By Geno McGahee
I’m not a big fan of variety shows but I do like Larry the Cable Guy and appreciate a lot of his work. I figured that this show would be funny, for the most part, but it was a struggle to complete the one hour running time.
The show begins with an elf hanging himself and Larry needing a replacement. He enters the dressing room of a group of celebrity impersonators, including a Michael Jackson impersonator. Larry notes that “he’s had more screaming children on his lap than Santa.” That was funny. So far, so good.
Larry settles on Tony Orlando and their interactions are pretty funny, leading to Larry taking the stage to an audience in Las Vegas. There are dancing girls and carolers. It is dressed up for Christmas and we get some standup from Larry that is hit and miss. We then go into the first sketch with Larry being visited by three ghosts, played by Jamie Kenney, Penn Jillette and Carrot Top. It was OK. It wasn’t incredibly funny, but it was passable for a comedy sketch.
In the next sketch, Larry gives advice on how to operate at an office party and it’s another passable, but not really funny, bit. There are some funny one-liners and it ends pretty funny, but it’s not great.
There’s a roast of Santa Claus next and this takes up the majority of the special and it’s brutally unfunny for the most part. Flavor Flav, Katt Williams and George Wallace are the three wise men and George Wendt is perched in a chair as Santa. The humor or what they are trying pass as it does not work at all and that’s very surprising because Katt Williams is usually very funny. He had nothing good here, but George Wallace and his endless “your mama is so this or that” jokes are wretched.
Another “comedian” I could live without on this special is Jim Breuer as he plays the Easter bunny. Breuer is painfully unfunny as he does his drunken bit that seems to be his only bit. I was on the verge of shutting this off, but I wanted to review it and save you, the reader, from the torture.
The roast had a couple of funny moments with Vicki Lawrence returning in her role as Mama from MAMA’S FAMILY and Lisa Lampanelli as Mrs. Claus. There were some laughs from both, but the rest of this endless bit was wretched.
Larry reads some letters to Santa with Santa’s Helper, played by Angela Little, and this was a highlight. Little was so incredibly attractive that it made sitting through the unfunny bit easy. They should have had her at the roast in some capacity.
The show ends with a nativity scene bit with a bunch of bad jokes crammed into it. It ended on a low note sadly and I was happy it was over.
LARRY THE CABLE GUY’S CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR is horrible. It has a laugh here and there and a chuckle from time to time, but it’s a big fail for the most part.
