Well, as Mexican Santa taught us, sometimes Christmas miracles are very short term and limited in scope.
(Couldn’t Santa have done more than give Lupita a doll? I suppose her family will have to wait for Epiphany to see if the Wise Men bring something better.)
Y’know, I think that bothered me on the first viewing, too. The way they lit and/or made up the poor actor who played Whipple? Looks more like he crawled in from a Giallo than from a cozy nursery. But later on, I decided that the weird non-sequitur feel of the joke fit in well with the bizarre overtones of the whole dang story. So I decided to just roll with it. (Also, Jewish Santa adopting Whipple in Joel’s cameo is a great moment of spinning gold from straw.)
It depends on my mood really… there are times I can’t suffer Mexi-Claus, and others I just have to watch it for the pure inanity of it. Conquers I can watch more often, but I try to keep to holiday/season viewing.
I love all three - I seem to like The Christmas That Almost Wasn’t more than most people here - but I have to go with Martians. The host segments are so clever and sweet and funny, and the movie is just as goofy as Santa Claus.
I think Santa Claus has the funniest single riff, though.
After the devil tells Lupita that Santa only brings gifts to rich children and the mother tells her that Santa is coming, the riff in Lupita’s voice “But Santa oppresses the proletariat” has me rolling on the floor every time.
Santa Claus is my favorite. There’s too many irritating characters in the other two. We also just rewatched The Christmas That Almost Wasn’t. I love the riffs they do as all the kids are bringing money to Santa, but they hammer the ‘little baby’ jokes too much.
I’m not ashamed to admit that I feel as much tender childhood nostalgia and affection for the Mexican Santa Claus as anybody has ever felt for The Wizard of Oz or Miracle on 34th st.
In grad school, I majored in Italian in a program that was heavy on film. The first time I learned what neorealism ACTUALLY was-- gritty, unflinching, postwar reality-- I remembered Crow’s riff in response to glittery surreal candycane nonsense and nearly lost it in class.
Unfortunately, the program has me so burned out on Italian cinema that the Xmas that almost wasn’t was really hard to take!
I gave Mr. Potroast the right to pick tonight’s pizza-accompanying movie. He chose original Martians. But we may do the rest later once the new week commences.
We reviewed all the RT seasonal stuff last weekend, and chased those with several of Josh Way’s versions of the various “classic” shorts.
Anyway, still wondering what’s in the pipe, Santa?
I am not burned out on Italian cinema, and I found TCTAW a pretty hard slog.
Plus all the questions about how you can have a landlord in a place where there isn’t any land or how Santa can be held by a lease in a place that has no government. And not getting the present you wanted is an excuse for being an obnoxious jerk? If that were the case, I’d be the most obnoxious jerk in the solar system.
It’s weird, I liked the idea that Santa would be super awkward around kids because he’s never met one that was awake. It had potential, they just never developed it. And I could absolutely get behind a Christmas film with an evil landlord antagonist, even a contrived one.
But holy hell, this movie was like if Fellini lost a bet and had to direct a film written by the Keebler elves.
Happy to say that tonight I gave the episode a rematch and came back from my defeat. Turns out I appreciated the riffs better sober!