Hello! Welcome to episode 131 of I’d Rather Stay In. This week, we’re talking all about Krampus.

Episode transcript

Megan 0:00
Welcome to I’d rather stay in with your hosts Megan Myers and Stephie Predmore. This week we’re chatting about Krampus so stay tuned.

Stephie 0:07
Do you love listening to I’d rather stay in and want to support the podcast? Well now you can visit our website or the LinkedIn or Instagram profile and click Buy me a coffee or visit buy me a coffee.com/irssi podcast for the price of a cup of coffee you can help us cover the costs of creating this podcast. There are no monthly memberships and you could support us at whatever level you like whenever you like. Whether you buy us one coffee many coffees or simply continue listening as always, we’re so grateful for your support Hello,

Megan 0:49
hello, Stephie. What’s do I always get confused by this question because I’m like there. Is there something new we see each other so often. Like Has something happened? I don’t know. I watched the Will Ferrell Ryan Reynolds Christmas movie that came out? Oh, over the weekend. Yes.

Stephie 1:14
Oh, it’s on Apple TV.

Megan 1:15
I think yes, it’s on Apple TV. It’s fine. It’s it’s not what I expected because I did not realize that it is a musical. Oh,

Stephie 1:26
that is surprising. Did not know that.

Megan 1:30
There’s a running joke in the movie where one of the characters is like why are we singing again? Like what’s happening? Why do we have to sing again? No.

Stephie 1:38
Thank you for the audience in this I love a musical but I feel like in this case I’d be like why

Megan 1:43
it was a little strange. Like I feel like the plot of the story is actually like like it’s a good pie it’s like a scrooge plot but like a little different. And sofas thing. Like it’s another weird layers.

Stephie 1:59
It’s like supposed to be campy.

Megan 2:02
It’s the I think it is but it’s I think the the the campiness of it is not quite enough. Yeah, it’s not quite campy enough for you to just be totally like, I’m into this crazy ass musical. Oh, it’s just on the it’s just toned down enough that like, it’s just meant to be there. And like part of the story, I think it would work really well as like a play. Okay, I think it’d be a great, like Broadway production kind of thing. But as a movie, I am not quite sure. Also, it is PG 13. But I was like, oh, you know, it’s it’s Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds. Like, that’s probably fine. So we watched it with Max so bored.

Stephie 2:50
Because he like didn’t get any of that.

Megan 2:52
He didn’t get a lot of the jokes. He didn’t think it was like that funny. And so he was like, I don’t want to watch this anymore. And I’m like, well done. I’m gonna watch it so you can skip over. We’re gonna be watching. Yeah. So thumbs down from the nine year old set. Apparently. It’s it’s, I don’t know if it’s a movie that I would watch again. But I also said that about elf when it came out, and we watched off all the time now so

Stephie 3:18
true. I would have a hard time. I do have a hard time thinking of Will Ferrell in a Christmas movie that is not

Megan 3:25
elf. Yes. There’s also an elf joke in the movie.

Stephie 3:29
Guys, Santa I know.

Megan 3:33
Um, yeah, they’re both not bad singers though, too. So I didn’t know that. I

Stephie 3:39
didn’t know that for some reason.

Megan 3:40
I did probably because they did tic tac video when they were filming it last year.

Stephie 3:44
Maybe that’s why maybe I saw that. I don’t know. I don’t remember. I watched the one on Netflix with Freddie Prinze Jr. and he is it looks so Oh, he looks really old. It was like startling.

Megan 3:58
Yeah, we also we also both watched.

Stephie 4:01
It was cute. The movie itself was cute. But yes, it was startling. I was like, wow, what happened?

Megan 4:09
Yeah, I think it’s because there’s so much time in between the projects that he’s done. Like he did like Scooby Doo and then like nothing. Busy being like a dad.

Stephie 4:20
Yes.

Megan 4:21
Um, we did also watch that Lindsay Lohan one. Oh, uh huh. Yes, that was a thing.

Stephie 4:29
It was. Yeah. That one was interesting, because it was definitely like, it was my head. So I think you you texted that you were like, I didn’t expect Hallmark vibes from no likes. And it did that. I kept thinking that too when I was watching it because it definitely had Hallmark Christmas movie vibes. Yeah, but it was on Netflix. Yeah. So we’re kind of Netflix Christmas movies are usually like, even if they’re cheesy, like Christmas prints. There’s There’s just a certain vibe to them.

Megan 5:02
I feel like so with the Hallmark movies this is not what we’re meant to be talking about today, but it’s fine tangentially related, I suppose. With the Hallmark movies, those movies will literally not exist if their Christmas movie season. Yeah wasn’t a thing. Yes. Like, no one would make a movie about any of that. The big city girl go into the small town 1500 times like no one would make that movie over and over and over again. With a Netflix Christmas movies. Up until this year, I guess. They were more like this movie could exist outside of like the holiday season. Yes. It’s just happens to take place during the holidays. Yeah,

Stephie 5:49
well, well, but the frequent one was back to like the regular Okay, Netflix five it was just the Lindsay Lohan one. Yeah.

