a snowman gots a heart (frosty’s sad existentialism)

the  holiday vlog, a snowman gots a heart, is the most recent addition to the richyrocks youtube channel.  it analyzes the lyrics and music of the chritmas carol a snowman has a heart by the peppermint kandy kids. gots is often substituted for has, as a result of the has got structure that can replace the verb have.  it’s not good grammar, but is common, especially with little kids.

a carol is a christmas song.

the album cover for frosty the snowman by the peppermint kandy kids

the third track on this peppermint kandy kids album is a snowman has a heart.

to understand a snowman has a heart,  u must know a little about a much more famous christmas carol, frosty the snowman.  it tells the story of a group of children who build a snowman that comes to life.  they play for an afternoon, then frosty leaves. a beloved 1969 television special expanded the idea to a 23 minute story.

frosty the snowman
frosty the snowman as he looks in the famous tv special (advanced graphics.com)

a snowman gots a heart, from :40 to :50 lists several details that

give the idea that the snowman with the heart, is frosty himself.

himself here emphasizes that we are talking about the same snowman.

fun elt practice :) richyrocks english on youtube

one of the most important realities that frosty the snowman faces is melting, turning from snow to water. at 1:28 addresses this with the comment that frosty is at a  high risk of melting. melting is in the -ing form because of is a preposition.

a snowman melting

melting: every snowman’s greatest fear. (drawception.com)

at 1:46, there is a compliment for the peppermint kandy kids

let’s give it up for the groovy instrumentation.

give it up for means recognize, applaud. groovy (cool, great) is a word associated with the hippie days of the late 1960s and early 1970s that is still used today.  as the video explains, a snowman has a heart was released in 1972.

groovy peace symbol

the observation at 2:00 is that

the drum kicks in only in the chorus.

kick in means enters, joins the rest of the music.

at 3:00 and 3:15, there are references to frosty singing out loud. out loud means audibly.

a teacher reading out loud to students

a teacher reading out loud to her students

like the video points out, the vocabulary in the verse that is read from 3:18 to 3:31 is full of great vocab.

and oh the fuss to dress me up in things a snowman wears; a hat, a broom, a long, long scarf; but they can’t see what’s hidden there.

fuss is excessive, unnecessary attention. dress up refers to putting clothes on the snowman. wear is the verb to use when talking about the clothes someone has on, NOT use.  a scarf is a piece of clothing worn around the neck for warmth.  what’s hidden is passive voice. (what’s  is a contraction of what is, hidden is the irregular past participle of hide).

a classic snowman

a snowman holding a broom and wearing a hat and a long, long scarf (dreamstime.com)

in addition, what´s hidden there along with introspection (self-examination), metaphysical (spiritual), existentialism (concerns about existence) all point to the troubled emotional state that frosty the snowman is in.

introspection definition and photograph

a visual for one type of introspection

similarly, at 3:45,  the statement that

frosty really, really hammers home the neglect he’s feeling from the kids.

hammer home means emphasize the importance of. neglect is a lack of attention.

mario using a hammer

the idea of hammer home is related to hammers.

spoken word is a common technique in popular music where the singer speaks instead of singing. at 4:30, the analysis of the spoken word in a snowman has a heart mentions the piano solo that leads up to (precedes) it.  the piano solo is groovy and at the same time, really corny (excessively sentimental, cheesy). corniest, the superlative of corny is used at 4:40 as part of the description of the song:  too sad for mainstream christmas celebrations and the corniest fucking thing on the planet. mainstream means  conventional, standard, the opposite of underground.

when frosty says he wouldn’t mind staying outside, (4:52 in the video) it means it wouldn’t bother him, it would be ok. in this iconic temple of the dog song, chris cornell and eddie vedder express the same idea (but using present continuous) when they both admit several times in the lyrics that they don’t mind stealing bread.

at 5:25 , another opinion about the video is that a snowman has a heart

coulda just as easily been a song about a toilet brush

coulda is a reduction of could have. this is an example of third conditional, i.e. a hypothetical situation in the past. this christmas carol imagines a snowman with feelings and wants listeners to feel bad about not paying enough attention to those feelings. but hypothetically, u could say that any object in a house has feelings, e.g. a toilet brush.

in this bathroom, it’s the toilet seat that gots a heart.

that perspective is the motivation for the criticism of the peppermint kandy kids and frosty at 5:43 on the richyrocks video

peppermint kandy kids, come on. frosty, don’t put that on the kids.

put on in this context means hold them responsible for it, blame them.

a snowman with a heart
(embroidery inc library)

what do u think of a snowman has a heart? does it fill u with christmas spirit? or is it the corniest fucking thing on the planet? are there other confusing words or phrases in the  a snowman gots a heart vlog?  share your feelings under leave a reply


 

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