SANTA INC. The Best Comedy

SANTA CLAUS MOVIE

Santa Inc. (2021) is trying to cheat us

On the couch and watch the fire roar?".

"No,I would rather watch an R-rated animated Christmascomedy, with a touch of a feminist agenda.". This is going to be awful, isn't it? SANTA CLAUS: "I wantedto explain myself.". CANDY: "*Psh* Yeah, mansplain! S-san sans--plain. Nick, Saint Nick-plain. Whatever!There's-there's something there.". Yep, it's awful. Bah, humbug.

Merry Christmas you beautiful bastards! I come bearing the greatest of gifts, cringe! *CJ mimicking a viewer* 'CJ why'd it take you so long to get a Christmas article out?'. Because burnout, burnout sucks, IGN would give it a 10 out 10. Just when Ithought 'The Prince' (2021) would take the title for the worst comedy of 2021, aside from the year itself, which has been a black comedy of epic proportions. HBO came in clutch to snatch victory from the jaws of Victory? You already had the title HBO, you didn't- you didn't need to do this.

So why? But just to rub salt in the wound, at the end of this cursed year, they had to put out what is actually the worst comedy of 2021 'Santa Inc.' (2021) You may have heard something about it already, probably the only thing you've heard about it, when it came out the reaction was a resounding 'no,' and it currently stands as the lowest rated TV series on IMBD.

I've not seen this much backlash to a comedy trailer since 'Ghostbusters' (2016) 2016, and the comparison is pretty apt. We can't really talk about this show without talking about this reaction and what inspired it; and we have to wade into the dreaded swamp of politics in order to do that. So, let's just get it out the way early. If you don't care about that aspect of the discussion skip to here. I wouldn't blame you, this sh*t exhausting. CANDY SMALLS: "Now, fastenyour seat belts, it's gonna be a hell of a show! Ha-cha-cha." *please kill me*. Produced by, and starring comedians, Sarah Silverman and Seth Rogen, 'Santa Inc' (2021) tells the story of Candy, the head elf in a corporatized North Pole who wants to become the first female and Jewish Santa.

Taking over from Rogen's incumbent. Spoilers, if you give a f*ck, after many trials and tribulations she doesn't get the nomination, and decides to rally the disgruntled staff of Santa Inc. to strike for better conditions.

Thereby gettingher old job back, except this

Time she has santa's balls in a vice.

CANDY: "Remember, I know everything, so I own you fat man.". Spoilers over, if you gave a f*ck. It's a corporate girl boss story, but setin the North Pole, that's pretty much howthey marketed it. SETH: "So, it's a lot like 'Succession' (2018) *uh* with elves.".

JIMMY FALLON: *laughs*"'Succession' (2018) with elves.". SETH: "That's how we sold it." *Rogen & Fallon both laugh*. Leaving aside questions about why anelf would even be Jewish at all, the trailer was pretty upfront with the angle the show intended totake. GRANDPA: "There have been many Santa Clauses throughout history, some were loved, others loathed, but the position of Santa has mostly been a white man's game.". CANDY: "Exactly! It's f*cking crazy, things have got to change!". Yeah, that's what everyone wants to hear about at Christmas, contentious issues. Asif we don't hear enough about those everyday as we doom scroll through Reddit while taking a sh*t. CANDY: "It blew me away in about six million different ways.".

Because Silverman and Rogen are well known for being Jewish, the trailer attracted a deluge of thinly veiled Jew jokes and comments. Until HBOdisabled comments entirely and thus stifled all legitimate criticism. While there were some genuine anti-Semites who lept at the chance to have a cheeky, 'Oh, don't mind if I do.'. Most of it was just edgy sh*t posters from places like 4chan; where there was actually a campaign to do this exact thing. This one's prettyfunny though, not gonna lie.

