murderous cat! The
cat is said to be a giant cat belonging to a mountain giantess. The cat prowls around
on December 24th and through the rest of the winter killing people who haven’t received
new clothes. I like Bjork’s track… it sounds like kind of traditional folk…a bit
medieval… but of course I cant understand a word. When the song is translated into English
it becomes clear she very much is singing about the murderous feline as she sings : from
them he took them in one fell swoop. He roamed at large, hungry and evil in the freezing
yule snow… people shuddered his name. If one heard a pitiful meow something evil would
happen soon! AHHH horror cat! Terrifying!
Well there was that - that was the Top 10 Christmas Songs With Scary Hidden Meanings
- which did you find the scariest. – side note – Chocolate salty balls by south parks
Chef was very nearly Christmas number one in the uk in 1998, so you know.. that is plenty
scary considering at is about …you know….salty balls.
Comments from Dumbest Facebook Posts Part 7:
Kerry Ann Said: I love these dumbest tweets and Facebook. Some people make you worry about
humanity! Deaja XO said: Facebook is the Walmart of
social media..? Interesting…what would mcDonalds be if it were a social media app…im going
with snapchat. A floating Pineapple wrote: I’m actually
addicted to these dumb series ! Good! you keep us working!
I don’t know how to take this but Ginfio said: I wish you were my TEACHER.?....well,
thanks !