Viewers Are Annoyed By Tim Allen's 'Merry Christmas' Joke In The Santa Clauses

In a new mini-series called "The Santa Clauses" on Disney Plus, Tim Allen returns to play Scott Calvin, A. K. A. Santa Claus, as he did in the films "The Santa Clause" (1994), "The Santa Clause 2" (2002), and "The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause." In the first movie, Santa Claus visits Scott Calvin and his son on Christmas Eve, but he falls off their roof and dies. Scott then finds a card on Santa explaining that Scott has now inherited the role and will become the new Santa. 

Scott gradually gains weight, grows a white beard, and undergoes other physical and emotional changes until he completely transforms into Santa, visits the North Pole, and takes over flying all around the planet to deliver presents to children. Across the three feature films, Scott is confronted with all manner of instances that would dampen the holiday season, but he and his family always solve things just in time for Christmas — with no shortage of jokes along the way.

Only this time, in the new series, some of the jokes have proven a source of trouble. In "The Santa Clauses," Scott is confronted with the task of finding a new Santa to become his successor when he can no longer serve the role. However, even though the first couple of episodes haven't been out long, viewers are already annoyed by one of Tim Allen's jokes in "The Santa Clauses."

In one scene from "The Santa Clauses," Scott Calvin (Tim Allen) looks a little bit down, so someone asks if something is bothering him. Scott replies that he is fine, except that "Saying 'Merry Christmas to all' has suddenly become problematic."

Filmmaker Scott Weinberg posted about the line on Twitter, saying, "I'll say Christmas specifically if I know they celebrate it. otherwise 'happy holidays' works very well. people say 'Merry Christmas' to me all the time, but I don't celebrate Xmas. if I were Fox News I would shriek every single time I heard it." Other commenters on Twitter seemed to agree with Weinberg, feeling that most people don't get upset if someone says "Merry Christmas" to them, even if they don't celebrate it.

In an interview with Deadline, "The Santa Clauses" creator Jack Burditt was asked about the inclusion of the "Merry Christmas" joke and whether or not the team went back and forth on keeping it in. He said, "Yeah, we did. This is something that I just think is silly but then I'm like, I don't know..."

While "The Santa Clauses" may not have intentionally wanted to stir the Christmas pot this early in the season, here's hoping the rest of the series will take viewers' minds off of the potentially overblown controversy.