JJ and Alec dive into a lively discussion about the classic holiday film, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, highlighting the comedic elements that make it a beloved staple for many during the holiday season. They reflect on the character of Clark Griswold, played by Chevy Chase, emphasizing his relentless pursuit of a perfect family Christmas amidst a series of absurd mishaps. One host shares their initial skepticism about the film, having never seen it before, and expresses surprise at finding humor in the subtle and relatable moments that resonate with the challenges of family gatherings during the holidays. The conversation also touches on the film's enduring appeal, despite its predictable tropes, and how it captures the essence of holiday chaos that many can relate to, making it a memorable viewing experience for both new and returning audiences.

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Oh, I was so pissed because Oshi was like, oh, it's free.

And I was just glaring daggers at this poor guy who was working.

Oh, that is so.

I was like.

Because I was like, yeah, we're not spending money on Christmas tree the day before.

He's oh no, it's free.

I was like, shut the up, dude.

What are you trying to do to me?

Welcome to the what's up Podcast where we fashion ourselves cinematic judge and jury.

My name is J.J.

crowder.

I'm here with my co host, host Alec Burgess.

Let's get it.

We appreciate you tuning in.

Go ahead, follow, subscribe.

Like bell notification buttons helps you keep up with what we're doing and when.

It also helps grow the podcast, which we much appreciate.

So do that for us.

Also, you should tell a friend about us and a family member about us and that crazy neighbor that has way too many Christmas lights.

You can go ahead and tell them about it too.

We all know you have one.

Absolutely, we all have one.

And if it's not your family member, than like the neighbor that has them or we all.

Everybody's got one in that area.

I got one that's got like blow up Santa Claus.

Yeah, there's always one house on every street.

You know exactly who which house it is too.

It's wild, dude.

And, and I, you know, I have a Indian, my mother in law.

I'll save that story.

But man, it's December.

What a wild thing to say.

And with that we're doing five weeks Christmas movies.

We got some classics on here, I guess, depending on who you ask.

But the first one we're doing is National Lampoon's Christmas vacation released classic.

Oh, classic something.

Classic something.

It was written by John Hughes, which I love.

It was directed by Jeremiah S.

Chechik and it stars Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Juliet Lewis, Johnny Galecki, John Randolph, Diane Ladd, e.

G.

Marshall, Doris Roberts, Randy Quaid, Miriam Flynn and Cody Berger.

It's about, of course, the Griswold and their family plans for a big family Christmas predictably turn into a big disaster.

Geez, I.

It's your movie.

You start.

This was my movie, so this was my pick because I'd never seen it before.

Oh, fuck off.

You seriously never seen him before.

We've seen it before and a few months ago, Shameless plug.

Right.

We did the three amigos.

Yeah, and I mentioned that Chevy Chase was just not my favorite part.

Like I didn't understand him.

Hadn't really watched a lot of his movies, so I decided to watch this one.

I get him more now.

I understand him a little bit more in his level of comedy does not mesh well with me.

But I'd never seen it.

And so there was parts in this where I was going, dude, that's, that was funny.

But it's very subtle humor and it's a very realistic humor to the point where it's not the over the top outrageous kind of thing.

But I was sitting there going, man, Clark Griswold, fucking hero.

First of all.

Second of all, the level of patience that's has throughout the film.

One, one little incident and I'd be like, fuck all.

You guys are gone.

Get.

Get out.

I never want to see you again.

Family be damned.

Yeah, this dude just takes it on the cheek, you know, time after time after time.

And the.

And it got to the point where the final straw that really pushes him over the edge was almost unbelievable to me.

And so I was like, really?

That's.

That's the one.

Like you should have expected it, dude.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

There is no reason why you were hanging on to this one thread.

So I had really mixed feelings on my first watch because I enjoyed it.

There was parts of the made me chuckle, made me laugh.

It was short.

But then there was the overall story they were telling us.

Clark Griswold.

I feel like I was missing stuff because National Ant loons.

Right.

There's.

There's more to it than just the Christmas vacation.

Yeah, there's several films that are going in the series and so coming into this one, I was like jarring a tad bit.