Megan 5:59
The Lindsay Lohan was like straight up like it’s Christmas magic. Yeah, you have like, the creepy Santa

Stephie 6:05
Claus is gonna be the creepy Santa Claus. Like super cheesy pump, but like also the pompous high on himself. Fiance that actually really liked his character his character actually was It was great. He was good comic relief like Yeah, I mean, not that it was the the rest of the movie wasn’t funny or something. But like, he was a funny character. Yeah. And then there was just like gaps there’s like these weird like, she dumps the fiancee at the end. And then the guy that this the small town in keeper whatever the fuck that love with comes to find her. And he finds her like just rent like just standing in the courtyard of this hotel. Yeah. And then she’s like, I was on my way to you. And I’m like, you weren’t you were just standing even thinking about it. And we’re literally standing there in the middle of this courtyard. You weren’t moving. What what are what? No. So like, it definitely had like more. It had those like Hallmark ask, like plot gaps where you’re like, This doesn’t make any sense. Like it was it was fun to see Lindsay Lohan and another movie, and she looked amazing. Yeah. And I’m very glad that she’s back doing things and I hope she does more projects. So like that I was. There was a fun, there wasn’t fun Jingle Bell Rock. Like yesterday egg in there. So that was a nice little Mean Girls callback. Yeah. But yeah, so I think we had similar views on that. That one I won’t watch again, it was like a solid three for me. And that’s like, that’s like pretty

Megan 7:41
easy. When I started watching it. Both the kids were like, I think they like popped into the room every once in a while to see what I was doing. And they were like, What do you watch him like, oh, this Christmas movie, whatever. And they’re like, they were just like staring stand there and watch it for like three seconds and be like, it looks bad.

Stephie 8:03
It’s not the best. It’s fine. I rewatched single all the way the other night how that one was so it’s still really good. Like, I think I watched it like twice last year when it came out. And then I watched it again the other night and I was like it just it’s just a feel good movie. It’s just really lovely.

Megan 8:25
Yeah, I have to watch that one again. Because I really liked it.

Stephie 8:28
I yeah, I like I like it. The more I watch it.

Megan 8:31
Yeah. Such a good again. Another another movie that could just exist. Yeah, Hallmark movies cannot exist outside of the Christmas. Oh, no.

Stephie 8:42
Yes, this is very true.

Megan 8:43
No slander to any of the actors involved. I’m glad you’re getting paid.

Stephie 8:48
Also, Oh, okay. I do also have to say so. Jodi sweeten who played? Which sister? Yes, she How dare you already. But Stephanie, who plays Stephanie in full house. So she’s she was she’s been in two movies so far. One was on lifetime and I can’t remember if the other one was on lifetime or something else but both of them like the one that I watched. They had her and like the frumpy his clothes. It was so confusing. Like I think they might have been going for like I’m like comfy and cozy vibe. But it was just she just looked like the colors washed her out. They had her in these bizarre like they have to say how to like a lot of it took place in in Switzerland and so they had a lot of like outdoors, drinking hot mulled cider and mulled wine like scenes. And and all of them like she was wearing this puffy, like very puffy beige coat, like the most unflattering. That’s weird winter coat possible but at some point I realized there were two different unflattering beige coats one was puffier than the other. And you could tell that they were different because like the the seeming between the puffs was different. Do you know what I mean? Like one had more seeming, so it was slightly less puffy than the other one. But I was like, and they were just like, switch randomly back and forth, sometimes within the same day. And I’m like, did you shoot half the movie with one coat and something happened to it? With the other unflattering beige coat. It was very just the the I was texting all day, because I was like, what is happening with these costuming choices on her and she was like, Girl, it is so bad. And apparently it was really bad in the other movie, too. So I’m like, she needs that. She needs her agent to get with these movie producers and be like, I’m sorry. She needs to wear more flattering colors.

Megan 10:50
But she heard she wasn’t like pregnant while they were filming or anything less, you

Stephie 10:54
know? Weird. No. Yeah, it was strange

Megan 10:58
as a pale blonde person. Of course. We definitely want to wear beige. Yeah,

Stephie 11:03
it was just like, or it would be like a shade of green that was just like, kind of been like, Yeah, great. And just like really just like sweaters that are not like oversized in a cute cozy way. Just oversized. And like, it just doesn’t fit you right? Yeah, it was very strange. And it was extremely distracting. Even though much shit was in the movie.

Megan 11:28
And also, it makes it seem almost like, like someone else was cast. And they already had all the costumes or like, they’re gonna go with it.

Stephie 11:35
And we’re gonna put you in all this person sweaters. I don’t know. And like her like ex best friend in the movie was had like cute stuff that like fit her body really well. So I was it was like extra confusing, because I was like, maybe everyone’s going to wear ugly clothes. Nope. Just just the main character

Megan 11:54
who would be better that with everyone wore ugly clothes. I mean, yeah, that would be great. Like, no one says anything. Just to everyone wears from being whatever, like be shoved together closet. There were during COVID That will be

Stephie 12:10
great. Yeah,

Megan 12:11
I mean, here for that. Yeah. Um, so this week, I decided that we were going to talk about Krampus

Stephie 12:19
Yeah, so I live last week’s episode. Episode to lead.

