Nov

A Colbert Christmas The Greatest Gift of All! Review

a-colbert-christmas A Colbert Christmas The Greatest Gift of All! Review

Release Date: November 25th, 2008
Publisher: Comedy Central
Price: $12.99 on Amazon (Buy It)
Rating: Not Rated
Runtime: 43 Minutes
Special Features: Video Yule Log of Burning Books, Stephen’s 25-Day Video Advent Calendar, Shocking Alternative Endings, An Extra Song
Starring: Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, Willie Nelson, Elvis Costello, Toby Keith, Feist, John Legend
Genre: Holiday, Comedy

Story:

“A Colbert Christmas The Greatest Gift of All!” is Stephen Colbert’s Christmas special that is airing on Comedy Central this Sunday (November 23rd, 2008). While I don’t usually write about The Colbert Report on this site, I am a regular viewer of the show and I think it is a very funny show. As far as this special is concerned, I have no idea why Stephen Colbert made his own Christmas special but I have to be thankful that he did because it is actually quite funny and I really enjoyed it.

As far as the story is concerned here is what you can expect. Take a corny old Christmas special and add in Stephen Colbert and that is essentially what you get in this Christmas Special. If you like The Colbert Report I can’t imagine you not liking this special since even though there is little politics involved, if you like Colbert’s quirkiness I don’t know how you won’t like this special. While the story has a couple slow points I found the story to be very enjoyable.

Acting:

Overall I thought the acting was pretty good in this special. The acting does a good job adding to the corniness of the special. Stephen Colbert is his funny self. Colbert is joined by many guest stars though. Jon Stewart makes an appearance and is as good as ever. Meanwhile the singers aren’t the greatest actors but they are mostly in the special for their singing.

Audio:

Since this is a Christmas special you would expect at least some singing. There is plenty of singing in this special. While most Christmas specials would have your traditional Christmas songs, Stephen Colbert wants nothing to do with that so all the songs in this special are all original “humor” songs. While one or two o the songs aren’t great, the majority of them are pretty funny. Combine that with the fact that most of the cast can actually sing (except for Jon Stewart) and the audio is very good on this DVD.

Special Features:

While I usually am not a huge fan of special features I have to say that the special features on this DVD are great despite not being that long. The Video Yule Log of Burning Books is pretty lame (just a 20 minute video of a fire where books are being thrown into). The extra song (sung by Stephen Colbert) is also pretty lame. The other two special features are pretty funny. The three alternative endings (I am guessing that you didn’t think a Christmas special could have alternative endings) are funny. The best special feature though is the advent calender. For those of you who don’t know what an advent calender is, it is an item that gives you something new every single day until Christmas. In the case of this feature, a Steven Colbert Christmas tip. Even though Steven advises you not to watch them all at once, I did since most of them were very funny (Day #2 in particular).

Recommendations:

My recommendation for this dvd essentially comes down to how much you like Stephen Colbert. Since this special is much like his humor on The Colbert Report, if you don’t like The Colbert Report you most likely won’t like this dvd. If you do like Stephen Colbert though I would recommend you either watch the special on television (November 23rd, 2008) or buy the DVD. The special is quite funny and the DVD has two very good special features. While not the traditional Christmas Special, I don’t think you will see a better Christmas special this holiday season.