Weird Al's The Night Santa Went Crazy Merges Bloodshed And Yuletide Festivities

Here's another exciting entry in this Holiday themed column, 25 Days Of Christmas Pop Culture! From now until Christmas Eve, I'll be tackling one piece of Christmas pop culture! It could be a book, movie, TV special, song....so long as it's festive for this time of the year, it'll be checked out in this daily column!

Part of the joy of enjoying a specific musicians work is seeing what happens when that singer tries out new genres or tones for their music. That's partly why Weird Al is so much fun as a singer; many of his songs are parodies of popular tunes. and that gives him the chance to explore many different musical genres by lampooning the songs of Coolio, Michael Jackson and Iggy Azalea. It was only a matter of time before he tackled Christmas, and in The Night Santa Went Crazy (an original tune, not a parody song), Al puts his own talent to great use in this holiday creation.

 Now, Weird Al isn't exactly the first thing one thinks of when it comes to family entertainment, but most of his songs rarely get too adult. The Night Santa Went Crazy though becomes waaaaaaaaayy more violent than one expects from Al, a nice subversion of expectations considering how cheery most Christmas pop culture is. While other holiday songs may vocalize about sleigh bells, Weird Al wonderfully harmonizes about a very different kind of slay. 

As the title suggests, the song (written by Weird Al Yankovic) primarily deals with Santa going crazy one night, going a violent rampage across the North Pole and killing reindeer in a grotesque fashion with a wide array of weapons. Before such carnage is unleashed, the first few lines of the tune set up a more peaceful environment that fits right in with typical portrayals of the North Pole. But once Santa goes wild, a more rocking instrumental rhythm is applied to the song that sharply deviates from the more low-key chords from earlier.

While that thoughtful approach to establishing mood is fun, it isn't quite the best part of the song. No, that'd be the lyrics, which are darkly humorous in a untold ways. Yankovic doesn't hold back in depicting North Pole mayhem here, with Dasher getting "slashed up...just like Freddy Kruger" and Santa eventually deciding to "...ground up poor Rudolph into reindeer sausage". This kind of vivid imagery is brought to life by Yankovic's vocals, which manages to excel in both the lighthearted and sadistic portions of the song.

I'm a huge Weird Al Yankovic fan, but you don't have to fall into such classification to enjoy the ingeniousness behind The Night Santa Went Crazy. It's sadistic, brutal and violent, but it's also packed with the kind of quality and inspiration that's a hallmark of Al's discography. You'd have to be as crazy this songs depiction of Santa to not be enthralled by this tune.