But I, I overall didn't have like show a lot of complaints with it, which I was surprised because I expected to hate it.

So did you.

Have you not seen any of the vacations?

Wow.

No, none of them.

Should I.

I'm so torn on what to tell you right now.

Listen, I have a love hate relationship with the National Lampoon movies in general across the board.

And it's the same problem that I have typically with any of like the major.

Same thing with.

With the Saturday Night Live films and.

Oh God, what's the.

We did it a couple months ago.

What's the British group?

Oh, Monty Python.

Monty Python.

So like I have the same issues across the board with.

It's because.

And my part of my problem is I can't stand re watching this.

I've seen all the vacations.

The original Vacation.

Absolutely.

One of my favorite comedic films in bits.

Right Like, I don't.

I don't need to sit and watch the whole movie, but there's some bits that are some of the funniest things I've ever seen.

So I recommend watching Vacation, like the original.

And you'll laugh because, like every movie, Rusty's played by a different actor.

Pretty sure the daughter's played by a different actor, like, because they're all growing up.

And so anyway, because I think Michael's.

Michael C.

No, not Mike.

Not my.

I keep thinking Dexter, because I've been watching the new Dexter.

I've been getting ready to watch the new Dexter.

Anyway, so I think of Michael C.

Hall, but it's.

It's another the dude from.

Oh, my gosh, I'm losing my Today, Alec.

It's a Sunday afternoon and I can't think straight.

Breakfast Club, the nerd.

Anyway.

Yeah, see, I knew it was like a three.

And he had Michael in it.

He is the son in Vacation, the original, I believe, if I remember right.

Anyway, so I recommend the first one because there's some really funny bits.

And to me, this is the same.

I think Christmas, other than the original, is the one I can tolerate the most, but it's.

The jokes become very predictable after you've watched a couple.

So you'll go into Vacation, and I think you'll enjoy most of the bits, but you'll be like, oh, I can't remember.

Oh, that's familiar.

And so it's like, it's this overused.

And it was an 80s 90s trope.

Right.

This is almost tonight.

They just reuse the same over and over.

The 90s had one movie.

Yeah, exactly.

And we're close enough to the 90s with this one that we see that effect in the.

In these films.

And then the moving through the National Lampoons.

Now, the original Vacation was pretty groundbreaking in that.

Like, it was very different because it's like you said in this one, even it's grounded comedy.

Like, it's comedy we can relate to.

No matter how farcical or how huge it gets, you can relate to it.

Like the assholes at the beginning of this one, like, riding your ass and being complete.

Another douchebags.

Like the road rage enough to drive underneath the truck.

And, like, all that shit's funny as fuck because it's relatable, even though it's to the extreme.

Yeah.

Or like putting your foot through a false ceiling.

Yeah, like, I done that.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

And it's that exact expression is the.

Yeah, what are you going to do?

Or, like, Even the extreme of bringing a wild animal in with your Christmas tree.

Like, you know what I mean?

Like, we've done that.

I've done that.

We come home, we get it, and I never got it in the house, but we got it loaded up in the truck, and all of a sudden a bird flies out and I'm like, sorry about your family in your house.

I.

You can come live with us for a week of a couple weeks, I'm sure.

But yeah, I mean, it's.

To your point, it's very relatable and it is about the only time I can stand Chevy Chase is these.

Those couple of movies with him.

Other than that, I'm not.

It's just Chevy Chase and Chevy Chase plays Chevy Chase.

That's it.

Always has, always will, which is why nobody likes his ass.

Fair point.

Yeah.

But yeah, so, I mean, the, the part that got me, or the tedious bit was one after another of family members showing up.

And it, it just continued and continued and continued.

By the time, you know, we got to.

What's a crazy.

Cousin.

Cousin Eddie.

Cousin Eddie.

Cousin Eddie.

I was like, hey, this is just now, now it's unbelievable.

Like, up until this point, I can buy it.

Yeah.

Both sets of family coming or both sets of parents and they're, you know, don't get along very well.

And you have this dynamic going on where they, you know, one of them's not planning on coming.

Then all of a sudden they're coming and, oh, that's fine.

You know, we'll deal with it.

