warning now we all know that Santa Claus is real but if you don’t want to be exposed to a conversation that blatantly states the opposite do not watch this episode okay do something else right now click away seriously okay now that we’ve got that out of the way why is Santa fat really let’s talk about that good mythical morning all right open up your brains I’m about to dispense some Santa Clauses information right into it ho ho go why is Santa Claus fat okay let’s go back to the origins of Santa Claus a lot of people may already know this he’s loosely based on an actual Saint from the year two 70 AD that’s when he’s born sinked Nicholas this guy started his life as a monk and then became the Bishop of Myra and he was fat end of story no uh he we don’t know we don’t know he has a little bit of a double chin there I guess in his rendering but you know it’s pretty pretty skinny guy as far as I got a crease in his neck he had a reputation for secret gift-giving and also doing things like putting coins in the shoes of the shoes that were left out for him I don’t know what people will even choose out for him but he put coins in them and he also had a reputation for giving away his inherited fortune to children by throwing coins and gifts to their windows so this dude was just a very jolly gift-giving guy he’s rendered with the beard here Saint Nicholas Saint Nicholas now yeah okay you’re going to historic core out what can I just jump to the fact that Santa Claus eats so many cookies on Christmas Eve how could they do not be fat isn’t that really the reason powder you’re applying logic to a situation link that’s true in fact some scientists calculated that Santa Claus eats about 38 billion calories every Christmas Eve but that doesn’t really answer the question that I think only history can answer is how have we as a society created a fat version of him that’s really what you’re getting at Santa’s not real it’s just a fictional character not here in it okay not acknowledging um so anyway so then Saint Nick st. Nicholas soon became known as sinter Claus and the Netherlands and his legend began began to spread sensor Klaus gave gifts every year to well-behaved children uh and then that so this was sort of thing that the Dutch were doing the center Klaus but this this is a role played legendary yeah The Legend of Center Klaus kind of spreading they were celebrating it around Christmastime well then the Dutch of course moved across the Atlantic to the new world and they brought the legend of Center Klaus at the same time and here’s Sinterklaas by the way he can’t he basically just looks like a bishop in the Catholic Church you know now English immigrants obviously too were crossing the Atlantic Ocean and coming to the new world and they brought a different legend of father Christmas with them this guy didn’t give gifts but he wondered from house to house feasting with families a feasting okay yeah yeah so he liked to eat right and as you can see he in a rendering here from the olden times that he was very much like a wizard of the woods almost not unlike the guy from the Lord of the Rings radagast yeah but different guy entirely as a lot of things happen in America in any culture with a bunch of cultures coming together these two legends fused father Christmas and Center Claus came together to form a Santa Claus okay and so Santa Claus was first described in 1822 in a story that you all know twas the night before Christmas and all through the house kneel me to recite it not a creature was stirring not even a mouse mouse dead mouse in the toilet stockings were hung by the chimney log Saint Nicholas soon would be aged they still call him Saint Nicholas in the story right but he is introduced there and it describes him as a portly elf with a sleigh and eight reindeer so this stuff that you know about Santa Claus when you think of him as being portly fat and having a sleigh with reindeer that came about in 1822 and from that story and also the flying reindeer yes-huh came from that story and this is what I’m learning from the Internet this took it all with a grain of salt but it just seems to be the best information that we could find at this point of course so then in the mid eighteen hundreds 1863 there was an editorial cartoonist named Thomas Nast guys considered the father of the American cartoon he was writing for father Christmas of the American cartoon no just the father okay for Harper’s Weekly a magazine in he in 1863 drew Santa Claus right here and he’s a little bit plump as you can see this is Santa Claus interestingly he has like a jacket with stars on it so it’s like a weird like fourth of July situation but that’s just because it was like this is the American Santa Claus and they got Thomas Nast to come back and draw Santa Claus in you know year after year and eventually he came out with this situation right here this is this role it was but Santa Claus he got his baby he’s he actually got bigger year after year okay so okay so we got Santa getting fat but then coca-cola just sends it totally over the top and creates the modern Santa Claus that you think about when you think about Santa Claus