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What are your favorite Christmas (or Holiday) Special Episodes?
There have been several holiday specials of shows, are there any in particular that are added to you rotation of yearly viewing?
There have been several holiday specials of shows, are there any in particular that are added to you rotation of yearly viewing?
Not an episode but Letterkenny traditionally drop a new season on Boxing day. <3
My Favorites:
My absolute favorite is a New Years tradition from Japan:
Japanese variety show Gaki no Tsukai does a batsu (penalty/punishment) game special every new years eve, and has been doing it for almost 20 years now. It's a bit hard to explain the premise, but imagine a "try not to laugh" challenge but where all the participants are professional comedians who are trying to make each other laugh, all the staff from the variety show are working behind the scenes to get them to laugh, and all the special guests (often hugely popular Japanese celebrities, politicians, and other comedians) are trying to get them to laugh as well. And whenever the contestants do laugh (or even smile), the punishment is that they get slapped on the ass with a foam coated baton, or occasionally an even more painful punishments like getting kicked full-force in the ass by a pro Muay Thai fighter, slapped in the face by a pro wrestler, slapped in the dick with a dick slapping machine, shot in the ass with a blowdart, etc. Now imagine that madness going on for 12 hours straight (edited down to a few hours of the best bits, and with the contestants watching it together in front of a live studio audience) and that's basically it. Oh, and every year they also have to dress up in costumes matching the game's new theme, and all the day's events are centered around that theme as well.
The show is so goddamn funny that I always get painful face muscle cramps by the end from having smiled so much for so long, and lightheaded at various points from laughing so hard. @Bauke can probably back me up on this, since I know he's a fan too. ;)
Although, sadly, last new years (2021-2022) the tradition likely came to a permanent end. The special was cancelled due to COVID, and AFAIK there has been no news about it resuming this new years either.
But for anyone interested in watching them, all the previous batsu game specials have been expertly translated into English by Team Gaki, and they are available for streaming (with harcoded subs) via the GakiArchives site:
Hot Spring Inn (2003)
Yugawara (2004)
High School (2005)
Police Station (2006)
Hospital (2007)
Newspaper Agency (2008)
Hotel Employees (2009)
Spy School (2010)
Airport (2011)
Enthusiastic Teachers (2012)
Earth Defense Force (2013)
Prison (2014)
Detectives (2015)
Scientists (2016)
American Police (2017)
Treasure Hunters (2018)
Youth High School (2019)
Las Vegas (2020)
Can confirm. If you want to laugh until it hurts, Gaki's Batsu games are incredible. It takes a few years to pick up steam and get the recurring jokes going, but once you get there it's amazing. I had been meaning to watch it again after the Las Vegas one was finished by Team Gaki (who deserve major props for their work), so now is probably a good time as any to start.
Well damn. Twist my rubber arm. I guess I will have to join you in rewatching them all now too. :P
So, not tv, but radio, and something that I listen to every year is the Christmas episode of Cabin Pressure. A radio sitcom written by John Finnemore, staring Benedict Cumberbatch, Roger Allam, Stephanie Cole, and Finnemore. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00lmcxj
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00wqj4v
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabin_Pressure_(radio_series)#Christmas_special