That 100 believable.

Sure.

Cousin Eddie showing up and then.

What is it?

Great aunt.

Whatever bucket is.

That's where I lost it.

I was like, okay, this is just.

Now you're.

Now you're overplaying the joke.

It's not funny anymore.

Yeah, now.

Now you ran out of things to do 40 minutes into your movie and you have to stretch this another 50 minutes to introduce the, you know, banjo playing cousin Eddie from God knows where into the mix to add in the added level of commie that you need.

Yeah.

And so a lot of that stuff I didn't like, even down to the jokes where it came out with the dog.

Yeah, anything really surrounding the dogs, like, dog was there for one purpose, and that was to chase a squirrel.

But yeah, you had to build up that moment to get there.

And so really all the stuff starting.

Cousin Eddie, I feel like if I'd watched this as a kid or around that age, that would have been my favorite part.

Sure.

But coming around and now you know, 30, 31 years old, watching it for the first time.

I mean, this movie was made longer ago than I was born.

So watching it, you know, that far after the it's been made, I was like, I could get behind most of it, but the stuff that missed rarely missed hard for me to the point where I was checking, how much longer is this going on for?

But then the stuff with the neighbors cracked me up, too.

Oh, for sure.

Like, you know, you have very prim, proper neighbors, you know, who are all about, you know, kind of that.

I know this has been popular, right?

That top G mentality with, like, the Tate brothers and everything like that.

Very, very kind of that.

More money, go for it.

Get, you know, the hustle type of a thing.

100.

They're stuck to Clark.

Every single person like that in the world lives next to Clark Griswold, who does not give a flying.

Yeah, for sure.

So funny.

And so that whole scene where.

Where the wife's like, hey, go.

Go talk to Clark, all right?

Go punch him or whatever.

Go beat him up.

And he's like, I'm not doing that.

Yeah.

She goes over and the door gets answered, and boom.

Squirrel right to the face.

That cracked me up, like, so that whole dynamic was hilarious to me.

Yeah.

But the stuff that missed did dismiss terribly.

Sure.

Well, yeah, and that's.

That's a pretty common thing with.

You'll find that in all the vacation films.

Like, they just don't.

It doesn't always hit.

But when it does, like, I do laugh my ass off at the whole, like, where you gonna put that big tree, Clark?

Bend over.

I'll show you.

Like, those just rude crew.

Because that's me, right?

Like, and I.

So I relate to that on so many levels.

To where I'm like, yeah, I would be a complete nutter douche to my pompous ass neighbors.

By the time I got to that point, like, I'd be pissed too.

And like, yeah, let me bend over.

I'll show you.

And then the other one that gets me.

I do laugh my ass off because growing up we had an rv.

My grandma and grandpa and my dad thought it would be great.

Like, we'll go in on an RV together and then we'll.

Because we used to live in Ohio, and then my grandparents lived in Ohio.

We lived in Kentucky, Tennessee area for a long time.

And then I had family that lived out here in Utah.

And so we used to drive.

Well, driving in a car from the Midwest, east coast area to Utah, it sucks, dude.

20 I've done it way too many times now in my life.

Yeah, exactly.

It's like 25 hours if you just like sit straight.

It's a whole lot of.

Especially when you get through Iowa, Nebraska.

Eat me.

That's the worst 15 hours of driving on the planet.

Those two states.

And Nebraska just is the longest state ever.

The only thing worse is driving like from the bottom of California to the top.

The only difference is you get to look at the ocean.

If you're driving the PCH Nebraska, it's goddamn corn.

East on the 10 from Phoenix to El Paso.

That's the worst.

Because there's nothing that's fair.

There's rocks and there's dirt.

That's fair.

It's probably the same.

It's.

It's just corn or desert like that.

Because I will say I.

I've driven that from Phoenix out to California, like the Needles area.

And I'm like, oh, that's fine.

It's going the other way.

It's going to Texas.

Wow.

Yeah.

Eating the west Texas, it's nothing but a dust bowl too.

So.

Yeah.

How do we always end up talking about the country in the shitty places in the country when we do these?

But anyway it's because we live in shitty places.