Megan 12:24
I don’t know why I’ve been thinking about it. Recently, I guess because Christmas was coming because you’re you and I’m a strange person. But Stephie What do you know about Krampus?

Stephie 12:36
Basically, nothing. I think there have been some Christmas horror movies around Krampus. And do you know how I feel about horses? So I pretty much avoid even the commercials because it gives me bad dreams. So that’s about as I think I think Krampus has horns, I don’t really know. That’s about all I have about all I’ve got. And here’s

Megan 12:59
what I would normally be like, and so Krampus actually led to the rise of gluten free propaganda. Not that kind of boss. I kind of I guess that’d be amazing, though. That would. So Krampus is considered the I guess, Devil counterpart to St. Nicholas. We talked about St. Nicholas a little bit when we did our Santa’s episode last year. So he’s a half goat half demon as you know devils. Yes. are often portrayed, right? Yes. It was originally part of pagan rituals, for Solstice. Okay, um, because, you know, Christmas came about mostly, like, you know, what, the Catholic belief but they co opted and Saturnalia because you know, those holidays are at the same time and they want to make sure that people celebrate the right quote, quote, yeah, holidays. He is in certain cultures is considered the son of hell, who is the Norse goddess of the underworld. Okay, hello, spelled h e l not? LL. But obviously, that’s where the name comes from. Yes. And so assuming that like probably many people your knowledge of Norse Mythology is the Thor movies.

Stephie 14:21
Yeah, maybe a little bit more. A little bit more because I went to a liberal arts school right? Not a whole lot more.

Megan 14:28
So how is what hella Cate Blanchett plays based on but in mythology, Hela hell is actually the daughter of Loki not the daughter of Odin. Oh, okay. And fun fact, Lucky’s other children were a wolf in a snake. So, you know, okay, it’s got a lot happening he was

Stephie 14:48
going on.

Megan 14:52
But then with the spread of Christianity Krampus became associated with Christmas, okay. And despite Catholic efforts to ban him because obviously the devil and so the backstory of Krampus is that while St. Nicholas rewards nice children by leaving presents Krampus beats those who are naughty with branches and sticks in some cases it

Stephie 15:16
shouldn’t be funny

Megan 15:20
in some cases he is said to eat them or take them now sure on December 6 St. Nicholas stage children awaken to find their gifts or nurse their injuries

Stephie 15:35
Okay, so is this like if you have a child if you have a child who does better with positive reinforcement you do St Nicholas and you hope you have a child who does better with negative reinforcement you talk about cramping while

Megan 15:50
they travel like hand in hand like they go together they go together and then you know depending on I guess you know if you have other who Elf on the Shelf really report right if you have two kids in your household and one’s good and what’s bad you know they have to go to the same house I

Stephie 16:05
guess Okay,

Megan 16:06
so cramps pop celebrations are they’re popular in Austria Germany, which makes sense because that’s where St Nicholas is mostly celebrated it’s mostly Germanic holiday.

Stephie 16:15
Okay, that’s you’re gonna say something mean about German people? Why that made sense but no

Megan 16:23
so but it’s not all of Germany other Germanic regions have belt nickel, which you remember Yeah.

Stephie 16:32
Remember brush nickel?

Megan 16:34
And you know watch Christmas Chronicles and nickel is the evil not evil mischievous like naughty what? They’re not are they else they’re meant to be elves.

Stephie 16:47
It they’re meant to be elves. Yeah. And Christmas Chronicles. I don’t know if that’s what the actual Belshe nickel is.

Megan 16:53
I don’t think so. Just a person the base was Chronicles Yes,

Stephie 16:57
it’s the naughty elf

Megan 16:59
Yeah. So lots of other cultures have like the evil counterpart basically. And so on December are the evening of December 5 was also known as Crumpler snapped, or Krampus night when adults might also dress up as Krampus to frighten children in their homes.

Stephie 17:21
Just got over Halloween, and now you’re gonna bring me the creepy Krampus

Megan 17:26
also kind of devolved into like, you like the ball bar crawl situation where like adult men like dresses Krampus and get drunk and run wild in the streets, because

Stephie 17:34
locking my doors for that shit. Closing the blinds and locking the doors.

Megan 17:39
I don’t think we’re really that much in danger of like, No, probably not even happening here. I’ve

Stephie 17:44
never seen a Krampus running wild in the streets.

Megan 17:46
Right? So the thing that I was most interested in, in general is that so Krampus is not super well known in the United States becoming more popular, but

Stephie 17:58
probably because of the creepy movies.

Megan 17:59
Right? The thing that I thought was most interesting was how the evolution of Krampus we had, you know, evil Krampus whatever. And then it evolved into Sansa leaving coal.

