The only true holiday tradition I have is watching the Lewis Black surviving the holiday special. Well that in drinking but I don't consider that a tradition that's more of a 'par for the course' situation. It's Lewis Black telling us all how to survive the holidays (that is the American holidays we're Thanksgiving starts after Halloween and the whole thing feels a lot more connected.) If you live in Canada Thanksgiving comes out a good month before hand and it kind of feels like its own thing but then the Canadian Thanksgiving is just a glorified Harvest Festival. There's no real Native American roots or Columbus or any of that other stuff.
It surprises me how funny this show remains over the years I often end up forgetting most of it throughout the year and then it all comes rolling back. It might be a weakness but it's a weakness that works and it's Advantage. The only sad thing is knowing that a lot of these comedians aren't that popular anymore and the ones that still are won't be in 10 years. Steven Lewis Black is not immune from this as his stand-up hasn't really changed in 15 years. That's the curse of a comedian five years of golden performance a couple years of stagnation and then usually or forgotten to time. Unless you're Rodney Dangerfield or Bob Hope.
Although Bob Hope at the United States military behind them and let's face it the military is always at war with somebody.
It's also funny how much actual history they explain in this little special. They tell the origins of the Christmas season of Hanukkah I even managed to get into some of the details about Black Friday, the Christmas tree, even Jolly Old Saint Nick. And it's all relatively historical with little minor hiccups here and there but for the most part it is partially educational which is more than I can say for just about anything that's on the History Channel today. Or at least on the History Channel some eight years ago as I haven't watched television in many years.
If nothing else watching Lewis black dress up as Santa Claus and interact with children is the most hilarious thing you'll see all day.
And really there's nothing else to say. It's a funny Christmas special with a bunch of good comedians. Most of the human revolves around middle-class American culture from a bunch of people who celebrated Christmas in the late fifties into the early 80s.
Every year the special reminds me that there is an international dreidel competition. I'd make fun of that some more but people actually have tournaments revolving around that Japanese cartoon with the spinning tops. I don't remember what it was called but one kid had a dragon that lived inside his dreidel and he fought this other loser kid with a different dragon that live inside his dreidel and there was a blonde kid named Max.
I could talk about more but I'm far too drunk as it is and I can't be bothered.
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