And here's the thing about sh*t posters, they're doing it because theythink it's funny; and they're trying to provoke an angry reaction from you because that's evenfunnier to them. But that's exactly what Rogen and Silverman did, they basically gave them what they wanted, and in the process made it look like all criticism of the show was motivated by racialhatred. Well slap my ass, and call me a white supremacist! There's no way that's gonna get takenout of context. Discounting the obvious bigots, I do think the reaction was a little bit overblown, but still mostly justified for a number of reasons. Aside from the trailer being monumentally unfunny, but we'll get to that. Like I said, no one wants to hear about controversial issues in their Christmasmedia. You're taking something that's meant to unite people, to at least some extent, in thesetroubled times and you're making it divisive. That's gonna rub people the wrong way, there's no getting around that.

I also think people are sick of everything being politicized nowadays, and Idon't blame them. When you see something like this it's just eye rolling. Why does there need to be afemale Santa? What's wrong with Santa being an old white dude? That's kind of important to his image, you know? *Well it's suspect I think*. It's not like this premise could never work at all, but could they not think of anything better? It just feels so unnecessary. I highly doubt that anyone was clamoring for a girl boss story set in the North Pole.

And I think people resent being lecturedto

On moral issues by celebrities, who either have a history of doing edgy sh*t themselves, or who seem just a little out of touch with the everyday person's experiences.

And when peoplesay, 'Don't put politics into

X,' they don't mean don't explore political themes, or ideas, or relatedsubject matter.

They mean, don't shove your personal politics in our faces in your creations.

Whichis exactly what 'Santa Inc.' (2021) does. JINGLE JIM: "Why the f*ck are we always on Thanksgiving's time schedule? Thewhole holiday is based on an imperialist lie. They couldn't resist forcing in jokes about American politics, anti-vaxxers, and white supremacists. In a show about Santa "More American kids believe in you than they do in vaccines or the holocaust.". SANTA CLAUS: "That's great! I mean, disheartening for Americabut great for us!". If they're young enough to believe in Santa, I should hope they don't evenknow what the holocaust is. You gotta wait until there's some hair on their chest before you hit them with the heavy stuff, you know? DEVIN JOHNSON: "Maybe the wacket should be something that deserves it, like whack a white supremacist!". Even as someone who has no patience for anti-vaxx or racist bullsh*t, this is groan inducing.

DEVIN JOHNSON: "I'm a loser who sucks.". They even throw in a referenceto AOC for some reason. Are they her mates or something? Do they think the show's demographics are gonna be like, 'yeah AOC step on my balls mummy.'. Now I don't actually mind creators putting their politics into their creations, as long as they follow the age-old mantra of don't f*ck it up. Which well we're sat here, so, yeah they f*ck it up. If you're gonna put messages, or your own politics into your media , you'd better do it withsome subtlety. Which we've already seen they'reincapable of. Or you need to make sure that it's implemented with some skill.

Which again it isn't. The show isn't even good at expressing the progressive message that it's trying to, and just comes across as very pandering. CANDY: "Communally run and environmentally responsible? Wow! This is spank bank material for me.". First off, they say that the position of Santa is a white man's game, but the next Santa was going to be a black man before he quit to work atAmazon. And Candy never once faces discrimination because of her race. Race never becomes relevant,so why even mention it unless you're virtuesignaling or just trying to be deliberatelycontroversial. CANDY: "Oh, I'm so happy for Timmy! The totally uninteresting white male choice that will do nothing for this company.".

"There have been women Prime Ministers, women Presidents, but there has never, ever, been a woman Santa Claus or a JewishSanta Claus.  "Exactly! It's f*cking crazy! Things have got to change!". Again, why? Why is this so bad? Whenshe says this there's been no indication that the men are doing a bad job. So, why does it matter except to tick off a diversity box. We're supposed to just take man bad as a given. "T-minus 30 until a vagina finally sits in the red suit, or another penis, who knows?". Why are they phrasing it likethat? It sounds so gross. ERIC CARTMAN: "Just do women's comedy stuff, you know talk about how fat you are, how youwant to have sex with guys, and then say my vagina a lot.".

