Day 5: Why Are They Called Specials?

I have to admit, even though I am racking my brain a little about Christmas topics, this is much more enjoyable than the torture that is reading 50 Shades of Grey and reporting on it.  I case you missed them do a search in my blog for 50 Shades of Shut the F@%k Up and you can read the reports on the chapters I was able to drink plow my way through.

So, back to the topic at hand...just like almost every other family household in America, we are burdened with watching Christmas "Specials".  I have to say, I don't mind these as much as the holiday itself, mostly because they are cartoons and I loooove cartoons, but why are they called "specials"?  I mean back when I was growing up we didn't have easy access to VCRs and BluRay, let alone DVD technology was a glimmer in some techno-geek's eye.  The only time of year you could watch these "specials" was Christmas time.  Now, they are on DVD and BluRay and the Minions can watch them anytime of the year, which they do, so I wouldn't call them "specials" anymore.

The thing is, it's the same group of "specials" that get shown every year.  You have A Charlie Brown Christmas, Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer just to name a few of the ones you see consistently every year.  Now, I have no problem with these at all, I grew up with these and know them by heart so I am glad the Minions are watching these then some other Christmas "specials".  Everybody has a favorite Christmas "Special" and I'm sure you share it when it comes up in conversation, I know I do.

Rudolph:  You might want to tone down the gayness...

But whatever happened to the "specials" I remember growing up and the ones that were shown only once or twice?  There are so many under-rated Christmas Specials (note I did not use the quotations marks that time) that need to come back to TV.  There are so many that I had a hard time limiting the list but I did and I will give you Who Woulda Thought?'s Top 5 List of Under-rater Christmas Specials but first I have a few honorable mentions.

Who remembers Yogi Bear's First Christmas?  It played in the early 80's and had the whole cast of characters in it.  What about Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales or Alvin and The Chipmunks:  A Chipmunk Christmas?  And who could forget about He-Man and She-Ra:  A Christmas Special?  Classic!

Those all receive and honorable mention but the five that stick out the most to me are as follows:

5.  Olive, the Other Reindeer - It was produced by the same guy who did the Simpsons, Matt Groening.  It aired in 1999 and was a mash up of traditional animation, 3D effects and paper scenes.  Basically a dog (voiced by Drew Barrymore) decides to become a reindeer, because she hears the one of Santa's reindeer was fucked to death by an elf got injured and they were going to cancel Christmas.  The other thing is Jay Mohr is a voice in this and I kind of like Jay Mohr.  There's a pun in here too, think about it ALL OF the other reindeer...

4.  A Garfield Christmas - Who the hell doesn't like Garfield?  He's fat, he's lazy and he despises everyone.  Just me?  Oh well, anyway, Garfield learns the meaning of Christmas during the trip to the farm with Jon's family.  Odie makes him a back scratcher and Garfield finds old love letters to give to Grandma, who is just as sour as Garfield.  We watch this one every year and Garfield remains one of the best characters around.

3.  A Claymation Christmas Celebration - The only reason this is number three was because I am biased to the next two.  Remember the California Raisins?  Of course you do, they were HUGE in the 80's and single handed brought the art of claymation back.  This special is filled with songs, funny ass songs or at least the last one is, Here We Come A Wassailing was butchered and became Waffling, Waddling and Wallowing.  What is wassailing again?

2.  The Animaniacs:  A Christmas Plotz - First...if you don't like the Animaniacs, go and throw yourself in front of a bus.  What the wassail?  Have you been living under a rock?  The Animaniacs is the BEST cartoon since Scooby Doo.  The basic premise of this special is A Christmas Carol and the Warner Bros. and Sister ware the three ghosts, Thaddeus Plotz is Scrooge and Ralph the security guard is Crotchet or Cratchet or whatever.

1.  The Star Wars Holiday Special - Whaaaaaat?  George Lucas did a non-animated Christmas Special with the stars of Episode IV in 1978?  You didn't know that?  Probably not, because it was a steaming pile of Rancor poo-doo.  So bad that Lucas didn't air it ever again or release it to the public.  You can find snippits on YouTube and piece them together or you can be a true "Gay For Star Wars" fan like me and have the full episode with commercials and watch it every Christmas.  I'm not going to go into detail here but rest assured it will be revisited in the 25 Days.

So there you have the Top 5 Most Under-rated Christmas Specials, according to me.  Feel free to let me know if you have a favorite under-rated special in the comments.

As for news on the Elf front, I said last time something needed to be done, well now he has gone WAY too far.  Nobody and I mean NOBODY touches my Star Wars Lego collection.  This means war you little fucker.  I'm going to go all feliz navidad on your ass!

Sleep with one eye open you little wombat...