The Voice of Hermey the Elf Reflects on Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’s 50th Anniversary
The classic stop-motion Christmas film first aired December 6, 1964
+ READ ARTICLEWhen you think famous elves, an image of Will Ferrell dancing around in yellow tights and pouring maple syrup on spaghetti usually springs to mind. But before Buddy, there was Hermey — a misfit elf who dreams of being a dentist in the stop-motion Christmas classic Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
The Rankin-Bass production is the longest running holiday special of all time, and it celebrates its 50th anniversary on December 6.
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But Paul Soles, the actor who voiced Hermey (and later Spiderman in the 1967 animated series), tells TIME that he doesn’t have any special plans to watch the movie on its anniversary.
“Because you can’t avoid it!” Soles, 84, says. “It plays three or four times — it’s hard to escape… I don’t believe I own a copy, but I do watch it, it’s nice to be reminded of a good time.”
When Soles was cast as Hermey in 1964, he never dreamed that character would sing on TV sets around the world for decades to come.
“I had a day job as the host of a national current affairs show in Canada,” Soles says. “[Working on Rudolph] was fun. It was a playground. An after school play in the park. It was not unlike ice cream on pie after a good meal.”
And that ice cream-covered pie has withstood the test of time, although over the years Soles says he has had to confront rumors about Hermey’s sexuality.
“I don’t know if it’s because of the Adam Sandler rule or Seth Rogen rule of comedy, but people have questioned if Hermey is gay,” he says. “I don’t know about you, but I don’t think elves are thought of anything other than neutered.”
Regardless, Soles believes the movie has persevered because of its charming embrace of misfits — from a red nosed reindeer to an elf who eschews toy making for dentistry. But Soles himself isn’t a big fan of the profession.
“I’ve had one of the most horrible careers with dentists over my lifetime. I just hated it,” he says. “Up until about ’07 I had to go to the dentist once a year to have a tooth out. And I got so upset, I went to a dentist in Toronto and said, ‘Take them all out! All the ten or 12 that are left!'” (He now wears dentures.)
But as Soles sums it up: “I guess what Hermey was appealing for was that he was there to help people, not hurt people.”
Watch the Trailer for While We’re Young With Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts
“For the first time in my life I’ve stopped thinking of myself as some child imitating an adult”
+ READ ARTICLENoah Baumbach’s last film, Frances Ha, concerned itself with the romantic and professional frustrations of a young woman in her 20s. For his next film, While We’re Young, he skips ahead a couple of decades to explore the lives of a couple in their 40s grappling with their fading — or really, already faded — youth.
Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts play Josh and Cornelia, a husband and wife struggling to accept their adulthood. Their lives are upended by a new friendship with a couple of twenty-somethings, played by Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried, whose “apartment is full of everything we once threw out.” Playing on the themes of Henrik Ibsen’s 1892 play The Master Builder, the film explores the way in which the latter couple’s youthful energy challenges their older companions. Josh takes up rollerblading and Cornelia attempts hip hop dance, but youthful pursuits, of course, can’t take years off one’s age.
While We’re Young features some decidedly still-cool quadragenarians, with former Beastie Boy Adam Horovitz in a supporting role and LCD Soundsystems’s James Murphy composing the sondtrack. The film hits theaters on March 27.
Watch an Adorable Girl Start an Impromptu Dance Party at a Subway Station
Ah, the pure joy of youth
+ READ ARTICLEThe underground music scene in New York City — underground as in the subway system, not secret clubs — is characterized by a wide range of quality. Sometimes it seems like all it has to offer are mariachi bands that insist on playing only on those days when you have a splitting headache, got caught in the rain and just found out that your dog died. But occasionally you stumble upon a gem. This video from a Brooklyn station is precious not as much for the band’s rollicking version of the Grateful Dead’s “Me and My Uncle,” but for a small, bespectacled child’s joyful dancing.
The girl’s roof-raising jig gradually inspires a small hootenanny of strangers coming together in unfettered joy. At one point, her glee escapes from her in the kind of scream reserved only for the highest moments of elation.
Five minutes later, surely, all those people smashed themselves shoulder-to-shoulder into the human equivalent of a cattle truck. But for those two minutes, her joy was the center of the universe.
Know Right Now: From Nationwide Protests to a Historic Space Launch
Watch this week's #KnowRightNow to catch up on all the latest stories
+ READ ARTICLEThis week, Cyber Monday shattered records with sales surpassing $2 billion. Sales were up 17% compared to last year, making it the biggest shopping day ever.
Protests flared around the country after a grand jury decided there would be no indictment in the case of Eric Garner, a black man who died while being violently subdued by the NYPD. Protesters blocked major roadways in Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Washington D.C., and more than 200 protesters were arrested in New York alone.
