Alt-right provacateur Ben Shapiro spoke out about his anger over the Hulu holiday movie Happiest Season for its supposed violation of "religious sensibilities."
The film—the protagonists of which are a lesbian couple—is the first such mainstream Christmas movie to be produced by Hollywood. It has accordingly taken the season by storm.
But Shapiro, speaking on his podcast The Ben Shapiro Show, called the film an affront to a "religious holiday" that "treats [conservatives] like a fool."
Shapiro—who was born into an Orthodox Jewish family and still self-identifies as Jewish—could make the point the constant focus of December themed holiday films on only the Christian-based holiday when Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Druidism, various other pagan religions, etc... also have holidays in December was an affront to the traditions of all those religions.
The focus of networks and streaming services is on Christmas which commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ—the Messiah of only the Christian religion and not Judaism, Islam or any of the other religions with important holidays in December.
Except that wasn't the focus of Shapiro's complaint.
The film stars Kristen Stewart and Mackenzie Davis as a lesbian couple struggling to come out to Davis' conservative politician parents, played by Mary Steenburgen and Victor Garber.
The film, written and directed by out-lesbian actress and filmmaker Clea Duvall, has received several positive reviews and been hailed by many as a landmark in LGBTQ representation in media, a characterization Shapiro took issue with.
While Shapiro acknowledged that it's a "free country" and Hulu can "do what it wants," he derided the film as inappropriate for a religious holiday.
"Typically, when you're talking about a religious holiday—which is what Christmas is. I mean it is a secular holiday for many Americans but it also happens to be a religious holiday—typically you celebrate that by, you know, celebrating things that don't cut against a lot of religious sensibilities."
Shapiro seemed not to realize the ways he contradicted himself in his statement, before going on to castigate Hollywood as a whole for actively trying to offend conservatives.
"Hollywood only wants... to make the kind of movies that slap your sensibilities in the face and treat you like you're a fool."
Shapiro, who has popularized use of the term "snowflake" for liberals and the slogan "facts don't care about your feelings" when railing against their ideals, closed his comments by admitting he had not seen Happiest Season and then misrepresenting its plot entirely.
"...the movie is all about how a conservative family learns that all of their religious values has been a bunch of crap for years."
No character espouses any religious view of any kind in the film nor does Davis' character's family specify adherence to any particular political party.
On Twitter, people were not impressed with Shapiro's two cents about the film or religious hypocrisy.
Happiest Season ended up premiering on Hulu due to the ongoing pandemic.
But the film—backed by Sony Tri-Star Pictures—is the first LGBTQ-themed feature film produced by a major Hollywood studio as a mainstream, commercial release.
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