That's fair.

That's.

That is, that is fair.

But yeah, like it's that whole situation of like the.

Like you said, the relatability like, but that when he starts getting to the point where he starts being an.

Then like, oh, sorry.

So I was telling the RV story.

So like I always laugh at the man Christmas shitters full like.

And he's dumping it down the sewer drain like the water drain on like that whole.

Because the worst part was when you get driving and then when these long ass drives and you got kids like they're like just go use the bathroom in the rv.

Well, eventually you got to dump that out and literally.

And so you gotta.

But you gotta find a dump station.

So it always made me laugh like when I watch that because I just think of my grandpa, gotta go dump the.

Because it took a while too.

Like you had to go stop and sit there.

And it's a big take.

Yeah, we as kids are sitting there going, this is, this is so boring.

Because you're sitting there and then yeah, it was funny.

And then everybody's bitching about having to freaking dump the tank.

It was great.

So I that part.

But I'm with you like by the time you get to cousin Eddie.

But God Damn.

Isn't cut.

Cousin Eddie makes me laugh though.

Like the fact that you're there standing there and Clark, one of my favorite, like sequences of this whole movie is when cartoon gets the Jelly of the Month club instead of the bonus.

And like, he's like freaking out inside and he's not saying anything and then he says, oh, it's a Jelly of the Month club.

And I mean, without missing a beat, dude.

Oh, that's the gift that keeps on giving all year long.

Clark.

That's my uncle.

I.

Dude, he just says like that.

You know what I mean?

And he's just quick off the draw trying to find the bright side of.

And I'm like, you.

I.

I don't care about chilling.

And then he.

That when he loses his mind, that whole speech of like, just.

And then watching like Clark or Cousin Eddie's brain going, oh, I'm gonna get Clark this gift.

Christmas gift of going.

And it just.

Yeah, that part absolutely cracks me up, that whole five minute sequence.

But that's my big problem with this movie and the vacation movies in general is again, it's like.

It's like a.

An elongated Saturday Night Live that tells one story with a bunch of the bits that are set up, right?

And then they just keep repeating the bit or they change the bit and then they move it to the.

In Europe when they go to the European vacation.

You know what I mean?

It's all the same.

Just revamped for the holiday or the time frame or the time frame of the place.

But it's just.

There's no cohesive.

This one probably is the most cohesive storyline to it.

But like, it just feels like we're gonna do a funny five minutes and then we'll do a bunch of.

That moves the story along.

That isn't funny.

That could be funny, but we'll just throw it in there to keep the really knuckleheads laughing and then we'll move along to the next funny bit.

So I get really bored watching these movies.

Like, I'd rather hop on YouTube and watch clips of the best parts, right?

Like, because you can just Google Clark freaking the out or, you know, the.

Or have Merry Christmas shitters full.

Like, that stuff's fun, but the whole movie's rough.

I was gonna say like the clips because I think, you know, Chevy Chase, not my favorite, but he's very good when he gets that smile going, right?

His smile is like mischievous or like triumphant smile that he does.

Yeah.

Like when he's plugging in the Christmas lights or when he sees the Christmas tree and he gets that facial expression.

Yeah.

I mean, that.

That gets me.

I was like.

Because you can see what's going through his mind when he's about to plug in the Christmas lights.

Like, he's been spending all day on this, counting the bulbs, checking the bulbs, doing everything.

Is getting this close to his.

No moment of victory.

And he does a great job of communicating that, because I'm getting excited too.

Right.

I know it's not gonna work because it's got to be a bit.

But at the same time, you just can't help.

When he's up, he's like.

He's like the kid holding the plate like me when I'm cooking a steak.

And so that, like, part.

Part of Jimmy J's gets me is that.

That look that he gets.

I'm like, I can relate to that because I'm pretty sure I've had that exact same look on my face before when I'm getting excited about some.

But it's.

It's.

It's something he's really, really good at.

And so you combine that with the little bit of the bit comedy, and it works.

But for the most part, like, it's.

It's very small and few bits in between.

Yeah.

Of what he's doing.

So it.

It holds it over the next little tidbit for me, but the majority of it, I was kind of going, okay, trope, trope, trope, trope, trope.

