Is the Elf on the Shelf truly a Christmas Tradition?

Comments

• Salix Babylonika

  2017-09-23 00:58:03

  https://i.imgur.com/IoGc2jA.jpg

  no one is hyped for Christmas yet and to answer your question no, absolutely not
• Obā-san

  2017-09-23 01:02:42

  
  

  elf on the shelf is just the pale shadow of Mensch on a Bench, which is the greatest holiday tradition of all time
  
• Anonus

  2017-09-23 01:04:05

  I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat

  Jane said:

  no one is hyped for Christmas yet

  
  

  Jane said:

  and to answer your question no, absolutely not

  alright
• Imipolex G

  2017-09-23 01:25:45

  Touch the cow. Do it now.
  

  Anonus you are so gullible
  
• Anonus

  2017-09-23 01:33:29

  I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat

  Imipolex G said:

  Anonus you are so gullible
  

  ?
• Imipolex G

  2017-09-23 01:37:56

  Touch the cow. Do it now.
  

  Putting "A Christmas Tradition" on something is just marketing. Only goddamn idiots would fall for it
  
• Crystal

  2017-09-23 01:41:34

  Munch munch, chomp chomp...

  Imi, come now, please. Weird fixation or something sure, but I would also not be surprised if a non-insignificant chunk of it was AU just, like, not articulating much.
• glennmagusharvey

  2017-09-23 01:42:21

  yeah the "goddamn idiots" part was a bit much
  
  but still though, no, i've never heard of this "tradition" before
  
• Imipolex G

  2017-09-23 01:44:41

  Touch the cow. Do it now.
  

  goddamn IDIOTS
  
• Imipolex G

  2017-09-23 01:44:50

  Touch the cow. Do it now.
  

  sorry this sort of thing pisses me off
  
• Anonus

  2017-09-23 02:02:45

  I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat

  Imipolex G said:

  Putting "A Christmas Tradition" on something is just marketing. Only goddamn idiots would fall for it
  

  well I never thought of it as a tradition personally
• Anonus

  2017-09-23 02:03:20

  I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat

  i just thought about the Elf on a Shelf meme and like

  
  

  has it caught on that much? the first I ever heard of it was Peter Paltridge complaining about some crappy TV special based on the book from 2011
• Crystal

  2017-09-23 02:06:41 edited 2017-09-23 02:07:06

  Munch munch, chomp chomp...

  It's probably just, like, one the current memes of interest or whatever, my dude. :p
• Imipolex G

  2017-09-23 02:09:06

  Touch the cow. Do it now.
  

  I wasn't calling you personally an idiot, for what it's worth
  
  it just annoys me that some people genuinely fall for this sort of marketing crap
  
• Salix Babylonika

  2017-09-23 02:10:01

  https://i.imgur.com/IoGc2jA.jpg

  it's only a meme because rhyming is fun
• Princess Alice

  2017-09-23 02:10:58

  You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022

  Anonus said:

  i just thought about the Elf on a Shelf meme and like

  
  

  has it caught on that much? the first I ever heard of it was Peter Paltridge complaining about some crappy TV special based on the book from 2011

  Same

  
  

  But yeah, it really feels like something some marketing executives really wish was a Christmas tradition, but you can't force that kind of thing, much to their chagrin
• Tatterhood

  2017-09-23 02:11:35

  like half my twitter timeline were posting "wtf is elf on the shelf" when the meme started catching on, so
  
• Tatterhood

  2017-09-23 02:11:47

  I'd heard of it but I honestly have no memory of where
  
• Section42L

  2017-09-23 02:13:47

  We can do anything if we do it together.

  To be fair, I was kinda wondering what in specific brought back Elf in the Shelf as a meme right at this time for a few days now myself.
• Tatterhood

  2017-09-23 02:14:36

  someone made some random shitpost about it and other people found the rhyming format fun
  
  I don't think it's any kind of september christmas conspiracy
  
• Princess Alice

  2017-09-23 02:15:09

  You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022

  Tatterhood said:

  I don't think it's any kind of september christmas conspiracy
  

  Sadly.
• Obā-san

  2017-09-23 02:15:47

  
  

  im pretty sure the humor of the meme partially rests upon the inherent risibility of the elf on a shelf
  
• Tachyon

  2017-09-23 15:13:25

  ^{i will watch the heck outta this pumpkin patch}
  

  i thought the humour mainly came from taking a formula & doing improbable things with it

