‘Elf’ Fan Theory Argues That Buddy Had Time Manipulation Powers

It’s that time a year again for presents, eggnog, Iron Man 3, and wild holiday-themed fan theories.

The next in a long line of Christmas classics to get an in-depth look is Elf (2003), the hilarious comedy starring Will Ferrell and (speaking of Iron Man), directed by Jon Favreau.

Based on a post to the r/FanTheories subreddit, u/bysigningupyouagree8 believes there’s more to Buddy the Elf (Ferrell) than the meets the eye. Basically, the theory goes like this: “Buddy gained time manipulation powers from the North Pole.”

Most of us have always chalked up Buddy’s abilities to basic magic or, you know, something that is just cute enough to not need an explanation. However, this redditor provides some compelling reasons for why the elf is “capable of performing tasks within impossible time limits.”

The first argument comes from Buddy’s 85 etch-a-sketches a day. While 1,000 may be the elf average, it takes up to an hour for a regular human to build one. Now, since he was raised by elves, it would make sense that he would be somewhere in-between the human and elf average, but the post hasn’t lost us yet.

Next, unsurprisingly, is Buddy’s walking trip. “The distance from New York City to the North Pole is roughly 3,000 miles depending on whether it’s by land (3,200) or water (2,800),” u/bysigningupyouagree8 explains. “Lets say Buddy left the North Pole in the morning and was in New York by the next afternoon. Assuming he didn’t use any other method of transportation, he would have been ‘walking’ over 100 mph in order to make that time.”

They’ve also estimated that Buddy had roughly nine hours to get all the decorations up at Gimbels for the “Santa” visit, and that’s including the time Buddy used to sleep. “It would realistically take days for a normal man to decorate the store as good as Buddy did,” they add.

Finally, we have Buddy’s ability to make a snowball. “Not only does Buddy craft dozens of snowballs in seconds, but he is also able to move his arm at inhuman speeds to continually launch snow balls at their attackers. This is the only time we see his time manipulation from a human perspective.”

The redditor believes Buddy “doesn’t have control over his power,” which he “absorbed” at the North Pole, but that he is better when “hyper focused.” Ultimately, this is a smaller degree of the power possessed by Santa and the elves.

This seems pretty valid to us. What do you think? Can Buddy the Elf manipulate time? Tell us in the comments.

Elf is currently available to rent or buy on Amazon.