YES, IT’S ALWAYS SEEMED THIS WAY to me, too:

Ok, so here we have little Rudolph with an unfortunate deformity. All of the other reindeer laughed and called him names, shunning him from the tightly-knit reindeer community — right up until they have a use for the little mutant’s deformity! Then they suddenly declare they “love” him. Yeah, right. Just so long as his honker lights up the night sky!

Indeed.