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.

• At 8 ABC has A Charlie Brown Christmas, followed by the series finale of Boston Legal.
• CBS has a new Big Bang Theory at 8, then new episodes of How I Met Your Mother, Two and a Half Men, Worst Week, and CSI: Miami.
• NBC has new episodes of Chuck, Heroes, and My Own Worst Enemy.
• FOX has a new Sarah Connor Chronicles at 8, followed by a new Prison Break.
• There's a new Gossip Girl on The CW at 8, then a new Privileged.
• USA Network has a new Monday Night RAW at 8.
• Also at 8: BBC America has a new Top Gear.
• At 9, Food Network has the special Dear Food Network: Holiday Desserts.
• At 10, E! has a new episode of The Soup Presents.
• MTV has a new episode of The Hills at 10.

Check your local TV listings for more.

After the jump, the late night talk show listings.

Reader James left this link on a previous post of mine, a clip from A Charlie Brown Christmas overdubbed with a song by heavy metal band Tourniquet. Sorry, I don't listen to a lot of metal, so I couldn't tell you the name of the song, but I'm sure one of you will tell me in the comments. I usually break out my Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack album around this time of year, but maybe I should download this song from iTunes as well and add it to my Christmas playlist. I don't know what's being sung, exactly, but I'm sure it has something to do with loving Jesus, goodwill towards men, and sipping apple cider around the fireplace ... with SATAN*.

Just for fun, I also included the Charlie Brown / Outkast mashup that hit the Web some time ago. Dance your pants off.

*Some readers pointed out that Tourniquet is a Christian metal band, so my joke doesn't really make sense. I will try to do a better job in the future of pretending I care about Christian metal and its place in the annals of modern music.