Colbert delivers The Greatest Gift of All
November 21, 2008 at 2:05 pm by Curt Holman in NewsFake right-wing pundit Stephen Colbert repackages himself as a singing, dancing, all-purpose fatuous celebrity on A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All, which debuts on Comedy Central on Sunday night, Nov. 23. In a flawless parody of 1970s-style variety shows, A Colbert Christmas finds Colbert trapped in his mountain cabin by his greatest nemesis — a hungry bear. He still manages to play host to such unexpected guests as Toby Keith, Jon Stewart, John Legend and Elvis Costello (whose seasonal costumes alone make it worth watching).
A Colbert Christmas rises above the usual Christmas spoof thanks to the strength of the holiday parodies by David Javerbaum (”The Daily Show” executive producer) and Adam Schlesinger (songwriter and Fountains of Wayne co-founder). Javerbaum and Schlesinger provide some of the best Christmas (and Channukah) parodies this side of “South Park.” Here’s Colbert introducing the show and launching into the first half of “Another Christmas Song” (which also available in its entirety as an audio file):
There’s not a dud in the bunch, from Toby Keith’s “War on Christmas” (which is either ingeniously ironic or terrifyingly sincere) to John Legend’s R&B ode to his favorite spice to Willie Nelson’s Nativity scene number, which deliberately satirizes that inexplicable Bing Crosby/David Bowie duet of “The Little Drummer Boy.” My personal favorite finds Canadian folksinger Feist riffing on “Angels We Have Heard on High” in the form of a call-waiting message from Heaven:
“Due to increased prayer amounts, seraphim will have delays/
Servicing thy prayer accounts for the next five million days.”
Even though the DVD goes on sale Tuesday, I imagine that music CDs and song downloads will turn out to be the gifts that keep giving.
Speaking of “A Colbert Christmas,” “The Colbert Report” offers a funny rejoinder to a technical snafu that occurred when Colbert appeared on “Good Morning America” to promote the special. (Incidentally, judging from these and other clips on-line, the special features a deliberately phony variety show laugh track. It suits the genre, but I’m relieved that the screener Comedy Central sent me was laugh-track free.)
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