Merry Christmas 2021 from Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog

Here we are, downright amazed to be here with the second-to-last post for 2021 - and delighted to wish all readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thrilled to be cheerful and drawing breath on Christmas Eve - and quite busy redefining what can be considered Christmas music.



Sincerely hope that nobody brings fruitcake to your Christmas Eve or Christmas party.

The temptation is to simply recycle our 2016 Christmas Eve post every year, but instead Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog shall go through a few holiday favorites, after swilling Borden's Egg Nog spiked generously with two double shots of Myers Rum and brandy!



Of course, the gang at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog have already listened to Nat King Cole's The Christmas Song, one of our favorites, penned by none other than the ridiculously talented vocalist-actor-drummer-songwriter Mel Tormé.



Now MUST listen to Nat's entire Christmas album and Sinatra's The Christmas Waltz twice!



Dearly love The Chairman of the Board's 1957 album A Jolly Christmas From Frank Sinatra - and especially "The Christmas Waltz".




This great tune, our all-time favorite, was first released on Capitol Records epic Merry Christmas To You! compilation LP (Capitol T-9030).

The great jazz saxophonist Booker Ervin (1931-1970) waxed this blogger's favorite rendition of Irving Berlin's White Christmas in 1966, on his outstanding Structurally Sound album.



Booker's fellow tenor saxophonist and occassional collaborator Dexter Gordon waxed this jazz fan's all-time favorite cover of The Christmas Song.




We now turn to some Christmas-themed animation, starting with Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera.

Across the pond, former Disney director David Hand made cartoons for Gaumont British Animation. Ginger Nutt's Christmas Circus is his studio's contribution to the 2021 Yule log.



The late, great Gene Deitch made many fantastic cartoons, first at UPA's East Coast branch, then at Terrytoons and afterwards from his studio in Prague. Gene directed and/or produced a slew of original and strikingly designed animation gems. One of the best is THE JUGGLER OF OUR LADY.

Based on "Le Jongleur de Notre Dame," THE JUGGLER OF OUR LADY is narrated by none other than Boris Karloff and adapted from the Anatole France's book by R.O. Blechman.




Next up: the National Film Board of Canada. We tip our Santa hat respectfully to friend of this blog, archivist supreme and showman Sci Fi Bob Ekman, who is responsible for this blogger seeing this terrific NFB cartoon, Christmas Cracker.



That said, it's comedy for the writer of this blog throughout the holiday season - and it just wouldn't be Christmas without favorite comedy sketches. Leading off, invariably, from SCTV, is Ed Grimley in The Fella Who Couldn't Wait For Christmas. . . I must say.



We'll raise that SCTV sketch with Liberace's Christmas Special!



Arguably, the single greatest pure physical comic ever to be a Saturday Night Live cast member was the late great Chris Farley.



In the SNL Christmas sketch pantheon, love seeing Chris' motivational speaker character, Matt Foley, as a department store Santa!



And then there's A Debbie Downer Christmas Eve, co-starring one of our all-time favorites at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog, the one, the only Jack Black. Quality time spent with Tenacious D is guaranteed to cheer this blogger up!



That sketch invariably brings the Debbie Downer out of this blogger.

Have mixed emotions about the Christmas holidays and especially the supercharged commercialization, stressing buying stuff you don’t need in the first place. Stan Freberg’s Green Christmas still resonates in a big way.



On the one hand, love the holiday season and especially love hanging out with friends and family. On the other hand, for those whose family members have either all passed away or are gravely ill, the unrelenting ultra-sentiment regarding family gatherings seems quite cruel.


Noting that for those who lost their jobs and/or are stone broke, the mass onslaught of advertising represents a big upraised middle finger, the Debbie Downer "bwaa bwaa" sound effect is definitely in order. Now, after asserting that feline AIDS is the number one killer of domestic cats, it's time for more Stan Freberg records.



We wish all a safe and Merry Christmas, with a touch of mambo!



The Christmas Eve closer: a Season's Greetings calypso from Robert Mitchum.

And Now For A Word From Our Sponsor, Written By Stan Freberg!

"His splendid 1957 13-week CBS radio show was distilled into a double LP set which was my first inspiration to not only do comedy/voices/satire for a living, but also to be an historian of this great stuff." Keith Scott, voice over artist and author of The Moose That Roared: The Story of Jay Ward, Bill Scott, a Flying Squirrel, and a Talking Moose.

"He was gifted with an amazing imagination and the performing gifts necessary to transfer that imagination into something that others could see and hear." Mark Evanier

"His humor has worn well and his voice work speaks for itself—pun intended." Leonard Maltin

"Stan Freberg's satire still speaks volumes today." Don M. Yowp



The late, great Stan Freberg wrote the funniest TV ads in the history of Western Civilization, with the possible exception of those Piels Beer commercials starring Bob & Ray. Well, small wonder - they were written by a guy who turned down a drama scholarship to work with Mel Blanc as a voice-over artist on Warner Brothers cartoons!



Stan Freberg was also responsible for the only TV commercial featuring science fiction/fantasy writer (and chum of Looney Tunes director Chuck Jones) author Ray Bradbury.



Stan Freberg started his long career of writing hilarious commercials for radio. Historian and writer Don M. Yowp wrote at some length about Stan Freberg's career as cartoon voice artist and radio/television advertising wunderkind, in an August 7, 2013 post.





Here are a few more hilarious commercials by Stan Freberg - enjoy!

Remembering Stan Freberg (1926-2015)

In one of those eerie coincidences, the scribe who pens Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog had been thinking a great deal about comedian, satirist, writer, puppeteer and cartoon voice artist supreme Stan Freberg in the past 24 hours and planning to write a tribute.



Had no clue Mr. Freberg was ailing, but was pondering which extraordinary wit could complete a Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog trifeca that started with the blazing radio comedy team of Bob & Ray and the ever-cantankerous "Sultan Of Sarcasm" Henry Morgan.



So, with, the news that Stan passed this morning at 88, here's today's (admittedly, hastily thrown together - and to be edited and expanded soon enough) posting.



Could anyone in the world of comedy be considered the predecessor of such far-flung yet currently active comedians and entertainers as Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, Jon Oliver AND "Weird Al" Jankovic?



Yes - and that would be the great Stan Freberg.



Before Allan Sherman, before Tom Lehrer, before the Dr. Demento show and 25 years before Weird Al, it was Stan The Man who wrote and performed a plethora of dead-on and frequently satiric song parodies.











Stan Freberg was also the last comedian to have a radio show that was actually on one of those "Big Three" networks (we know Bob & Ray continued on PBS for years, but they were the Last Comics Standing on radio).







Mr. Freberg could be regarded as part of a trend towards a sophisticated approach to comedy that began with Fred Allen, Henry Morgan and Bob & Ray in the 1940's.





As the 1950's progressed this list would expand to include Ernie Kovacs, Tom Lehrer, Bob Newhart and the intrepid writing staff of Jay Ward Productions. The Jay Ward connection is no accident, as hilarious supporting performances by Rocky & Bullwinkle Show voice artists June Foray and Daws Butler, are all over Freberg's recordings and radio shows.







One of the last Freberg pieces I remembered seeing was his 1982 PBS special. IIRC, it only aired once, so we are pleased to see that it's up on YouTube.







Farewell and thanks for a gazillion laughs, Stan!

And Now, A Word From Our Sponsor, Courtesy Of Stan Freberg!