Clickable Advent Calendar, 6: Tingles
An obscure but hilarious “TV Funhouse” sketch that uses retro-style black-and-white animation to introduce the Christmas visitor, “Tingles.”
“TV Funhouse,” whether as an adjunct of “Saturday Night Live” or via its own short-lived sketch comedy show from Robert Smigel, has long been a source of pointed, retro holiday satire. Two that come to mind spoof “Peanuts” and “Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer” (the latter being “The Narrator Who Ruined Christmas”). I had never heard of the stop-motion animated “Tingles” sketch before, but a blog-friend drew it to my attention and now it’s one of my favorite short pieces of Christmas parody. If you’ve never seen this black-and-white throwback to 1950s’ style animation, I won’t give away who, exactly, Tingles is. Be sure to stick around to see Tingles’ post-Christmas counterpart, Moples.