Beavis and Butt-Head Christmas (Part 1) - A Very Special Christmas With Beavis and Butt-Head

CREEPY CHRISTMAS

Beavis and Butt-Head had two Christmas specials.  The first was "A Very Special Christmas With Beavis and Butt-Head" and it originally aired on December 17, 1993.  It consisted entirely of Beavis and Butt-Head sitting on the couch, commenting on Christmas music videos. 

The second was "Beavis and Butt-Head Do Christmas" which originally aired December 19, 1995.  It featured two animated segments that parodied A Christmas Carol and It's a Wonderful Life, and several short bits with Butt-Head dressed as Santa Claus (and with Beavis as a reindeer) answering Christmas letters from the show's fans.  These segments were interspersed with clips of Beavis and Butt-Head sitting on the couch watching Christmas videos that were taken from the first Christmas special.

The second special was officially released on VHS and DVD.  The original special, which features video segments that did not make it into the second special, has not been officially released, although, with some Googling it can be found online on YouTube and other streaming video services.

Today I'm going to be writing about  "A Very Special Christmas With Beavis and Butt-Head," and tomorrow I'll be featuring "Beavis and Butt-Head Do Christmas."  Then, on Wednesday, I'll be reviewing the Beavis and Butt-Head vinyl toys from Funko!  Hope to see you there.

A Very Special Christmas With Beavis and Butt-Head

A Very Special Christmas With Beavis and Butt-Head (1993) - TV review and screencaps:

Christmas is "the celebration of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ."

"TV rules!," says Beavis, and I agree.    In 1993's "A Very Special Christmas With Beavis and Butt-Head," the titular duo spend the holiday engaged in their favorite past-time: sitting in front of the couch, commenting on the music videos they see on TV.  Traditionally, MTV would air the music video segments in between the fully animated shorts, to pad the episodes out to a half hour.  Some people saw these as "filler," and technically they were right, but I always liked these a little better than the actual cartoons.  Despite how stupid Beavis and Butt-Head were, they always managed to make some really biting observations.  The Christmas show seems a bit cheap, like someone at MTV decided they wanted a Beavis and Butt-Head Christmas special halfway through November, and Mike Judge had to throw something together on the fly... but it's still really funny.

The Skull of Santa

Question from Butt-Head: "How come Christmas music always sucks?"
Answer from Beavis:  "Because it's, like, not very good."

This special managed to find a slew of just plain awful holiday offerings from the likes of Hall & Oates, Band Aid, Billy Squire, and the horror show duet between David Bowie and Bing Crosby.  They even have several segments were they just look at a novelty yule log burning video.   There are a few legitimately good ones as well, from the Ramones and Run DMC.  Well, actually Run DMC were cool, but that video is pretty cheesy, so maybe just the Ramones.

It's a shame Bowie didn't show up for this in his full on Ziggy Stardust drag.  I would have loved to see the look on Der Binger's face.

Mike Judge's stream of consciousness ramblings as Beavis and Butt-Head are hilarious and weird, but most of the music videos are kind of annoying, which kind of limits it's replayability.  I enjoyed watching it when it originally aired, and it's a fun thing to pull out and watch again every now and then, but I wouldn't consider making it a family tradition to watch every Christmas.

Rating: 3 Robots (out of 5)

Beavis and Butt-Head

Don't Peek Until X-Mas

Shock

Head Sway

M-M-M-Max Headroom

Season's Greetings

The Ramones

WTF?!?

Rock!

'Zat You, Santa Claus?

Can't Look

Exotic Dancers

To: Run, DMC, and Jay.  From: Santa

Best Albums of 2012: February (Part 1)

 Best Albums of 2012
February - Part 1

Mind Spiders, Frankie Rose, Mark Lanegan Band, Air, and Hunx

January 2012 was a bit of a disappointment for me, there weren't a lot of records that I liked that much.  February fared better.  There were quite a few records released in February that I liked, including Blues Funeral by Mark Lanegan Band, Le Voyage Dans La Lune by Air, Meltdown by Mind Spiders, Interstellar by Frankie Rose, and Hairdresser Blues by Hunx.

Disappears - Pre Language

Disappears - Pre Language
Another album I liked was Pre language by Disappears.  Pre Language is a dark, psychedelic stew of shoegaze, post-punk, and garage rock.  It's not a perfect record, the songs all sound a little too similar to one another, partucularly on the second half of the record, which makes it feel overly long, even though the whole record is barely over half an hour.  But overall, I still like it a lot.

