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Have a Very Star Wars Holiday

Xeni Jardin at 9:45 am Tue, Dec 23, 2008

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BB pal Bonnie Burton of Lucasfilm and all things Star Wars says, "If Boing Boing readers want to see a REALLY retro Wookiee family photo, check out the Star Wars Holiday Special which aired once 30 years ago -- just in time for the holidays. Great stuff about the Holiday Special here too: link one, link two. The Bantha toy that Lumpy (Chewbacca's son) plays with in the Holiday Special inspired me to do this craft!"

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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  • t3knomanser

    If you do intend to suffer yourself through this, why do it alone? I LOLed muchly with the Rifftrax crew.

    //I’m just a fan, not a shill.
    //Seriously, their Riff is worth the $4.

  • Ugly Canuck

    Nice to see a reference in the article to the Airtight Garage (of Jerry Cornelius).

  • macisaguy

    While the rifftrax are worth every penny…I have about 15 or so at this point…their Star Wars Holiday special version is currently available on google videos.

    Check it out here…

    Great stuff…

    BTW, Rifftrax is the Mystery Science Theater 3000 guys…still at the top of their game.

  • lost feliz

    my 2008 Star Wars xmas fav…
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jDcfE_nEy0

  • eagleapex

    Happy Life Day everyone!

  • noen

    Happy Holidays.

    Say it with Wookies.

  • styrofoam

    Wookie ookie is still one of the creepiest things I’ve ever seen on public airwaves. And the content was just implied.

  • PFlint

    #21, Han Solo Comedy Hour:

    Which one was Bea Arthur? ;-)

  • Hugh Lilly

    There’s a recent (web-only?) Vanity Fair piece about the Star Wars Holiday Special, “The Han Solo Comedy Hour!“, that might be of interest to some; here’s an hilarious quote:

    While flipping through a book of production stills, Vilanch says, the Star Wars creator came across a particularly provocative-looking creature. “Lucas, who had been pretty stolid the whole time, turned to me and said: ‘Oh yes, we call him Cuntface.’

    And that’s what it looked like, actually. I noticed in a later movie”—Return of the Jedi—“that Lucas had, like, a huge vagina in the desert that sucked things in. So, I think this is one of his leitmotifs.”

  • LB

    Where the hell is our unicorn chaser?

  • Takuan

    did you know Godwin applied to EVERYTHING?
    http://www.dvpalumbo.com/blogimages/naziunicorn.jpg

  • TEKNA2007

    Hugh Lilly@21

    There’s a recent (web-only?) Vanity Fair piece about the Star Wars Holiday Special, “The Han Solo Comedy Hour!”

    Excellent link – thank you.

  • Colonist

    The Philadelphia-based record label Mad Decent samples Star Wars about 3 minutes into their Xmas Video Podcast “Angels With Filthy Souls”. Its one of my favorite holiday mashups of this year.

  • Stefan Jones

    I have a horribly-quality pirate VHS copy of the special. I started watching it the other night and just couldn’t make it past the first ten minutes. Really horribly painful.

    I think rifftrax is the way to go.

  • KanedaJones

    I take it none of these links are to a pirate copy? I mean, boing boing IS law abiding normally (until desent is made a crime in UK/USA/CAN).

    a friend told me there is a website established to pass around a DVD iso that was made off of a studio quality betamax tape just this year with two versions one without comercials and one with! Its free of charge too. I havent gotten around to finding that page but I am sure its googleable..

  • arkizzle

    Here’s something I spotted the other day and totally meant to share with BB.. Now seems a perfect opportunity.

    In Bristol, there is a place called Wookey Hole (it’s a cave system), Hah! And if that wasn’t funny enough, this year they are hosting Santa Land in it, as in “Come see Santa, deep in Wooky Hole”, ok I made that up – but that’s what my mind leapt to.

    I chuckled about it for days.. any of the locals I asked about it didn’t seem to enjoy the joke as much as me, even when I pointed out the Star Wars reference and the resulting innuendo..

    Some people, eh? Psshh.

    Anyway, WOOKEY HOLE! :)

    http://www.wookey.co.uk/santaland.htm

  • Avram

    Stefan Jones @10, there is one good thing about the Holiday Special — the cartoon, with Boba Fett. Just fast-forward through the tape till you get to animation.

  • InsertFingerHere

    Oh SNAP, #12, this page is creeping the frack out of me. I can’t stop watching, and the terror is building. Honestly, this is seriously creepy.

    http://www.wookey.co.uk/cavecam.htm

  • reeraw

    i was so inspired by life day and carrie fisher’s caroling that i did a fashion spread about it:

    http://www.eyeweekly.com/style/citystyle/article/46786.

  • gths

    Is that the one where the moon falls on Chewbacca?

  • arkizzle

    InsertFingerHere,

    Careful! Anything can happen in the Witches kitchen.

    A N Y T H I N G

  • Editz

    Don’t forget Richard Pryor’s take on the SW universe:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kJkhEcQ44k

  • arkizzle

    If it hasn’t been linked to already, here’s the whole thing.. with original ads and News Break!
    News stories include Neutron Bombs “that’s the bomb that kills people, but leaves buildings standing”, CIA agents, Blizzards and Falling Birth Rates! Appropriate, kid friendly programming – as ever!

  • Secret_Life_of_Plants

    I sadly, still know the lyrics to “What do you get a Wookie for Christmas when he already owns a comb?”

  • arkizzle

    ..oh yeah: Shhhh! Don’t tell Bonnie!

  • ZippySpincycle

    Carrie Fisher was on NPR’s Talk of the Nation recently, and said, regarding the Holiday Special: “How could you be a fan of that and not need psychiatric care?”