in America I thought out here you’re about to tell me that coca-cola invented the modern Santa Claus yes in 1931 coca-cola ass illustrator Haddon Sundblom son l’m to create a lovable santa that would embrace children and raid the fridge while drinking coca-cola he would go in there and he would sit the coca-cola that he got from the fridge and he actually used a friend of his a live model his friend Lou Prentice who was a retired salesman just a retired salesman that is this dude right here just a big overweight jolly looking dude with rosy cheeks and a white beard and he’s put him so the real Santa Claus there’s two answers to that it’s either st. Nicholas or it’s Lou Prentice a Salesman well no but you got to understand that this version of Santa Claus because of what Thomas Nast had drawn he was in the psyche you know the the the psychology of Santa Claus people’s perception of Santa Claus so then when Coke came along and said hey I want to do this he was thinking about kind of a big dude with a white beard and a coat and everything but he created this Santa that you know as the Santa I mean you look at these coke ads I mean this is the Santa when you go to the mall you see the Santa that was basically created by this guy in 1931 and he kept drawing these until 1960 he also created a very fat belt to hold back the fat belly and to me that’s the that’s the centerpiece of a good Santa Clause is a belt with a good height to it yeah and so thank you coca-cola for that it’s got it you don’t want it to pop so the question is okay so that’s why Santa’s fat Santa’s fat because it dude decided to draw him like that now the question is marketing should Santa be fat do you or do you two like you’re fat Santa or do you think hey it’s 2013 it’s about to be 2014 and we’re health conscious now and we don’t want to celebrate fat Americans we want to celebrate Americans who are watching your weight in Santa Claus is one of those well somewhat well I see this two different ways you know if Santa was my granddad uh and he was gaining weight every year I would be like hey pop why don’t you lay off the cookies a little bit you know I’m concerned about your your health your well beans that’s on one side but on the other side you don’t want some like robust fit trim guys kind of intimidating yeah you know you got someone who’s got a jolly belly that shakes when he laughs the bowl full of jelly type scenario that’s that’s that’s winsome that’s engaging that’s well that’s marketing it makes me want to drink a coke well I think it goes beyond that because you think about overweight comedians oh that you love okay listen I’m just gonna get real here for a second you love an overweight comedian and then that comedian loses weight and he doesn’t seem as charming anymore now good bad and about drew Carey on The Price is Right drew Carey is a prime example now good bad indifferent that is that is a true thing all of a sudden the dude doesn’t seem as approachable now that he’s all fit and trim but he’s done something good for himself now he has but see we there’s a loophole because Santa’s not real okay sorry if I just spoiled it for the kids at home but uh Santa isn’t real what he’s a fictional character and he is our one time that we can celebrate somebody who’s overweight because there’s no actual consequence because he’s a fictional character so of course Santa should be fat we shouldn’t change that we should make him bigger he rides in a sleigh you know he’s a role model for kids man no he’s not nobody wants to be like Santa it says when if you want to be like wanted I wanted to be Santa for like really a few minutes one time no you wanted to receive things from big old Santa yeah and then that’s okay it’s I wanted it’ll be my granddad I never wanted to be him exactly and you wanted him to be fat right right well maybe if he dies and then he’s replaced with a skinny Santa that would be the best way to do it like you know how comic book characters yeah guy let’s kill Santa let’s bring back a skinny one all right he loses weight that’s a good story you know how that is I bent Norwich England it’s time to spin the wheel of mythicality the prize is over our 12 mythical days of Christmas exclusively at facebook.com slash rhett and Link are getting crazy we will give it away to one for the last two days of the 12 mythical days of Christmas of the Box we use in the promo for GMM one of a kind look at this thing there’s no real cereal in it but there’s only two of them in the world and all the previous prizes lost at sea oh well this is great in it what what a vacation now do we we’re lost it’s day twenty thirty it would loss to see for X amount of days now I think you’re getting delirious oh you smell like a big roast chicken right now you actually look like one you’re turning into one of those like used to happen in the cartoons really either I’m hallucinating her you’ve turned into a big roast chicken and there’s only one way to find out mmm pretty sure I was hallucinating it’s actually pretty good we were approached right now by post we’d love to sell cereal what would it be nice to fight three Brant just to flex in there