Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl wardrobe malfunction may have been embarrassing but it pales in comparison to Santa getting his beard in a knot while repelling down a rope in front of a crowd of children and their parents. Children and parents had to watch as this Santa stripped while dangling from a rope at the Palm Beach Gardens Mall.
Not to kick a guy when he is down up but he really did not cut a particularly Santa-like image wearing sneakers. The descent was also far from magical even without the beard getting caught in the rope. As for the kids, the only explanation as Santa took off his beard and outfit is: “this just shows how incredible the real Santa is . . . right kids? Right? Kids?”
I think that was Santa’s helper, Subordinate Claus.
“He was a stunt guy hired for the “spectacular” entrance”
I wonder what the qualifications are for “stunt guy for hire.” Getting a wide variety of stuff jammed in the rope is a pretty basic issue for people who have much familiarity with rappelling. Maybe he would have fared better if the gag had been “Santa catches on fire” instead?
I guess that folks who “sport rappel” (yes, there is such a thing – I think you get free passes when you drink a certain amount of Mountain Dew) don’t have the same experience with rappelling as rock climbers. When you do multi-pitch routes (climbs that are several rope lengths long), you often have to make the same number of rappels to get down. It’s the end of the day, you’re tired, it’s getting dark and/or a lightning storm is coming, and you have all the gear you needed to get up the climb hanging off of you as you’re rappelling down. There’s a lot to keep track of and a lot of things that can go wrong. (Getting stuck on a rope in a storm can be just as fatal as falling.) That’s a big part of why a lot of rock climbers view rappelling down as more dangerous than climbing up.
Not taking care to prevent stuff from getting jammed in the device is a totally noob error, and should have been an obvious concern to this guy who was decked out in all sorts of dangly clothing.
(Ohhhh… man, I guess I’m feeling pretty Grinch-y today.)
That he arrived on the ground alive demonstrates that it’s not possible to die of embarrassment. In this case, at least.
He was a stunt guy hired for the “spectacular” entrance … the TV News program said the real Santa arrived as planned. I think, because of the decorations (the light post in the stuntman’s vid. and the throne in this second video) that this is the same place showing the actual Santa arriving. This vid was posted to youtube the day after the first vid.
If you have time, watch to the end … the two little boys in dark glasses are adorable.
Hilarious…
Now that was funny…
Memories…. The things were….
I guess Santa didn’t take the basic class at the local mountaineering club, if he had done so, he would have learned one of the primary rules of rappelling: Keep all hair and loose clothing or other items away from the rappelling device; otherwise, you will get stuck.