What are your favorite Christmas carols?

GirlWhoLikes2Laugh said:

Oh yeah I forgot about the Twelve Pains of Christmas. It's an amusing carol!

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WHY THE HELL ARE THEY BLINKING?

Nedstacey2 said:

Bienvenue!* Sorry you couldn't view the video, but it's actually a clip of the "over/Oveur, under/Unger" shtick from Airplane II: The Sequel, the follow-up to Airplane!, the most sophisticated comedic film ever made (with all due respect to the classic works of Fernandel and Jerry Lewis).

And the vid is actually the source of that screen grab of the late great Peter Graves, here playing Cpt. Clarence Oveur and not Jim Phelps of Mission: Impossible fame. Indeed, on the TV show I don't think we ever even saw his tongue, much less him crack a smile except maybe when Phelps himself was shown portraying some goofball character as part of one of the many elaborate deceptions to ensnare each episode's token bad guy.

*Consciously, ironically and playfully using the Anglo-influenced expression for '(you're) welcome' that's common in Québec, just to twist some French purist knickers.

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You're the best, Ned!

I see. Thanks for the clarification about Peter Graves. My mistake here: with his suit and hairstyle here, I could have sworn that this snapshot was taken from a Mission: Impossible episode. After all, if one takes a picture of anyone, even though that person is being very serious, if the photographer times it right, he can make him look very stupid.

It pains me to say that I am not a big fan of American-style comedy, even though you do have such praiseworthy movies as Airplane! Hot Shots! (esp part deux, and not just for the French title) or Space Balls. I tend to prefer British or French style when it comes to comedy. You are probably familiar with such masterpieces as Life of Brian or Holy Grail! (why do all these movie titles have "!" in them, by the way? ), but have you seen De Funès' movies? I prefer him to Fernandel. Or more recent productions such as Le Dîner de Cons? Les Visiteurs? In the latter two cases, let's just pretend that their atrocious American remakes do not exist

And you did "twist my knickers", as I am indeed a purist, much to the chagrin of my beloved wife who is still learning French. At least it gives me a good reason for tickling her whenever she makes mistakes

For me;

In Dulci Jubilo
Ding Dong Merrily On High
Lo, How a Rose, Ere Blooming
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
O Come All Ye Faithful
Benjamin Britten's Ceremony of Carols, especially This Little Babe
Gaudete
Carol of the Bells
The Coventry Carol
Joy to the World
Silent Night
Linus and Lucy from The Charlie Brown Christmas Special

Tenebrae said:

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We so need an animated smilie/emoji for the French bise here; this might be a good blueprint, I guess.

Tenebrae said:

It pains me to say that I am not a big fan of American-style comedy, even though you do have such praiseworthy movies as Airplane! Hot Shots! (esp part deux, and not just for the French title) or Space Balls.

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Ah, Spaceballs, the biggest disappointment in the œuvre of that master Mel Brooks. I've seen it about a hundred times, and each viewing it just doesn't get any better (but at least I can now do a reverential "The Schwaaaartz!!" as good as anybody).

Tenebrae said:

I tend to prefer British or French style when it comes to comedy. You are probably familiar with such masterpieces as Life of Brian or Holy Grail!

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Oh yes, Monty Python's Life of Brian features a scene that's red meat for my fellow nerdy grammarians and classicists everywhere:

Tenebrae said:

have you seen De Funès' movies?

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No, I wasn't familiar with his work until I found this strikingly high-quality clip, which I only link to here due to its sensitive content for a potentially snowflake contemporary American audience.

Tenebrae said:

Or more recent productions such as Le Dîner de Cons? Les Visiteurs?

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No, sorry, I guess my tastes run to the elevated, sophisticated, politically-tinged forays into comedy by Pierre Falardeau, like the following gem which probes the mysteries of a certain human bodily function (for all you non-French speakers who can't be bothered to turn on the captioning, the key word in all the dialog is marde, the particularly Québécois locution for, er, "#2"):


The clip is from Falardeau's Elvis Gratton XXX, from which title I learned that apparently XXX can stand for '3' just as well as III can, completing my training in post-modern deconstruction and absurdity (obligatory shout-out to Derrida there).

Nedstacey2 said:

We so need an animated smilie/emoji for the French bise here; this might be a good blueprint, I guess.

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Totally agree! In general I think we need more French-themed emojis and smileys on this forum. Chinese too~

Nedstacey2 said:

No, I wasn't familiar with his work until I found this strikingly high-quality clip, which I only link to here due to its sensitive content for a potentially snowflake contemporary American audience.

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Political correctness is the bane of the century. And De Funès was hands down our best comedian. Such talent for both slapstick and social critique... I still watch his movies regularly. Les Aventures de Rabbi Jacob, La Folie des Grandeurs, La Grande Vadrouille, Le Corniaud and above all Oscar (his best movie, essentially 1h20 of uninterrupted laughter for the viewer) are pure gems of comedy.

Nedstacey2 said:

(...) completing my training in post-modern deconstruction and absurdity (obligatory shout-out to Derrida there).

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What a cultivé man you are! How many people know about Derrida these days? Although I am not a big fan of his clique of French de-constructors. They've caused tremendous damage to my country and yours. Nevertheless, it's nice to see them mentioned here of all places

Your guy's dead and I have a machine gun.

Ho ho ho!

Best carol ever.

Haha, good one! I love Die Hard~