The first 2 Funny of 2016 is a number performed by Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert on Comedy Central’s Night of Too Many Stars concert to give support for autism, hosted by Jon Stewart. Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert decide to perform an impromtu musical number in praise of retired airline captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger.
For those who don’t know, Chesley Sullenberger is a retired airline captain and aviation safety consultant. He was hailed as a national hero in the United States when he successfully executed an emergency water landing of US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River off Manhattan, New York City, after the aircraft was disabled by striking a flock of Canada geese during its initial climb out of LaGuardia Airport on January 15, 2009. All of the 155 passengers and crew aboard the aircraft survived.
This is another one of the bits that I’ll be forever envious of the 2 Steves for coming up with. Here’s the live on-stage performance:
….And here’s the recorded in studio version.
I couldn’t decide which version of these to showcase, so I did them both.
P.S.: Just a quick reminder that our previous address “thetwinfactor.com” is going to expire in 13 days. After January 14th, that address won’t direct you to the site anymore, so go ahead and bookmark this site with the current address (twinsanity.co), if you haven’t done it already.
This weekend is the premiere of the new movie Star Wars: The Force Awakens, so to mark the occasion, I thought that I’d look back at one of my favorite sketches from the first Robot Chicken Star Wars Special, back when Robot Chicken was still funny. This sketch falls into the “I wish I wrote that” category. Seth MacFarlane’s voicing of emperor Palpatine is hilarious.
It’s December, the month of Christmas, and with the Christmas season comes Christmas music. You can’t can’t visit any store or turn on any radio station without hearing some Christmas themed song of some kind.
“Xmas is everywhere! You can’t escape! Resistance is futile!”
Just about everyone has a favorite Christmas song, be it “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer”, “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town”, “Silent Night”, “Deck the Halls” or whatever…
“Ahem…”Jungle Bells” , “Let It Snow” and “Winter Wonderland” are NOT Christmas songs; they’re WINTER songs! pay attention to the lyrics. At no point in any of those songs is Christmas ever mentioned!”
My personal favorite Christmas song is “We Three Kings”, also known as “We Three Kings of Orient Are” or “The Quest of the Magi”,. For those who don’t know, “We Three Kings” was was written by John Henry Hopkins, Jr. in 1857. At the time of composing the carol, Hopkins served as the rector of Christ Episcopal Church in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and he wrote the carol for a Christmas pageant in New York City. Many versions of this song have been composed and it remains a popular Christmas carol. The context of the carol centers around the Biblical Magi, who visited Jesus during his Nativity and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh while paying homage to him. I know that this song isn’t played on the radio or in shopping centers very often, but that’s precisely one of the reasons why I like it. There’s no glitz. No bells and whistles. Nothing about presents, Rudolph, Frosty , Santa, mistletoe, stockings. None of that. It’s just a pretty, haunting tune and it’s charming and enchanting.
“Yeah, even us cranks and cynics can appreciate beautiful things. we have our sensitive side too. Back off, Jack!”
Over the years, there have been many, many different renditions of this song performed by various artists, and some renditions are better or worse than others, so I’ve decided to compile a list of my personal favorite versions of the song. Coincidentally, there are 3 of them. Now, these are my personal favorite renditions of “We Three Kings”. You may have other choices than the ones that I’m about to list here.
“…And that’s…OK.”
So without further ado, I now present my Top 3 Favorite Renditions of “We Three Kings”
3. A Claymation Christmas Celebration
A Claymation Christmas Celebration is a Christmas television special originally broadcast on the American CBS TV network on December 21, 1987. The special featured stop motion clay animation and was produced and directed by Will Vinton. It was advertised as starring the (then) popular California Raisins, but the producers smartly saved the Raisins’ musical number for the last segment of the show because they obviously knew that if they had opened with the California Raisins, everyone would have switched channels afterwards and no one would have stuck around for the other segments, including this one which opened the show. It starts out as a fairly traditional rendition of the song, but then…well you can see yourself.
Yes, the jazzy, hip anthropomorphic camels do a modern day spin on the old classic, but it’s not so jarring that it takes you out of the song or ruins the mood. In fact, it actually fits. It was unexpected, but it all flows together nicely.
