Song parodies can be exhilarating or excruciating. Sometimes the whole thing just tumbles out of your, the words scan the song beautifully. Other times it's like pulling teeth. With the 'net, it's a lot easier, with rhyming dictionaries and such, but I have a lot of files that are catchy, punny song titles and not much else. Again, Christmas is something that can be evergreen, unless you use the a pop song that's going to fall out of circulation until the next oldies station decides to focus on the 2010's. But a lot of times, it's the perfect way to nail current events. Or, here, just to have fun for the holidays. If you liked this holiday bit, you'll love my book, Lost Claus, the story of a tough PI and an elf who have to save Christmas. It's over at Amazon. Buy a copy today! I'll be glad you did!
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When is a Christmas skit not a Christmas skit? When it covers all the holidays! Similar to my Bobby Pickett Sings Halloween bit, this takes the idea of Springsteen trying to expand his Christmas hit to include the other holidays. It's from 2012, for the radio people, and was reworked to a stage bit (with little effort) and sent around, 'til it wound up here. If you liked this bit of holiday fun, you'll love my book, Lost Claus, the story of a tough PI and an elf who have to save Christmas. It's over at Amazon. Buy a copy today! Yule be glad you did! Springsteen Holiday Jam Writing Christmas song parodies out of actual Christmas songs is easy. Just try writing Christmas song parodies out of other Top 40 pop song hits. Then you got something. And what I got is a lot of song parodies that didn't go any where, except here. We present this Christmas comedy to remind you that my Christmas Comedy Caper, Lost Claus is available over at Amazon. So buy your copy today and avoid the holiday rush! Christmas Day Christmas! I found it! As I mentioned yesterday when I posted "Hal's Recycled Tree Lot," that skit was a brother to this sketch. This was a skit from my college days. I forget the reason we wrote it, I don't recall having a venue for it. We often wrote things for the heck of it back then. It was good practice for spending the rest of my life writing things for no reason. But the big tradition in the Northeast is swimming pool dealerships which would start selling Christmas items in the off-season. They were the original places that sold the big over-sized house decorations long before every store carried inflatable lawn displays. So, we thought it would be funny to watch one guy buck the trend. I found this version of the skit re-formatted for submission to the Prairie Home Companion show. It has a very SCTV vibe to it which would slide off into Python absurdity. It's a fun, short bit. This edition of Skit Happens is brought to you by "Lost Claus" the snappy comedy mystery! Leaping Yule Logs, Santa's missing! And only one man can find him, Nick Flebber, PI. Get your copy today at Amazon! Sid's Swim Center Here's an old bit, written for radio, then recycled (how apt) for multiple venues afterward. This is kind of a sequel to a much older sketch which I co-wrote with a friend (which I'm looking for). I never sent that one out without his permission, so when he dropped out of sight, I decided to come up with a new bit, solo. Remember when recycling was a thing? Here we try to take it to new extremes, because that's what comedy is about, extremes. This edition of Skit Happens is brought to you by "Lost Claus" the snappy comedy mystery! Leaping Yule Logs, Santa's missing! And only one man can find him, Nick Flebber, PI. Get your copy today at Amazon!
I've posted this and lamented about this bit before...
While I was attempting to mock the "War on Christmas" as if some smug atheist was gloating about his lawsuits making headway. The news always seems to focus on the few people out there who go out of their way to cheer on the banning of ANY religious aspect to the celebration of the BIRTH OF CHRIST. Like, just in the recent news, banning candy canes from school because the principle thinks candy canes are the letter "J" for Jesus instead of candy in the shape of a CANE. Anyway, it got rewritten...
This edition of Sketchy Tales is brought to you by "Lost Claus" the snappy comedy mystery! Leaping Yule Logs, Santa's missing! And only one man can find him, Nick Flebber, PI. Get your copy today at Amazon!
Secular Christmastime
Well here's a bit I wrote a couple of years ago, but probably wouldn't get done today. Those high-wire kung-fu pictures were all the rage. I had played with the idea for Halloween and when that didn't fly, I re-worked it for Christmas. I'm guessing they didn't have any Asians on staff, so those accents are pretty non-PC. But that was then and as we all know, comedy is only funny when it reinforces your political agenda...
We present this comedy to remind you that my Christmas Comedy Caper, Lost Claus is available over at Amazon. So buy your copy today and avoid the holiday rush!
2001: there was a recession coming that nobody wanted to admit was happening. Post-9/11, businesses had closed, effected directly or not. There was talk of government bail-outs. Economically, it was the beginning of dicey times. And who would not adjust well to economic hard times? Charlie Brown, of course! I mentioned this skit in passing when I posted a Prairie Home Companion bit which reminded me to post the original skit my line was lifted from. Anyway, I liked the way it turned out. I even inserted it into my "Christmas Carol" script. I've tried to rework it for stage and whatnot, but it never gets picked. Sigh.
We present this comedy to remind you that my Christmas Comedy Caper, Lost Claus is available over at Amazon. So buy your copy today and avoid the holiday rush!
A Charlie Brown Mid-Life ChristmasSketchy Tales: Christmas Edition - The Grinch: If I Stole Christmas Here's How It Happened12/14/2018
Looking back on my material, I didn't do a lot of O.J. bits back when the trials were going on. Lord knows everyone else was. This was before the internet so stuff like that was left to the pros. Also, that earlier on, (for the same reason) there wasn't a real pressing need for me to do topical humor. Later, as the trial faded from memory, OJ wrote a book. And I had an outlet. And the holidays were coming up, so, I did an OJ bit, kinda...
If you liked this bit, you'll love my book, Lost Claus, the story of a tough PI and an elf who have to save Christmas. It's over at Amazon. Buy a copy today! Yule be glad you did!
Man, did I beat this bit into the ground! It was a prose piece originally, which made sense, as I was parodying letters. I got that printed in the Staten Island Advance. Also The Big Jewel ran a version of it. Then I decided to re-do it as a radio bit for PHC and they went for it. Few liberties were taken and the voice work was A-1. The ending was altered a bit, as endings usually were to sent up the next segment better, or because PHC bits often didn't end on "jokes."
We present this comedy to remind you that my Christmas Comedy Caper,Lost Claus is available over at Amazon. So buy your copy today and avoid the holiday rush!
Yikes, Virginia! The Further Correspondence of Virginia O’Hanlon & Mr. Francis Church |
Dan FiorellaFreelance writer, still hacking away. Archives
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