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{{work}}
{{Infobox book
| title = Hogfather
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| author = Terry Pratchett
| central theme = You need to believe in things that aren't true.
| elevator pitch = With the Hogfather missing, Death must take up his sleigh and deliver the presents, as his daughter investigates the being's disappearance
| genre = Fantasy
| franchise = Discworld
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The 20th ''[[Discworld]]'' novel and the 4th in the Death theme, now becoming more like the Death-Susan theme. Was also the first book to be adapted by Sky One for a live action TV movie.
Susan, Death's granddaughter, is trying to distance herself from her supernatural side by being normal (which is abnormal for the Discworld) and taking the position of governess in the Gaiter household, where she tries to instill some rationality into her young charges. Meanwhile, the Auditors' latest plan is to hire the Assassins' Guild to kill the Hogfather, the Discworld's Santa Claus analog. The task is given to Mr. Teatime, a creative but overly zealous young assassin, who has already hypothesized how to kill many [[Anthropomorphic Personification|anthropomorphic personifications]] in his spare time.
With the Hogfather out of the way, there seem to be a whole lot more minor gods and goddesses around than there used to be - and perhaps the disappearance of a tooth fairy might shed some light on the whole ordeal?
* [[Absurdly Sharp Blade]]: Death's scythe and sword.
* [[An Aesop]]: Several of the traditional sappy Christmas Aesops are mercilessly mocked
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* [[All Myths Are True]]: As is traditional for Discworld, a large number of Christmas myths and stories are all happening at the same time.
* [[Alternative Character Interpretation]]: Applied in-universe to "Good" King Wenceslas.
* [[The Artifact]]: Susan is the Duchess of Sto Helit, which she inherited from her father Mort, who himself was given the job at the end of ''[[
* [[Badass Bookworm]]: Susan.
* [[Badass Santa]]: Like our Santa, the Hogfather is derived from old pagan gods... just a little more literally. And then Death takes over for him. ''You'd better watch out...''
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** There's also Twyla's "{{spoiler|It only kills monsters}}," near the beginning.
* [[Children Are Innocent]]: Analyzes [[Ambiguous Innocence|the dark side]] of this trope.
* [[Clap Your Hands If You Believe]]: Along with ''[[
* [[Continuity Nod]]: Ridcully mentions the time the build up of life force that happened in [[
* [[Crappy Holidays]]: In one scene, the wizards are briefly sent into a funk where they ruminate on all the things they hate about the holidays.
* [[Crazy Cat Lady]]: Susan worries that Death is going senile and becoming one of these. He's really more of a [[Kindhearted Cat Lover]] though.
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{{quote|'''Death''': {{smallcaps|The Hogfather can. The Hogfather gives presents. There's no better present than [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|a future.]]}}}}
* [[Hoist by His Own Petard]]: Teatime. Part of the brilliance of his plan was that Death could do nothing directly to stop him because Death cannot go to the Tooth Fairy's country—because it is based on the imagination of children, who have no fully formed concept of death. Later when Susan confronts him there, he takes Death's sword from her and attempts to slay her with it, only to find {{spoiler|the blade cannot exist there either, as there is no death}}.
* [[Humanity Is Infectious]]: While more fully explored in ''[[
* [[Impaled with Extreme Prejudice]]: {{spoiler|Teatime, with a [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?|poker]]. It only kills ''monsters''.}}
* [[I'm Your Worst Nightmare]]: Parodied.
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* [[Religious Robot]]: Hex is told to believe in the Hogfather. He does so.
* [[Reset Button]]: Near the beginning, Ponder successfully cures the Bursar of his insanity by having him talk with Hex (though at the cost of temporarily driving Hex mad in turn). At the end, the Bursar goes mad again after Mr Teatime materialises on top of the dinner table and a wild swipe of Death's sword slices through the fork in the Bursar's hand.
** This is also a form of [[Book Ends]], as the Bursar originally went mad because of a different 'unfortunate incident at dinner', Windle Poons shambling into the Great Hall as a zombie in ''[[
* [[Retroactive Wish]]: When the wizards work out that the various minor fairies are spontaneously forming when people mention their function, the Dean quickly jumps in with "What, like the 'Give the Dean a Huge Bag of Money Goblin'?"
* [[Reverse Psychology]]: It would be against the rules for Death to involve a human in the matter. This is why he specifically told her not to get involved.
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* [[Skip of Innocence]]: Twyla does this as part of her [[Deliberately Cute Child]] persona. Susan isn't fooled, saying "real children don't go hoppity-skippity unless they're on drugs".
* [[Stable Time Loop]]: {{spoiler|The toy horse Albert wanted when he was a child that was bought by someone else was {{smallcaps| Death}} going back in time and buying it for him. D'awwww.}}
* [[Stealth Mook]]: Teatime is no Mook, but he does recruit them to help with his infiltration of the Tooth Fairy Castle. As for stealth, he can enter a room, kill your dog, and wait for ten minutes before you even notice.
* [[Subbing for Santa]]: Death is a very creepy stand-in for the Hogfather. He does a pretty good job, though.
* [[Supreme Chef]]: The manager of the restaurant in Ankh-Morpork, a former chef, is able to make meals out of mud and old boots (after Death steals his food stocks to feed the beggars) by a combination of skill and 'headology' (people will eat anything in a fancy restaurant if the menu is in French... Er, Quirmian). In ''Nanny Ogg's Cookbook'' it's noted that mud and old boots-based cuisine eventually caught on across the city's posh restaurants.
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* [[Billing Displacement]]: [[David Jason]].
* [[Coconut Superpowers]]: The Scissor Man never appearing on screen is a big one, as are the quick cuts away while magic is being performed.
* [[Continuity Nod]]: The back of the Dean's robe reads [[
* [[Creator Cameo]]: Terry Pratchett appears as the toymaker at the very end.
* [[Doing It for the Art]]: Spent ''three hours'' on a movie just so it was almost word-for-word like the book. And the casting director has definitely earned their paycheck.
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* [[Soundtrack Dissonance]]: The sweet music playing as Teatime threatens Susan with the sword at the very end.
* [[Take Our Word for It]]: The Scissor Man doesn't appear on screen.
* [[A Worldwide Punomenon]]: Hex has a lot of computer puns, [[Stealth Pun|stealth]] and
----
:'''Now there remains one final question. Have you been naughty... or nice? [[Punctuated! For! Emphasis!|Ho... Ho... Ho!]]'''
{{reflist}}▼
{{Discworld novels}}
{{The Big Read}}
▲{{reflist}}
▲[[Category:{{ROOTPAGENAME}}]]
▲[[Category:{{SUBPAGENAME}}]]
▲[[Category:Multiple Works Need Separate Pages]]
[[Category:Christmas Ghost Story]]
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