You Better Watch Out

The Wall Street Journal

You Better Watch Out
Bad Santas Come to Town, Drunk, Sexy, Even Dead; Calming a Senior Partner
By AMY MERRICK
December 15, 2006; Page W1

It used to be that Santa Claus made a list of who's been bad and who's been good. Now, Santa himself is sometimes more naughty than nice. Bad Santa is coming to town, as talent-booking services offer Clauses who, to the surprise of many guests, agree to show up smelling of booze, complaining about the food and hurling presents. Unruly Santas are also taking to the streets in dozens of cities around the U.S. as part of a spreading underground event in which revelers dressed in the full red regalia embark on rowdy pub crawls.

While he's unlikely to overtake the traditional Saint Nick, the surly, bad-tempered Santa is making inroads. In Seattle, the Live Wires entertainment service says actor Rafe Wadleigh's drunken Santa will make a holiday party "more Tim Burton than Burl Ives." In Las Vegas, the Tao Nightclub at the ornate hotel The Venetian is hosting its second annual Bad Santa Party on Thursday; photos from last year's event depict bare-chested men wearing fake antlers and women showing off red-and-white underwear.

Actor Allan Richards figures he's played the jolly old elf hundreds of times over the past 15 years, but he took the role to a new level at a San Francisco law firm's holiday party a few years back. He spilled drinks on himself and on guests. He bellied up to the buffet tables and dumped vegetables and chicken into his giant gift sack. He dropped his pants on the dance floor, revealing a pair of crimson shorts. People stared, and one partner had to be calmed by a junior associate. Eventually, he says, guests caught on. And when he reverted to type and began leading carols an hour or so later, he sensed some disappointment. "I don't think they really wanted me to become the boring, traditional, 'ho-ho-ho,' Merry Christmas, regular stuffed-shirt Santa," says the 65-year-old Mr. Richards. "I think they were having too much fun with me as the overly outrageous, over-the-top, totally off-the-wall kind of Santa."

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Bookers say the interest in alternative Santas was piqued by the 2003 movie "Bad Santa," in which Billy Bob Thornton's department-store Claus curses, vomits, picks up women and steals from his employers. Such portrayals are in line with the way adults have added an edgy spin to traditionally children-centered holidays such as Halloween. (After introducing a "Santa Baby" outfit last year, Victoria's Secret tripled its initial order this year for the $64 bra, miniskirt and faux-fur-trimmed hat ensemble.) It's also a way to express disenchantment with an increasingly commercialized holiday.

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Santa, standing impatiently in the food court at the mall in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High". Asshole Santas aren't necessarily a recent phenomenon!

I think that the "Ridgemont High" in the title may have limited the distribution. "Bad Santa" especially with Billy Bob Thornton was quite a success.

I hope you're being sarcastic.

By Homeland Security thinking he was a terrorist

Much more appropriate for the USA than Guy Fawkes masks.