SHOW NOTES: S02E08, "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year"
To those of you who celebrate, we wish you a very horny Christm— wait, we mean merry Christmas. (Or, you know, both, if you'd prefer.)
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Our special guest this week is Nick McCarthy! Nick is the Director of Programming at NewFest, a nonprofit arts organization dedicated to LGBTQ representation on screen that hosts New York's annual LGBTQ film festival in addition to year-round programs and ongoing screening and talkback series. Before that, Nick served as the Film Curator at The Tank and worked in academic publishing and international media. Nick has written about film and media for publications including Slant Magazine, Time Out New York, NBC News, and the Boston Phoenix and has served on multiple domestic and international film festival juries. Within his family, he's almost definitely the Claire.
While this isn't technically part of this episode of Six Feet Under, we thought you all might enjoy this very relevant segment from a This American Life episode that aired in 2008. It's entitled "Santa Fight Club," and the episode description is as follows: "A tale of two Santas. There's Tim Conaghan, a full-time professional Santa with a big belly and a real flowing white beard. And there's Santa Nick—he too has a belly and real white beard. But the story of Santa Tim and Santa Nick is not like most uplifting Christmas parables. Instead, it's about two men, very much alike, who came to lead rival factions in a bitter Santa civil war, and came themselves to be arch enemies. Josh Bearman reports on the political schism that's overtaken the Amalgamated Order of Real Bearded Santas." The world of Santas is complex, y'all.
After seeing Jesse's badass airbrushed casket, we started wondering if airbrushing caskets was common in real life. It is definitely not—the only picture we could find was of this casket by artist Darren Wenzel. It is beautiful, though. If you need to throw a biker funeral, you know who to call.
Keith makes figgy pudding for David and Taylor on Christmas Eve, spurring David to ask what possessed him. It's true that Keith's attempt looks a little like cat food, but he might've had more success if he'd used this recipe for Warm Sticky Figgy Pudding from the Food Network. It looks DELICIOUS.
Jenna talks about one of her favorite Christmas episodes of television, Community's "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas," in which Abed astutely states that "the meaning of Christmas is that Christmas has meaning, and it can mean whatever we want." If you'd like to watch this utterly delightful animated episode of an utterly delightful show, it's available to stream for free here.
Claire quips to her mother that she's going to go put on her Laura Bush pants suit, a joke that was very funny in 2002 but might not resonate with some of our younger listeners. In case you're not familiar with the style of pants suits Laura Bush preferred, we invite you to picture Claire in this. (Honestly, she'd still look great. You could put Claire in a potato sack and she'd look runway ready.)
Jenna talks about how the arrangement of Fishers (and Nikolai) at Christmas dinner echoes the Norman Rockwell painting Freedom from Want. While we HATE the concept of Nikolai as patriarch, we admit that it is a nice visual reference. (Of course, the patriarch in this painting isn't in pajamas or high on Percodan. Ruth would totally wear that apron, though.)
Finally, as an homage to the big-ass biker funeral, we present you with two very important songs: "Free Bird" by Lynyrd Skynyrd and "Don't Fear the Reaper" by Blue Oyster Cult. Let these play you into the rest of your day—it's a good thirteen minutes of music between the two—and enjoy your Christmas goose. Or your Christmas In-N-Out burger truck, if that's more your speed. We don't judge.