They do actually address the, 'Why a female Santa?' criticism, but of course they do it through a strawman.

PROF.

DOUGLAS FIR: "Santas have always been male for the same reason they've only been male explorers, or U.S Presidents, or serial killers.". And then a stand-infor Greta Thunberg acts as the sh*t out of the straw man; because assaulting people with opposingviews is good apparently. "Yeah girl! Millennial the sh*t out that old f*ck.". Oh my god! Shut the f*ck up! She wants to break through the glass ceiling, which is fair enough inprinciple, but aside from some dismissive comments from her peers and the company board POLAR BEAR: "A woman's Santa?". CHOCOLATE BAR: "What if she thinks she's handing out candy canes, and they turn out to be some f*cking tampons." *Everyone laughs*. It's not like this stuff doesn't happen, but this sounds like one of those outdatedsexual harassment training articles.

PERSON 1: "Wordaround the offices you've got a fat c*ck.". PERSON 2: "Yes, I do.". PERSON 1: I've got a fat c*ck too. Maybe we should rub our fat c*cks together sometime. But anyhow, aside from this, she faces almost no resistance from the supposed patriarchy and almost everyone is supportive of her going for it. Especially Santa,who is unironically a massive virtue signaler. SANTA CLAUS: "I'm the most progressive Santa in history, I'm areal change agent, I'm an ally, which I can't label myself as, but I've been labeled that by others." "How awesome would I be to have chosen the first black successor, and then the first woman'ssuccessor.". I chose the first black successor, that was a big deal, everyone's like this iscrazy you can't do this, and I was like no it's time.".

It gets pretty nauseating. SANTA CLAUS: "Candy's aJew too! She checks off two boxes, woman and Jew. Holy sh*t! Holy sh*t! A woman and a Jew? I'll go from historic to like f*cking legendary!" *Mrs. Claus cheers Sarcastically*. If they're trying to take the piss out of him for doing this, then it's pretty hypocritical, since the show as a whole, does the exact same thing butthere we go. Derogatory comments aren't great, but they could have gone much harder with the misogynyif that was the angle they were going for. Is this really the best they could do? And in the first few episodes, they really have to reach to show you how hard done by she is. CANDY SMALLS: "You know, I'd normallyfind that repulsive, but you're actually inspiring me to like make Santa Inc safe from predatorswho force women to remain scared and silent so ".

But you just punched him in the face with zero consequences. How are you not safe already? After she goes to tell Santa she wants to run for his successor, he invites her into his previouslymen-only party. Where they're obviously doing manly things like shaving together! I don't know about that one but let's just go with it. And she'slike, 'Nah I'm out.'. CANDY: "F*ck those douches!". Why though? The only bad thing they did in that scene, was this guy had a terrible understanding of female anatomy. BARBER: "I don't want to be sued if I slip up and make her infertile. The baby needs the hair to stay warm.".

And she's the one that didn't want to stay. This is the level of self-victimization we're on. In this kind of story, you're supposed to sympathize with the protagonist, which makes the cause seem more worthy by proxy.

But unfortunately that's almost impossible.

It doesn't help that Silverman has a

Rather grating voice, and not grating in an endearingway, like say gilbert godfreed.

GLIBERT GODFREED: "Holy f*ckis this wrong, but holy hell is it erotic.". CANDY: "Every storm runs out of rain. Just like every knife is not all pain.".

Whoever let her do voice work should beexecuted. For legal purposes that was a joke. When she screams in excitement, it sounds like a pig being castrated. *Candy Smalls squealing* *squealing*. At least they acknowledge it, I suppose. JINGLE JIM: "Despitethat annoying high-pitched voice of yours, I believe they'll listen.". But Candy's personalityis just as abrasive. This feminist icon is both, a hypocrite, and massive piece of sh*t.

