Bob's long suffering of the "What we have learned" song was the best part of any episode. He was the epitome of how everyone feels when a pet peeve is being committed against you.
I quote "The Toy That Saved Christmas" at least twice a week at this point: "Mousetrap. I wanted to play Mousetrap. You roll your dice, you move your mice... Nobody gets hurt."
LMFAO I grew up with some of that stuff but the only things that stuck with me were; 1: worshipping chocolate rabbits 2: throwing people in furnaces 3: dropping slushies on people from great heights 4: marching around city walls to topple them and finally: Water buffaloes are temperamental.
You basically rattled off most of my strongest veggie tales memories. Also The Song of the Sabu, The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything, The Dance Of The Cucumber, and Oh Where Is My Hairbrush (I still sometimes catch myself humming the hairbrush song once in a while.)
Hearing someone explain the plot of the toy who saved Christmas is delightful. That’s always the episode I point to whenever I need to explain the absurd humor of early veggietales
I beat Laura Crone to it one day earlier. I made a video you can see on my channel that talks about The Toy That Saved Christmas and Dan Price, the CEO of Gravity Payments. However, I must warn you, my productions are far less professional than hers. That is why I have a lot less subscribers than her.
I’m Jewish, but I’ve always liked veggie tales. The fact that it’s actually pretty funny is what wins me over. So much Christian media just feels so self serious and humorless
To me Linus reciting the Christmas story is about how important and holy things happen in humble, unassuming places. It lets Charlie Brown know that he made the right choice in taking in the tiny tree.
Six minutes in and the little pea kid complaining that a fictional "Billy" has more toys than him makes me think very much of the average Twitter user making up a person to be upset about
And I think an ad that just straight up tells kids someone has more toys than them is REALLY rude and disrespectful. Especially ones in poor families!!!🙄😒
the advent joke was incredible. but the reactionary "just say merry christmas!" crowd genuinely infuriate me because happy holidays was created with advent and epiphany in mind. they're the ones erasing christian holidays.
As a person for whom "Barbara Manatee" was a foundational work, I think "accidentally wrapped myself" is not sufficiently silly and doesn't count. Absolutely silly and wonderful video, thank you for humoring us!
All things considered, Phil Vischer seems like a good guy, and as Christian-themed media goes, VeggieTales is genuinely entertaining, creative, good-hearted, and not theologically sus. Like, I'd shudder to think what David R. White's take on VeggieTales would be.
I want someone to make a movie based on his memoir about the bankruptcy of big idea productions because it's genuinely fascinating to see the failure of a company come not from greed or scandal, but genuine ambition that got way out of hand.
Veggietales simply isn't a thing we have where I live (nor do we really have Christian TV or media the way the Americans do) so this is just a fascinating tour of a world of storytelling completely outside my experience
As a Jew with a Catholic roommate, I found your tangent about Advent hilarious. Also, though my brothers and I weren't allowed to watch VeggieTales for fairly obvious reasons, even I know "the pirates who don't do anything".
Reminds me of that Jon Stewart bit about how you fast on Yom Kippur, one day, get it over with. For Lent, they're giving things up for 40 days. _Even in holidays_ they're paying retail.
real talk, seeing you and a few other Christian internet people present a positive and inclusive view of the faith has really helped me recently reclaim a bit of what i lost to various abuse and general nastiness from my family and the church with which i grew up. its got me less prone to prejudice against Christians and generally feeling happier
I’m sorry you suffered through abuse. As a Jewish trans person, Christianity always… scared me a bit? But I love Laura’s inclusive and accepting Christianity
I had to leave the evangelicalism I grew up in. The people in my church themselves were mostly kind but a lot of their beliefs were so backwards and it was getting harder go ignore. Still Christian, not conservative though
VeggieTales was the only thing that coukd get me to stop crying when dropped off at Sunday school. I somehow got the idea that my parents would leave me there forever but VeggieTales calmed me down
@@nicholaspeters9919 right? I went to get a gift fot one of my cousins and I saw one of those LOL dolls that look like it was straight up wearing lingerie. Wtf.
