Funny / The Star Wars Holiday Special

• The infamous "Fighting the Frizzies at eleven" comment by news anchor Rolland Smith on a WCBS news teaser in the New York City recording. This guy's been given an absolutely absurd sentence to read in front of millions of people, and he says it with absolute conviction. (The "frizzies" refers to frizzy hair, which is especially troublesome to clean, condition and style. To men, it's puzzling. If you do a Google search on "frizzies hair", to women it is Serious Business. WebMD even has an article on it.)
  • Fitting during a show with Wookiees. Maybe they're the mythical Frizzies! (Given the above definition, maybe they are.)
  • According to South Park, "Fighting the Frizzies" means to get in a boxing match with some hairy Cousin Itt-looking creature.
• The scene with Harvey Korman as the cooking show chef is funny.
• The stormtrooper who actually fights Han one-on-one only to lose when he apparently trips over his own gun, sending him hurtling over a railing to his death, complete with Wilhelm scream.
• The sheer fact that Darth Vader appears in the special (in stock footage with his only line of dialogue redubbed. You can tell because of not-Bast's huge Lip Lock problem). Additionally, the fact that Wookieepedia saw fit to give not-Bast a page at all.
• A more straight example: Deadpan Snarker all-business bartender/owner Ackmena can jab as only Bea Arthur can.
  Ackmena: (to customer) Well, I'm certainly not going to get rich with customers like you. I thought I taught you to drink faster than that. Well, at least you're steady.
  (later)
  Ackmena: (to Krelman) We are talking. You're not ordering. I'm not pouring. We are not drinking. We are talking.
  • After the Empire imposes a curfew, Ackmena goes around the bar, asking each patron to leave so that she doesn't get in trouble. She begs each of them by name, reminding them of all she's done for them, until...
    Ackmena: Remember the time I... I don't believe we've met?^note Mike: I played your mother for seven seasons.
  • The fact that The Empire has nothing better to do than to shut down some random bar for no reason.
• As Jack Packard in Best of the Worst pointed out, if you look hard enough, you can see the exact moment at which Harrison Ford stopped caring even the slightest bit about being in it. Of course, he wasn't exactly bringing his A-game before that, but it was that moment where he went from simply phoning it in to just surrendering his soul entirely.
  • Harrison Ford's hilariously uncomfortable reaction when Conan O'Brien surprised him with a clip of Han's tender moment with Chewie's family. One gets the impression that the studio audience's presence was the only thing stopping Ford from murdering him for that.
• The Actor Allusion with Art Carney is pretty funny, even if they did have to crib it wholesale from The Honeymooners.
• I-Mockery's review points out how the Empire's even more of a Card-Carrying Villain than usual.
  After the cartoon ends, we cut back to Lumpy's room where the troops are tearing it apart in search of anything related to the Rebels. They even tear off the head of a big stuffed animal and then tell Lumpy to go to clean up his room. It's like they're making a point to pick on little Lumpy. As Lumpy cries out in woe upon discovering the severed head of his favorite stuffed animal, the Imperial Officer chuckles, "That will keep him busy for a while." Call me cruel, but I think this is hands-down one of the most entertaining moments of the entire holiday special.
• Carrie Fisher did the DVD Commentary of A New Hope in exchange for an official copy of the special. Why? To scare off house guests who outstayed their welcome.
  • She also confessed to being high on cocaine while the special was being filmed... to the surprise of absolutely nobody. Honestly, she can't be blamed.
    • On that note, if you can watch Leia's coked-out musical number without busting a gut, you probably have no soul.
• Co-writer Bruce Vilanch described the Wookiees as "looking kinda like me" and sounding like "fat people having an orgasm".
  Bruce Vilanch: Trust me - I know.
• The fact that this very special was the debut of fan favourite bounty hunter Boba Fett. Who'd have thought a one off minor villain from a cartoon segment would end up as one of the series' most iconic and endearing badasses?
• YMMV on if it is funny or horrifying, but the fact that this notoriously bizarre entry the creator didn't want to own manages to be considered canon in both Legends and Disney, with an entire episode of Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures and a month-long event in Star Wars: The Old Republic dedicated to it - red robes on Wookiees and all.

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