Seth Rogen’s “woke” Christmas HBO special pushes replacing white male Santa

Seth Rogen and Sarah Silverman are starring in an adult cartoon comedy Santa, Inc. which centers around a retiring Santa Claus choosing a successor that is neither white nor male.

Silverman plays Candy Smalls, a female elf that is No. 2 at the North Pole under Santa, played by Rogen. When Santa’s successor who is a black male, is poached by Amazon, Candy attempts to step up and convince everyone why she should be the first female Santa Claus.

“There have been many Santa Clauses throughout history. Some were loved, others loathed. But the position of Santa has mostly been a white man’s game,” says a character to Candy in a trailer released last week.

The trailer quickly drew criticism for its crass visuals and prolific swearing and vulgarity, which clashes with its stop-motion animation style reminiscent of other Christmas classics, like 1964’s Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Another female elf is shown flashing her naked breasts to Santa as he walks down a red carpet, who responds “You’re on my naughty list.” Santa’s executive board pee in the snow together at an executive retreat.

Viewers also criticized the blatant leftism of the material. Rogen has been outspoken and pushed the boundaries of his liberal politics, once calling half-Cuban Sen. Ted Cruz a “white supremacist” and bragging about how he had insulted former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan in front of his children.  

Rogen has confessed he does not know much about Christmas, having been raised Jewish and going to a Jewish school. He went on to say he and his school peers considered Santa believers “dumb fucks” and takes a “perverse pleasure” in informing children that he is not real.

“Santa, Inc.” will run eight episodes and is produced by Rogen’s Point Grey Pictures. It is the latest of the adult cartoon comedies that made him famous, beginning with the surprise 2016 hit Sausage Party.

The show was written by Alexandra Rushfield, showrunner of Shrill, a comedy on Hulu about an overweight woman trying to get by in the modern world.