@@pennyforyourthots Exactly, at this point I don’t care what stigma the fan base has, if any of my potential kids or niece/nephews want something from the girls aisle, it had better be a pony. Either that or I’ll just get them LEGO.
Same. I came here assuming it was a vicious takedown of my childhood where I could see my beloved VeggieTales through adult Athiest eyes. I got something different, but no less entertaining.
My Sunday school teachers always skipped the silly songs. I didn't know any of them until summer camp taught me The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything and then years later when a friend, who was huge into music piracy, played her favorites for me. Anyway, great video. So happy I found your channel It's nice to hear from a Christian perspective that isn't lost in the cult of prosperity gospel.
I’m Jewish. I have spent my entire life being pushed into various Christian services, getting pushed to pray to Jesus, being pushed to try Christianity. Being a lesbian, it is exactly like compulsive heterosexuality. Being Jewish is to be constantly seen as a failed Christian. I don’t know a single Jew who hasn’t been pushed to participate in Christianity at least once. I know a handful of Christians who’ve attended temple services, and I only know this because they told me so while trying to pressure me to attend mass. But you present the Christian perspective as just a lovely perspective to have, something that can be good for you, something that could help you and not just “if you were a better person, you would believe this” and for that I appreciate you more than I can say. For the first time, I really feel like we are children of the same father. I will never be a Christian. My family suffered for being Jewish. I suffered. I know I would chose torture over surrendering my Jewishness. The opportunity to engage with Christian beliefs WITHOUT the pressure to BE Christian is in itself a blessing, and for that I am grateful.
Christians are supposed to go to Jewish spaces to learn about the Jewish roots without which Chrisitianity wouldn't exist, not fish for converts...did those people learn nothing from how it went when Paul and pals tried that? 🤦♂️
What you're describing at the start kinda sounds like...It's something I think of as a "Universal Adaptor Cast". An ensemble cast, with well-defined roles and characters, so much so that they can be slotted into almost any genre while still retaining the personality and relationship dynamics that make them who they are. Good examples would be the Muppets, as seen in stuff like Muppet Christmas Carol and Muppet Treasure Island, or any number of classic Golden Age cartoon characters, from Popeye to Tom & Jerry to the Looney Tunes to Mickey Mouse and co. Mickey can be living a fairly typical suburban life, or he can be the sword master monarch of a high fantasy kingdom, but he's always recognizably Mickey. You could also say the Mario cast to a lesser extent count. One week, Mario and Bowser battle to the death in a fiery climactic showdown, the next, they're go-karting together or playing tennis or even teaming up in some of the RPGs. In many ways, it's a sign of very strongly-defined character, that they can be anywhere from outer space to the wild west to Feudal Japan, and still be consistent.
That is almost certainly what the Veggie cast is meant to be -- the early VeggieTales episodes make this more obvious, but the original idea behind VeggieTales is that this is group of vegetables is putting on a show/pageant. This is why the intro and outro segments, and often in earlier episodes the Silly Songs, are on a countertop. Notice that in 'Oh Santa' we can see the cereal box from which fake snow is being shaken.
The toy who saved Christmas was my favorite. I loved that angsty anti- establishment buzz saw wielding toy, and the death defying surprise penguin rescue action scene at the end, lol. Plus that is a really good Silly Song with Larry
Laura: I'm gonna summarize the first Veggie Tales Christmas special. Me: Aww. How cute. Laura: Here's a joke about Epiphany. Me: Lolz. Good one. Laura: Now let me present you my Doctorate of Divinity Thesis on the Flawed Logic of Communicating the "True Meaning of Christmas" in our current socio-political-religious zeitgeist. Me: Damn Woman! Seriously, that was impressive. Subscribed!