The Orion spacecraft successfully launched Friday morning, orbiting 3,600 miles above the planet, 15 times higher than the International Space Station. The spacecraft orbited Earth twice before landing in the Pacific Ocean.
And finally, Warner Bros. revealed the cast for its movie Suicide Squad this week. The film will feature Will Smith as Deadshot, Tom Hardy as Rick Flagg, Jared Leto as The Joker, and Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn. It’s slated for release in 2016.
Get In the Christmas Spirit by Knocking Over Some Inflatable Santas
Tis the season!
+ READ ARTICLE“Prepare to be mildly thrilled and as excited as is reasonable to expect…”
So reads the preamble for the most lukewarm video game of the holiday season: The Christmas Shopper Simulator. In case navigating through the crowded aisles of a mall in the weeks before Christmas isn’t enough, you can now relive the experience on your computer screen!
But don’t let video retailer GAME, which created the simulator, undersell it with a lackluster description. The interactive game has some serious perks. Rather than taking out your holiday anxiety out on real-life fellow shoppers (don’t get a criminal record for Christmas!) you can unleash your rage on fake shoppers and inflatable Santas in the game.
The only thing more stressful than an impending zombie invasion is holiday shopping — so it makes sense that there are video games simulating both daunting events.
GAME previously released a Goat Simulator game, in case you’re looking for another way to kill time during the holiday season.
The Simpsons Christmas Couch Gag Is Here
Complete with an obvious Frozen reference
+ READ ARTICLETwas almost the night before The Simpsons holiday show, and Springfield is covered in mountains of snow. At long last, the preview is here, filled with yetis, Smithers and some tiny reindeer.
The Simpsons are headed straight for their couch, and every creature is stirring including reindeer, a yeti and maybe a mouse.
The children aren’t nestled anywhere near their beds, stuck in detention and jazz band instead.
Marge is headed to the check-out lane, while Otto is taking a hit off a candy cane.
Homer is working in a dashing elf cap, but he wants to go home for a long winter’s nap. Patty and Selma face off in town square and, yes, an obligatory Frozen reference is there.
The stockings are hung, a Festivus pole is there, and Groundskeeper Willie flies through the air, volleyed by polar bears drawn with great care.
Tune in to The Simpsons this Sunday at eight, if you set your clock now you won’t be late.
Watch a Hockey Player Casually Slip the Word ‘Meow’ Into an Interview Seven Times
He pulls off the game from Super Troopers flawlessly
+ READ ARTICLEKalamazoo Wings hockey player Ray Kaunisto decided to spice up an otherwise mundane interview by playing the “meow game” from the comedy Super Troopers. (For the uninitiated: the game comes from a scene in which a cop pulls over a driver and proceeds to sneak the word “meow” into the conversation as many times as possible. That’s it.)
Kaunisto does a respectable job, managing to meow seven times in a 40-second interview. As ESPN points out, reporter Ben Garrod seems to get the joke, but remains composed and doesn’t crack a smile until the interview’s over.
Watch the original Super Troopers meow scene here:
Watch Obama Break Out His Best Dad Dance Moves With Santa
Clearly the President is being a good sport to make sure he gets on Santa's "nice" list
+ READ ARTICLEDuring the National Christmas Tree Lighting at the White House Thursday night, President Barack Obama attempted to keep things light by breaking it down with Santa Claus. He gave ‘ol Saint Nick an enthusiastic high-five, and then the President started grooving, basically moving his hands, which were in a thumbs-up position, from side to side, before dancing his way off the stage.
At one point, you can even see Santa saying something to the President. Maybe it was in response to Obama’s Christmas list, which we imagine is made up of requests like more bipartisan cooperation in Congress, or coal in the stockings of those who have challenged his authority.
MORE: So You Think You Can Dance? Washington Edition:
President Obama to Finally Get the Colbert Bump
Will be interviewed on the comedian's show for the first time on Dec. 8
+ READ ARTICLEStephen Colbert will go to Washington to interview President Barack Obama for one of his last episodes.
The Colbert Report special episode,“Stephen Colbert Presents: Mr. Colbert Goes to Washington D.C. Ya Later, Legislator: Partisan is Such Sweet Sorrow: A Colbert Victory Lap, ‘014,” will be filmed at George Washington University on December 8. Obama had a cameo appearance on Colbert’s show in 2009, when he ordered General Ray Odierno to shave the host’s head for a broadcast in Baghdad.
The move marks a change of White House policy. In 2010, former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told TIME he would never let Obama do Colbert, and the comedian ran a segment on the president being terrified of appearing on the show.
The Colbert Report‘s final show will take place on December 18; Colbert is leaving to take over CBS’ The Late Show next year.
Here’s the full clip: