TVSquad

Christmas is the easiest holiday to make fun of because it can be so hokey and jolly. It's like the office jolly holly -- someone who's always smiling, always bringing gooey sweet goodies to the office for no reason, always cackling at everyone's jokes, no matter how bad they are or what MadTV episode they were taken from.

But deep down, you know that anyone that happy has to be making up for something equivalently dark and sinister. They are hiding a dark secret, something they can't even admit to themselves. You just know that the rises in sick leave usage after she brings her secret recipe brownies aren't coincidences.

Christmas wears the same mask. All it takes is a little scratching to find something dark and funny behind its red and white veneer. SNL has had some great success taking pot shots at Christmas, even during the down times, for this very reason. It's hard not to find something funny about Christmas, but it's hard to keep finding something funny about it long after the turkey has been picked clean and the eggnog has left a thin layer of plaque on the inside of your small intestine. Here are the best of the best.

For those who haven't seen them, NBC has posted a set of hilarious videos involving Triumph the Insult Comic Dog appearing at the San Diego Comic-Con. Triumph creator Robert Smigel was at the event to plug the DVD of his short-lived Comedy Central series TV Funhouse, so it should come as no surprise that the puppet dog he created would show up as well.

Despite Triumph's insults against the nerd community, it should be known that Robert Smigel is a bigger nerd than anybody attending the convention. This is useful as he can at least insult fellow conventioneers with knowledge. This must make his insults sting all the more.

I had the pleasure of seeing Triumph live at a comedy concert. However, once you've been to one of his live shows, you can tell that his television appearances are heavily edited to make sure only his best bits appear. Despite this, Triumph remains hilarious to watch in any medium.

Videos are after the jump.

If there is one thing I learned during the Comedy Central TV Funhouse panel on Thursday night, it's this: they are not good with computers. For most of the evening panelist Robert Smigel and moderator Bob Odenkirk spent their time fiddling around with the Mac laptop provided to them so they could show clips from the TV Funhouse DVD that was released on Tuesday. After they got that squared away they spent several more minutes setting up an iChat so Funhouse host Doug Dale could join in the conversation. They even needed to ask a member of the audience for their Mac Powerbook in order to set the session up. Obviously, you don't want these guys on your technical support team.

Despite the technical difficulties, the TV Funhouse panel was the highlight of my Thursday at Comic-Con.

Another giveaway today! This time we've got five copies of Comedy Central's TV Funhouse on DVD for five lucky, random commenters. The DVD is already available in stores.

To enter, leave a comment below before 5:00PM Eastern, Friday, July 25 simply telling us why you'd like to own this series. As always, we'll randomly choose five winners amongst the eligible entries. Some other details:
Click here for complete Official Rules.

For those of you attending Comic-Con in San Diego, my hat is off to you. After looking at the schedule for the opening day, Thursday, July 24th, it is a wonder that your eyes don't grow glassy and that vein on the side of your temple doesn't throb with all of the events listed for that day. For those of you not attending, you may be breathing a sigh of relief that you won't have to decide what to attend and what to miss.

Granted, we here at TV Squad are only going to Comic-Con to cover the television-related events. Still, there are quite a few of them going on Thursday, starting when the convention opens and ending as the next day creeps into the night. Panels cover the gamut: public television shows, show revivals, anniversary panels about shows that have been revived, and Robert Smigel. So, if you are going, bring some comfortable shoes, plenty of snacks, and a ton of questions.

If you are not going, but are still interested in seeing what's going on in San Diego, here is a list of TV-related events for the first day of the convention. If you are interested in the complete list of events you can go to Spout blog for Thursday's full Comic-Con schedule.

I was a big fan of Robert Smigel's TV Funhouse, which lasted for only one season on Comedy Central, though I have to admit I thought some of the animated segments were funny more in theory than in execution. One of my favorite segments from the show featured Bob Odenkirk as the host of a program on the extent of human knowledge and how much we actually know, or don't know. It's typical Odenkirk in that it's incredibly funny and makes you wonder just what part of your brain you need to whack with a hammer in order see the world the way he does. Scott Adsit, a fellow cast member on Mr. Show, makes an appearance as a scientist. More clips from the series and some full episodes can be found here. Enjoy Bobby after the jump:

I don't know what Jimmy Fallon did to anger Robert Smigel (or maybe Smigel knows Fallon can take a joke), but I totally appreciated the long-running joke about Ace and Gary thinking he was the best actor ever on SNL. Later on, when they're looking for Jimmy Fallon, they get into a fight with Andy Samburg and Jason Sudeikis and Gary's butt ends up in Andy's face. They also end up wrestling, bringing Jason and Andy's... ahem... relationship into question. And it all ends with Jimmy Fallon (!) pretending to cry as Ace and Gary fly off in their penis-mobile with a naked Jason and Andy. That was a great bit.

There were so many animated shorts in this episode, that I'm only going to write about my favorite ones:

I haven't watched many of SNL's "Best of" specials, mainly because I don't particularly want to see sketches that I've already seen a number of times (although Chris Farley dancing at Chippendales never gets old). But the next "Best of" special I'm going to want to record. Why? Because on April 29, NBC will air The Best of TV Funhouse, hosted by Ace and Gary, otherwise known as the Ambiguously Gay Duo (voiced by Stephen Colbert and Steve Carell, by the way). Not only will the show air the best of Robert Smigel's shorts from the last 10 years -- a period where often the Funhouse segment was the only thing funny about SNL -- but there will also be a new AG Duo short.

I'm especially looking forward to the Charlie Brown Christmas parody, because Smigel so accurately apes the odd speaking patterns of the Peanuts kids-- and the ultra-cheap 1960's animation -- it's scary. If I had a TiVo, I'd probably put this on one "Save until I delete" status.

[via The Futon Critic]