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