holiday special

Let’s face it, both real and looped videos of yule logs are a thing of the past. Even with the nostalgia that’s deeply baked into the holiday season, the creation of meta “yule logs” is, perhaps, a sign we need a new thing to play over and over on Christmas (and going back to A Christmas Story or Elf might not work either).

With that in mind, there’s a new Christmas special, a comedy one at that, done up exquisitely by Matt Rogers, (after performing it annually on stages for years) gleefully titled Have You Heard of Christmas?. It’s equal parts subversive and reverent when it comes to being a holiday special and Rogers showing off his golden pipes is a lavish frosting on top of it all.

Rogers dissects the entire cottage industry that is big time actors and pop stars doing holiday specials with a scripted narrative arc shot separately from the live special (featuring great cameos from Jo Firestone and Pat Regan), then revels merrily in his disruptive riffs and takes on your time honored Christmas themes, stories, traditions for a raucous live crowd. Matt’s witty, self-aware panache does the whole special in such a marvelously satirical way that almost no one else can pull off.

So, for those reasons, make Matt Rogers: Have You Heard of Christmas? your choice to watch throughout Christmas Day and beyond (so long as you have access to Showtime and, maybe, no tiny children?).