2010-12-19
Explanation
This comic imagines a holiday action movie mashup featuring "Captain Chanukah," a superhero-styled character who confronts Santa Claus. Captain Chanukah greets Santa with "Shalom," and Santa demands to know how he got past his eight reindeer. Captain Chanukah reveals that his menorah has eight branches -- implying he defeated the eight reindeer using the eight branches of his menorah as weapons. Santa cries "No! No! Noooo!" as Captain Chanukah reminds him that he "neglected to recall... the most famous reindeer of all," revealing a ninth reindeer -- presumably Rudolph -- now allied with him. The comic then shows Captain Chanukah dramatically defeating Santa's forces in cinematic action-movie style, complete with a sword fight and a swirling red end-credits graphic.
The moral at the bottom reads: "Why do they only make holiday movies for children?" The comic humorously imagines what an adult-oriented, action-movie take on the "War on Christmas" might look like, with Chanukah and Christmas personified as rival action heroes. It playfully riffs on the cultural trope of a holiday rivalry while poking fun at the fact that holiday entertainment is almost exclusively aimed at children, despite the comedic potential of more mature (and absurd) holiday narratives.