I never put much thought into the fact that Buzzsaw Louie is basically the only time we see a human (or something resembling a human) in the world of Veggie Tales, but holy shit, Buzzsaw Louie is basically the only time we see a human in the world of Veggie Tales. The only exception I can think of is the Saint Patrick felt puppets segment from Sumo of the Opera
The thing that stood out to me the most about the Star of Christmas after researching Phil Vischer's journey of making these stories was that he basically projected himself onto Bob in the sense that he felt that Veggietales at the time strayed away so much from their original purpose, and was too heavily commercialized. Not to mention he blatantly wanted BigIdea to become the next Disney, which is heavily shown through Bob's pure glee when trying to make Princess & The Plumber the ultimate spectacle.
i think the closest they have come to depicting jesus other than baby veggies playing him in pageants or stained glass windows is buzzsaw louie. i mean, he's a carpenter and everything. great video as always queen
My VeggieTales Christmas go-to as a kid was "A Very Veggie Christmas," a CD where you listened to the cast at a party in Bob's house, singing carols from "around the world"(debatable, they stuck pretty thoroughly to the western hemisphere)- the highlight being Oscar the Polish Caterer coming in with 8 Polish Christmas Dishes.
"What's a pierogi? It's dough...wrapped around meat" (I never gave much thought to the vegetables eating meat. Instead, I had only eaten potato pierogis at that time, so the concept of a meat one was weird to me and the primary focus of my brain's attention.)
@@kalef2 Looking back, I'm now more shocked they ate cabbages and bell peppers and such, because that feels like it'd fall under cannibalism, but somehow, I didn't think about that much as a small child.
I am so happy to see someone praise "Oh Santa" in such detail. It was always my favorite Silly Song, and I remember feeling cheated when it wasn't included on the Silly Song Countdown.
As someone did not grow up on veggie tales, was first exposed to it at like 18 by my boyfriend playing me the Reliant K cover of the pirates who don't do anything and has never watched a full episode of veggie tales, I can confirm that "I wrapped myself up for christmas" does not stack up to the likes of "the hairbrush song," "I love my lips," etc.
I already watched this on Nebula, and it was the first Christmas-y thing to make me smile this year. I straight up cackled through the entire "Larry's Silly Songs" rabbit hole.
Thank you for this thoughtful commentary! I left Lutheran Christianity years ago for paganism, but can still look fondly on (and even rewatch) Veggietales. The only thing that slightly irks me is the continual portrayal of the gift-giving ethos and morals in these holiday specials as intrinsically Christian in nature when the tradition of gift giving near the solstice was well established before Christianity came on the scene. But as a overtly Christian media, we cannot really expect Veggietales to frame these charitable/sacrificial values in any other way. P.S. You forgot to mention “Barbara Manatee” as one of the classic greats of Silly Songs.
They likely considered the gift focus a secular compromise instead of a Pagan erasure, Vischer didn't want to create something preachy like Bibleman that crams theology down kids' throats, instead using Bible stories as morality tales in a heavily Christian culture that takes that framing device for granted.
I wasn't raised in a particularly religious household but we ended up with a Veggie tales tape, specifically the one with the spooky story and the story of Daniel on it. I played the shit out of that tape despite not having a religious connection to it because the story of Daniel one was legitimately funny to me and the wise men's song was a banger.
As a kid, I actually did find the idea of a toy with a fully functioning buzz saw built into his arm to be pretty funny. But then again, maybe that’s because my parents thought it was hilarious and I guess I was like “ah yes, that is inherently ridiculous. I get the joke.”
It makes sense that Jesus shouldn't be portrayed as a vegetable, but i always thought if He was, He should be a potato- seemingly humble but nutritionally perfect and lovable.
A random factoid I didn't realize until I was older, "The Princess and the Plumber" play is a parody of Super Mario Bros. Madame Blueberry (playing the princess) even references the "monkey king" which is a mix of Donkey Kong and Bowser. I'm surprised I never caught that as a kid.
