tek's rating: meh

All-Star Non-Denominational Christmas Special, on Comedy Central
Christmas Specials Wiki; Comedy Central; IMDb
streaming sites: Amazon; Google Play; iTunes; Vudu; YouTube

This Christmas special first aired on Thanksgiving, in 2014, but I didn't see it until a couple nights later. So, um... I'm not sure how many Christmas specials Comedy Central may have done in the past; the only one I can think of is 2008's A Colbert Christmas. So maybe this is only the second one ever, or maybe there are others I've either forgotten or was never even aware of. But whatever, that's not important. What is important is that it was pretty disappointing. I suppose some people might like it more than I did, though; especially fans of any of the shows that contributed sketches to the special. (But some people might dislike it a lot more than I did.)

Okay, there's this loser (played by John Michael Higgins) who is apparently divorced, and his young son has come to spend Christmas with him. (The kid apparently lives with his mother, who we never see, but she's apparently dating some guy who's not a loser.) Anyway, the dad has forgotten (or couldn't afford) to get a present for his son, but he finds a mysterious advent calendar lying around, and starts opening doors on it, along with his son. Behind each door is a short sketch from one of the shows on Comedy Central, most of which I don't watch. (And this special reassured me that I'm right not to do so.) I'm only really familiar with two of the shows represented in this special: Key & Peele and The Colbert Report. I guess the K&P sketch wasn't too bad, but it also wasn't as good as their sketches normally are. And Colbert was reasonably amusing, but only because the whole point of his appearance was to reference the fact that by Christmas this year, his show will be over. Which is kinda sad. As for all the shows with which I'm unfamiliar... I guess some of the sketches were mildly amusing, while others didn't amuse me at all. And most of the special's humor was kind of dark, and... well, definitely not appropriate for kids. (However, the kid watching the sketches via the advent calendar likes them, and somehow seems to derive some traditional holiday moral from them. Or... maybe not so traditional. Either way, he ends up a lot more cheerful than he should, considering.)

And I don't know what else to tell you.


specials index