2. The Roches
Don’t know who The Roches are? You probably do. if you’ve seen the episode of Tiny Toon Adventures which features the short titled “The Roches” and features Maggie, Terry and Suzzy Roche as anthropomorphic roaches, that’s them (The Roches also provided their own voices for the short). They also performed a rendition of “We Three Kings” as musical guests on Late Night With David Letterman. They’re version is smooth, haunting and contemporary and having three women sing it just add to to mood somehow. Give a listen:
Trivia Time: Did you know that The Roches wrote their song “Big Nothing” in response to the lukewarm reception that they got from the audience when they performed on Saturday Night Live? Now you do.
Before we get to number one, I’d like to give honorable mention to the song “Night Before Christmas” by Eek A Mouse (yes, that’s actually his performing name!). The reason why it’s not on my list is because it’s not technically a cover of “We Three Kings”; it’s an original song with original lyrics that only sang to the tune of “We Three Kings”. Still, it’s bouncy, weird, funky and a cool tune in it’s own right: Give a listen:
And my all time favorite rendition of “We Three Kings” is……..
1. Barbara Higbie (from Narada’s A Winter’s Solstice, IV)
For those who don’t know, Barbara Higbie is a talented pianist…
“Huh-huh-huh! He said ‘pianist’! Huh-huh-huh” “Yeah! Heh-heh-heh! ‘Pianist’! Heh-heh-heh!”
…Shut up. Barbara Higbie is also one fourth of the new age band Montreaux. Ms. Higbie also wrote another one of my all time favorite songs, “Barbara’s Dream” on the Montreaux album “Let Them Say” (which is almost impossible to find). Anyway, Ms. Higbie doesn’t sing. That’s right, this version of the song is completely instrumental, but that’s not a bad thing, as it better allows me to use the unlimited power of my imagination and use my own imagery. The use of piano and violins blend together perfectly. It’s extremely easy to get lost in this rendition.
This version of the song is simply beautiful and it reigns unchallenged as my favorite rendition of “We Three Kings” of all time.
And those are my Top 3 favorite renditions of “We Three Kings”.
This is another song that has become one of my jams in a fairly short time period. Even though I’ve only become aware of this one a couple of weeks ago, it was actually released in 2011 (fashionably late to the party again. Typical of my nature as an Aquarius). I first discovered this song when the artist performed it live on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, and because I first heard it around the same time that I saw the Gravity Falls episode “Wierdmageddon, Part 2” with Mabel Land, that’s kind of what I associate with my personal imagery for the song. I always imagine a little girl who’s wrapped up in her own imagination that she envisions herself in a surreal fantasy world of her own creation inhabited by her toys and such where she of course rules supreme. Anyway, enjoy “It” by Christine and the Queens.
All of the hype surrounding the imminent premiere of Star Wars: The Force Awakens caused me to remember this ad from a year or two ago. This is the 2nd (I believe) spot from LEGO’s “Build Together” campaign with the father/son road trip (because apparently, mothers and daughters don’t bond, play with Legos or go on road trips. So LEGO is strictly a guy thing now? Wuuuuut?). Anyways, this particular spot focuses on the Star Wars franchise. Check it out:
Yes, that’s George Lowe as the announcer there, and that’s awesome. Despite this, however, I have a couple of nitpicks about this ad. Yeah, I know that I shouldn’t be over thinking a toy commercial, but the fact that Darth Vader is there and not being the bad guy is nothing short of bizarro. Darth Vader is the dark lord of the Sith and Luke Skywalker, Chewbacca and the droids (but not Princess Leia, because girls are icky and they’d contaminate the RV with their cooties) are part of the rebel alliance determined to bring down the empire. They wouldn’t be hanging out as such. Again, yeah, I know this is just a toy commercial and as such, nothing that happens in it is in any way canon to the movie universe, but Darth Vader hanging out with the rest of the Star Wars crew like he’s just one of the gang is just weird. It’d be like seeing the Shredder chillaxing with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or He-Man and Skeletor hanging out and acting like bros; it’s just plain odd.
As for the commercial’s punchline where the kid asks his father if they can keep Chewbacca as a pet…
“I won’t even dignify that joke with my analysis!”
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