A super late Christmas sketch

Hello, Scotty Pawlow here, as a gent of reckless being I am quite late on this sketch review but better late than never.

The sketch is jon lajoie's Cold Blooded Christmas

The link to this sketch can be found:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=cold+blooded+christmas&search_type=&aq=f

The sketch is made to sound like a classic Christmas song mixed with some heavy dark humor. It is probably my favorite Christmas sketch. It starts off "It was late that night on Christmas eve..." entirely reminiscent of the beginning of the Night Before Christmas. The song quickly takes a darker turn, within the first verse of the song the narrator assumed that Santa was a trespasser and shot and killed him. Jon lajoe does a fantastic job of taking sounds that should be horrifying and make them generally amusing.

"The gun went POW POW POW... He said WHAT THE FUCK OW OW OW!" -Probably my favorite part...

At the beginning of the second verse the narrator has discovered that his trespasser was Santa and instead of turning himself in the sketch turns even darker...

"Oh my God I killed Santa Claus. I'm not going to jail for this asshooooole."

He continues by grabbing his saw and chopping up Santa's body and burning it in a stove. Again Jon lajoie does a fantastic job of turning murderous sounds into humor.

"I grabbed my saw and I started to choppity chop chooooop. *chop chop chop* I started with his arms then his legs then his head, and the torso was a really hard job. And the blood went spuuurt spuuurt spuuuuuuurt... the smell of burning human flesh filled my nose *sizzle sizzle*..."

The sketch ends with a classic case of situational irony. At the beggining of the third verse the narrarator receives a phone call. It was his aunt looking for her husband, he went out last night dressed as Santa Claus but she hasn't heard from him. It is now that the realization has been made that the narrarator killed, chopped up, and burned his uncle. The song ends.

The sketch then switches to a commercial like saftey announcement

"This murder was committed by a trained professional..." Although this is amusing I personally believe the sketch would have ended much stronger if the sketch ended when the song ended.

He then closes out the video quoting one of his previous sketches, used assumingly as a trademark and cross advertising.

That's the general gist, a dark story told to a child friendly tune with an unexpected twist. I hope everyone who reads this review watches this video and ventures into all of Jon lajoie's videos. This guy is pretty damn funny and he's gonna make it pretty big. Look out for this guy a year down the road.

Scott Pawlow signing out.

Sketch Review 12/21

The current school semester has come to an end. Young men and women across this great nation are now removing their noses from the grindstone and finding comfort in a month of leisure (except of the working class! ). Yet this time of splendor is also one of remorse for the Reckless Gents. Over the next two fortnights, we will be divorced from that which we love: performance and tomfoolery. Ever the precocious bunch, we'd not let this weigh heavily on our spirits. We have decided to shower you, our adoring audience, with as much comedy as possible (and proper). Over the next month, the Reckless Gents will be reviewing a sketch every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. Some will be a spectacle. Others, not so much. Either way, we entreat you to come and watch. You will not be disappointed.

Derrick Comedy's "Foreigner", a review by Jake Lucas

*Warning: Not for the easily offended*

Deciding on the first sketch to review was difficult, but I eventually settled on Derrick Comedy's "Foreigner". I'm a huge fan of Derrick Comedy and I admire them greatly. These guys started out a few years back as NYU students who began taking sketch and improv lessons at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater. Seeing as I'm trying to follow in their footsteps in a way, I thought this lesser known sketch by them would be appropriate. I'll wait to take a massive shit on MadTV during my next review.

Derrick Comedy often uses the theoretical framework of "game" to structure their sketches. In a nutshell, the "game" of a scene is the central pattern within a scene that is different from everyday life. This scene can be a solid textbook example of that structure, with the pattern being Don Glover (left guy) feigning not knowing English to proposition having sex with the other man's daughter. The sketch establishes what is going on right when it starts, and smoothly transitions into this pattern with the "first unusual thing". It's neat, clean, and theoretically sound. While some hate formula, this particular structure is very satisfying for me, and you'd be surprised how often you'll see it elsewhere.

But what really makes me love this scene is how well Don Glover commits and heightens. I go from empathizing with him as he has difficulty understanding English, to loathing him as he violently humps the air, mimicking his heinous act with beautiful specificity. This, coupled with Dominic Dierkes' solid role as the straight man, warms the cockles of my comedic heart.

In America!

I'd like to kick off this blog with a segment I'm going to call In America!, where we look at foreign news and ask the question "what would it be like if this was happening in the US of A?"

Iranian Election of June 12th: I've been following the Iranian election over the last few days. For those of you who haven't, the race between the conservative Incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the reformist Mir-Hossein Mousavi was particularly heated and close. It's been hard to determine how close, because many sources have been heavily biased, but it was close enough to drag out a record number of voters in Iran. The final count was announced suspiciously quickly, and gave Mohmoud Ahmadinejad nearly twice as many votes as Mir-Hossein Mousavi. For days, protesters have taken to the street in outrage over the blatant election fraud, in numbers not seen since the Iranian revolution of 1979. Tensions are high as the Islamic regime is facing a severe challenge to its authority.

What would this be like if it was happening in America?: After campus quads around the nation attract hundreds of protestors, America would closely huddle around their TVs wondering why Adam Lambert wasn't the rightful eighth American Idol. The dispute would go to appeals court after appeals court, until the endless string of bureaucracy bores us into remembering that changing the system takes even more effort than bustin' our chops from 9 to five.

Sousan Boyle Loses Britain's Got Talent: Susan Boyle, the embodiment of the classic underdog story and clear favorite in Britain's Got Talent loses to street dance troupe Diversity. With such an upset, the only explanation found is that everyone thought Boyle was guaranteed to win, thus no one bothered to vote.

What would this be like if it was happening in America?: Susan Boyle would have won, because America knows that every vote counts!

African Couples Urged to Get HIV 'Love Test': HIV is an epidemic in the African Kingdom of Swaziland, with roughly 26% of the population infected and only 1/4 of the infected being aware of it. In a new campaign to try to prevent the spread of HIV, couples are urged to get tested together so as both partners are aware if either has the infection.

What would this be like if it was happening in America?: Be it Africa or America, most Americans still wouldn't give a shit.

This post was written by Jake Lucas.