Tooth Fairy--A Cultural Shift?
When did the tooth fairy become a guy in drag?
I was watching TV today (I have a cold, TV is about what I want to do) and this guy wearing a pink tutu and tennis shoes and carrying a wand has a little trouble with a girl's bedroom window. I figure twenty years ago I'd have been thinking it was a pretty threatening situation--some weird fetish dude going after a little girl. But I recognized instantly that the guy was the tooth fairy. (In a credit card commercial, actually.)
I remember the first time I saw a commercial where the tooth fairy was a middle-aged guy. It was funny in a low key, deadpan kind of way. But now, the tooth fairy just looks that way, the way Santa Claus looks the way he looks.
Which is kind of weird. I mean, I get the play on the term 'fairy' but still. Is this what America wants floating into it's children's bedrooms at night and swapping molars for quarters?
posted by Maureen McHugh at 9:59 PM
8 Comments:
As long as they don't start switching him out for the Tooth Pedophile, I'm cool with him.
Quarters? Ha!
In our house the tf brings portraits of Sacagawea.
Different people think different ways. When I was a kid, I remember discussing with my best friend what we would do if we saw a 6 inch dough boy in the kitchen. We decided we'd smash it with a frying pan. I bet that you'd bake it Maureen.
Levin
I was always frightened by that little glove in the Hamburger Helper commercials. Not only because it was just so damned weird, but because Hamburger Helper was so gross, and a staple in my family's diet at one point. ;-)
Art Lafleur played the Tooth Fairy in a couple of the Santa Clause movies:
http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0480869/
I don't think he was the first male, but he's close.
D
Maureen, I direct you to "Barnaby and Mr. O'Malley":
http://www.k-state.edu/english/nelp/purple/characters/cartoons.html
"Barnaby and the Purple Crayon" is a better known work by Crockett Johnson, but "Barnaby and Mr. O'Malley" is the Ur-Barnaby.
Maureen, I direct you to "Barnaby and Mr. O'Malley":
http://www.k-state.edu/english/nelp/purple/characters/cartoons.html
"Barnaby and the Purple Crayon" is a better known work by Crockett Johnson, but "Barnaby and Mr. O'Malley" is the Ur-Barnaby.
You know how some kids love the tooth fairy more these days compared to Santa Claus? Kids these days. Haha! They would prefer the money over a gift on Christmas. Even to the point that they wish that they could lose another tooth after they just lost one.
Anyway, I've watched a movie (conveniently) called "Tooth Fairy" starring a wrestler we all know: The Rock. My friend was the one who told me about this after his visit to that dentist Colorado Springs has. He said it was a good movie, but he said it's better if the Tooth Fairy was the classic woman-in-a-tutu-with-butterfly-wings. LOL!
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