CANDY: "And just soyou know, the women of the North Pole make fun of one of your d*cks. Have fun wondering whose itis.". Because body shaming is okay when we do it. In episode three, she gets invited to interviewfor the job of CEO at an Easter based company; but she refuses because the previous CEO saidthat she was ousted because she had an abortion. Or hundreds of abortions because she's a rabbit, that's the joke. But the company man just says, 'Oh, that was a lie,' and she immediately changes hermind and never questions it? So, I guess her morals don't mean sh*t. CANDY: "My body, my choice!". PETUNIA: "Amen woman!".

Well, you didn't care about it 20 minutes ago. After she struggles to win over the board of Santa Inc by being, "One of the guys.". She pretends to be weaker than she is, in order to appeal to their protective instincts, and get ahead. Way to represent the fairer sex, am I right? She even admits it to Santa and he doesn'tcare? He's like, 'cool good for you for playing the game.'. When Santa goes into a coma, and she gets appointed the temporary Santa, she hopesthat he dies so she can keep her position. POLAR BEAR: "Miss Smalls, there's an update on Santa's condition.". CANDY SMALLS: "Oh my god, is he dead? I mean, is he okay? Is he well?". When she eventually doesn't get the nomination, Santa explains that it's because she's bad with kids.

Which is a pretty vital part of the job. He even offers to let her run things behind the scenes, which is more thanreasonable, but this is her response. CANDY SMALLS: "Go f*ck yourself!". She then flies off to havea strop, and kills a pigeon just because it was annoying her. CANDY SMALLS: "Mess with Candy, and you get the cane.". Worst of all though, is when she accidentally hits an as*hole deer with her car, and then leaves himto die in the snow so that her friend can have his job. CANDY SMALLS: "What if I did something really bad, but you know ultimately it's for the greater good.".

Jesus f*cking Christ! If your main character

Isn't worth giving a sh*t about, then your cause is also lost.

Oh, and they also have not one, but two reindeer characters who are black stereotypes. GOLDIE: "Girl! Look at what I stole from under Donner's bed.". JUNIOR: "Let me justget right up front here in the driver's seat. Who's ready to smell Junior's ass tonight?" *laughs*. Whichis funny, considering how progressive the show considers itself. So, all in all, it's prettyterrible and ham-fisted at getting its point across. This is how you don't do politics in media. You're not doing anyone any favors, you're not inspiring anyone, and you patting yourselves on the back and guffawing about how progressive you are is really not endearing.

Wow! That discussionwent on longer than I'd intended. Right! Now that the cancer is out of the way, we can move on to the good stuff, the comedy! What comedy? Yeah, exactly. If you're gonna face plant this hard with your messages, you need to be funny enough to compensate. Well, I'm calling this the 'worst comedy of 2021' so how do you think that went? I appreciate terrible comedy about as much as I appreciate leprosy, and 'Santa Inc.' (2021) has all the hallmarks of bad comedy and leprosy. I really did try to give it a chance, because no one wants to sit through a comedy and not laugh. And honestly, I will laugh at the dumbestsh*t, but I'm sorry to report that during its 8-20 minute episodes I laughed exactly twice. Andit was less of an earnest laugh and more of a heh. This joke, from episode one, which caught me offguard.

CRAIG: "Don't yell at me in front of your friends.". COOKIE: "Then don't be a dumbass in front of my friends, dumbass!". CANDY SMALLS: "I thought things were better between you guys since the baby.". COOKIE: "What do you mean?They are!" *heh*. As did this joke from episode three. EMISSARY RABBIT: "Osama Bun Laden." *heh*. Its played off as a terrible joke, which it is, but this Christmas cracker style humor is better than 99 percent of all the jokes in the series. Whichshould give you an idea of how bad this is.

