About this episode
🌴 The Advent Calendar House has awoken from what feels like a thousand-year slumber and a lame April Fool’s joke. As a peace offering, here’s the first of two back-to-back episodes celebrating Xmas as imagined by “Futurama.” It’s extra crowded in the cryogenic chamber as Michael DiGiovanni , Erin Evans , Joey O. , and Donnie Storms drop in for 1999’s “Xmas Story,” in which we’re introduced to the annual tradition of gift-giving and shelter-taking from a killer robot Santa Claus that awaits our descendants in the year 3000. **** 💬 Topics & Tangents: “ Fresh Hare ” (1942). Orange Cassidy sleeping through his own wrestling match . “ Why Chaucer Said ‘Ax’ Instead of ‘Ask,’ and Why Some Still Do ” (NPR, 2013). “ Why is the number 1,729 hidden in Futurama episodes? ” (BBC, 2013). The classic dangling from a clock tower scenes from “Safety Last” and “Back to the Future.” John Goodman’s other appearances as Santa. Randy Johnson hits a bird with a fastball . Corona Extra’s Christmas palm tree commercial . The lyrics to “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” are sinister enough by themselves. **** 📼 Commercials: Hess Truck 1999 Space Shuttle Toy . Stick to Shorts : A Classic Cartoons Podcast. **** “Futurama” and “Xmas Story” © 1999 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost . Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house .