As readers of these pages know, I dearly love The Goes Wrong Show.  It's a BBC-TV series made by the same people who created The Play That Goes Wrong, which I've written about on this site a few times.  It was a hit in London and Broadway and toured to Los Angeles where I saw it -- a play ostensibly put on by a mediocre theatre company, the Cornley Drama Society, in the middle of England where pretty much everything...well, goes wrong.  The show was such a success that they've done several follow-up plays.  And also this series.

The TV series is done by the same people, once again playing members of this same mediocre Cornley Drama Society from the middle of England.  And supposedly they put on a new half-hour play each week (a different genre each time) that is broadcast throughout England.  The shows are a joy and often remarkable.  A couple of them are tour-de-force: one is a courtroom drama called "A Trial to Watch, and the other (a Tennessee Williams-style play set in the hot, steamy Deep South titled "90 Degrees") is almost Shakespearean in its physical comedy, taking slapstick ito an "oh-my-god" level.  

If you don't like physical humor, The Goes Wrong Show is not for you.  Just know, though, that this is physical comedy done as an art form by brilliant craftsmen at the peak of their skills.

The first season should be available on YouTube, and most of season two can be found on a site called DailyMotion.com.  You can also get it on Amazon Prime, though it's not included and has a separate fee.

This is their Christmas special from Season One, "The Spirit of Christmas" (with my favorite part, the 'Nistle and Nostle Song.')  Where pretty much everything...well, goes wrong.

[UPDATE:  Weirdly, when you click on this video below, it said it can't play in this browser.  However, I've found a different link which hopefully will work.  But if not, clicking on this link here will take you directly to the video on YouTube.]

​On this week’s Naked Lunch Thanksgiving podcast, hosts Phil Rosenthal and David Wild write that they “give thanks for their Naked Lunch listeners by taking calls from some of you and discussing Thanksgiving food, and shows, music and other things you're thankful for here in 2024. Actress, writer, comedian and podcaster Janet Varney -- co-founder of the great SF Sketchfest, the San Francisco Comedy Festival -- joins Phil and David to discuss their upcoming appearance at the Festival.  And Brandi Granville -- host of Straw Hut Media's Brandi Glanville Unfiltered podcast -- surprises Phil & David by joining the holiday conversation.”
 

Yes, it's that time o' year.  'Tis the season.  It's our annual Holiday Music Fest, starting tonight each day through the end o' the year.  .  Well…ever since it began it was the Holiday Music Fest, where we unrelentingly posted wonderful holiday songs that -- for the most part -- are either significantly little-known or performed in uncommon ways.  But over the years, we added comedy sketches, television specials, radio programs ?and more, to the point where saying that this was just about music didn’t do it justice.  And especially since I came across a bunch more new treats this year that that cover a range of material, I felt it was time for a name change.  Let the festivities begin…

If I only had one piece to embed for the Fest, this might be the one.  So, what better way to begin.  To those who know it, it's legendary.  But it remains far too little known, and so it fits our Fest.  Stan Freberg's classic from 1958 that remains relevant, if not more so from when it was first released, "Green Chri$tma$."

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An article in Politico noted an interesting, possible strategy by progressives in Congress for taking on Trump – calling his bluff on some of his campaign “promises.  If they succeed, they can take credit for bringing them to the table.  If they fail, they can bash Trump for it.
 
Among the examples are Rep. Pramila Jayapal and Sen. Richard Blumenthal who have said they would work with Trump on anti-trust issues he claimed he was for.  And Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders both said they would be happy to work with him to bring his campaign “promise” of capping credit card interest to fruition.
 
It’s certainly seems unlikely that these are two issues -- that progressives would love to see passed -- hold even the slightest interest to Trump and therefore will get nowhere.  But then, as noted, Democrats can build a long laundry list of Trump promises that he gave lip service to during the campaign, but were nothing more than his standard flim-flam.
 
No doubt beyond just these two issues there are many others that fall in the same box.
 
In fact, already, Trump has claimed that he reached an agreement with the President of Mexico and posted on social media that the border will be closed.  The problem for Trump is that Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum later released a statement contradiction Trump’s claim of a “beautiful call” where everything was resolved.
 
For instance, two headlines stated – CNN reported: “Mexico’s president denies Trump’s claim that she agreed to shut down the U.S.-Mexico border.”  The New Republic wrote: “Mexican President’s Harsh Takedown of Trump Exposes an Ugly MAGA Scam” and Yahoo News stated “Trump Mocked After Mexico’s President Blows Up His Brag About Their Call.”
 
That’s one of the big differences between campaigning and making random statements and promises that can’t be fact-checked – and the reality of being a president talking to others who actually can read what you say and then respond.  And now Trump is on the record saying that the border issue is resolved and will be closed.
 
No doubt he’ll blame Mexico.  No doubt, he'll claim his version of the story was right.  No doubt he'll say it was a perfect call.  Unfortunately for Trump, in the end, he is the one (and the only one) who publicly promised there was an agreement and that the border would be closed -- and most certainly, it won’t be.
 
Go figure.  Trump promises that don’t become reality.  Who would imagine…?

This is a good way to finish off our Thanksgiving Fest.

I'm a big fan of Jack Benny, and have been since a kid.  Perhaps I got it from my Grandma Rose who loved The Jack Benny Program, and I remember watching his TV show with her when little.  Later, when I was at a senior at Northwestern I finally had built up enough contacts to figure out how to get access to their great radio archive -- it was like entering a wonderful, wall-to-wall recordings of old radio programs, and I was able to tape record a bunch of old Benny shows for my collection, which I still have.  They're gems.

It turns out that my friend and reader of these pages, Eric Boardman -- an all-around talented fellow and Second City alum -- is quite the fan, as well.  He sent me the following several months back, about the Jack Benny Show's Thanksgiving special on November 30, 1952 --

"It's no secret, I am obsessed with the Jack Benny radio show. Each night I listen to an episode on my phone as I fall asleep. (Do you conk out with a smile on your kisser?)
 
"Yes, I know Thanksgiving is long over, but this particular program will bring joy to any season. Today's sitcom staffers should study the construction. And everybody else should howl with laughter---and marvel at the gags radio encourages. Benny's writers are constantly surprising us with 'visual" images' And Mr. Benny generously shares the jokes with his crackerjack cast. (Thanks always to the Sportsman Quartet for making cigarette commercials satisfying.) 'The Lucky Strike Program with Jack Benny' is high art, maybe the highest of the genre.
 
"Happy listening!" 
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