Bigotry Under The Christmas Tree! (A Special Holiday Special)

 

It's that time of year again, dear listener! There's a chill in the air. Festive carols are being sung by open fires, and somewhere there are chestnuts also roasting on open fires. Maybe the chestnuts are roasting on the same open fires by which carols are being sung by these overly eager fans of this most wonderful time of year. That would be more convenient, at any rate. Listening to some cherubic pricks singing "Jingle Bell Rock" for a few minutes while standing out in the freezing cold, and eating a charred handful of horrible, horrible chestnuts at the same time? That's a holiday bargain, friends. 

It's Christmastime, everybody! That's exciting, right? What do the holidays mean to you, dear listener? How do you observe this delightful little thing we call Christmas? Do you go out on a long drive, gazing longingly at all the festively-decorated houses in your hometown? Perhaps you throw a big Yuletide bash each year, inviting everybody you've ever met and their dogs for hours and hours of peppermint-flavored frivolity? Maybe you just sit at home with your loving family and watch a few cheerful holiday movies on Hallmark Channel, which is something a whole lot of people do every year. That's basically what this very special episode of TRAPPO is all about, dear listeners. Once upon a time, I used to run another blog, and on that other blog, I had a regular feature each holiday season I called Schlock-Mas, because I have always been a very clever individual. 

"I" is Dustin, by the way, in case you were confused. I'm the only one who ever posts anything on this blog. Ky, my co-host, doesn't deal with this blog or social media, so all of this is just me. I tend to type using "we" other than "I" on this blog and on social media because TRAPPO is its own entity and I usually like to keep things brief here, but this time around I'm dropping the pretense and just directly addressing you as myself because this is really a personal subject for me. If you're morbidly curious and would like to sample some of my Schlock-Mas reviews, you may do so by clicking here, and I highly suggest you do so if you want to witness a slow-motion descent into madness (if you read the reviews in chronological order). 

The following episode of TRAPPO deals with cheerful made-for-television holiday movies, but not in the way you may assume. Media entities like Hallmark Channel and their ilk exist largely outside of what we traditionally see as the "Hollywood system", and as such most of the behind-the-scenes operations of these networks is largely unreported by entertainment media. But sometimes, things happen in this insular world that just blow up and become more widely known. In 2019, a rather large story broke that caused quite a stir in the entertainment industry, with the ramifications of that story still being felt today, both on Hallmark Channel, its sister networks, and a brand-new upstart family television network known as Great American Family that is celebrating its first holiday season on the air this year. There's a story here, a story that, for whatever reason, I wanted to share with all of you dear listeners this holiday season. 

Why? Because it's Christmas. 

You deserve to know all about what's going on behind the scenes here: the good, the bad, and the ugly, and I'm sharing everything I know on today's episode, which deals with Christian conservatives, homophobia, racism and general bigotry, so if you don't want to hear about these heavy subjects during your holiday break, feel free to skip this episode. It's perfectly all right. We've got a big Christmas special episode coming up on Sunday, and it's a lot lighter than this one, so don't feel like you have any obligation to listen to this. The audio quality is also a pretty major issue here, since there are a host of inherent issues with the recording, and I minimized them as much as I possibly could, but it just doesn't sound as good as it really should, which is problematic since the final episode is forty-one minutes long. 

It's a bit of a rant, dear listeners, and not a terribly humorous one, so I'm basically telling you not to listen to this episode of TRAPPO. I'm doing a real bang-up job at this whole self-promotion thing, friends! But this episode is all about Christmas, in a roundabout way, so consider it my gift to you. If you don't want it, you can just toss it right in the dumpster, no harm, no foul. It's the thought that counts, dear listeners! You can avoid the episode below, or you can ignore it on Apple, Google, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic, Spotify, Anchor and Amazon, so choose your own adventure and find something better to do than listen to TRAPPO this holiday weekend!

Normally here, I'd ask you to join the conversation below, but do I really need to bother this time? You don't have to worry about commenting on this episode. I'll leave the comments open if there's anything you'd like to contribute, but don't worry about sharing your two cents here unless there's really something you've got to get off your chest. We've all got better things to do, right? Celebrate the holidays. Spend time with your families and friends. Live your lives. Don't worry about commenting on our dumb blog this weekend. Don't send us an email. Don't follow us on Instagram. Just enjoy the holiday weekend in whatever way you choose. 

Happy holidays, everybody. Celebrate however you want. Just keep it weird.