Teenanger - Frights

Teenanger - Frights
A fantastic blast of punk rock power, this album is kind of retro, evoking the sound of punk in the 1980's.  Even though the music is a bit of a throwback, it's got a lot of youthful energy to it, so it still sounds fresh, and it's only, like, twenty minutes or so, so it's not long enough to get old.  Possibly my favorite record of February 2012.



Next:  Best Albums of 2012 will return with my biggest musical surprise of 2012: Van Halen - A Different Kind of Truth

Creepmas in Review

 CREEPY CHRISTMAS

 

Creepmas in Review

I had fun celebrating "Creepmas" these last two weeks, posting my movie reviews and other things, and reading what the other participants were posting.

My posts in review:

I posted some photos of two sets of Creepmas decorations I attempted to make; Skeleton Snowmen, and Santa Hat Monsters.  I also posted some embedded YouTube videos of my favorite Christmas songs.  Aside from that all of my posts were reviews of movies and TV that combined horror with Christmas (except for the Ren & Stimpy review, which wasn't really scary, just weird and gross).  For each of the movie and TV reviews, I created a fake Christmas card, featuring a scene from the movie or show.

List of the movies and TV shows I reviewed:

Silent Night, Bloody Night (1974)
Dead End (2003)
The Devil-Doll (1936)
Tales from the Crypt (1972)
Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)
The Ren & Stimpy Show - Son of Stimpy (1993)
Christmas Evil (1980)
The Addams Family - Christmas With the Addams Family (1965)
South Park - Woodland Critter Christmas (2004)
The Twilight Zone - Night of the Meek (1960)

Coming up for the rest of December:

For the rest of the month, I'm going to continue to post Christmas stuff, but I'm going to shift from Christmas horror to Christmas stuff that is weird, oddball, strange, and goofy.  I've got Christmas themed animated cartoons, film noir, sci-fi, and more.  I've got more stuff on my list than I'm going to have time to review, so I'm not sure which titles they will be yet.  You'll just have to tune in to find out..  I'm also planning on doing some toy reviews, just in time for your last minute Christmas shopping. 

I've also got some non-Christmas related stuff coming up.  I'm going to be reviewing some movies that are new releases on DVD this month, specifically Total Recall (the remake), The Bourne Legacy, and Looper.   I'm also working on my month-by-month lists of the best music of the year (although I'm WAY behind on that, so it might not get finished until January).

Coming up in 2013:

After this month of random Christmas stuff, I'm going to start posting things on a regular schedule.  It will be:

Mondays - TV or Movie Reviews
Tuesdays - Toy Reviews
Wednesdays - Random Stuff (Stuff like music lists, posts about comic books, anything that doesn't fit in the other categories)
Thursdays - Toy Reviews
Fridays - Movie Reviews
Saturdays - Thrift Store Finds (cool toys and other stuff I find at thrifts stores, yard sales, or on ebay)
Sundays - Weekly Recap plus More Random Stuff (I'll be looking back at the last weeks posts, pointing out interesting stuff on the internet, and posting anything else that I didn't have time for doing the week)

Finally, I want to highlight a few of my favorite Creepmas posts from other blogs:

 

The Little Gothic Horrors blog has been doing a series of Addams Family posts that are a lot of fun, including several of Charles Addam's Christmas themed cartoons.

Maple Grove Cemetery also had several Creepmas posts I enjoyed this year.  My favorite ones were the Calvin and Hobbes snowman comic strips.

Potionsmith had a few neat toy-related Creepmas posts, including creepy toys of the past and present, and a Christmas themed Lego haunted house.

Deadpan Flook and The Blog Of Stuff! also had a post on creepy toys, a post on custom action figure gift ideas, and other cool stuff.

Weird Christmas music is one of my favorite things about the holidays, and The Roadside Revenant's Rot and Roll Revival Show has been featuring a lot of creepy, irreverant, and bad taste Christmas music this year.

All right!  Thanks for reading.  I'm going to be taking a the weekend off, but I'll be back on Monday with my review of the Beavis and Butt-Head Christmas specials, and on Tuesday I'll probably review the Beavis and Butt-Head vinyl toys from Funko.  See you then!



Scary Creepmas from:
Joshua "Atomic Robot" Raymond

Twilight Zone - The Night of the Meek (1960)

CREEPY CHRISTMAS

Peace On Earth... from "Night of the Meek."