Honestly, as a lapsed catholic, if I could find a parish full of people like you, like young and progressive, I would absolutely start going to church again.
As a guy who became an athiest as a direct result of confirmation class, I would also give church another chance if it was full if progressive young anti-capitalists!
@@EpixAndroid if "stuff" is resources I'd be down!! I still follow a lot of progressive Catholics, lots of Jesuits and America Magazine and such. It's just one thing to be exposed to progressivism within the Church independently. It's another to actually go to Mass and be surrounded by conservative boomers who take Tucker Carlson more seriously than the priest. Maybe I should switch to Episcopalianism who knows
This ^^ I actually am still going to church though, I've just been attending an Episcopal Church for the last six months even though I still consider myself Catholic. They're not young lol, but they are progressive. I hope one of these days to find a Catholic church to call home again, but right now it just doesn't feel safe. Edit: Oh my gosh, I just saw your follow-up comment about being Episcopalian instead 😂 I don't feel right about officially switching though, at least not yet. The Eucharist and the universality of the Catholic Church still mean too much to me. Probably because I became Catholic in China, where they are more focused on being Christian than they are on being Republican.
I'm realising that my knowledge of VeggieTales is basically just the very early age. I only remember the Toy Who Save Christmas (and you're right that Oh Santa is a work of absolute art). I also remember distinctly thinking that VeggieTales was dead when they announced 3-2-1 Penguins
every time I remember that there's people who still think there's a war on Christmas, I feel the insatiable urge to find them and point out to them that Christian churches spent literal centuries demonizing Christmas and calling it sinful and their embrace of the holiday is actually very, very recent.
7:40 What was it with early "Veggietales" episodes and having Mr.Nezer nearly murdering Bob, Larry and Junior. Though at least in "The Toy That Saved Christmas" he had a change of heart but ACCIDENTLY nearly sent the trio to their demises anyway, whereas in "Rack Shack and Benny", he INTENTIONALLY tried to burn the trio alive for something as petty as not singing an offensive song.
@@KaminoKatie Exactly. The fact that that never got called out is kinda sad. Parents had no problem with that but the bunny song needed to be censored?
I don't have the words to fully articulate all of my thoughts, but your content and openness and inclusivity with talking about faith makes the child in me who only received fear mongering from faith so happy and at ease. Thank you for your time, work, and thoughts :)
Me, who also fell off Veggie Tales some time after Star of Christmas: "Gee, I wonder why Archibald is playing the mall owner, shouldn't that be Mr. Nezzar?" Me, two minutes later: "...I need to go stare at the wall for a while."
15:30 lmao as someone raised Catholic, it always annoyed me that most Christians ignored Epiphany and also that the Magi are always included in nativity scenes haha. Also that nativity cartoon you showed a little before this was used in an analogue horror series that uses parts of Christian mythology and theology as the basis of its story and it really threw me seeing it just normally 😆 The series is called the Mandela catalogue haha
I was raised by a mother who stopped going to Catholic churches when we immigrated to the U.S. and started attending Baptist ones instead. And yet we did celebrate el Dia de los Tres Reyes Magos (Three Kings Day) on January 6th and would always put our tree up in December 8th. But also, I'm 24 and I never knew what Epiphany or Advent or the Feast of the Immaculate Conception were until a few days ago. I hardly heard the words while growing up. My mother never taught me a thing about Catholicism.
I mean, most traditional churches that are into Epiphany still put the wise men at the nativity lol. They just a lot of times don't do it until epiphany. They had to spend a long time in that stable apparently. 😂 I'm not actually criticizing, though, I've long since accepted that religious art doesn't have to be historically or Biblically accurate to be meaningful and poignant.