SANTA CLAUS: "Catching up on some porn huh?". CANDY SMALLS: "That's rightboss! Just porning it up at the office.". SANTA CLAUS: "Well, if you need to finish, you know, flicking it or *uh* whatever you're doing down there. You know, just slapping your flaps, I can duck out just letme know.". CANDY SMALLS: "Oh god, stop!". From the makers of 'Sausage Party' (2016), is not exactly a ringing endorsement. Fansof sausage party will feel right at home; while everyone else will want to lace their mulled wine with cyanide. Here's a scene from 'Sausage Party' (2016), and a scene from 'Santa Inc' (2021), side by side,in order to perfectly demonstrate this point.

HONEY MUSTARD: "Great my asshole! Everything we've ever known is a dirt covered pile of sh*t, jacking off in our f*cking faces.

SANTA CLAUS: "He [Brent] f*cked us dryfolks.

I'm just gonna say, the warning would

Have been lube, but he withheld that.".

HONEY MUSTARD: "Covering our eyeswith their cum. So cum covered, we can't f*cking see!". SANTA CLAUS: "So, we are all chafed this morning. Super chafed,but this rash will go away, just like Brent did.". It won't spread from our nether to cover ourentire body.".

HONEY MUSTARD: "We don't know! We don't know they're jerking off into our eyes, our faces!". SANTA CLAUS: "We-will-recover-from-this-un-lube-pred-icated f*cking-Brent-gave us.". It's yet another adult animated comedythat thinks that copious amounts of swearing, sexual references, and gross out humor, are bythemselves adult and funny. Which they're not. And it's the same kind of adult humor you'll haveheard countless times before awkward, obnoxious, or weird sexual exploits. GOLDIE: Devin and I are dating, andf*cking. DEVIN: "And fingering with an eye towards anal? *Goldie nods* Yes! TMI SANTA CLAUS: You see Candy, earlier today I was going down on Mrs. Claus, cunnilingus.".

MRS. CLAUS: "She doesn't need this information!". SANTA CLAUS: "No, no she does, and it's fine. Look Candy, it's just that to get my tongue at the right angle, have to spread my legs like adog.". Drunkenness, fart jokes, swearing, rudeness disguised as wit, and so on. Any of which might befine occasionally in a proper context that makes them funny, but of course they're sprayed around so liberally, that they quickly overstay their welcome. In the opening of the first episode, they swear five times in 20 seconds to let you know, 'Oh, yeah! We're an adult show, none of that kiddie stuff!'. CANDY SMALLS: "F*ckin' sh*t!".

BRENT: "Bullsh*t! F*ck that stupid bunny! What the f*ck!". And later in the same episode they say the word, 'b*tch,' 16 times in one minute. COOKIE: "B*tch-B*tch-B*tch." GOLDIE: "B*tch-B*tch.". CANDY SMALLS: "B*tch". GOLDIE: "B*tch-B*tch-B*tch-B*tch.". COOKIE: "B*tch-B*tch-B*tch-B*tch.". CANDY SMALLS: "Wish me luck. b*tches.".

Have these people never heard of the phrase, "Less is more.". The largeamounts of forced sex references, gratuitous nudity, and sex scenes, will also make your butthole clenchtighter than Scrooge's wallet. *Heh* See what I did there. OTTER CADDY: "Oops! Wrong hole!". CANDY SMALLS: "Is that what you tell your wife?".

OTTER CADDY: "No, ma'am! I tell her

My truth, which is that anal rocks!".

Just to give you an instance of how this canwork, in one episode of 'South Park,' (2007). Mrs.

Garrison and Xerxes are about to go in for a romantic moment; and then it abruptly cuts to them passionately scissoring. It's this juxtaposition, and thethrowback to an earlier scene in the episode, that makes this funny. In 'Santa Inc.' (2021) we have a scenewhere one of the characters turns down another's offer of a date; then it cuts to Santa f*ckinghis wife from behind. While she just lies there and takes it. These two scenes have nothing to do with each other, so the juxtaposition doesn't work. And his [Santa's] grunts start playing before the scene transitions, so you know it's coming, and quite a bit of the shock value gets lost. SANTA CLAUS: "Oh! Oh!". So, it's thefact of the Clauses is having sex, that's meant to be shocking and funny in and of itself.

