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Can Jon interest you in Chanukah?
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Jewish touch in “Colbert Christmas”
Reviewed by Margi Herwald Zitelli
City Editor
Looking for a “sensible alternative to Christmas?”
That’s how Jon Stewart, Jewish host of Comedy Central’s satirical news juggernaut “The Daily Show,” attempts to sell the virtues of celebrating Chanukah to colleague Stephen Colbert in “A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All!” The one-hour TV special airs on Comedy Central Sun., Nov. 23, at 10 p.m.
Anyone who enjoys Stewart’s faux CNN shtick on “The Daily Show” or Colbert’s send-up of conservative TV pundits on “The Colbert Report” won’t be able to resist their trademark wit in this spoof of traditional network holiday specials. From sexual healing songs about eggnog, to celebrity guests mauled by bears, to the inspired rhyming of “pontiff” and “good yontif,” the show delivers nearly nonstop laughs that are right up the alley of the Colbert Nation (what Colbert calls his fan base).
The loose plot has Colbert at a mountain cabin preparing to head back to New York City to tape his holiday special, when the arrival of a hungry bear traps him in the cabin. Somehow, the bear doesn’t seem to deter celebrity guests from visiting the cabin. Each visitor is greeted with a smattering of recorded applause as he mugs for the camera Bob Hope-Bing Crosby style.
Most of the show is focused on Christmas, but the arrival of Stewart infuses a little Yiddishkeit. When Colbert fears Santa won’t find him this Christmas, Stewart, decked out in blue and white ski gear, sings “Can I Interest You in Chanukah?” a little ditty half-heartedly selling the virtues of the Festival of Lights.
While the Catholic Colbert ultimately opts to keep on believing in Jesus, he does manage to lose a game of dreidel to a potato latke.
Besides the Chanukah moment, highlights include Toby Keith’s musical diatribe against the separation of church and state, in which he extols the virtues of “separating” ACLU-ers from their heads. Willie Nelson makes a memorable appearance as the fourth wise man, who brings baby Jesus the gift of weed. (“Let not mankind bogart the love,” he sings.)
The songs of “A Colbert Christmas,” mostly hilarious until the lame ending duet with Elvis Costello, are written by David Javerbaum and Adam Schlesinger, the Jewish songwriting team behind the Broadway musical “Cry Baby.” Javerbaum is also an executive producer of “The Daily Show,” and Schlesinger might be better known as the bassist and songwriter of the band Fountains of Wayne (the guys who gave us “Stacy’s Mom”).
How delightful that such sharp and silly musical send-ups of Christmas come from the minds of Jewish writers.
mherwald@cjn.org
WHAT: “A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All!”
WHEN: Sun., Nov. 23, at 10 p.m. on Comedy Central
DVD: on sale Tues., Nov. 25, with proceeds benefiting Feeding America
City Editor
Looking for a “sensible alternative to Christmas?”
That’s how Jon Stewart, Jewish host of Comedy Central’s satirical news juggernaut “The Daily Show,” attempts to sell the virtues of celebrating Chanukah to colleague Stephen Colbert in “A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All!” The one-hour TV special airs on Comedy Central Sun., Nov. 23, at 10 p.m.
Anyone who enjoys Stewart’s faux CNN shtick on “The Daily Show” or Colbert’s send-up of conservative TV pundits on “The Colbert Report” won’t be able to resist their trademark wit in this spoof of traditional network holiday specials. From sexual healing songs about eggnog, to celebrity guests mauled by bears, to the inspired rhyming of “pontiff” and “good yontif,” the show delivers nearly nonstop laughs that are right up the alley of the Colbert Nation (what Colbert calls his fan base).
The loose plot has Colbert at a mountain cabin preparing to head back to New York City to tape his holiday special, when the arrival of a hungry bear traps him in the cabin. Somehow, the bear doesn’t seem to deter celebrity guests from visiting the cabin. Each visitor is greeted with a smattering of recorded applause as he mugs for the camera Bob Hope-Bing Crosby style.
Most of the show is focused on Christmas, but the arrival of Stewart infuses a little Yiddishkeit. When Colbert fears Santa won’t find him this Christmas, Stewart, decked out in blue and white ski gear, sings “Can I Interest You in Chanukah?” a little ditty half-heartedly selling the virtues of the Festival of Lights.
While the Catholic Colbert ultimately opts to keep on believing in Jesus, he does manage to lose a game of dreidel to a potato latke.
Besides the Chanukah moment, highlights include Toby Keith’s musical diatribe against the separation of church and state, in which he extols the virtues of “separating” ACLU-ers from their heads. Willie Nelson makes a memorable appearance as the fourth wise man, who brings baby Jesus the gift of weed. (“Let not mankind bogart the love,” he sings.)
The songs of “A Colbert Christmas,” mostly hilarious until the lame ending duet with Elvis Costello, are written by David Javerbaum and Adam Schlesinger, the Jewish songwriting team behind the Broadway musical “Cry Baby.” Javerbaum is also an executive producer of “The Daily Show,” and Schlesinger might be better known as the bassist and songwriter of the band Fountains of Wayne (the guys who gave us “Stacy’s Mom”).
How delightful that such sharp and silly musical send-ups of Christmas come from the minds of Jewish writers.
mherwald@cjn.org
WHAT: “A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All!”
WHEN: Sun., Nov. 23, at 10 p.m. on Comedy Central
DVD: on sale Tues., Nov. 25, with proceeds benefiting Feeding America
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