So a segment that we’ve done on the morning show ever since I took it over 3 years ago in 2009 has been a ‘Trivia’ segment at around 6:50an. Nothing too complicated, just a pretty simple question with a giveaway attached to it. Although I will say this: The most difficult part of our trivia segment is not figuring out the correct answer, it’s figuring out the correct answer AND determining if I have the correct answer. ‘I know the answer is _____, but does Jon know that..’
Anyway, around Christmas I do a week’s worth of Christmas movie trivia. And in the interest of attempting to not repeat the same question every year (before doing exactly that), I did a simple Google search of, ‘best Christmas movies,’ to see if there are some classics we’ve never hit on. Which led me to this list. So I start scrolling to get to the bottom and just see what their top 10 movies are, and as I scroll, I pass a very familiar logo very early in the countdown. “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.” AT NUMBER 59. Hey, nameless/faceless editorial board at Rotten Tomatoes:
I don’t want to be dramatic but anyone ranking “Christmas Vacation” anywhere outside of the top 5 on a ‘best Christmas movie’ list should be arrested for war crimes. And not only outside of the top 5, it BARELY MADE THE LIST. “Christmas Vacation” is not only one of the best Christmas movies of all time, it’s one of the best movies of all time, period, full stop.
And take a look at some of the films ranked above it: “Happy Christmas”? “A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas”? FREAKING “While You Were Sleeping”?? Are you kidding me? Is this a joke? Am I being punk’d??
Even though there’s literally nothing I can do about it, I just couldn’t let this list exist in the internet ether without it being properly shamed. Fire it into the sun and never look back.
PS: When Linds and I flew to Atlanta a few weeks ago, I was stunned to see how advanced in-flight entertainment had become. We don’t fly often, so I wasn’t aware that now you basically get DirecTV cable and premium movies at every seat. The only problem? I no longer have any wired ear buds to plug into the arm rest for sound. And I wasn’t about to spend the $2 on the plastic versions they were selling that have probably been in other people’s ears over the course of the last 10 years. But one of the movies you could select was “Christmas Vacation.” So I put it on. I’ve seen that movie so many times that even without subtitles I could recite the whole thing just by watching it on mute. I don’t know that my fellow passengers enjoyed me doing that as much as I enjoyed doing it, but I thought I nailed an adequate representation.
Comments