Frosty may be a jolly, happy soul, but his wholesome fan base is more than a little aggrieved.
The ever-offended Parents Television Council is doing its part to spread the holiday jeer, singling out a couple of CBS cross-promotional ads as an example of, well, pretty much everything that's wrong with the world today.
Still, good to know they're keeping their priorities in order.
The ads, promoting the classic holiday specials Frosty the Snowman and Frosty Returns on CBS later this month, are dubbed over with some sassy dialogue from Two and a Half Men and How I Met Your Mother.
Apparently seeing Frosty muse on down-there rashes, the doability of grandmas, orgies, bulimia, bros' nights at strip clubs, porn collections as the greatest gift of all and punching babies does not an acceptable promo make for the PTC, even when the spots are clearly parodies.
"It's either ignorance or arrogance, but I can't imagine the folks at the once-Tiffany network should think this is OK," PTC president Tim Winter told (who else?) Fox News. "Someone had to write it and someone had to approve it. It speaks to the decisions that are being made at CBS these days."
Too bad he didn't stick around to the end of the ad. Irony alert! The tagline on both reads: "Some things are better left untouched."
Still, Winter is demanding the ads be pulled, saying they're a typical example of the network doing "everything they can to be offensive rather than creative."
He has an ally in Morality in Media president Bob Peters, who also gave his two cents to the fair-and-balanced team.
"CBS is doing much the same thing that alcohol and tobacco companies have done in the past—namely, using imagery in advertising that would naturally attract children in order to market an adult product," he said.
Except Frosty isn't an adult product, and, perhaps not needless to say, the actual airing of the perennial favorite will not be dubbed over by Charlie Sheen or Neil Patrick Harris.
"Legal matters aside, it should go without saying that CBS TV ought to be ashamed of itself—using an animated Christmas season setting, complete with young children, to chat about strippers, whores, pornography, sadomasochism, sexual promiscuity, and more."
All that being said, we're guessing CBS will have no problem pulling the ad. On Dec. 19. The day after the Frosty specials air.
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Frosty's ready for the holidays...are you? Check out your entertainment options in our 2009 Holiday Movie Guide.