Sunday, September 02, 2007

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?

8 Comments:

Blogger Jackie M. said...

As long as they don't start switching him out for the Tooth Pedophile, I'm cool with him.

September 02, 2007 11:29 PM  
Blogger Steven Gould said...

Quarters? Ha!

In our house the tf brings portraits of Sacagawea.

September 03, 2007 1:41 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

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

September 03, 2007 11:11 PM  
Blogger Christopher Barzak said...

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. ;-)

September 04, 2007 2:00 AM  
Blogger Derryl Murphy said...

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

September 04, 2007 4:05 PM  
Blogger Eileen Gunn said...

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.

September 19, 2007 12:59 AM  
Blogger Eileen Gunn said...

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.

September 19, 2007 1:00 AM  
Anonymous Ed McGoldrick said...

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!

March 23, 2011 2:41 AM  

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