‘A Clüsterfünke Christmas’ on Comedy Central, featuring Ana Gasteyer and Rachel Dratch Revel in Holiday Movie Ridiculousness
Comedy Central joins the holiday TV movie game with A Christmas Clüsterfünke—Which is exactly as serious as the silly title implies. Parody comes from Saturday night live legends Ana Gasteyer and Rachel Dratch and offers a weird, joking twist on the format you know and love/hate. But not A Christmas Clüsterfünke Is gift giving legal LOLs, or is it not possible to mock an already-loved genre of movies?
Gist: Vella Lovell (Crazy ex-girlfriend) plays Holly, an upstart in the hotel and resort industry who is tasked with convincing the owners of the rustic AF Clüsterfünke Inn to clean up their property so her bosses can come in. and turn this land into a large resort. There’s just one problem: she likes these old Clüsterfünke women (played by Gasteyer and Dratch) and she likes their attractive grandson Frank (Cheynne Jackson) even more. But all of these new relationships are put at stake when her old BF comes into town and blows up her spot!
The plot sounds like a legit Hallmark Christmas movie—but this parody has more Philadelphia Cream Cheese and frostbite.
What movies will remind you of?: The whole movie is like an elaborate SNL mimicking the Hallmark recipe, starting right away with an ad for the holiday movie line “Bellhark” (sponsored by Philadelphia Cream Cheese). Above all, this commitment to genre-correct appeal feels right to America’s hot and humid summer.
Performances worth watching: I know the point of A Christmas Clüsterfünke was meant to mock Hallmark movies but… uh, I think Vella Lovell and Cheyenne Jackson could really knock a sincere Hallmark movie out of the park. They just make so much sense in this category.
Memorable dialogue: There are many highlights in the Hallmark format throughout the film, my favorite being “Without our tradition, we would have lost our will to live!” and “But the hotel and resort industry is all I care about!”
Holiday traditions: The village of Yuletown loves its annual Christmas events. There’s the Ginger Man Festival, the Santa Claus Rewarding Fire Festival, the Yuletown Lumbering Competition, and the Clüsterfünke sisters have to prepare for their annual rush after Christmas.
Does the title make any sense?: It’s named after the inn at the center of the plot and a bunch of main characters, yes. If you come up with a ridiculous last name like Clüsterfünke, you use it as much as you can.
Our Take: There’s one key ingredient to a successful parody that I think is easy to overlook: it really helps if you love what you’re passionate about. That’s especially important when trying to parody something like Hallmark’s Christmas movie, which is already ridiculously close to parody. That’s why A Christmas Clüsterfünke there’s an unpredictable high bar to erase so it’s more than just a one-note movie. Will this just be 90 minutes of hate or will it be a celebration of all the intrinsic stupidity of the genre? Without a doubt, it is the latter.
It’s clear that Ana Gasteyer and Rachel Dratch have seen dozens of Hallmark Christmas movies because their scripts are aimed at some very specific games. There was a jargon-filled business phone call where no one said anything and there was a person who witnessed FaceTimes and asked if Holly would join her for a “little vacation.” The film is exactly one or twenty steps behind modern technology (Holly is a “wiz with websites”) and has a product placement that makes Hallmark’s Balsam Hill plaudits seem subdued. . Everything in this movie, from the soundtrack to the wardrobe to the cozy cinematography, is incredibly precise. You could put it in the background at a holiday party and people would probably think it was a legit Hallmark movie.
And because all the specifics are so well done, all the jokes absolutely stand out. The movie gets weirder as Holly deepens into the Yuletown way of life, to the point where something truly horrifying happens and it’s swept aside by a holiday broom (which isn’t what it’s supposed to be). one thing, but you know Yes become a thing in Yuletown). Both aspects of this film, the meticulously accurate reinterpretation of the vibe and the satire of all the slapsticks, work together to create a very entertaining film.
A Christmas Clüsterfünke big and wide and weird enough to appeal to Hallmark haters, and Clüsterfünke’s The surprising homage to Hallmark’s aesthetic lets Hallmarkies know that the film is laughing at Hallmark’s films rather than at them.
Our call: INSTRUCTIONS IT. And since Gasteyer and Dratch are so into Hallmark movies, they need to start writing more of these types of movies!
A Christmas Clüsterfünke premieres on Comedy Central on Saturday, December 4 at 7 p.m. ET
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