I was raised Catholic and honestly want nothing to do with being Christian myself personally, but I will absolutely take up arms to fight in the War On Advent and defend her honor. Laura Crone you have enlightened and enlisted me, and I'm ready to throw myself in whatever direction you deem fit to point me in.
excited for this video! this is shamelessly plugging something my friends do, but if you wanna hear other folks take a stab at untangling the theology of VeggieTales, the Where's Pod When I'm Scared? podcast is really good
I can't tell you how many times I've sung bits of "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything" to myself as I'm going about daily life. Unlike our dear pirates, I have indeed been to Boston in the fall. I have not, however, thrown my mashed potatoes up against the wall, etc. Thanks for another lovely trip down memory lane to reexamine the media I consumed as a child
Honestly, I was expecting a sarcastic deconstruction of this show, so I was pleasantly surprised to see hilarious while still relatively reverent commentary. Also, just a great video all around! Also also, that vhs “double feature” thing you mentioned has a little bit of interesting history behind it
I was mad at the beginning because of the title, but after you told the silly song part by part in peak slow-motion fashion, I had to leave a like and sub.
Thank you so much for the kind way you addressed theological differences. I'm not exactly evangelical but I share Phil's view that God sent his son/self to die for our sins. In a lot of discussions with more people who have differing theologies I'll try to politely say what I believe but get laugh-reacted, told that my belief is inherently problematic, told that everything Paul wrote should be thrown in the trash, my beliefs conflated with conservatives, etc. A lot of people feel like this belief either makes good people feel unnecessary guilt or bad people feel like they're off the hook. To me, who grew up with severe OCD, who beat myself up for every little thing I did wrong, the idea that God loved me that much and only asked in return that I have a relationship with him and treat other people with love was a HUGE comfort. It was so refreshing to hear you say that you don't share that exact interpretation but that you're not bashing people who do. If you haven't done one have you thought about doing a video on your theology? I'm kind of a geek about Biblical interpretation, whether I agree with it or not.
Watching it now, I’d probably love The Star of Christmas, but I don’t know if it was because I was having a bad day when I watched it as a kid or what, but that movie gave me such memorable nightmares that even seeing the clips of the fire scene here gave me chills 😂
I remember getting the Very Veggie Christmas audio cassette as a kid and completely missing the joke that during "Feliz Navidad", Larry has his friend (Manuel) play the maracas, quote, "Because he's got hands!" and missing that it was wordplay on "manual" for like 14 years. That was a solid joke for a kid and I think under new leadership there's just not a lot of that effort or charm going into the writing. Old Comrade VT is best VT.
Your discussion on the story of Christmas and how it’s incredibly difficult to convey its significance and why, particularly to an audience which may not be as familiar with the context of these stories feels like the Christian/Biblical equivalent of trying to recommend an installment of a long running and confusing franchise to a newcomer who wants to get into it but doesn’t know where to start
If I'm mapping this out in time correctly, VeggieTales's heyday existed mostly during my atheist (retroactively agnostic?) period. Between Saberspark's look at the rise and fall of the series from behind the scenes, and your video here, I feel like I'm catching up on a phenomenon I missed. For a product that is so astoundingly family friendly in so many ways, am I crazy, or does this show have some teeth?
Definitely still quote the "Billy has more toys than me!" "Who's Billy?" "I don't know. But he has more toys than me!" exchange regularly. That and the Silly Song were all I remembered from the first one.
Fun fact: the immaculate conception actually refers to the conception of Mary, who was therefore born without original sin and was pure enough to birth the son of god. It does not refer to the conception of Jesus, which is simply the Virgin Birth (there’s no term specifically for his conception)
Well, as someone who has never watched any Veggietales before I saw this video I did go and watch the other silly songs and I wasn't 100% sure about them at first but now, several days later, they're still stuck in my head and the wrapped myself up for christmas one ISN'T so I feel like it's safe to say that one is vastly inferior
Forget Christmas. Forget Christian. Forget veggietales. Forget children. The Star of Christmas is one of the best things ever put on tape in human history. I will never stop quoting it. All throughout the year. I basically have the whole thing memorized.