Funny.

But that.

That's something that he does very well, that I enjoy.

Is that little.

Yeah.

Well, and he does.

On the flip side, he does disappointment well, too.

Like.

Yeah.

Like, the downtrod.

Like, so when he does plug it in and nothing works, you can just see, like, the.

The deflation of, like, excitement.

And so he.

He flips those two on their, like, head pretty well.

And his facial expressions are good.

I will give him that.

I don't love the guy because, again, he plays the same.

But he makes me laugh.

Like, but just not in these movies, typically.

Ed More usually laugh at the big characters in these movies, but you're right, his facial expressions are pretty spot on.

And like, yeah.

Every time you get, I did it.

Oh, God, I love it.

Or when he's sitting in the attic and he's, like, kind of rocking a little bit, holding the thing, like, blowing on his hands and.

Yeah.

It just.

There's moments where.

And I think it all goes back to what you said earlier.

The relatability of being in that situation, no matter how extreme it is.

We've been in a version of that sometime in our lives.

So you're just like, okay, that's funny because that's.

Yep, been there, done that.

Bought the T shirt a couple times.

100.

Getting locked in the attic.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

I had a.

We had one of those walking addicts, like the climb up with the little ladder that came down that broke on me when I was a kid one time because we.

It was old and nobody went up there, but we were like, it's the greatest hide and seek spot ever.

Because nobody wants to go up there because it's hot as balls or it's cold as ice.

So we, we would go up there as kids and the ladder wasn't like.

You've seen those big beaky, beefy ones that come down.

It was not that.

And it was.

But they were little teeny things that some was dangerous.

Sure.

I got up to the top and was trying to pull it up and it broke off.

And I'm like, God damn it.

So then I had to like, jump out.

And I was like a little kid, so I was afraid.

So, yeah, I've been there, done that.

Never for Christmas lights, though.

No.

Slides.

Oh, go ahead, buddy.

I was just gonna say that that's the relatable aspect of it is, you know, the being stuck up in the attic.

Just kind of rock it back, foot forth, and then, you know, oh, I'll put this up in the attic.

Oh, it's the.

I mean, the.

How did I describe it?

Not really the.

Whatever.

I forget.

Yeah, you pulled me there.

Yeah, but that's what that looks like.

Screw it.

You.

What's up?

Christmas lights and like, you into that.

Oshi into that.

Both of you like family.

I mean, you guys put Christmas tree up and shit.

Like, what's that look like at your house?

Ah, so let's see.

This is a tricky one.

I am not okay.

I'm perfectly fine without it.

We have a little small, like, you know, fake Christmas tree that's up pretty much all the time.

It's just a decoration piece.

I am not oceans.

And so there's constant battle back and forth.

And I don't know if I told you this, but I think it was two years ago we were doing.

We were on like some date day date on Christmas Eve and stopped by Home Depot and apparently you can get a Christmas tree for free on Christmas Eve at Home Depot if they have any left, because they.

They gotta get Rid of them.

Oh, I was so pissed because Oshi was like, oh, it's free.

And I, I was just glaring daggers at this poor guy who was working.

Oh, that is so funny.

Because I was like, yeah, we're not spending money on Christmas tree the day before.

He's like, oh, no, it's free.

I was like, shut the up, dude.

What are you trying to do to me?

I love that.

So we had, we, we.

Now we go like every year on Christmas Eve, pick up a goddamn Christmas tree.

Oh my God.

Get free from home people.

And they're not big, right?

It's like the leaving.

Sure.

Like a two foot, three foot tall piece of tree.

But.

Oh, yeah, no, and these are the live ones, right?

Like the actual.

Okay, yeah, straight up.

That's funny.

Yeah, they usually have in their parking lot, out in a cage or something.

That's exactly what it is.

And so.

Oh, she's very much into it.

I am not.

Like, I, I would be the person who.

Christmas lights stay up year round because I'm putting those up once and then I'll just turn them on when it's Christmas.

Yeah, but they're staying up there otherwise.

But yeah, before we didn't do a tree, but over the last two years we've done a tree.

