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Katelyn Schwarz

Professor Granillo

English 103

3 May 2019

Dreaming of Death: A Psychoanalysis of “Don’t Shoot Me Santa Claus”

When Christmas is near, are you positive you’re on Santa’s nice list? According to the

Killers’ music video “Don’t Shoot me Santa Claus” through the use of psychoanalysis, if you

make one mistake, it’s not santa’s naughty list you have to worry about. Psychoanalysis founded

by Sigmund Freud focuses on many aspects from the human psyche; ranging from dream

interpretation through the use of manifest content and latent content to the Ego and Id. In Killer’s

music video “Don’t Shoot me Santa Claus” it claims that all crimes committed will still be seen

by god; however the song also brings to light that people should recognize their mistakes.

Through the use manifest Content, latent Content, suppression, and the Ego to portray the psyche

of the human, results in motivating the audience to try to forgive themselves so they can ease

their guilt.

For their message to work, the Killer’s targeted audience is middle age men and women

from Las Vegas between the ages of 35-55. During the music video Brandon Flowers states

“Why don’t we talk about it, work it out,” (“The Killers-Don’t Shoot Me Santa Claus” 01:57:00).

Brandon Flowers bargaining with Santa Claus instead of freaking out in a stressful situation is

similar to how adults between the ages of 35-55 act in stressful situations. Thus adults between

the ages of 35-55 are able to see themselves in the song and connect with the it. The targeted

audience is also from Las Vegas; because, Brandon Flowers makes a reference to being the

Mojave rain (“The Killers-Don’t Shoot Me Santa Claus” 01:57:00). Those who are from Las
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Vegas know of the Mojave desert and the climate changes, and would be one of the only few

people to understand that reference in the song. Since the song is talking about mistakes, the one

place in the Mojave desert between Nevada, California, and Arizona that many people would

make unforgettable mistakes is in Las Vegas. Therefore making the audience connect with the

song and allowing for the Killer’s message to be heard and the audience will be motivated to

forgive themselves. Not only does the Killers use lyrics from the song to deliver their message

but they do it through dreams.

In order to present their message the music video is portrayed as Brandon Flower’s

dream. In the beginning of the music video, the audience is introduced to a bright light then

everything through the camera is hazy (“The Killers-Don’t Shoot Me Santa Claus” 00:01:00).

When the music video introduces the audience into a bright light then into a hazy viewpoint, this

resembles being in a dream. In Sigmund Freud’s Five Lectures on Psycho-Analysis, he states that

“dreams have been subjected to distortion,” (Freud 35). Thus having the view of the music video

at first be hazy and bright represents the whole music video is a dream. It can be concluded that

this is Brandon Flower’s dream because he is the only one who is tied up(“The Killers-Don’t

Shoot Me Santa Claus” 00:54:00). Showing Brandon flowers the only one tied up represents that

story is revolving around him and what he has done. Continuing through the music video when

the Brandon Flower’s bandmates come to save him, they come out of nowhere in the middle of

the desert (“The Killers-Don’t Shoot Me Santa Claus” 03:15:00). To have traveled and track

Brandon down to a random location in the middle of the desert leads to the question of how they

got there. Did the band members get their by a car? If so then they would not have to steal

Santa’s car (“The Killers-Don’t Shoot Me Santa Claus” 03:49:00). Another example of

distortion, this further proves that the music video is one big dream. Thus with the music video
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being a dream, the audience is now allowed to see each item or person as a manifest content of

Brandon’s dream.

The Killers uses manifest content of Brandon’s dream to force the audience to take a

deeper look into the music video in order to take a deeper look into themselves then forgive their

past mistakes. According to Louis Tyson in Critical Theory Today, Tyson states that manifest

content is “what we actually dream, once primary revision has disguised the unconscious

message, or the dream’s latent content, is the dream’s manifest content,” (Tyson 36). Thus

manifest content is the dream without symbolism or deeper meaning. Therefore, in the music

video The Killers place random flashes to a random goat in the background (“The Killers-Don’t

Shoot Me Santa Claus” 03:15:00). Many audience members watch music videos in a literal sense

without trying to read it deeper. However, the random goat in the background makes the

storyline of the dream make no sense to the audience and confuses them. With this confusion the

audience would look deeper into how they see the music video, through their own experience.

Resulting in them to be reminded of their unforgettable mistakes. The audience now has the othe

opportunity to try to forgive themselves about their mistakes. This gives the audience a chance at

relieving guilt from their mistakes. Now that the audience is trying to take a deeper look into the

music video and song they are now greeted with the latent content of the dream.

The Killers uses latent content of Santa Claus as God to scares the audience to think

about their mistakes. Latent content is “when the ‘message’ our unconscious expresses in our

dreams, which is the dream’s underlying meaning,” (Tyson 35). Thus latent content is the deeper

meaning of objects and people found in dreams. In The Killers “Don’t Shoot me Santa Claus”

Santa Claus says “I remember when you were just ten years old waiting for a sip of that sweet

mojave rain,” (“The Killers-Don’t Shoot Me Santa Claus” 02:07:00). The quote implies that
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Santa Claus has been watching him for all his life till the final moments where is trying to kill

Brandon. These similar actions can be related back to Christianity’s God; whom, is always

watches down on people. Therefore the latent content of the dream would tie in that Santa Claus

is god. More evidence that Santa is resembling god is when Santa Claus is holding the puppets of

him and Brandon, the only puppet that has a halo on it is Brandon (“The Killers-Don’t Shoot Me

Santa Claus” 00:48:00). This gives more religious meaning to Santa Claus since angels are apart

of Christianity. Having Santa Claus as God can strike fear into the audience that there is no point

in trying to forget their mistakes because it will be brought up at the end of their lives. Therefore

this leads the audience to force themselves of their mistakes from the fear of this realization.