Stephie 18:15
Okay, I don’t know that they’re like related to beating children was doing well. They’re not

Megan 18:19
directly directly correlated, but obviously

Stephie 18:23
punishment of like, Oh, you were naughty. So you don’t get gifts, you get gold,

Megan 18:26
right? Well, so cold and start out as a punishment gift until like the 1920s. Because prior to that coal was

Stephie 18:33
like useful. You actually needed it to like, stay warm. It’s

Megan 18:37
right. And so prior to that, Santa would bring switches. Sure, for children to be beaten. Right. So that’s related to campus, but I do think that they shifted it to, to Santa like bringing switches or cold or whatever. Because of this, like Western society is becoming more puritanical and being like, we need to not have the devil it’s part of our Christmas celebration,

Stephie 19:05
sadly, not. Hey, we should probably not beat children. Weirdly, that didn’t factor into the decision and it was just let’s not have the devil involved. Right. Like

Megan 19:23
interesting, right? Yeah. So I never would have thought of saying. Um, they also one of the things that I don’t know if you are familiar, but in like Victorian times II number, you’ve probably seen pictures, how all the holidays they would all have like, like postcards like holiday related postcards. And so the postcard industry apparently was like a huge deal in Victorian times. And Oh Krampus was included. Oh in the Krampus postcard and these postcards in Germany on Austria. One of the cards says greetings from Krampus and it shows Krampus. Stuffing a child, a distressed child into his satchel are preparing to hit one with His bundle of birch ducks.

Stephie 20:24
Jesus Christ.

Megan 20:26
Many of these postcards depicted Krampus going after children leaving them away in chains or carrying them off in his pack. Jesus Christ.

Stephie 20:37
Oh,

Megan 20:40
do you feel I mean, because we’ve talked about the Pied Piper was creepy, right? It’s very weird how you think about like Grimms fairy tales, crimps riches? I guess they written more for adults. But like they’re terrifying. If you read the Rachel was

Stephie 20:56
absolutely terrifying. So what?

Megan 21:00
I it’s just interesting how we’re like, you know what, let’s terrify the children. Right to behaving. That’s the best method of parenting that we can possibly think of.

Stephie 21:11
telling you is frightening. We’re fuckin

Megan 21:16
I mean, it was dark. A lot of them died very early. So I guess they had to figure out ways of entertaining themselves. I don’t I don’t know. I don’t know. And so. Also, let’s say I wouldn’t say necessarily X rated. Some of the Victorian cards were a little saucy, a little spicy, a little spicy. And so Krampus cards in the early 20th century, show him punishing children but also proposing to women. Ah, in some cars Krampus is portrayed as a large woman whipping tiny men with her birch sticks and carrying them off in her satchel and another a smiling woman dangles a defeated looking Krampus in the air holding his vanilla birch six behind her back.

Stephie 22:06
Feel like you’re gonna get on board with those more? Yeah, I mean, creepy stealing children one. So weird.

Megan 22:13
It’s weird, because there’s the one where the woman is like defeating Krampus Yeah, just like yeah, and then there’s other one where like, the woman is Krampus where which is it feels like a whole whole lot of like, women are evil. Yes, kind of situation

Stephie 22:28
which, you know, little misogyny thrown in there for good measure? No.

Megan 22:33
But in I mean, so those postcard situated because that was mostly in Europe with the Krampus cards. Then apparently in 2004. A graphic designer decided to have their own decorated Krampus cards and so has one does as one does and so then art show and sort of became like, it was one of the things that kind of led to it. Was this in Europe popular. No, that wasn’t me. Us, um, become sort of ironic icon it says And so, yes, like Etsy has Krampus stuff. There’s the Christmas Krampus movies that are out there. There’s actually more than one Krampus movie.

Stephie 23:17
Yeah, fifth, there’s been a couple over the last several years.

Megan 23:21
There’s like Krampus and then like Krampus returns. Home Scott is in the Krampus movie.

Stephie 23:29
Nobody’s known Toni

Megan 23:30
Collette like famous people are in the Krampus movie.

Stephie 23:35
A

Megan 23:36
Fortran weird. Yeah, yeah. It’s uh, it’s weird to Yeah, he’s like the lead. Yeah. I need to find that. Okay. Adam Scott, what a wild career you’ve had, sir.

Stephie 23:54
Very, very strange. As

Megan 24:01
the cricket synopsis says in the film, a dysfunctional family squabbling causes a young boy to lose his festive spirit, which is you know, like the introductory plot of any Hallmark movie Basically, yes, but doing so unleashes the wrath of Krampus a fearsome horned demonic beast in ancient European folklore Hoon punishes naughty children at Christmastime. As Krampus lays siege to the neighborhood the family must band together to save one another from a monstrous fate luck to each their own, but I will just note that in most of the things that I found, like Krampus is not killed children like he might drag them to hell. But he’s dead he takes them but mostly he beats them. So but in this movie, like obviously a horror

Stephie 24:55
movie, so they had to be like murder people gotta kill some people to kill some people. Oh, I you know, I guess you know if horror movies are your thing. Oh, okay. It’s not my thing. But also like, What a strange thing to watch at Christmas time.

Megan 25:14
Yeah, I mean, I’m sure I would. I would bet that our friend Caleb has probably watched this movie. Oh, probably Caleb and he loves horror movie

Stephie 25:23
exes and let us know.

Megan 25:27
I think it’s what I’m looking at the the plot synopsis. It sounds like it’s one of those ones where it’s like, Was it all a dream?

