Episode 432 - Christmas Re-union

Am I going crazy, or do some of those pfuffets have suspiciously familiar voices?

Ratchbox

I will always be grateful to this show for introducing me to the wonderful madness and rich tones of Greig.

Tara Murphy

Gentlemen, entertaining and informative as always! A little off-topic for the story at hand, but I'm SO glad you made mention of Greig Johnson's "Der Pfuffet Shoe Krispbread Spectrum" in this episode. Mr. Johnson's delightfully bizarre homage to the Muppets, brilliant deployment of Lunge Dolphin, and whimsical-yet-deranged parody of Flemish (less sinister than... THE DUTCH LANGUAGE!) is pure gold to me. The twist ending has some decidedly cosmic connotations to boot. It is indeed a Yuletide treasure!

One of my favorite Hendrie bits. I had a miserable job in the early 00's and listened to Hendrie all day long every day, so have internalized a lot of those bits:) He's a genius!

Forget a ghost, it could have been a family member or friend. It's the source of the weird

"Tom Waits as a prospector" - Say no more. I'm there.

I hope this was more of a revenge story than a ghost story. What kind of afterlife would it be if you had to buy your own costumes, call for information about your haunting and take public transportation? I bet Santa had to buy his own metro card too. Next we'll learn that you still have to go to the dentist and the DMV even after death. No wonder so many ghosts are sad or vengeful. In seriousness though, this was a fun story and a wonderful reading.

I always suspected you guys were Phil Hendrie fans. About two years ago you guys were talking about story in which someone or something ate a human. Then Chad mumbled “even the booty?” Chris didn’t get the reference but I was sure it was from a Phil Hendrie show in which an elderly black woman named Mavis Lenard was talking to a catholic priest about holy communion. She was horrified that the priest was admitting they ate the actual body of Jesus, and how it sounded like something out of Clive Barker’s Hellraiser and was sacrilegious blasphemy etc. of course it got more outlandish as the bit went on and eventually she asked if they ate “even the booty”? At which point Phil lost control and started laughing uncontrollably. Chad does that sound familiar? Anyways, your show and Phil’s show are my go to podcasts. “Great show as always”.

Hey guys, I just saw aquaman tonight and at the start aquaman’s dad owns a copy of the Dunwhich horror. Sorry, I have had a little holiday cheer, so I apologize for the spelling. I love your show and look forward to many more episodes!

So that's where I heard it!!!

I love that you're doing Christmas ghost stories this year. I'll share a couple of my favorites in case you do more next year (fingers crossed!): The Curse of the Catafalques by F. Antsey (<a href="http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0605081.txt)" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0605081.txt)</a> and The Water Ghost of Harrowby Hall (<a href="http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/WateGhos.shtml)." rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/WateGhos.shtml).</a> In the meantime, Happy Weird Christmas to you! <a href="http://weirdchristmas.tumblr.com/post/181297410106" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://weirdchristmas.tumblr.com/post/181297410106</a>

Wonderful episode guys! When listening to this I swore I was familiar with the story but didn’t remember reading it. Then I placed where I heard it before, A Podcast to the Curious, the M. R. James podcast covered it ages ago on their list of stories that influenced M. R. James. Now I really need to actually read the story after listening to two podcasts on it! <a href="http://www.mrjamespodcast.com/2017/12/episode-63-christmas-re-union-by-sir-andrew-caldecott/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.mrjamespodcast.com/2017/12/episode-63-christmas-re-union-by-sir-andrew-caldecott/</a>

Alan Ricks

The kid's poking a needle in (fake) Santa's butt was a test to see if he would yell and swear or have a sweeter reaction. Not guaranteed since some non-Santas could maintain character under stress. But some might reveal themselves.

"I say there's a murderer, desperate to conceal his crimes, living under our roof and interacting with our young children." "I say he's not." "Well, let's agree to disagree, and instead natter on about the neighbors and the shops." I love you, England.

Joe Beck

We need a Kickstarter for "That's how ___ got started: A Compendium of True Origin Stories" by Chad Fifer

Really enjoyed this one. Straightforward and cleverly worded story without a precise resolution. I suppose you could even make a fun argument that dear old Dad killed the guy. I don't think that's what happened, but I like that the story is open enough to entertain that sort of wild speculation.

Something about this story reminded me of Chris Morris' "Casual Parents" sketch (TW: major major child endangerment): <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJP4dr_mioA" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJP4dr_mioA</a>

Richard Horsman

Harridge's is a cross between a 5* hotel, Claridge's, and Harrod's, the department store. A good looking Santa would just not be English. Mild disappointment is what we really crave.

Steve

Those do indeed look pretty malevolent. Do their heads detach and fly around like penanggalans?

Steve

Here in Singapore, I happened to be driving past Caldecott Road (named for Sir Andrew) at the very moment the Patreon notification for this episode popped up. I take this as a SIGN FROM BEYOND and shall watch out for malevolent Santas. Also re UK santas being sub-par, check out this Santa costume from the South Indian state of Kerala <a href="https://goo.gl/images/4wmS3s" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://goo.gl/images/4wmS3s</a> . Christmas is big there due to the large Christian population but the Santa outfits are terrifying.