| Genre: | Comedy |
| Creator: | Alexandra Rushfield |
| Director: | Harry Chaskin |
| Voices: | Sarah Silverman Seth Rogen |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Num Seasons: | 1 |
| Num Episodes: | 8 |
| Music: | Anna Waronker |
| Network: | HBO Max |
Santa Inc. is an American stop-motion adult animated Christmas comedy television miniseries created by Alexandra Rushfield that premiered on December 2, 2021, on HBO Max. As of 2022 it is no longer available to stream.
The story follows Candy Smalls, a female elf who's currently working as a second-in-command of the North Pole, as she goes for her ultimate goal to become a successor as the first female Santa.[1]
The stop motion animation is produced by Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, who also created Robot Chicken.[2]
Santa Inc. was panned by critics.
Daniel D'Addario of Variety wrote that the series' reliance on raunchy humor led to it "feeling dour and heavy, a televised lump of coal". He felt that telling jokes about reindeer being methamphetamine addicts and Mrs. Claus being a stripper "doesn’t say anything, really; it just suggests a readiness to provoke". He was more approving of plot elements about a female character seeking to rise in a hostile workplace.[3]
Writing for The Hollywood Reporter, Daniel Fienberg praised the parody of corporate culture, but called the sexual jokes "repetitive and self-satisfied". He also did not find the humor to have good shock value, unlike a recent Christmas special of Big Mouth.[4]
Mira Fox of The Forward gave a negative review, criticizing the massive amount of raunchy humor and Holocaust jokes, poor plot, lazy stereotypes of Jews, and ultimately poor message of the show, saying "You might think that this Christmas series made by two famous Jews would have some greater message about antisemitism or Christianity's hegemony in the U.S. But instead Silverman, too, has reduced Jewishness to a handful of hackneyed stereotypes in Santa, Inc.[5]
Joel Keller in an article for Decider wrote that the series is "more raunchy than it is merry", and came close to being "gratuitously dirty", but praised the story and the series' take on gender politics.[6]
Barbara Ellen of The Guardian in a mixed review wrote that the show used "such a relentless bombardment of pointless crudity...the humor is all but flattened", and that ultimately the comedy was "funniest when it's not dirty".[7]
Seth Rogen was subject to criticism when he claimed that the generally negative reception the series received was review bombing by "tens of thousands of white supremacists".[8]
Some viewers also have said that it is similar to Syfy's series "The Pole", another adult animation show about the political power struggle of becoming Santa Claus, the only difference is the rivalry between Santa and his oldest son Jack (calls himself "Black Jack") who only wants to become the new Santa so he could have total control of the North Pole.
After being uploaded to YouTube, the trailer for the series received over 20,000 dislikes, while its comment section had been the target of brigading by commenters making antisemitic and Holocaust-denial jokes. Commenters targeted Silverman and Rogen's Jewish background and took aim at the series' supposed "woke" messaging. In response, YouTube disabled the video's comments and hid its dislike count, stating that commenters had violated the site's guidelines against hate speech.[9]