Stephie 25:35
Oh, right.

Megan 25:35
Yeah, no situation and then it’s like, is it or is it is it is it a dream? Is it not a dream? Yeah, it did not make a ton of money. It made $61 million. What a shock, right. Interesting, though. It says the director had always wanted to do a scary Christmas movie, but the idea did not take form and tell his friends sent him an E card. Okay, the E cards. Roll back to the E commerce says although this according to Doherty happened in the ancient times after the Internet. The project would not be fleshed out until 2011. The movie came out in 2015. Thinking back

Stephie 26:23
to the days when you would hop on and send your little e cards to people.

Megan 26:28
We still get ecards. Sometimes from boomers,

Stephie 26:31
let’s be extremely true. Who you’re getting the cards from? Yeah.

Megan 26:34
I do. Actually. Sometimes I hit you card links from people I don’t know which I’m sure they just right. I get a lot of emails from people that are not me. Yes. And so I’m assuming that’s what it is. But it’s still kind of funny. Oh, Lord, Rotten Tomatoes, gives it a 66% If you’re wondering, look at that. Um, so it’s still you know, alive and well, I guess, I guess in the situation. But the one thing I found that was interesting. Well, I’m

Stephie 27:11
curious about like, if you saw anything about like, if it’s the you know, obviously you said like, it’s getting more popular here in the US. What’s the popularity in like Germany? It’s important popularity still, like he beats children or, like changed it to be not so like,

Megan 27:29
No, I think it’s still the same. Like they still like that’s where like the guys dressing. It’s Krampus and getting drunk and like it’s still like, I think it’s transferred more into like a raucous party like sure dressing. It’s Grampus because I don’t I don’t know if they do Halloween so much over there. Yeah, Halloween is getting bigger. I know in England, right. But I don’t know about the rest of about continental Europe if they do Halloween. So it’s kind of like their right thing for it. But yeah, it’s still like a celebration. Still, like, you know, they have the Krampus running

Stephie 28:02
the running of the parenthesis. Yeah, grandpa, who knows?

Megan 28:06
And yeah, so but I don’t think it is talked about as much but I have seen I know in recent years, like pictures of Christmas celebrations around the world. And there have been, you know, your state Nicholas, and then his buddy career bus traveling together. Which doesn’t make sense to me. On level of like, if you’re gonna have Santi who’s supposed to be the epitome of good or whatever, then you have to have the evil counterpart, because that’s the way it is. Right? Like,

Stephie 28:34
good is only good in contrast to evil. Right?

Megan 28:37
Exactly. Yes. But so there’s been the horror movies, there have been other various things. But I think also part of the reason why it’s getting more popular here is the return to slash growing interest in like paganism and witchy culture and things like that. I think there’s a lot more people thinking about those things. And because it’s tied to the Christmas season, and Solstice and all of that. Some cities have been hosting, festive celebration. I think it’s really interesting that in the UK, at least a lot of the places that we were in a lot of like the products that they sell, it’s a call like they call it the festive season, okay, and you don’t necessarily like say it’s the Christmas season or whatever. Like I have used some like dessert tart things that I bought when I was in Scotland, and they’re labeled like festive bake wells, and they’re clearly Christmas themed. Yeah, but they’re not called Christmas big balls, they

Stephie 29:43
just say or even last holiday. It’s like yeah, stuff

Megan 29:46
interesting, which I think is really nice because it’s a lot more inclusive, ignoring all the rest of the racism that goes on up there. Anyway, a little side note that I appreciated like you said terminal ology, but a city in Alabama Tuscumbia. I don’t know if that is the correct pronounce nation. I owe this town. I’ve never heard it before

Stephie 30:10
anyone from there is listening to this podcast. First of all, hello.

Megan 30:16
Let us know. They have hosted a Dickens themed Christmas event for more than 10 years. Sure. So But last year, Kendall Gilcrest Gil Christ, the owner of hesperian Mystic shop decided to host a festival in nearby Florence, Alabama that celebrated the first festival have you. Okay. So it’s not based on Christianity, obviously, right. And it took his local businesses and then people could take a picture with a seven and a half foot tall Krampus.

Stephie 30:53
Like taking pictures with Santa, let’s be extremely clear, right, right. Or on this My daughter went to we went to go see Santa on Saturday. And I was like, great. Hi, Santa.

Megan 31:03
But so apparently, this festival was a big hit. And so she wanted to host it again this year, but apparently where she lives. There were already like lots of other like holiday events happening in her city. So she reached out to Tuscumbia. To see if she could host it there instead. I guess it’s you know, it’s clear. Nearby, you know, you like if someone Leroy was like, let’s do a bubble. Oh, yeah. And the city was like, sure that sounds great. Whenever they give you a permit and all this, but then Facebook on Facebook. Oh, God. And people lost their minds

Stephie 31:41
because conservatives couldn’t handle

Megan 31:43
Yes. Because you know, it’s clearly not a Christian festival and DevOps, the devil and paganism is evil and all of these things. We

Stephie 31:54
can’t just let people do the things that aren’t harming people. Right? So have Krampus beating children. To be honest with you, the Conservatives probably spank their kids. So honestly, that would probably bother them less than it being the

Megan 32:10
devil. Yes. So they are considering her festival as like an overt promotion of Satanism. And they don’t understand who Krampus was in folklore, in, you know, Scandinavia and Germanic cultures, skins. And it’s not meant to be like a counterpart to the dickens event that they do, which is clearly like a Christmas event. And she even said, it’s not an anti Christian festival. It’s not exclusively pagan.