Home Depot.

Home Depot tree on Christmas Eve.

Dude.

I, I'm with you though.

I, I'm not, I don't care.

To me it's work, right?

Like, yes, I gotta put that up.

I gotta take that down.

And I'm not like a festive dude, right?

Like, so I don't decorate.

No, not you talking.

All that whole situation, I was shocked a dunk it.

I'm a scrooge bastard.

I don't care.

And I, you know, and it's not just Christmas, right?

Like, I think holidays are great for spending time with my family, for hanging out, getting time off work, you know what I mean?

Having a good time, separation, whatever.

But I don't need my house to be lit up like.

And I don't need a Christmas tree because then I gotta move everything else out of the way to put the Christmas tree up and then I gotta clean that up.

I gotta put.

Putting ornaments away is a nightmare.

And so it's just like.

But the problem is, is I live with a Christmas super freak, okay?

Because her mom, my mother in law is.

I love my mother in law.

She's the sweetest lady, nicest person on the planet and she save.

No, that's for real.

For real.

Except her one thing is like her Chris.

She puts Christmas up in October.

And the reason that she does part of it is, I mean, to her credit, one she does it is because it's so much, it takes her a month to get it all up.

So it's like, I mean, this woman's got like multiple Christmas trees in her house, okay?

One giant one that's beautiful in this sitting room.

It's gorgeous.

And they have a pretty big house.

And so like I think we counted one year.

She used to do open houses because her neighbors were so jealous of their house.

Like they would come in and they'd look at the Christmas decorations.

My father in law is a crafty dude, so he like welds and, and he fabricates stuff.

So he's got this big.

Here's an example.

I wish I had a picture of it.

I'd post it.

But above their kitchen table he built this iron framework, okay.

And it, it started as a Christmas thing.

Now they use it year round and it just hangs from their ceiling above the table.

And they'll put different things up there depending on what season or holiday.

But it started as a Christmas thing and there's like these Christmas elves and angels and hanging above the kitchen table.

And they go up in October.

Then there's Christmas trees.

I think one year we counted something like 50 different Santa Clauses in her house.

Like, dude, no, like obsession with Christmas, okay?

And, and there she's obsessed with most of holidays.

Not Halloween, but like Christmas, Thanksgiving.

And she goes all out because that's what she does.

And that's cool.

Well, Casey's kind of picked up on that because it's her mom and she grew up with that kind of, you know, that love of Christmas.

So we have this fancy ass Christmas tree that's got all the built in lights and it's got.

Dude, I got boxes.

And when I say boxes, I mean like full on her.

The, the Christmas decorations in her are in nicer storage containers than anything else in my house.

And they're packed in this closet that I have downstairs.

And there's like a whole.

So I got this closet that goes underneath my stairs in my split level.

And it's like huge.

It's pretty big.

This closet holds a lot of stuff and I'll be goddamned if it doesn't take up three quarters of it.

The.

Chris.

Just the Christmas decorations, dude, because they're everywhere.

So she.

We get around this time of year and it's like got to get the Christmas tree up.

And I'm like, God damn it.

Because now I got to go down into this closet and I got to haul out.

There's my co star Daisy.

I gotta haul out 20, 25 boxes of.

Then I gotta open all these boxes and we gotta get all the ornaments out.

I gotta put the Christmas tree.

You gotta make sure the lights work.

And with these built in trees, if your lights don't work, you don't replace the lights themselves like a string.

Gotta get the whole tree.

Yeah, get the whole tree.

So every couple of years I gotta go to Home Depot and they don't give the pre built ones away for free.

God damn it.

So I gotta go on Christmas Eve.

You'll be fine.

Yeah, exact.

I gotta spend hundreds of dollars to replace my Christmas tree anyway.

It's.

It's a nightmare and I hate it.

But I always, you know, I support Casey, so I go help and I get the out.

But I'm sure it looks really good when it's all set up.

Sure, it's lovely.

My mother loves it.

Casey loves it, people.

And then the windows.

That's my least favorite thing to.

My big bay windows stay open all fucking winter long so that we can see the Christmas lights for the fucking two months that they're up.