Which itisn't because this is, like, the third time we've seen it by this point, and that's just one example. You could maybe get away with a, 'Hey! Look that old person is naked! How gross and funny is that, LOL.'. Scenario once, or maybe even twice in a show, but of course they overplay it becauseit's not like they have better material. Like a character will come in say they had sex the night before, and that's the whole joke. CANDY SMALLS: "Before-". GOLDIE: Guess who finally banged Donner last night? Not ya'll! Halla!". It's just lacking any subtlety or intelligence. SANTA CLAUS: Of course, I get it it's not subtle at all.".

And it's hardly groundbreaking material. Jokes about Mrs. Claus sliding down Santa'schimney, are the kind of thing you'd expect tosee in a boomer's Christmas card. Although despiteSeth Rogen's reputation as the 'weed funnyman,' they only have Santa get high once in the wholeshow. Gotta admire their restraint there. Actually he does it twice, but that was in the final episode, and by that point I wanted to off myself so And here's the thing 'Santa Inc.' (2021) crude humor, it's adult interpretations of children's subjects, and subversive takes on long-establishedtropes; would have been considered shocking at one point, and would have had more impact dueto their deliberate breaking of societal taboos.

But everything it does has been long done by this point, and the market saturated. What was once cutting edge, is now dull, and the material just feels stale and uninteresting.

But even if it wasn't stale, it's poorly executed, with all the jokes falling flat for various different reasons. It's not like the delivery is bad, at least if we're talking about the voice performances. It's just that the jokes aren't funny, or well constructed. Even the most skilled comedians in the world couldn't polish these turds. CANDY SMALLS: "Hey! I have ar*pe whistle!" *party horn* "Ah, this is my consensual s*x whistle, f*ck, where's my r*pe one. Right-". As you mightexpect, Candy and Santa are the most well developed, in terms of characterization and humor.

Althoughthat's not saying a lot.

 

But, much like other bad adult animated

Comedies, most of the charactershave about two personality traits, and 99 percent of their jokes will center purely around those.

Candy's friend, Cookie, is made of gingerbread, is a new mother, and treats her husband likesh*t, and that's all of her jokes. COOKIE: "A dream must be nice. I don't have dreams anymore because I don't ever sleep. Because for some reason I wanted to be a wife and mother. Oh, I'msorry Fun Size, you know I love you baby right?". Candy's other friend, Goldie, is a sassy black woman and horny. GOLDIE: "All this training does make me a monster in the sack.

I had a three-way with Prancer and hisgirlfriend last night, and no one was complaining.". Candy's grandpa is old and horny. CANDY'S GRANDPA: "If I die get rid of myporn.". Candy's mum is a terrible mother and horny. CANDY'S MOM: "Peter, is there somewhere I can " *laughs* "how do you say thisladylike, scrub the travel dust off my beaver, puta comb through my pubes. Candy's teenage brotheris an idiot, and yep you guessed it, horny. CANDY'S BROTHER: "Our dicks were identical, the veins, the shaft, the girth, ourjunk separated at birth.". Santa's assistant Jingle Jim is very gay and also very horny.

Which is a bit of a stereotype, but okay. JINGLE JIM: "I have to shave every week, I'm talking about my genitals dum-dum," it's a gay thing. Yes, Iam gay!". Mrs. Claus is miserable and the subject of Santa's horniness. MRS. CLAUS: "Let alone, you know, go down on me, *laughs* actually it's been 20 years.". And the list goes on.