Stephie 32:41
It’s just a thing.

Megan 32:42
It’s for everyone. It’s not anti anything, right?

Stephie 32:44
You don’t have to go have your picture taken with Krampus. You don’t have to do any of the things. Yeah,

Megan 32:49
it’s just an homage to the origins. You don’t even have to go right.

Stephie 32:53
Shockingly enough. No one’s forcing you to you

Megan 32:55
know, exactly. So the city held a hearing about it. Oh, my jackets, horsey did it was yesterday, or, you know, as we record this yesterday, I believe, um, I guess to hear public comments, even though once you give a permit for an event, like you can’t rescind it. Yeah. And so they it’s not like they could cancel it if they wanted to. But so they had this hearing, so people could complain. And then so go, Christ could be like, Look, this is what it actually is crazy people. So

Stephie 33:29
very Pawnee, Indiana of them.

Megan 33:31
Right. Yeah. I mean, it seems like a really nice way to show that there are other cultures, right? And you’re supporting and like local businesses are involved. I don’t understand the problem. And also, even if these people complaining if their complaint is about the religious aspect of it. If you want freedom of religion,

Stephie 33:57
you have to give it to everybody. Isn’t that one steam? Isn’t that interesting? Megan, and it includes not just you, as Christians that get freedom of religion, everybody gets freedom, weird.

Megan 34:10
And then it includes Satanism. If people are Satanists, they belong to the satanic church. That is their religion, and they have a right to practice have a right to practice and to celebrate, even if that’s what it was like anyone that’s not

Stephie 34:24
it’s like when the they said people that teachers could leave their kids in prayer. And like I kept seeing on tick tock and people were like, so like, we’re gonna get some teachers up here like we need to get some teachers leaving kids and like, Islamic prayers and Jewish prayer.

Megan 34:41
Oh, because of the because of that football coach situation.

Stephie 34:45
Yeah, I think it was and the end there, because there were like, I mean, it doesn’t say that has to be Christian prayer. Like we there are other kinds of prayers like if you got the freedom to pray your prayers. Yeah, everybody else should Get there. Like,

Megan 35:01
yeah, yeah. So luckily it’s still happening because they can’t cancel it. Yeah. And

Stephie 35:10
I’m sure they’ll, I’m sure they’ll get protests or they will

Megan 35:13
probably get protesters or probably get dummies who boycott the businesses that are participating but good for doing it and like not backing down because it sounds like a really fun event to go to like it’s more about learning about all the other things that other countries do at Christmas time. And celebrating winter and like what the Yule is really meant to be about not necessarily about Jesus right it’s the also like, it makes me think back to when we’re talking about how Krampus was a thing and then they evolved it to be like it was just dancing he might give you some coal right whereas like but also the same people these are the same people who are so into the Christianity aspect of it. We’re Santa doesn’t even like play a role

Stephie 36:11
right that they’re like they Yes, yes.

Megan 36:16
If you’re really gonna if you’re gonna be like really overly into the the Christiania aspect of it, like that will be St. Nicholas, which is also the beginning of the month, not December 25. But standard does not play a role in religion whatsoever.

Stephie 36:28
Right.

Megan 36:29
So yeah, so why do you use to hard on? Right, but not like the other thing?

Stephie 36:38
I mean, it does depend on the church too.

Megan 36:40
It does depend on the other on the church some churches are very against that was anti Santa. Yes, I know. Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t

Stephie 36:47
do a lot of people that I grew up with even some of them that are that are still churchgoers or like they do Santa with their kids now, but yeah, growing up it was like no

Megan 36:56
tantas evil to do Christmas trees because Christmas trees are pagan. Yes. Still did Christmas

Stephie 37:00
trees it Yeah. Is that it’s a very picky choosy pick and choose your things man. Yeah, didn’t you know you could just pick and choose the elements you think are correct and that you like the best right? Come on again.

Megan 37:14
I forgot

Stephie 37:17
how it works

Megan 37:22
yeah, so I hope I hope there’s more places that do stuff with crap it’s not that I I don’t personally feel invested in cramping right

Stephie 37:32
we’re not like you’re with a hard on for Krampus but it’s more like what are the other ways that other people celebrate? Yeah, holidays. Yeah, I always Christmas. Yeah, I

Megan 37:40
think that’s more interesting than just being like now.

Stephie 37:43
Does that mean like you know, growing up and I think like you know, growing up we’ve got Christmas and then you learn a little bit about Hanukkah maybe and then maybe you learn about Kwanzaa. Maybe you learn about Kwanzaa. It probably in a racist way, if definitely in a white, super white conservative America. But like, do you think of like those being the three but like, That’s not? That’s really not it like? No, I mean, I think I read something. Lots of other ways that people celebrate the yuletide season. Yes.