But then there's years like this year where we've just had a wild year and lots going on with my parents and things like that.

So Casey's like, I don't think we should do the Christmas tree.

And I'm like, oh, okay.

And in reality, I'm like, yes, I'm such a terrible person.

But, you know, but I will say this, and I say all this story to say that.

Like, I laugh at Griswold, Clark at this when he's getting all excited about the lights and he puts all the time and effort and I am not that guy.

And I would never let Casey get to that level because I'm like, I'm.

No, I'm out.

But I do appreciate, like we go drive around and just look at Christmas lights.

Especially as the neighborhoods and everything like the.

The places continue to grow.

And I'm always interested to see.

I think it's cool to look at.

I just don't want to do it.

Oh, thank you.

It's horrid.

It's hor.

And to your point, it's really cool in the end, but I can go see somebody else's hard work and get the same feeling.

Like I don't have a feeling of pride because it's in my house.

Like I have like, oh, it's pretty.

You did a great job.

Casey versus I can go down the road and be like, they have nice lights.

Look at that Christmas tree in the front window.

But that was a ton of work.

But it's sure nice to look at.

You should just invest in a projector, put up some white curtains in your bay windows and project.

God damn if I haven't tried that.

Because they got the cool ones now that'll sit in your front yard and project on your house.

She's like, that's tacky as.

God damn it.

Look, I'd be willing to let that happen because let's just roll that, plug that in and walk away.

But you so funny side story with Christmas.

Like that.

Right?

So I have a buddy that I work with, I think I've told you about before, Nick.

He's the one who makes the really cool custom bags and everything.

Yeah.

Very crafty.

Very, very crafty guy.

So he sets up his house.

He's a Christmas nerd, everything like that.

But he did it Nightmare before Christmas.

So he sets it up for Halloween and then keeps it through all the way through Christmas.

Smart guy.

Right.

So it's up for like four months.

Yeah.

So that almost makes the work worth it.

But we were doing.

When we used to work together at the actual park facility that we worked at, I.

I played Santa Claus.

And when we did our Christmas events and he.

I was like, dude, we should put up light lights.

Right?

And I'm thinking we're gonna go get like, projector lights or we're gonna.

Yeah, yeah.

Do really kind of cheap lights.

No, this.

There.

There was like 20, 000 lights.

Because he would go get, like, the.

The strands, right.

That were like thousand lights and just 500ft long.

Because.

Huge facility.

You just wrap that.

Oh, yeah.

So end result was phenomenal because he also threw in some projector stuff like that.

Gotcha.

But I kid you not, we were there.

Like, the setup for this scene would be like two nights where we're there to like 4am and then all the next day, setting that back up.

The result was phenomenal for the events.

But that just kind of sealed it for me because I, you know, put up lights.

The one strand lights in my family's house.

You know, it goes over the hook, takes 30 minutes.

But what.

What he went with, like, I was.

I don't care how cool this looks.

When I got my own place, it is not gonna look like this.

Yeah.

No, because, like, it got to the point where he was on top of our, like, jungle gym structure.

Yeah.

Just crawling.

Because, you know, the Root.

The rafters are right there, and he's just swimming along the top of this.

Good Lord.

I'm like, you know, we gotta take these down, right?

That's.

See, that's the problem.

Like, it's a ton of work to get them up, and then they're up for like, a month or two, and then you got to take them down, and it's.

It's just.

It's a lot.

Yes.

I was, like, not gonna.

I'm never gonna get to Clark Griswold level.

No.

Hell no.

Bob Humbug.

Dude, I.

I am the Grinch, for sure.

Scrooge.

Call me all of them.

It's not entirely true.

I do love Christmas, but I just don't care about decorations.

Like, such a consumer thing anyway.

Commercialization.

Exactly.

Don't at me.

All right, let's rate this.

Lampoon.

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

It's yours.

You go.

All right.

My movie.

I'm gonna go two.

Two out of five.

The parts that were good and made me laugh and giggle and chuckle were few and far in between.

A lot of it, I was like.

It was more like, oh, that makes sense.

Or I see what they did there.

It wasn't the real kind of, like, belly laugh that I normally get when I watch stuff.

