Special Event: Jackbox Holiday Showdown
Premiere Date: Monday, December 12, 2022, 5:30 PM PST
Holiday week opens with Hosts (Joel, Emily and Jonah) vs Mads (MJ, Felicia and making his first 'out of experiment' appearance this season, Patton), with Rebecca playing the middle. The game is Christmasy themed, and darkly funny. They also do the T-shirts, slogans and the 'improv to photos' thing that we've seen in the past.
When it's all said and done and the winner is proclaimed, Patton protests the results and asks that we all march on the Gizmoplex. 😆
Special Event: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians + Short: Bicycle Visual Skills
Premiere Date: Tuesday, December 13, 2022, 5:00 PM PST
Emily and the bots are in the theater this time out, to pedal away on a piece about bicycle safety... and boy, it's a gem. You'll want to keep an eye on the shadowrama, because the trio dance in their seats, and look both ways (as instructed), while Emily gives a John Bender fist pump, which was cute. Riff-wise, the Christmas season continues to inspire edginess (a spin on "he died as he lived") as well as mirth... the biggest guffaw I received was Em's "International Towel World" quip (Conor follows that with the line, "Scientists call this "looking"" in response to the narration).
After this and throughout we are gifted with bonus sketches, which were a delight and featured some nice comedic performances from our cast.
The first sees Synthia kissing up to Pearl (she has a beautiful mind), and Emily and the bots expressing their desire to see movies based on the rest of the Claus family, like My Chemical Romance fan, Sally Claus. In another, Jonah and his bots do a bit about lying in your holiday letters. Then back to team Emily, where Tom & Crow go all 'mean girls' on Torg (Em gives them a dose of their own medicine). Crow (Hampton) is up to bat for letter reading; there's a picture enclosed, and -because he's literal- he wonders how the letter writer could be hiding on the SOL for the past 30 years without anyone seeing them? In an art filled piece, Jonah and Em share Christmas memories - finally, Emily closes out the show by doing some bot adjustments, and Dr. Kabahl pops in at the moon.
After the classic episode, we're shown a pre-recorded piece from the live show, where the gang riffed on childhood photos of Conor, Emily, Kelsey and Tim. This was both adorable and hilarious and was the perfect capper to one heck of a fun night.
Screengrabs
Technical difficulties caused a 90-minute delay (note white dot in a Santa hat)
The Bots tease Torg
In Wisconsin, they light up big blocks of cheese
Hiding ornaments in chowder in New England
