A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift Of All

Every family has someone who loves old-fashioned Christmas specials: the cheer, the carols, the goodwill toward men. Under no circumstances buy them this DVD. Comedy Central's Colbert sends up the genre by kicking things off with "Another Christmas Song" — an ode to cashing in on the holiday by writing an "oft-returning, royalty-earning" schmaltz standard. Helping him spike the punch are Willie Nelson as a weed-toting Wise Man, Jon Stewart ambivalently praising Hanukkah and John Legend crooning a hilariously filthy love song to nutmeg. Not for the earnest-hearted, this instant satire classic is to Kathie Lee Gifford's specials what truthiness is to truth.

—James Poniewozik

• 
• Click to Print

• Find this article at:
• https://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1862746_1862747_1862748,00.html