Megan 38:13
I mean, they’re something like, I thought I read somewhere, I could be wrong. That added there’s something like 100 holidays or something like that, like during that season from all different cultures. And the fact that we focus solely on one when like, technically, we are still like a 66% Christian quote, unquote, nation, but also that means that there’s a shit ton of people who aren’t. And I do think a lot of the people like we celebrate Christmas as like, a secular holiday anyway. So Right. Oh, capitalism. You would think that it’d be like, you know, we can make more money with like, Krampus stuff. Yeah. So who knows? Maybe it’ll come back around again. Maybe the movie will get like a resurgence and like, the creeping movie doesn’t.

Stephie 39:11
Not over here picking and choosing the things I want, but also like, can we just leave like the children child eating child being one of they may look

Megan 39:17
funny Krampus movie?

Stephie 39:20
Maybe I’d be into that. Yeah, maybe.

Megan 39:24
I feel like you could you could probably do it. They make funny movies about

Stephie 39:27
sort of like a sort of like in Harry Potter. Where with the what’s, what’s it called? Where they? It shows your greatest fear and then you you make it into something you can laugh at. Oh, spears. Do you what I’m talking about for the Bogar? Yeah, the Bogar Yes. Yeah. Thank you. Sort of Bogert buggered up the Krampus.

Megan 39:50
I mean, if you think about it, like the devil, whatever has been depicted in so many things that aren’t just scary, like, especially in cartoon Like Devil is a prominent figure in children’s cartoons yet Looney Tunes Come

Stephie 40:04
on. Yeah.

Megan 40:05
There’s one show that Max was watching. I think it’s the Cuphead show, I don’t know. But the one of the main characters is like the devil, and he’s trying to get the one of the guys souls, the whole series. But he’s just like incompetent and funny. And so like, you could make it funny and it wouldn’t be a thing and

Stephie 40:24
people go loose for style making sexy. I don’t I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I said that I rescind those words. So sorry. I missed the show, though. So anyway, thank you for that. Lovely little lesson, Megan.

Megan 40:55
Yeah, I was interested to learn more about I think, I always want to like celebrate more things in my arsenal to celebrate Krampus. But I’m gonna bring the switches if you kids don’t behave. I just think it’s always interesting about the origins of holidays and the way that we celebrate things. Yes. Yeah, we’re basically like, especially because basically, basically all of our main holidays have, you know, pagan? Yes. Origins. Yeah. Why do you think there are so many rabbits involved in Easter?

Stephie 41:34
egg laying rabbits. Yeah.

Megan 41:38
Hello, paganism. Yes. So, thank you for that. May you dream tonight of not being beaten with a switch?

Stephie 41:50
dragged to hell? Great. Love that.

Megan 41:53
Stephie what is bringing you joy this week?

Stephie 41:56
Um, I went to the bookstore last week. And I bought several books.

Megan 42:03
Excellent. Excellent.

Stephie 42:04
I was one of those where I just like, I had the sounds, and I was like, books can heal my sads. And so I just like walked around the bookstore. Just like grabbing books off the shelf, I think I think I only bought I think he only ended up buying six books. And one of the one of them was a copy of the Westing game. She read the Western game in school.

Megan 42:27
I don’t think I did read it in school. To be honest, I can’t remember. So I feel like it’s one of those books where like, I should have read and that’s why, but I don’t remember that.

Stephie 42:40
I should read it twice. I read it in fourth grade and my like, GT class. And then I read it again in like sixth grade and like regular literature class. And it’s, it was it’s a middle grade book. So I read it in like an afternoon, right? Um, but it was written in the mid to late 70s. And it’s got some real like, like knives out vibes where this like old guy dies, and he leaves his like, names all of these people in essence, like errs but they have to, like, play this game, okay, to the guy that dices name is Sam Weston, and then they have to play the Westing game to like, figure out because he’s like, one of you murdered me. So we have to, if you can name the murderer, then you get my $200 million. And like, whatever. Yeah. And so it’s a it’s like one of those kinds of books. But that was that was a fun to reread. And actually, I was surprised at like how well it’s actually held up there was like, there was like a couple little things. That would not not be written in 2022. Like, that would not be the word choice you would use in 2022. Right. But like, aside from that, it’s actually like, held up really well. So I was fun to read. And then one of the other books that I got that I’m reading right now is house, the house and this really and see, and it is so heartwarming, like, it’s just a delight. And it’s funny because I like I posted a picture on Instagram of my stack of books, I had multiple people because I was like, Can these books cure my sads, and I had multiple people who were like housing, this brilliancy will cure your sad, it is extremely heartwarming. And I’m like, halfway through and I’m like, Yes, it is. So I got to see how it goes. But it’s one of the might make you read because I’m like, this is just lovely. And it’s like, a bit quirky. It’s like It tastes place, like in modern times, but it’s this caseworker for the department in charge of magical youth and so like there’s, you know, there are like magical beans, but it’s got this like, kind of quirkiness to it and the writing and it’s just the light so it is very heartwarming. So that’s making me quite happy right now. Lovely. How about you Megan was great Enjoy.