It becomes so predictable and formulaic that I was actually shocked when a character madea different kind of joke. CANDY'S GRANDPA: "I'll always regret never being in a war, legal murder is the sh*t. Trying to identify the jokes, in order to critiquethem, was actually quite difficult. Because a lot of the time they were simply so unfunny, thatyou wouldn't even consider them to be jokes, as opposed to anything else in the script. Until youthink 'Wait. Was that meant to be a joke?' And then you realized that it was, and you just kind ofscratch your head and go, 'What?'. Occasionally, they have what could be a decent joke, but then theyshoot themselves in the foot by ruining it. They might use it so much that it stops being funnyat all, as we've already seen.

They might play it out for so long that it stops being funny. There'sa running joke about cookie eating herself, which raises all sorts of questions, and at one pointshe eats her husband's leg. CRAIG: Oh my god!" *Ah* "I had this nightmare that someone threw a grenade at mylegs; they were blown off.

Well, it was just a dream" *gasps & screams*.

His reaction could have been funny, if he just woke up, saw the leg, and screamed. But they make it go on too long, by trying to add to the joke where it isn't necessary. They might add in extra lines, where it would have been funnier if they just left it at the punch line. GOLDIE & CANDY: "Shut up Devin!".

GOLDIE: "Shut up Kim!". CANDY "You shut up Goldie! *ugh*I need a f*cking drink.". DEVIN: "I feel like this is my fault.". CANDY: "Yeah, it is dumb f*ck.". DEVIN: "Oops.". This could have beenfunny, because of how oblivious he is, if they just left it at his statement. But they just couldn't dothat. They might explain, or offer meta commentary, on the joke thereby making it not funny.

CANDY: "I knowyou're right, but do you really have to call me b*tch every time you say something?". GOLDIE:" Yes, b*tch! Because it's empowering to call you b*tch, b*tch!". And many other methods of comedic face planting. And, to be a bit pedantic, sometimes the jokes just don't make sense. For example, having a taser be Christmas lights is kind of funny, because it fits with the setting. But then there's a guy playingSnooker with ball balls, and of course they break. I get the joke, but he works in Christmas land, sosurely he would know that they would break. So, why would he be playing with them at all? Sometimes, they'll put forward something that they assume is a joke, and it's structured like a joke, andthey expect us to accept that it's a joke, but they haven't given us any reason or context for whyit's funny.

So, we can't laugh, because we literally don't understand why it's even a joke. Here's twoexamples: CANDY: "And hey, thank you for the snacks Curtis. Those chicken nuggets were an absolute poem.". CURTIS: "The secret is, baste it in its own fat.". So, the punchline is that the chicken is basted in its own fat, but what's funny about that? And if it's not a joke, then why even include it because it doesn'tadd anything. COOKIE: "Did I tell you his sister's dating an ornament? Everyone's freaking out about it!". Again, this is clearly meant to be a joke, but why is him (her*) dating an ornament funny? Why would that makethem freak out? Like, they don't give us any context. And then there's just the multitude of 'jokes' wherethe punchline isn't even funny; but I don't want to repeat myself too much.

As a result of all theseblunders, this 'comedy' ends up being painfully unfunny and thus incredibly cringe-worthy. It feelslike one big in-joke, I feel like you had to be there in the writer's room, having fun, and huffingpaint alongside them in order to find this amusing. Is there at least a well-written story beneath allthis to cling on to? Well, the answer isn't just a no, it's a go f*ck yourself. Aside from the totalfailure of its humor, the show is really boring. The main character is obnoxious and unsympathetic, so it's very difficult to get invested in what happens to her.

And since almost all of thenarrative stakes

Revolve around her struggles to achieve her goals; because we don't care about those goals we have no reason to keep watching.

And as I said before, the other

Characters aremostly flat and also irritating.

So, there's nothing to care about there either.

