Cousin Mel hanging out with Grandpa a lot is, of course, a reference to the original song. In-universe, it also makes sense, because Grandpa is the only one in the family nice/oblivious enough to tolerate so much of Mel. The rest of the family probably wants as little to do with her as possible, even before she crossed the Moral Event Horizon after Grandma's "death."
Some people interpret the original song as implying that Grandpa was actually cheating with "cousin" Mel and grandma was a murder-for-hire and wasn't really run over by a reindeer note The song's narrated from the viewpoint of a child (who may be naive and takes everything at face value), Grandpa's in awfully good spirits, the stuff about the reindeer and the "scene of the attack" may be what Grandpa just told everyone, and Mel is an androgynous name (Mel could mean 'Melinda', 'Melody', or 'Melania' as much as 'Melvin'). . Thus, the makers of the cartoon borrowed the concept of "Mel the evil lady interloper" from this interpretation and made it a plot point note ....although Grandpa's a good guy who loves Grandma, and the rest about the reindeer really happened .
As outlined on the main page, Hollywood Law is in effect during the trial at the end, and all of Jake’s evidence would have been inadmissible in a real life trial. However, it’s shown that nobody there except Mel and Slime actually wants to see Santa found guilty. Even the DA admits that he doesn’t want to see Santa go to jail, but he is just doing his job as he's legally required. With that established, the judge probably didn’t want to find him guilty either and was more than willing to bend the rules for Jake. After all, if she were the one to sentence him to prison, she’d be seen as the “bad guy” who ruined Christmas for the whole world.
Cousin Mel's Establishing Character Moment has her refusing to let a customer leave with a gingerbread house because she calls it shoplifting, when Grandma reveals said woman has credit with the store and allows her to pay later. It's shown the woman is one of the regulars who frequents the store, which Mel is unaware of despite the fact she works there with the rest of the family. While this is simply meant to demonstrate Mel is greedy and Grandma is trusting, it also shows Mel's lack of business sense and customer relation skills. Mel genuinely has no right to be calling the shots on how the business is run because she's out of touch with their customer base and makes no attempt to engage with them the way Grandma does, ensuring they remain loyal supporters. Some argue this is a case of Strawman Has a Point because it looks like the woman was just leaving with the merchandise without telling anyone, except all we were shown is Mel accusing her of shoplifting and stating "No money, no merchandise."
If Grandma hadn't been run over by Santa, she would've brought those tainted fruitcakes to the community center and who knows how many people would've gotten sick because of it?
Perhaps not sick so much as just incredibly grossed out. Jake had all of the people in the jury eat some fruitcake with the so-called "reindeer nip" baked into it, and no one appeared to have gotten sick so much as disgusted. Likely, the taste on first bite would have warded off anyone from eating so much that it would've actually made them sick, and the worst that might happen is a bit of vomiting if anyone had a particularly sensitive stomach.
A substance dubbed "reindeer nip" with a potent scent that can attract deer exists already— it's the urine of a pregnant female deer. Cousin Mel put deer piss in the fruitcake batter.
Not necessarily, as that can be manufactured artificially (or, rather the smell can), so it isn't always deer pee.
Since the deer were actually trying to eat whatever was in it, it's implied to be a plant (or extract thereof) that reindeer find especially yummy but humans find it gross.
The special ends with Grandma getting run over once again by a reindeer. Knowing what all she may or may not have suffered the first time, how's she going to be affected when it happens again?
Well, the first time around, Grandma was alone and spirited away to the North Pole with no memory of who she was or where she lived. With her family and Santa right there when the second hit happened, not only will she not go missing for months, she will also have a supportive network of people ready to help her remember who she is.
Another one from The Nostalgia Critic. When Grandma is resting at the North Pole, there are two other unidentified people in beds next to her. Who the heck were they?!?
Elves, in all likelihood. Assuming the lot of them work in a toy factory, as beliefs about Santa's elves usually go, accidents can always happen when working in a factory setting. Or, they could've just been down with a cold or something, given the North Pole's weather.
Why didn't Santa notice all the media hype over Grandma's disappearance? You'd think, with him being omnipotent and all, that he'd have noticed something was wrong after about a day or two.
Because he hated the fact that nobody took the holidays seriously anymore, so he probably didn't even bother to pay attention to most people, excluding good children.
Not to mention that, as The Nostalgia Critic pointed out, her picture was on a lot of milk cartons. Wouldn't you think Santa would notice her picture on a carton of his favorite drink?
We don't know where Santa gets his milk from. Jake could've only put Grandma's picture on milk cartons in the area around Cityville or just the state Cityville is located in, because there'd be a greater chance she'd be somewhere near there. Therefore, Santa might've not noticed.
The media hype of Grandma's disappearance might not have been as big as Jake made it out to be. Remember that an older Jake is narrating and since this is from his perspective and he's a child, he would plausibly get facts wrong.
This troper never got why Mel and Slime would want Santa sued. They make it sound like they would get a massive amount of money from the trial, but from where? Santa runs what basically amounts to a non-profit organization, so unless they where hoping to get paid in milk and cookies...
This troper believes that's the point. Mel and Slime are so power hungry that they'll try to get as rich as possible. And as previously described, Santa is omnipotent, so he probably generate money out of thin air.
In this universe, Santa is real, and it is Santa who puts the presents under everyone's tree. Mr. and Mrs. Spankenheimer don't believe in Santa. So where do they think the presents come from every year? Where does EVERYONE think the presents come from if no one believes in Santa, but Santa does exist?
Maybe the whole town drinks LOTS and LOTS of eggnog every Christmas, and in the hangover just assume they bought the presents while blasted.
Cousin Mel is a dead ringer for Daphne from Scooby-Doo. Whatever, plenty of characters look like other characters. But with Mel looking so much like an iconic character named "Daphne," why, then, would the writers add another character who is actually named Daphne (Jake's sister)? It's bloody confusing! Every time someone mentions or addresses Jake's sister Daphne, this troper thinks they're talking about Cousin Mel, because she LOOKS so much like "Daphne."
It was an unforeseen coincidence? The writers and character designers aren't known for directly collaborating with each other in animation. Plus, this special predates What's New Scooby-Doo, and there's no way the writers could have known until the special was finished that Cousin Mel would bear any resemblance to Daphne.
Maybe they What's New Scooby Doo? and this special had the same character artist?
The problem I've always had with Daphne, Jake's sister, is I don't understand why the writers felt Jake even needed a sister in the first place. Her main role in the first half of the special is to just give Jake the occasional Kick the Dog moments. Something that could easily be reserved for the story's actual antagonist Cousin Mel. But, when Daphne has her Heel–Face Turn, she still does absolutely nothing in terms of helping Jake stop Mel. In fact she completely disappears from the story, until the very end just to tell Jake she's proud of him. Overall, the character is completely useless.