I don't think I'll ever watch it again.

But I wouldn't be upset if this was on and someone was watching it and sit down to watch it.

But, yeah, two out of five for me.

That's fair.

I.

I'm gonna give it a two and a half.

I.

I think it's one of those movies that, like, is so recognizable that it's hard to be mad at it.

And there are funny parts to it.

I.

It's just the re.

Watchability, for me, personally, is not there.

It's just not.

It's too predictable.

There are better Christmas movies, funnier Christmas movies.

Some of them are on the list that we'll watch for the rest of the month.

Others are not because I didn't get to pick all.

There's.

There's one coming up that is.

I'm pretty sure I know which one you're talking about, and it is not.

Oh, yeah, it's my.

I hate it.

Anyway, we'll get there.

I'm gonna be like the Scrooge McDuck this month.

Like, I don't know.

The problem is we did all the good ones last year.

That's fair, too.

We're not very good at this whole planning ahead thing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's true.

There are.

There are a couple on the list.

Anyway, this movie's not it though.

Like it's not the primo Christmas movie.

It's just like the one people talk about because it's who's in it and it's a lot of famous people and it's tied to a famous.

Like I said, the original was hilarious and it's timeless in my opinion.

But after that it was just a money grab like everything else in Hollywood.

And this suffers because of it, even though it has good parts.

So two and a half for me.

I only watched it because of the podcast.

Like we have a series of Christmas movies that we watch and then there's like Casey forces me to watch random ass shitty Christmas movies and so I.

Just watched one of those the other day.

Yeah, I watched like four of them yesterday and I was not real thrilled about it.

But yeah, it is what it is though.

But there are some really good ones.

This isn't it though.

Go watch the clips on YouTube.

You'll have a better time in my opinion.

But there it is.

Two and a half.

Two.

I'm sure Mattson would have given it.

I don't know what Matt's would have given it.

Probably a five.

Probably.

We'll give it for him.

There you go.

Matson gave it a five.

Not here.

He's not here for good reason.

Finally, you know, having a kid and all.

Yeah, it would have been great if he hadn't used up all his bad reasons beforehand.

That's fair.

But you know, soon to be parent and all that.

I'll give him some grace, but I guess soon to be second time parent.

It's not his first rodeo, but yeah.

Alec, tell everybody where they can find.

See, JJ's giggling because he knows.

He knows what's coming.

I don't know if I mentally prepare for this.

Yeah, so they just keep getting better, dude.

Gotta make that distinction since this is the second year in a row we've done this.

What was your verdict on National Lampoon's Christmas vacation?

Was it worth the watch?

Do you agree with what we said or do you agree with what Matson said?

Giving it a perfect score.

What a loser.

So special shout out and thank you to our patrons who selected the topic and then selected the selections that go into said topic.

That would be rich mel Brooks and JJ's girthy salty meat stick.

I.

I thought I'd be able.

Nope, you couldn't do it.

So Patreon, our Patreon is where all the shenanigans happen behind the scenes, extra content, funny names, and JJ's meaty, girthy girthy salty meat Stick making fun of us endlessly.

It's a wonderful place.

Yeah.

If you would like to get involved with the content that we make that includes selections, recommendations, making votes and quarterly picks.

Place to do that is on Patreon at.

What's our verdict?

Reviews.

With that, I will kick it back to the closets of clout.

The titan of crash, the meaty, girthy meat stick himself, jj.

We've been looking forward to that since he changed it on Patreon some.

I didn't.

I'm impressed because he continues to push.

The boundary, make it worse.

Like every time I'm like that.

He cannot get worse.

And then I'm like, holy, he pulled it off.

And I bet he's got a list.

Noah Charles.

He's got a list somewhere.

Going down the list going, here we go.

Yeah, you should check out Patreon, though.

It's hilarious and that, you know, if you want to torture us in so many ways.

In fact, we gotta quarter four pick.

We got to do here soon this month too.

So yeah, it's you and you and Madsen won't hate this.

This one's directed at me.

I can hate it.

Love.

Anyway, so with that, as always, we appreciate you tuning in.

We'll catch you on the next one.