The voice-overperformances are at best, mediocre, and at worst utterly annoying. Which makes the characterseven more unlikable. Neither are the storylines particularly interesting. Just take any storyabout the North Pole, combine it with any modern girl boss story, and throw in an unhealthydose of 'Sausage Party,' (2016) and you have about 90 percent of what happens here. And of course, the episodesare padded with pointless sh*t, just to make things even more tedious. The story does rampup a little in the last few episodes, but you'll have tuned out by then, trust me. Right down toits name, 'Santa Inc.' (2021) tries to perform a half-a*ssed cynical deconstruction of Santa, the NorthPole, and the mythos surrounding all of that. This Santa is a corrupt, vulgar piece of sh*t, theNorth Pole is run like a corporation, the reindeer take meth to increase their speed, and so on.

It'ssupposedly a Christmas show, but it seems to think that it's somehow above, and better, than that genre,because it's being critical and subversive of it. And I can't help but get the impression that it's being irreverent about Christmas just for the sake of it; or worse for the sake ofgrabbing attention. JINGLE JIM: "Shut up! You worthless assholes!" *cough*. But even ignoring its terrible execution, nothing substantive or valuable comes outof this deconstruction. It's like if youhad Santa get drunk, vomit in a stocking, pour it on himself, and then writhe around on thefloor. It's not bold, it doesn't say anything, and anyone intelligent will just shrug and walk away. Speaking of execution, which is what the writers deserve, again that's a joke FBI, leave me alone. I just want to quickly talk about the 'animated' part of this adult animated comedy.

I love stop-motion, and I'll give them at least some respect for at least trying to work in this medium. Andat a casual glance, it looks competent enough, but when you look a bit closer the flaws clearlyemerge. A lot of the mouths are photoshopped on in post, which I understand to some extent, because moving mouths are one of the most difficult things to nail in stop motion. Unfortunately it doesn't always look good. Especially with Candy, her mouth looks too smooth and flat when compared to her face. And it isn't just the mouths, some other objects that are photoshopped in, also look pretty bad. You can sometimes see parts of the green screen left over from when they chroma keyed it. Which is really not acceptable in a professionally producedshow.

They also frequently composite characters into shots, rather than have the models be presentin the sets themselves. I'm guessing this was a money or time saving measure but to me it doesn't feel authentic. So, I have to knock off some points for that. You can also see the cropping aroundthem, and where the chroma key didn't always work. And this isn't like 'Robot Chicken,' (2014) where the animation was deliberately sh*t, but that was part of its charm. 'Santa Inc.' (2021) is trying to cheat us, which is why I feel these flaws are worth pointingout. So, while I will give 'Santa Inc.' (2021) a small measureof respect for trying; if we're assessing objective quality, in terms of the media achieving its owngoals, then again 'Santa Inc.' (2021) falls flat. Oh, and the editing and sound design, are also dog sh*te, but at this point I care about as much as they did.

SETH ROGEN: "Well, a good editor is hard to find, so I'm callingit a miracle.".

JINGLE JIM [voice]: "Shut up! You worthless ass-".

I don't feel like there's much more to say, that wouldn'tjust be beating a dead horse. So, to conclude, 'Santa Inc.' (2021) has firmly established itself as the worstcomedy show of the year. As well as, being one of the worst I've ever seen. A lot of people weregiving this one star reviews, because of stuff they objected to in the trailer. But lookingbeyond that, there's still not a good show here. This isn't some misunderstood masterpiece.

Does itdeserve to be rated as the worst TV show ever made? No. Off the top of my head I can think of Tommy Wiseau's 'The Neighbors' (2015), and 'The Nutshack' (2007) that are both objectively worse than this. PERSON: "Takecare of the chicken!". But it is pretty awful You'd have to scrape, not the bottom of thebarrel, but the rotten underside of the barrelto find worse than this. It's not funny, it's notoriginal, it's not well executed, and it's just crass and irreverent without any redeeming value. So, if someone's ever on your naughty list, don't give them a lump of coal give them this show onBlu-ray. That'll really get your hatred across. What a way to round out a truly awful year! They do say that the night is darkest before the dawn.

So perhaps, just perhaps, this represents a low point before the start of greater things. Here's hoping. CANDY: "I'm out, shalom!".