If you want to watch any of the VeggieTales Christmas specials after the Dreamworks buyout, go with "St. Nicholas: A Story of Joyful Giving". If nothing else, it has the single best non-Larry Silly Song, "Donuts for Benny" by Mr. Lunt.
I think one of the reasons why VeggieTales hits better than most Christian media to me, someone with pagan leanings, is that it doesn't feel like it's trying to convert me. It's just here to sing silly songs and tell stories and tell young Christian kids that they are loved. I can respect that.
Okay, but VeggieTales also did a special about Saint Nicholas and that was actually good. (Plus, Google actual Saint Nicholas. Anti death penalty and he punched a heretic, Arius, right in the face!)
BARBARA MANATEE!!!!!! ahem. (Sorry, I was too old for Veggie Tales, but my kid was exactly right, I'm pretty sure we still have a dozen VHS tapes of Veggie Tales sitting in the garage somewhere. And the main cartoons were a bit dopey for me, but I *LOVE* the Silly Songs. And I'm mostly-atheist. My wife's family were the ones who gave us the tapes when the kids were young. And the messages are generally good, and in general not TOO overly-preachy, so we let them watch them. Unlike Barney. I banned Barney.)
I'm a simple subscriber, I see VeggieTales and Laura, I click to watch until my food comes. Also, yes, more readings of Bob, Larry and all their friends would be appreciated. Please and thank you.
I adore the Star of Christmas mostly because of the Moyer the Destroyer chase scene and the rocket car scene. Comedy GOLD!!!!!!!!! I still lol so hard every time I see it Also there were a few other Christmas specials like Saint Nicolas and The Little Drummer Boy, and those, while better than Merry Larry, are still not nearly as good as Star of Christmas
I have been singing Where is My Hairbrush every time I lose my hairbrush since I was like 10. Oops I Wrapped Myself Up for Christmas doesn’t deserve to be called a Silly Song.
The Toy That Saved Christmas was actually the first content I watched that taught me that Christmas is about giving. I barely remembered anything else from that special but the message always stuck with me and told me not to be selfish.
My first son was born in '96 and I was still an evangelical zealot, so my kids were raised with the veggies. I was extra enamored with them since I was employed in the sister industry of videogames. (One of my former co-workers went to work for Big Idea.) VT spoke my language, as a nerd raised on Monty Python and huge fanboy of the then-burgeoning Pixar. I think you did an excellent job here, really great insights and perspective. You got a new subscriber. Sadly I can't be unbiased in the incredibly important issue of how well OG Silly Songs stack up to the next gen, but from what I've seen it's the distinct lack of edge that the near constant references to Monty Python brought to the old stuff that I'm seeing. The new stuff is Gentle Silly. Which is generally just banal.
So I am not a Cristian, and I wasn't raised Christian, but my aunt who I am very close with and partially raised me is, but is also a Christian in the same way you are, where she's very religious but also very open and doesn't proselytize or evangelize; but we watched so much Veggietales, Veggietales was a huuuuge part of my childhood hood, and even my Very Not Christian™ mother enjoyed Veggietales and approved of me watching it. I love watching people talk about this show. I had the first two Christmas specials on DVD as a kid. This is sooooo fascinating to watch, especially cause I really don't know much about Christianity, so learning a lot of the context of these movies is really interesting. I could watch you talk about Veggietales all day lol
The "Immaculate Conception" is not the virgin birth of Jesus. It refers to the conception of MARY, not Jesus. Catholicism teaches that Mary was, from the moment of her conception, free from all stain of sin, including the original sin of Adam and Eve which normally is something that baptism is meant to wash away. I know VeggieTales is not a Catholic show, but it always bugs me when people refer to the immaculate conception as if it's the conception of Jesus.
You know, I never liked CCD as a kid, and I’m not religious now as an adult, but I would absolutely pay to see you talk about your interpretations of and philosophy around the biblical stories 🙂