There the audience can try to forgive themselves; to ease the guilt of their reminded mistakes.

Another way The killers gets the audience to open up about their mistakes and try to forgive

themselves is through Brandon Flower’s repression.

By showing Brandon Flower’s repression portrayed in the music video, this allows the

audience encourages them to reveal their mistakes for alleviation. According to Michael Billig

in Freudian Repression : Conversation Creating the Unconscious, Billig states “He claimed that

‘everyone is aware that there are some things in himself that he would be very unwilling to tell

other,” (Billig 13). Thus repression stops people to not tell themselves the truth but others as

well. Also repression when revealed finally causes people to feel alleviated, according to Vesa

Talvitie and Hannu Tiitinen in From the repression of contents to the rules of the (narrative)

self: A present-day cognitive view of the ‘Freudian phenomenon’ of repressed contents.. This

repression can be seen the music video where Brandon Flower’s states “Oh Santa...I’ve been

killing just for fun,” (“The Killers-Don’t Shoot Me Santa Claus” 00:39:00). When Brandon sings

this lyric he pauses right before he admits to his mistake, unwilling to tell Santa Claus at first.
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Then when Brandon confesses to Santa, there is a brief moment of no dialogue between them

(“The Killers-Don’t Shoot Me Santa Claus” 00:41:00). This represents the alleviation of

admitting to one’s mistakes they have repressed due to the silence of the dialogue; as if a weight

has been lifted. Having the audience see Brandon’s repression and the result of alleviation from

going past it and admitting to his mistakes. This can encourage the audience to admit to their

own mistakes so they can have that little bit of relief just as Brandon did. Once getting this

alleviation they can become calm and more open minded to the situation. Now open minded they

can forgive themselves and ease their guilt. The Killers not only use Brandon’s repression to tell

the audience their message, but they also use Brandon’s Ego to comforts the audience to admit

their mistakes.

Brandon Flower’s Ego altering his dream shows the audience his own fears of

recognizing his mistakes; therefore, makes the audience comfortable to look past their own fears

of recognizing their mistakes. In the music video when Brandon has accepted his fate of death,

his bandmates come out of nowhere and save him (“The Killers-Don’t Shoot Me Santa Claus”

03:28:00). This can be seen as dream distortion because the plot changed randomly from

Brandon accepting his fate with no one in site to save him to now being saved. Dream distortion

according the Freud “ is the work if the ego's forces of defense,” (Freud 36). Thus, the ego tries

to use defense mechanisms such as distortion to protect the individual. Therefore since

Brandon’s bandmates distort the dream, it shows that the bandmates represent the Brandon’s ego

trying to protect him from his fears of what will happen when he confesses his mistakes. Thus,

when the audience watches this they now are able to sympathize with Brandon about the fears of

confessing to past mistakes. Having the audience sympathize with Brandon they no longer feel

alone with their own fears, and they can develop more courage to face them with someone by
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their side. Once they get past their fears it can open up the door to the audience to recognize their

mistakes from the beginning to the end. With now recognizing their mistakes they are now can

try and forgive themselves for what they have done, possibly easing their guilt. The Killers

identify the Ego and many more psychoanalysis tactics such as repression, latent content, and

manifest content to give the audience the chance to forgive themselves.

In Killer’s music video “Don’t Shoot me Santa Claus” claims that all crimes committed

will still be seen by god; however the also song brings to light that people should recognize their

mistakes. Through the use manifest Content, latent content, suppression, and the Ego to portray

the psyche of the human; results in motivating the audience to try to forgive themselves so they

can ease their guilt. The Killers use the psychoanalytic tactics such as manifest content to have

the audience take a deeper look into the song by confusing them with random objects that have

no pertaining to the song then take a deeper look into themselves. Then with latent content, the

audience is introduced to Santa Claus as God and driven by fear that their mistakes will be

acknowledged on judgement day so it’s better to admit to them now instead of later. Having the

audience now recognize their mistakes they are now able to analyze how bad it really is and how

it has affected their life and to ease their guilt they’ve had to point of repression they can try and

forgive themselves.
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Works Cited

Billig, Michael. Freudian Repression : Conversation Creating the Unconscious. Cambridge

University Press, 1999. EBSCOhost,

Freud, Sigmund. Five Lectures on Psycho-Analysis. Read Books, 2013.

Talvitie, Vesa, and Hannu Tiitinen. “From the Repression of Contents to the Rules of the

(Narrative) Self: A Present-Day Cognitive View of the ‘Freudian Phenomenon’ of

Repressed Contents.” Psychology & Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice, vol.

79, no. 2, June 2006, pp. 165–181. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1348/147608305X68057.

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=55538&site=eds-live.

TheKillersMusic. “The Killers - Don't Shoot Me Santa.” YouTube, YouTube, 16 June 2009,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cglLJJ0Czo8.

Tyson, Lois. “Psychoanalytic Criticism.” Critical Theory Today: a User-Friendly Guide.

Routledge, 2015. Pages 29-66.