Megan 45:00
So I guess tangentially related to the book theme without talking about Twitter, cuz

Stephie 45:13
what a shit show.

Megan 45:15
We could be here all day episode. So I have been getting a lot of joy from the green brothers.

Stephie 45:24
Oh my god yes. much all I follow him both

Megan 45:28
on Tik Tok and on Twitter. They do different things on the different channels. Yes. And they’re, they’re both in museum as hell. They’re incredible. And Hank was like drunk tweeting, like the week, the weekend we thought it was all gonna go down. It was incredible. And then John has like he actually has two accounts, where one’s like a sports one and then he has another one and like they both they like rag on each other on Twitter and it’s just there they are hilarious. And also on tick tock. John was doing like basically a series about Dr. Pepper

Stephie 46:05
like yes, he loves well, and he has he has a whole podcast episode about Dr. Pepper and

Megan 46:10
it’s in his book and his his book. Yes. So he’s obsessed with Dr. Pepper. But then people like have been questioning the Dr. Pepper thing recently, for some reason, because people have nothing better to do. And so he did this blind taste test of Dr. Pepper holder knock offs, and that was really funny. And then like the Dr. Pepper museum was,

Stephie 46:28
have you ever done one where it’s I think it’s I think it’s John’s tick tock video. And he’s like, he and Hank were like messing around or something. And then he just like looks back at you just like you can see Hanks forearm and he has a tattoo on his forearm and Hank like turns around and he just sees things for him and he goes oh my god, you attach and that’s like the end of it

I love them so much. writable

Megan 47:03
The funniest part to me not the videos themselves but the fact that I had just watched like one of the ones because it was the one with the Dr. Pepper Museum. If you don’t know Dr. Pepper Museum is in Waco, Texas. Dr. Pepper was invented in Waco Texas you use to I don’t know if you still can be able to get real sugar Dr. Pepper in Waco Texas. Huge deal used to be able to buy like cute little bottles glass bottles six packs.

Stephie 47:33
Through like the Mexican coke. Yes,

Megan 47:35
yes. But I think they were made with Imperial Sugar Imperial sugars made in Houston. But then there was like a whole thing. Dr. Pepper a guy you know, the distributor GABA? I don’t know there’s a whole thing about it. Yeah, saga Rama but somewhat when John was doing his blind taste test of Dr. Pepper knockoffs. He talked about Mr. Pibb and someone in his comments was like, I can’t believe you don’t like Mr. Pibb. We know duck pepper like Mr. Pibb is a generic What are you talking about? And so then he did a whole nother video about how Mr. Pibb is definitely a generic and talking about the qualities of Dr. Pepper with like such passion

Stephie 48:12
he did incredible.

Megan 48:16
Lady the Dr. Pepper Museum is just nodding along in her stitch. But then I swear like that night we got takeout and they asked what I want to drink and I said Thai Dr. Pepper, oregano. I said regular Dr. Pepper. I just want to Dr. Pepper and then they come back and they brought me a Diet Pepsi and I was so offended. Oh, that this is wrong on so many love. I was so offended not just for me. But for John Green who doesn’t know me.

Stephie 48:44
I don’t even like Dr. Pepper. And I was offended because I despise Pepsi. And like Diet Pepsi is even more of an abomination. Like terrible. They took some No. Yeah, I was so offended when you texted that I was like,

Megan 49:01
what? Like I felt I had to go to John Green’s Tech Talk, find a video to comment on and be like, I need to apologize.

Stephie 49:08
This thing happened to me. And I just,

Megan 49:11
I’m so sorry. But they give me a lot of joy I read. So I’ve read Hanks book. I’m currently reading John’s book about every time I go to read I’m like super tired and I made it make it like a page all the way down. Yeah, pristine turtles all the way down. And I’m just like, Okay, well, I’m gonna read this later. And I’ve not gotten very far.

Stephie 49:33
So I’ve read many of John’s, but I think may actually read all of John’s books and I’m in the middle of Anthropocene reviewed just his newest one, which is not it’s like essays. Yeah, it’s just like a book. Nice. Not his novels. But I have not read Hanks books yet.

Megan 49:49
I tried to pick the one that I thought would be the least a week.

Stephie 49:54
Yeah, yeah, turtles all the way down is not very weepy. There’s another I think I have Another one on my bookshelf. That’s like not particularly Wiebe, but yeah, I’m looking for Alaska and fallen are stars are both quite weepy.

Megan 50:09
Yes. And also, I figured I would read this one because they did make a movie for turtles. And so you’re coming out sometime.

Stephie 50:17
Yeah. When I read The Fault in Our Stars, I was living by myself with my two cats. And I was like crying so hard that the cats were like, What the fuck is wrong? We’re sitting on the end of the bed looking at me like there’s something wrong with this lady. Sure. Help us. So next week, we’ll be back with another episode. Until then, you can rate and review us on Apple podcasts, find us on social media, IRSIpodcast or send us an email at I’d rather stay in podcast@gmail.com We’d love to hear from you. Bye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai