The Producer of ‘Elf’ Explains Why It Became a Classic While Other Holiday Comedies Have Flopped

Not every Christmas movie becomes a timeless classic. For every It’s A Wonderful Life, there are countless pieces of shit that may or may not star Kelsey Grammer. One of the few films of the 21st century to become a seasonal staple is Elf, the Will Ferrell comedy about a human child who’s cognitive development is upended by the rigid dictums of North Pole society.

People love Elf so much that it’s spawned a musical stage adaptation, children’s books and even a breakfast cereal that sadly isn’t just spaghetti mixed with maple syrup.

Why has Elf succeeded where other Christmas comedies have failed miserably? The film’s producer has a theory.

In a recent interview with Crosswalk.com, which is a website for Christians, not urban pedestrians, apparently, Elf co-producer (and current “faith-based” filmmaker) Todd Komarnicki recalled that the movie didn’t catch on right away. “It was sort of received with a chuckle when it came out,” Komarnicki explained. “About seven or eight years in, I realized it was not going away and that it was increasing in its level of appreciation.” He also revealed that director Jon Favreau’s pitch was to make nothing less than “a Christmas classic.”

As for why the film continues to resonate with people more than other Yuletide comedies, Komarnicki speculated that it has to do with the character of Buddy the Elf, and his unflappable optimism. “American comedy for at least the last 30 years has been the comedy of humiliation,” Komarnicki argued. “At its lowest form (it’s a) kick in the crotch. And even a very beautifully written and wonderful show that I love Everybody Loves Raymond — like The Honeymooners — (it’s) humiliate the husband. Dad is stupid — somehow, we’ve got to bail you out.”

While that claim is debatable (and extremely reductive), he went on to explain that “what Elf has is the opposite. Elf is a comedy of hope and heart. The main guy, the one that would normally be the one that’s humiliated, is made of Teflon joy. He can’t be humiliated. And in fact, the darkness that comes at him gets transformed into light. That’s why the movie stuck around. Because A, it feels good to watch that, and B, that’s what we really hope in our heart of hearts would happen in our own lives.”

He’s right on that point: Buddy really is a different sort of protagonist compared to other Christmas movies from the early aughts, which typically mined laughs from humanity’s very worst characteristics. Take 2006’s Deck the Halls, in which Matthew Broderick and Danny DeVito ruin Christmas with their competitive decorating (and inadvertently incestuous creepiness).

Same goes for 2004’s Christmas with the Kranks, the movie where Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis are cosmically punished for daring to not celebrate Christmas one year.

Not to mention Fred Claus, which was about a selfish dickweed and his petty brother who happens to be Santa Claus. The script clearly borrowed a lot of story elements from Elf, but somehow it resulted in a soulless abomination. 

Let’s just say we’re probably not getting Fred Claus cereal anytime soon.