  
  

  of course Elf on the Shelf is Christmassy but seems irrelevant to the joke, certainly its Christmassiness is less important than its ridiculousness, in this instance
• Odradek

  2017-09-23 15:14:47 edited 2017-09-23 15:14:59

  My dreams exceed my real life

  The only thing stopping jokes about the Elf on the Shelf from being as easy-mode lazy basic-ass christmas criticizing garbage as jokes about the Christmas Shoes is that I have actually observed elves on shelves
• Tachyon

  2017-09-23 15:19:18

  ^{i will watch the heck outta this pumpkin patch}
  

  mm

  
  

  idk, i just don't agree

  
  

  i can't claim to read the minds of those making the jokes but to me it didn't seem like the jokes had anything at all to do with Christmas
• Tachyon

  2017-09-23 15:20:34

  ^{i will watch the heck outta this pumpkin patch}
  

  i mean unless you want to argue that 'elf on the shelf' is so inherently Christmassy that you can't reference it without putting everybody in a festive mood, but i don't think it is

  
  

  at the very least i never took the jokes as any kind of commentary on Christmas, or even Christmas commercialism
• Odradek

  2017-09-23 15:23:23

  My dreams exceed my real life

  Oh this new meme is largely unrelated to earlier Elf on the Shelf mocking I saw, which was what I was talking about
• Tachyon

  2017-09-23 15:24:05

  ^{i will watch the heck outta this pumpkin patch}
  

  oic
• Klinotaxis

  2017-09-23 15:48:01

  kill living beings
  

  wait

  
  

  was elf on a shelf a thing before like last week
• glennmagusharvey

  2017-09-23 15:49:40

  i'm pretty sure the humor is as tatterhood said, it's just an excuse to engage two-bit cleverness to make a rhyme
  
• Klinotaxis

  2017-09-23 15:49:51

  kill living beings
  

  wow ok

  
  

  this is extremely manufactured

  
  

  like damn the whole meme seems retroactively less funny than it was now, this is like finding out the new phrase everyone is using came from a cigarette commercial
• glennmagusharvey

  2017-09-23 15:51:47

  well i guess if you hate it then it's a good thing this came up now rather than ten years down the road
  
• Tachyon

  2017-09-23 16:01:17

  ^{i will watch the heck outta this pumpkin patch}
  

  i feel like the meme wouldn't really make sense if Elf on the Shelf wasn't some already-existing but utterly pointless and insignificant thing
• glennmagusharvey

  2017-09-23 16:19:13

  Tachyon said:

  i feel like the meme wouldn't really make sense if Elf on the Shelf wasn't some already-existing but utterly pointless and insignificant thing

  you mean the fact that it was an available blank slate?
  
  i'm inclined to disagree but whatever

  Imipolex G said:

  I wasn't calling you personally an idiot, for what it's worth
  
  it just annoys me that some people genuinely fall for this sort of marketing crap
  

  ah
  yeah, this sort of crap is pretty annoying
  though i mean i guess one could say it is a fictitious tradition but whatever
  
• Tachyon

  2017-09-23 16:47:41

  ^{i will watch the heck outta this pumpkin patch}
  

  not so much a blank slate, more piece of pop cultural jetsam that was fun to snowclone
• Crystal

  2017-09-23 16:53:13

  Munch munch, chomp chomp...

  Yeh.
• Alduin

  2017-09-23 17:39:19

  The...what?
• Odradek

  2017-09-23 17:56:32

  My dreams exceed my real life

  It's this little panopticon toy you put on your shelf and it reports back to Santa
• Calica

  2017-09-23 18:27:09

  Sup bitches, witches, Haters, and trolls.

  santa claus is coming to town but with santa claus replaced with the nsa
• glennmagusharvey

  2017-09-23 18:33:36

  so the nsa is against julian assange and julian assange is with russia and russia wants to global warming so they can melt their permafrost so since nsa is santa claus nsa punishes julian assange by giving him coal and he brings it to putin who burns it releasing greenhouse gases
  
  IT ALL MAKES SENSE NOW
  
• Alduin

  2017-09-23 18:48:33

  The Americans have strange ways.
• MetaFour

  2017-09-23 20:26:55

  For once, or maybe twice, I was in my prime.

  Santa sees everything! There is no escaping the Claus organization.