Twilight Zone - The Night of the Meek (1960) - TV review plus screencaps:

The Night of the Meek

"The Night of the Meek," a Christmas episode of the Twilight Zone features this introductory narration from Rod Serling: "This is Mr. Henry Corwin, normally unemployed.  Who, once a year takes the lead role in a uniquely popular American institution, that of the department store Santa Claus, in a road show company version of "The Night Before Christmas."  But in just a moment, Mr. Henry Corwin, ersatz Santa Claus, will enter a strange kind of North Pole, which is one part the wondrous spirit of Christmas, and one part the magic that can only be found... in the TWILIGHT ZONE."

Rod the Mod

It features Art Carney as a drunken department store Santa Claus who discovers a magical sack that gives out the perfect present to everyone he encounters.  But what starts out as a "Christmas miracle" starts to take a sinister turn when...  when...  uhh... DAMN IT!  It never turns sinister!  It's just heartwarming holiday magic throughout.  Twilight Zone -- I expected better of you!  I'm trying to write about CREEPY Christmas stuff, and I thought the Twilight Zone would be perfect for that.  But, oh no, you had to go off and be cheerful and happy!  Thanks, for nothing, Twilight Zone!

CREEPFACTOR = ZERO

Christmas elements in "Night of the Meek":

• Ahh, the whole damn thing is one big, flippin', Christmas miracle.  Bah!  Humbug!

Rating: Unrated

Twilight Zone Space Fog

The Twilight Zone

Department Store Christmas

Santa Claus Will Return

Santa Claus is an Alcoholic

Santa Claus's Drunken Ramblings

Santa Claus Tries to Steal a Bottle of Booze

Drunken Santa Claus Nearly Gets Run Down by a Car

Drunken Santa Collapses in the Snow

Crying Kids Ask Santa for a Job for Their Daddy.  ...Merry Christmas, Everybody!

Toy Train Set

Santa Claus is Fired by Piglet

Santa's Magic Sack

Santa Spreads Cheer to the Bums in the Mission

"Eff Christmas!"  Says the Cop.   "Santa's Under Arrest!"

Police Station

Bumming it on the Steps

Elves, Reindeer, and WTF

South Park - Woodland Critter Christmas (2004)

CREEPY CHRISTMAS

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, "Glory to the New Born King!"  From, "South Park's Woodland Critter Christmas"

 South Park - Woodland Critter Christmas (2004) - TV review plus screencaps:

Woodland Critter Christmas

One of several Christmas episodes produced by South Park, "Woodland Critter Christmas" starts off like a typical children's Christmas special.  The episode is narrated in a rhyming style, and the show's protagonist Stan is described as "The Boy in the Red Poof-Ball Hat."

Magical Woodland Creatures

Stan discovers a group of magical talking animals in the forest, decorating a Christmas tree.  The animals befriend Stan, and later ask for his help, and this is when the episode starts getting strange.  It seems that one of the Woodland Christmas Critters is pregnant, with nothing less than the "savior" of the animal kingdom, in a story that parallels that of the Virgin Mary being pregnant with the Son of God.

The Woodland Critters' Christmas Manger

Unfortunately for the Critters, this happens every Christmas, but the pregnant animal is always killed by an ominous mountain lion before the Critter can give birth to their savior.

The Menacing Mountain Lion Lurks in the Shadows

So, Stan reluctantly takes on the task of defeating the mountain lion in order to save the pregnant Woodland Critter.  Regrettably, after he does so, Stan discovers that the Woodland Critters are Satan worshipers, and that their "savior" is the Antichrist.  This is followed by various scenes featuring supernatural satanic powers, animal sacrifice, violence and murder, a sex orgy in pools of blood, and a trip to the abortion clinic.  In other words, good clean holiday fun for the whole family!

The Blood Orgy

Woodland Creature Christmas features the following Christmas elements:

• Christmas music is sung.
• A Christmas tree is decorated.
• A nativity scene.
• Snow.
• Christmas presents.
• Santa Claus.

Santa's Got a Boomstick

South Park's "Woodland Creature Christmas" is one of the rare Christmas specials to feature elements that appeal to both Christians and Devil worshipers, something that is far too rare in today's jaded modern world.  So gather your family around the TV and watch the special together, for Christmas memories that will last a lifetime.

Rating: 3½ Robots (out of 5)

More screencaps after the jump...