Every year there are arguments caused by certain Christmas songs.
The annual ‘They’ve ruined Fairytale of New York by removing the gay slur’ crowd seem to start up earlier and earlier every year.
And since the uproar about ‘Baby it’s Cold Outside’ a few years ago, interest in the song has basically fallen off a cliff.
But the very worst Christmas song ever made makes those songs seem angelic in comparison.
Oh and this song was made by a novelty singer: Tiny Tim.
Who was Tiny Tim
If you are below a certain age, you have almost certainly never heard of this artist.
I’m 31, and the only reason I know of him is because the first episode of Spongebob Squarepants uses a Tiny Tim song, Living in the Sunlight, for the final scene.
Tiny Tim was the stage name of Herbert Butros Khaury, who was a comedic singer/songwriter.
He did covers of famous songs as well as writing his own parody songs. He sang in a high-pitched, falsetto voice and played the ukelele.
He rose to fame and popularity in the 1960s because he was rather family friendly and made nice-sounding, silly music.
His arguably biggest hit, Tiptoe Through the Tulips, was released in 1968 and was his comedic parody of the original song released in 1928.
This was his schtick, really. Tiny Tim could sing in an incredibly high-pitched voice but still sound very good, so used it to cover famous songs.
I suppose you could he was kind of like the Weird Al of his era.
Fitting then that Weird Al would narrate the Tiny Tim documentary.
The stage name, Tiny Tim, by the way, was an ironic joke because Khaiury was actually 6 ft 1 inch tall.
The worst christmas song ever written
Anyway, enough of the artist, we’re here to talk about a Christmas song.
So, what was this Christmas song he created and why was it so bad?
Well, I think I can sum it up pretty quickly by telling you the title.
Santa Claus has got the AIDs this year.
Yes, seriously.
Lyrics
I will keep this section brief, because there aren’t really many lyrics in the whole song, and one verse is enough to give you a sense of the song as a whole.
“Santa Claus has got the AIDS this year,
Santa Claus has got the AIDs This Year, Tiny Tim
And he won’t be ’round to spread his Christmas cheer,
The reindeer all look blue,
They know what he’s going through,
Santa Claus has got the AIDS this year”
That is kind of how the whole song goes.
- Title line
- Reference to something Santa-related
- Turning the message to a negative one
- Title lyric
The song was released in 1985 by the way, right as the AIDs epidemic was spreading, killing thousands of people each year and causing LGBT people to be demonised and ostracised by society as a whole.
This song isn’t punching down, it’s dropping heavy objects to people already in a pit.
The song doesn’t tell any meaningful story about the person (Again, SANTA), living with AIDs.
Nor does it really try to say anything about AIDs, just simply that Santa Claus has it.
Also, I find it very weird that he mentions that Santa has it ‘this year’, as if he will be fine again by next year.
There may be some breakthroughs in AIDs treatment nowadays, but at the start of the crisis was a different story.
Honestly it just seems to me that Tiny Tim had heard about AIDs, realised that it was becoming quite a Big Thing, and thought that in itself meant that the virus warranted a parody song.
It did not.
But let’s be honest, what do you expect from an artist who named himself after a sick and dying child from a Christmas Carol?!
Clearly festive suffering was right at the front of the artists mind.
What was he thinking?
Well, thats a good question.
First off, let’s mention that Tiny Tim, despite being remembered now as a silly parody musician, was a very odd fellow.
He was kind of an alt musician, part of the counter culture, making friends with Bob Dylan and he got his first gig working in an LGBT club in Greenwich Village. he was a Maverwick, doing what he wanted.
Maybe he did have a reason for making this god-forsaken song at the time. if he did, they are known to him alone and are lost to time.
Reportedly (although I cannot find any evidence to back this up), Tiny Tim tried to defend the song by claiming it was actually about Ayds, an appetite-suppressant candy.
Which just makes zero sense.
The word is spelled different in the title of the song, for a start. Plus, none of the lyrics even makes sense if you believe this and think he’s singing about a snack.
Several sources I found claim that this song was released in 1980. If this is the case then the song CAN’T be avoid the AIDs epidemic, because it wasn’t an epidemic yet. The acronym AIDs wasn’t even coined until 1982!
It seems that the song was initially released in 1986 along with the song ‘She gave me the herpes’, which to me kinda cements the idea that this song was about the disease, rather than the candy bar.
Wrap Up
Tiny Tim seems to have been ill-informed about AIDs at the very least. It seems that Tiny Tim thinks AIDs is like the flu and a person will get over it in time.
Hence the title ‘Santa Claus has got the AIDs this year’, rather than ‘Santa Claus has a life-long illness’.
He probably didn’t realise just how offensive he was being, but that doesnt really count for much.
‘Santa Claus has got the AIDs this year’ is a bad song.
A very bad song.
It’s in bad taste, staggeringly blasé about a horrific disease and has nothing to say. And on top of that, the song doesn’t even sound good.
It’s just awful and I encourage you to listen to literally any other Christmas song instead.
